Ceremonial has always played a great role among European and Middle Eastern societies, reflecting the value systems cherished by their elites. Embassy instructions and envoys' reports provide valuable material concerning codes of behavior in early modern diplomacy. What was considered "proper," and how was an envoy expected to behave in order to stress his sovereign's dignity and power? Oriental courts in Istanbul and Bahçesaray developed elaborate ceremonials for foreign envoys. Forced into a deep prostration before the Muslim ruler, sometimes even threatened with physical violence, Polish envoys deeply resented their humiliation. Some of them sought comfort in alcohol, others produced fabulous reports of their imaginary altercations with Ottoman and Crimean dignitaries, and others found pleasure and revenge in contemptuous descriptions of their hosts' "barbarous" habits. Until recently, such diplomatic reports have been used in Polish historiography almost uncritically. Yet such reports often tell us more about their authors' mentalities than about the world they pretend to describe....

Grand Duchy of Lithuania lost strategical points in frontier zone (Smolensk, Polotsk), as a result of wars against Russia, which were waged in XVI century. These yields showed the direction of Moscow’s expansion, toward Baltic Sea. Stefan Batory’s campaigns let the Commonwealth to regain Polotsk Province and Livonia. In the period of so-called Dymitriady Polish-Lithuanian state exploited the Moscow’s difficult position, taking Smolensk (1611) and, thanks to Deulino truce, lands of Smolensk, Chernigov and Seversk. Moscow was unable to regain its lost territories in the time of war, waged in 1632–34 and only after thirteen years war (1654–67) took contested lands. Besides them, Russia won Left Bank Ukraine with Kiev (Andrusovo Treaty, January 1667), what was confirmed in peace treaty in 1686. The Commonwealth lost the rivalry with Russia in that part of Europe, since it was not able to conduct more active policy in the East, because of the King John III Sobieski’s engagement in conflict with Ottoman Turkey together with the Holy League....