On September 8, 2002 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia celebrates its 200th anniversary. The Ministry was established by an edict of Emperor Alexander I as part of a project to create a single unified executive state apparatus, the first cabinet of ministers. The diplomatic service in Russia was always primarily oriented towards the realization of national interests. Throughout the centuries the efforts of prominent Russian diplomats were aimed at ensuring the country's territorial integrity and security, strengthening the position of Russia in the world and resolving key problems in international politics of the time. The important historical legacy created by the many generations of Russian diplomats, their extensive experience, professionalism, and selfless devotion to the Motherland still serve as an example. The exhibition "From the History of Russian Diplomacy" gives us an opportunity to look back at the past through the personal experiences of various personalities.

Before our eyes, through the biographies of various individuals emerge the contours of the history of our state, as its diplomatic service has always represented an integral part of the Russian political system and culture. The objects on display relating to Russian foreign policy are striking and convincing proofs of its steady continuity. They reflect both the deep-rooted traditions as well as the creative approaches to innovation upon which the Russian diplomatic school is based.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Igor Ivanov

In September 2002 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first eight Russian Ministries. Their foundation is associated with the Emperor Alexander I who ruled this huge country for a quarter of a century and won the war against the    "invincible" Napoleon Bonaparte.

A beloved grandson of Empress Catherine the Great, the 23-year-old Alexander Romanov ascended the throne in 1801.

In his policies, Alexander I, a well-educated and charming person, who easily gained the favor of various people, combined various liberal features with an aspiration to acquire more popularity in society. He allowed free travel abroad and entry into the country, the import of foreign books, lifted all the restrictions and bans concerning trade with England, and did away with unpopular regulations, costumes, and behavior.

In the first jubilee of his official coronation, in September 1802, Alexander decided to modernize the administrative sys-tem by replacing the outdated collegiums with ministries. The ministries were created by his personal edict and Count Alexander Vorontsov, a notable statesman of Catherine's epoch, was appointed as the first minister of foreign affairs.

The ministers, accountable only to the emperor, enjoyed enormous power within their fields. However it was the emperor who shaped the guidelines of Russian foreign policy. From 1801 to 1825 Alexander worked out a political strategy to be applied in the arena of international affairs.

During the first years of his reign, Alexander pursued an independent foreign policy, maintaining neutrality to avoid confrontations in Europe, but because of speedy changes in Europe, as well as Napoleon's claims for world dominance, Russia inevitably became involved in an international combat.

One of the most important events in the period of the Napoleonic wars was the negotiations between the two emperors in Tilsit. Here Alexander had to display his diplomatic capabilities for the first time.

The meeting was held on a raft in the middle of the Niemen in June 1807. The two emperors met each other daily in the course of 12 days. Nobody was allowed to assist during their extended conversations. "I'll be your secretary and you'll be mine," Napoleon said to Alexander I on this occasion. In a letter to his wife, the Empress Josephine, Napoleon shared his first impressions of Alexander I, who was then 30 years old.

"I have just seen the Emperor Alexander. I am very satisfied with him. He is a young, very kind and handsome emperor and much more intelligent then they suppose.”

  Apart from Napoleon and Alexander one more monarch happened to be in Tilsit at this time. It was the Prussian King, Frederick William III. His army was defeated by Napoleon as early as in 1806. The enemy captured Berlin, the capital of the Prussian kingdom, and the king with his family had been obliged to live in exile. Frederick and his wife, Queen Louisa, arrived in Tilsit in order to salvage the honour of the conquered Prussia. The queen was well known for her strong character and out-standing beauty, which she used as a tool in diplomatic talks. Napoleon admired her, but it was Alexander who succeeded in saving the remains of the Prussian kingdom in the course of the Tilsit conference.

Seven years of dramatic events passed before the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire — Prussia regained its territories and Russia restored its international reputation.

In winter 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon's army in Russia, the Russian army advanced onwards to Prussia and Poland.  Berlin was captured and the family of the Prussian king was allowed to return home.

