European intellectuals, including philosophers and literary figures, actively debated Russia’s present and future throughout the 18th century. The “Russian mirage” steadily lost appeal for a variety of reasons, including the country’s growing influence in international affairs, increasing involvement in European politics, and the declining popularity of the Enlightenment itself. By the time of the French Revolution, Russia’s negative characteristics as a despotic, uncivilized, and therefore especially dangerous country began to predominate in public opinion. Most 18th-century essays about Russia, however, found only a limited audience among the intellectual and political elite of France, while impressions about the Russian Empire among the wider public were vague. This changed during the revolution and Napoleonic era, when the negative image of Russia was widely disseminated among the general audience by state propaganda and?later?memoirs and remained entrenched for years to come.