Isaac Massa

Isaac Abrahamszoon Massa was a Dutch grain trader, traveller and diplomat, the envoy to Muscovy. He wrote memoirs related to the Time of Troubles and created some of the earliest maps of Eastern Europe and Siberia. Due to Massa's experience in and knowledge of Muscovy, he was valued by the Dutch States-General as a counterweight to growing English influence in Muscovy in the early seventeenth century. The Isaac Massa Foundation was established in his honor in Groningen. It aims to stimulate scientific and cultural contacts between the Russian Federation and the Netherlands.