List of ambassadors of Russia to Finland

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Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Finland
MID emblem.png
Emblem of the Russian Foreign Ministry
Pavel Kuznetsov (2019).jpg
Incumbent
Pavel Kuznetsov
since 14 August 2017
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Embassy of Russia in Helsinki  [ ru ]
Style His Excellency
The Honourable
Reports to Minister of Foreign Affairs
Seat Helsinki
Appointer President of Russia
Term length At the pleasure of the President
Website Embassy of Russia in Helsinki

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Finland is the official representative of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to the President and the Government of Finland.

Contents

The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Embassy of Russia  [ ru ] in Helsinki. [1] There is a consulate general in Turku, and consuls in Mariehamn and Kuusamo. [2] [3] [4] Pavel Kuznetsov was appointed Russian Ambassador to Finland on 14 August 2017. [5]

History of diplomatic relations

The territory now making up present-day Finland was contested between Russians and Swedes for much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, until the Finnish War of 1808-1809 established the Grand Duchy of Finland as an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. Finland had her own parliament, the Diet, minted her own currency, and shared a customs border with Russia. The Finnish language was given official status alongside Russian and Swedish. [6]

Finland declared independence on 6 December 1917, after the Russian Revolution that year, a decision which was ratified by the Russian government on 31 December 1917. [6] The declaration soon sparked a civil war between White and Red factions. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) appointed representatives to the Red faction during the war, until their defeat. Relations were then established between the Finnish government and the RSFSR at the level of missions on 31 December 1920. [6] [7] With the formal establishment of the Soviet Union, diplomatic relations were maintained between the USSR and Finland from 23 July 1923 onwards. [7]

Diplomatic relations between the two states were broken off several times during the twentieth century. The first came on 29 November 1939 with the outbreak of the Winter War between the USSR and Finland. [6] [7] With the negotiated conclusion to the war, diplomatic relations resumed on 12 March 1940. [8] Relations were once more interrupted on 22 June 1941, with the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and Finland's participation on the Eastern Front against Soviet forces as part of the Continuation War. [6] [7] With the defeat of the Axis powers in the Second World War, diplomatic relations were once more reestablished on 6 August 1945, and on 18 July 1954 the mission was upgraded to the level of an embassy. [6] [9] Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland recognized the Russia Federation as its successor state on 30 December 1991, and ambassadors have continued to be exchanged between the two countries. [6]

List of representatives (1917 – present)

Representatives of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to Finland (1917 – 1923)

NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotes
Ivar Smilga Representative16 February 19181918To the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic only
Konstantin Kovanko  [ fi ]Representative9 April 191823 May 1918Not recognised by the Finnish government
Jan Berzin Plenipotentiary16 February 192124 June 1921
Aleksey Chernykh  [ ru ]Plenipotentiary31 July 192123 July 1923

Representatives of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to Finland (1923 – 1991)

NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotes
Aleksey Chernykh  [ ru ]Plenipotentiary23 July 19239 July 1925
Ivan Lorents Plenipotentiary9 July 19256 July 1927
Sergey Aleksandrovsky  [ ru ]Plenipotentiary6 July 192716 May 1929
Ivan Maisky Plenipotentiary16 May 192927 September 1932
Boris Shtein Plenipotentiary6 January 193325 November 1934
Eric Assmus Plenipotentiary23 January 193520 August 1937
Vladimir Derevyansky  [ ru ]Plenipotentiary27 January 193829 November 1939
Winter War - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1939 - 1940)
Ivan Zotov  [ ru ]Plenipotentiary6 April 19406 April 1941
Pavel Orlov  [ ru ]Plenipotentiary
Envoy after 9 May 1941		11 April 194122 June 1941
Continuation War - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1941 - 1945)
Pavel Orlov  [ ru ] Envoy 18 August 194514 August 1946
Aleksandr Abramov  [ ru ] Envoy 14 August 194613 January 1948
Grigory Savonenkov  [ ru ] Envoy 13 January 19488 April 1951
Viktor Lebedev  [ ru ] Envoy
Ambassador after 5 August 1954		8 April 195110 October 1958
Night Frost Crisis - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1958 - 1959)
Aleksey Zakharov  [ ru ] Ambassador 4 February 195923 January 1965
Andrey Kovalyov  [ ru ] Ambassador 23 January 196525 June 1970
Aleksey Belyakov Ambassador 25 June 197016 May 1971
Viktor Maltsev  [ ru ] Ambassador 16 May 197127 December 1973
Vladimir Stepanov Ambassador 27 December 197311 June 1979
Vladimir Sobolev Ambassador 11 June 197917 June 1988
Boris Aristov Ambassador 17 June 198825 December 1991

Representatives of the Russian Federation to Finland (1991 – present)

NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotes
Boris Aristov Ambassador 25 December 199110 February 1992
Yuri Deryabin  [ ru ] Ambassador 10 February 19922 November 1996
Ivan Aboimov Ambassador 2 November 19966 August 1999
Aleksandr Patsev  [ ru ] Ambassador 25 August 199921 April 2003
Vladimir Grinin Ambassador 21 April 200321 April 2006
Alexander Rumyantsev Ambassador 21 April 200614 August 2017
Pavel Kuznetsov Ambassador 14 August 2017

References

  1. ↑ "Посольство Российской Федерации в Финляндии" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia) . Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  2. ↑ "Russian Consulate General in Turku, Finland". embassypages.com. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  3. ↑ "Russian Consulate in Mariehamn, Finland". embassypages.com. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  4. ↑ "Russian Honorary Consulate in Kuusamo, Finland". embassypages.com. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "Посол" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia) . Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "История двусторонних отношений" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia) . Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "00617" Полномочное представительство РСФСР - СССР в Финляндии (in Russian). Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  8. ↑ Полномочное представительство - Миссия СССР в Финляндии (in Russian). Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  9. ↑ Миссия - Посольство СССР в Финляндии (in Russian). Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
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