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A letter from Voltaire to the French ambassador to St Petersburg (27 June 1746)

This newly discovered letter was added to Voltaire’s correspondence for the September 2026 update. Voltaire is writing to Louis d’Usson de Bonnac, comte d’Alion, France’s minister plenipotentiary in St Petersburg between 1742 and 1748. He thanks d’Alion for helping to secure his admission to the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences and asks him to forward a letter to the Academy’s secretary, Gerhard Friedrich Müller. The letter offers a new glimpse into Voltaire’s growing connections with Russia.

The edition of this letter by Nicholas Cronk is dedicated to Her Excellency Mme Hélène Duchêne, the Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom, who visited the Voltaire Foundation on 27 June 2026 to open its new offices and launch Oxford University Voltaire – exactly 280 years after the date of Voltaire’s letter.

Discover the letter here.