First and only edition in French of the memoirs of a German postmaster, who spent the Seven Years' War as a prisoner in Siberia. After the capture of Prussian Pillau (modern Baltiysk) by Russia in 1759, Wagner (1735-1820) had unknowingly been sending Russian troop movements to the Prussians but was betrayed, arrested and subsequently deported to Siberia. Wagner was first sent to Tobolsk and then to Mangazeya, where he arrived more than a year after his arrest and would spend another three years. In the memoirs he "describes the hardships of living there without any self-pity. His observations and experiences during the transportation and finally in the Far North of Siberia are given to the reader in graphic details" (Robel). Wagner was released in 1763 and returned home after a journey lasting a year and a half, but denied any financial support by the Prussian king. The memoirs are followed by a description of the Russian Empire, drawing on earlier accounts but also containing original remarks. In writing his account, published in German in 1789, Wagner probably collaborated with Johann Heinrich Würzer, one of Prussia's fiercest Jacobins. Both the memoir and the description of Russia deliver accusations against rulers who are not interested in the wellbeing of their subjects and of the rights of people living under occupation.
In very good condition. Binding worn at the edges, sprinkled paper on the spine damaged. Robel, "German travel reports on Russia and their changing function in the eighteenth century" in: Grau, Karp and Voss eds. Deutsch-russische Beziehungen im 18. Jahrhundert, p. 286; Quérard X, p. 466.