On March 18, 1814 the allied armies entered the capital of France. Paris capitulated. Two months later the victors and a  conquered France signed the Paris Peace Treaty that restored  French borders as they were back in 1792.

In September the Vienna congress opened. It was attended by 700 delegates from all the European countries (except Turkey) and was headed by the victor states: Russia, Great Britain, Prussia, and Austria. In conclusion, on June 9, 1815, the dele- gates signed an act consolidating a new alignment of forces in  the world. As an addendum to the final Act, the congress adopted regulations concerning the classification of diplomatic ranks. This classification became the core of diplomatic activity as the basic norms of international law. In Russia the ranks adopted in 1815 existed until October 1917. Among the Russian representatives at the Vienna congress was Karl Nesselrode, the future minister of foreign affairs, who occupied this post for 40 years.

Nicholas I, who succeeded Alexander I, also shaped the foreign policy of Russia. At first he was very successful. The treaties with Turkey signed in 1828 and 1833 greatly benefited Russia's eastern policy.

In 1856 Alexander Gorchakov was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs. There was a difficult period in Russian history affected by the loss of the Crimea. The Paris Treaty, concluded in 1856, deprived Russia of its fleet and coastal fortifications on the Black Sea. The international reputation of the country was severely damaged. After the Crimean War all diplomatic efforts were aimed at the lifting of these sanctions.

As a politician Prince Gorchakov was careful but firm. He knew how to wait and then to act decisively. Only in 1871 was the right to maintain a fleet in the Black Sea restored to Russia. It was a great victory for Russian diplomacy.

In 1882, Chancellor Gorchakov was replaced by Nikolay Giers. This minister is associated with the conclusion of the Russian-French alliance of 1891-1893.

Ten years later Great Britain signed an agreement with France and in 1907 with Russia. To counterbalance the Triple Alliance, formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the Triple Entente was formed. Thus the disposition of forces in the world arena before World War I was defined.

On the threshold of the forthcoming war, in 1899 and 1907 the western countries held a series of peace conferences in the Hague that lasted more than two months. Here were laid down the basic humanitarian laws that half a century later evolved into the Geneva Convention of 1949.

World War I led to the collapse of the Russian monarchy. October 1917 marked a new period in both Russian history and diplomacy. The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was formed. The majority of staff members of the tsarist diplomatic corps, both in Russia and abroad, refused to serve the new authorities.

The first foreign policy document of the Soviets, the Decree on Peace, was drawn up by Vladimir Lenin. The Soviet leaders called all the states and peoples involved in the fighting to conclude a just and democratic peace treaty. This address provoked a warm response from antiwar activists. One of them was a young sculptor, English aristocrat and Winston Churchill's cousin, Claire Sheridan. A convinced pacifist, in 1920 she ventured to go to "red Moscow" in order to make a bust of the head of the Soviet state. Winston Churchill's reaction to the events in Russia was quite the opposite — they made "his aristocratic blood boil". Perceiving the October coup d'etat as an international catastrophe, he became one of the most ardent advocates of anti-Soviet intervention.

Among the most active advocate of international revolution was the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Leon Trotsky. The author of the theory of "permanent revolution", he was convinced that the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs would soon be redundant.  "After  publishing  the  secret  agreements   we  can  shut up shop," he used to say. Trotsky had headed the Soviet delegation during the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk. There he insisted on the rejection of the peace treaty and the demobilization of the army. After the downfall of-this policy, he quit the post of Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

From May 30, 1918 Georgy Chicherin had been in charge of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Born into a family of professional diplomats he, by his own account, "was raised among various recollections of the diplomatic world, breathing the very air." Like many Russian intelligentsia he adopted Marxist theory both rationally and emotionally. Chicherin was not a fanatic. He had participated in the international socialist movement for years, belonging to those of the party elite who ensured continuity, so important to the state's foreign policy. Chicherin believed in the world revolution and hoped for its victory, but recognized the necessity of focusing upon traditional national values in the transitional period. Due to Chicherin's efforts, the peace in Brest was concluded, the first contacts with capitalist states were established, agreements with Far Eastern countries signed and the USSR was officially recognized by a number of other countries. Chicherin was engaged in the elaboration of a geopolitical doctrine and participated in international conferences in Genoa, the Hague, and Lausanne. In the 1920s Chicherin created a Soviet style of diplomacy, thus ameliorating national prestige and consolidating the position of the USSR in the international arena.

