List of ambassadors of Russia to Finland explained

Post:Ambassador
Body:the Russian Federation to Finland
Incumbent:Pavel Kuznetsov
Insignia:MID emblem.png
Incumbentsince:14 August 2017
Department:Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Style:His Excellency
The Honourable
Reports To:Minister of Foreign Affairs
Seat:Helsinki
Appointer:President of Russia
Termlength:At the pleasure of the President
Website:Embassy of Russia in Helsinki
Insigniacaption:Emblem of the Russian Foreign Ministry

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.

The ambassador and his staff work at large in the 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

See main article: Finland–Russia 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 SmilgaRepresentative16 February 19181918To the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic only
Representative9 April 191823 May 1918Not recognised by the Finnish government
Jan BerzinPlenipotentiary16 February 192124 June 1921
Plenipotentiary31 July 192123 July 1923

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

NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotes
Plenipotentiary23 July 19239 July 1925
Ivan LorentsPlenipotentiary9 July 19256 July 1927
Plenipotentiary6 July 192716 May 1929
Ivan MaiskyPlenipotentiary16 May 192927 September 1932
Boris ShteinPlenipotentiary6 January 193325 November 1934
Eric AssmusPlenipotentiary23 January 193520 August 1937
Plenipotentiary27 January 193829 November 1939
Winter War - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1939 - 1940)
Plenipotentiary6 April 19406 April 1941
Plenipotentiary
Envoy after 9 May 1941
11 April 194122 June 1941
Continuation War - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1941 - 1945)
Envoy18 August 194514 August 1946
Envoy14 August 194613 January 1948
Envoy13 January 19488 April 1951
Envoy
Ambassador after 5 August 1954
8 April 195110 October 1958
Night Frost Crisis - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1958 - 1959)
Ambassador4 February 195923 January 1965
Ambassador23 January 196525 June 1970
Aleksey BelyakovAmbassador25 June 197016 May 1971
Ambassador16 May 197127 December 1973
Vladimir StepanovAmbassador27 December 197311 June 1979
Vladimir SobolevAmbassador11 June 197917 June 1988
Boris AristovAmbassador17 June 198825 December 1991

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

NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotes
Boris AristovAmbassador25 December 199110 February 1992
Ambassador10 February 19922 November 1996
Ivan AboimovAmbassador2 November 19966 August 1999
Ambassador25 August 199921 April 2003
Vladimir GrininAmbassador21 April 200321 April 2006
Alexander RumyantsevAmbassador21 April 200614 August 2017
Pavel KuznetsovAmbassador14 August 2017

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Посольство Российской Федерации в Финляндии . Russian. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). 19 October 2019.
  2. Web site: Russian Consulate General in Turku, Finland. embassypages.com. 19 October 2019.
  3. Web site: Russian Consulate in Mariehamn, Finland. embassypages.com. 19 October 2019.
  4. Web site: Russian Honorary Consulate in Kuusamo, Finland. embassypages.com. 19 October 2019.
  5. Web site: Посол. Russian. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). 12 May 2023.
  6. Web site: История двусторонних отношений. Russian. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). 19 October 2019.
  7. Web site: ru: Полномочное представительство РСФСР - СССР в Финляндии. 00617. 19 October 2019. ru.
  8. Web site: ru: Полномочное представительство - Миссия СССР в Финляндии. http://www.knowbysight.info/6_MID/03518.asp. 19 October 2019. ru. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222110414/http://www.knowbysight.info/6_MID/03518.asp. 22 December 2015. dead.
  9. Web site: ru: Миссия - Посольство СССР в Финляндии. http://www.knowbysight.info/6_MID/03517.asp. 19 October 2019. ru. https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155226/http://www.knowbysight.info/6_MID/03517.asp. 10 October 2017. dead.