RUSSIAN CONSUL GENERAL IN MELBOURNE M.M. HEDENSTROM CONCERNING THE CHANGING IN AUSTRALIA'S PERCEPTIONS OF RUSSIA AND POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN-AUSTRALIAN RELATIONS

The article analyzes the reports of the Russian Consul General in Melbourne in 1908-1910 M.M. Hedenstrom with an assessment of the foreign policy situation in which the Commonwealth of Australia found itself after the Russian-Japanese war. According to M.M. Hedenstrom, the new geopolitical reality in the Pacific produces conditions to overcome the typical for the second half of the XIX century negative attitude of Australia and the Australians towards Russia. It is noted that the Consul was able not only to see the beginning of evolution in Russian-Australian relations, but also correctly to forecast the vector of further development of two countries' mutual contacts.