In the 1930s there were some changes in the alignment of forces in the international arena. In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany. They did not hide their ambitions with regard to world dominance. The Soviet authorities were obliged to revise their foreign policy with regard to the new realities.

On July 1930, Maxim Litvinov was appointed Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He conducted a policy oriented primarily towards Western countries: Great Britain, France, and USA. In 1933 diplomatic relations between the USA and the USSR were established. In September 1934 the USSR was invited to join the League of Nations.

Hitler's constantly growing belligerence, as well as the appearance of the anti-Comintern pact created by Germany and Japan in 1936, urged the Soviet leadership to look for allies. However there were still some tensions between the USSR and the West. The Munich events of 1938 proved that any plans to found an antifascist coalition with the participation of the West was doomed to failure. Hence Joseph Stalin concluded that the USSR should resolve its own security problems. He was forced to change political course and sought rapprochement with Germany.

In May 1939, Litvinov ceded his position to Vyacheslav Molotov. On August 23, 1939, in the Kremlin, Molotov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Joachim von Ribbentrop, signed a nonaggression pact for a period of 10 years. Nobody was then aware that simultaneously they had adopted a secret protocol with an attached map, showing Estonia, Latvia, the Western Ukraine, and the Western Belorussia as under Soviet influence while Poland and Lithuania were proclaimed within the sphere of fascist Germany's interests.

On June 22, 1941 Germany attacked the USSR.

During the war, Soviet diplomacy's main efforts were aimed at creating and strengthening the anti-Hitler coalition, which was of the utmost importance in achieving victory over Nazism. Soviet diplomats played an active role in the opening of the second front in Europe. In 1943 the respective political and diplomatic efforts were crowned with success during the Tehran Conference held by the leaders of three countries: the USSR, USA and Great Britain.

The great alliance of peoples and states that saved humanity from the threat of slavery during World War II turned out to be short-lived. One of the main outcomes of the war was a new balance of power in world affairs. It was characterized by growing antagonism between the leading capitalist powers and the USSR, whose influence was spreading in some European and Asian countries.

In the period of so-called "confrontation" or "Cold War", Andrey Gromyko occupied the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Gromyko came to the post in February 1957. By this time he had already gained extensive diplomatic experience. He was one of those who founded the United Nations. Gromyko headed the ministry for 28 years. He was a man of his time with all its achievements and faults.

The reconstruction processes started by Mikhail Gorbachev marked a short, but historical period from 1985 to 1991. These processes were followed by radical changes in foreign policy, reflecting a new vision based upon the principles of unity and interdependence within the world. A "new style of political thinking in international intercourse" as proclaimed by Gorbachev, contributed to the end of the Cold War.

After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, a question arose about its "foreign policy legacy". With the consent of the other republics, Russia assumed the status of the successor of the former USSR. At the stage of internal transformations and international changes, Russia was engaged in a complex process of redefining its position and role in international intercourse.

At the beginning of 2000, the Russian government approved a new redaction of the Concept of National Security, upon which the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation was based. Broadly based cooperation with the European Union has started, a dialogue with the US has begun and partnership with a number of large Asian countries deepened.

Seeking to retain its importance as one of the leading powers, but no longer as an empire, Russia intends to play an active role in the democratization of international ties, to strengthen partnerships, and to work to find mutually accept-able solutions.

By Alexandra Balashova

(“Moscow today and tomorrow”. October. 2002)