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Abstract. The publication presents documents of the Ambassadorial Prikaz related to the migration from the Ottoman garrison of Azov to Russia. The period of migration has some scientific interest. It took place during and after the capture and defense of Azov by the Don Cossacks (“The Siege of Azov”). Russian diplomats Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky and Leontiy Lazarevsky assisted the refuges. They were sent to Istanbul in 1643 to restore relations between Moscow and Ottoman Porte. Some migrants were well known in the Don. The Don Ataman Ivan Katorzhny was ready to give a recommendation letter for several migrants. The remaining migrants were in Moscow for the first time and did not have any patronage. Most of them called themselves “Greeks”, one referred as a Turk, two called themselves refuges from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Danube principalities, but almost all migrants were Muslims. All migrants were converted to Orthodoxy in Russia. The documents contain information on the origin and biographies of migrants, motives for migration, as well as political and military information transmitted by them. The materials have been preserved in various funds of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA).
Keywords: Russian-Ottoman frontier, migration, conversion to Orthodoxy.