Diplomatic relations between the USSR and Great Britain were established on February 2, 1924 (interrupted on May 26, 1927, restored on October 3, 1929). On December 24, 1991, Great Britain officially recognized Russia as a successor state to the USSR.

Relations between Russia and Great Britain in their historical retrospect have never been simple. In recent years, in the political part they have been characterized by inconsistency and ambiguity.

The peak of cooling in Russian-British relations was when four British diplomats were expelled from the Russian Federation after the expulsion of four Russian diplomatic workers from London. According to then British Foreign Minister David Miliband, the expulsion of the Russians was a response to Moscow’s refusal to extradite Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoy, accused by the British of involvement in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in the UK.

After the coalition government led by David Cameron came to power in May 2010, there were positive developments in relations between the two countries.

On June 26, 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and British Prime Minister David Cameron met on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Huntsville (Canada). Medvedev and Cameron bilateral cooperation, the issues of the G8 and G20 summits, as well as global topics related to security, primarily the Middle East and Iran. The next meeting between Medvedev and Cameron took place on the sidelines of the G20 in Seoul (South Korea), the leaders of the two countries agreed to expand contacts at the highest level.

On September 11-12, 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron paid an official visit to Moscow.

During the visit, there was a knowledge-based partnership for modernization, a memorandum of cooperation on the creation of a financial center in Moscow and other documents related to business cooperation.

On June 19, 2012, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Los Cabo (Mexico), Russian President Vladimir Putin met with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The leaders of the two countries discussed issues of bilateral, including economic, relations.

On August 2, 2012, Vladimir Putin visited the UK for a short working visit. The President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Great Britain discussed the prospects for trade, economic and energy cooperation between the two countries, as well as issues on the international agenda, in particular the situation in Syria. The leaders of the two countries attended the London Olympics.

On May 10, 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a working visit to Sochi. At the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, various issues on the bilateral and international agenda were discussed, in particular the situation in Syria.

On June 16, 2013, on the eve of the G8 summit in Lough Erne, bilateral negotiations between Vladimir Putin and David Cameron took place at the residence of the British Prime Minister.

On September 6, 2013, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Putin had a brief conversation with Cameron. The topic of the conversation was the situation around Syria.

The leaders of Russia and Great Britain also held a bilateral meeting on June 5, 2014 in Paris. On November 15, 2014, Vladimir Putin met with David Cameron on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brisbane (Australia).

Interaction was carried out at the level of foreign ministers, through the parliamentary line.

The positive development of political relations between Russia and Great Britain that has emerged in recent years has been significantly undermined due to London’s position regarding the situation in Ukraine and around Crimea, as well as on Syria.

At the moment, the Russian-British political dialogue is almost completely curtailed.

London unilaterally froze all bilateral formats of intergovernmental cooperation that have proven their relevance: the Strategic Dialogue in the “2+2” format (ministers of foreign affairs and defense), the High-Level Energy Dialogue, the work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Investment and the Committee on Science and Technology . In fact, regular consultations between foreign policy departments have been stopped.

In connection with the inclusion of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol into Russia, the British side announced the suspension of the implementation of the entire range of issues of bilateral military cooperation, including work on concluding an agreement on military-technical cooperation. High-level military visits have been cancelled.

In addition, the UK has suspended all licenses (and the consideration of all applications for licenses) for the export to Russia of military and dual-use products intended for the Russian army or other structures “that may be used against Ukraine.”

The UK actively promoted the anti-Russian sanctions regime introduced by the European Union.

The general deterioration of the political climate has a negative impact on trade and economic relations between the two countries. According to the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, the foreign trade turnover of Russia and Great Britain at the end of 2015 amounted to 11,197.0 million dollars (in 2014 - 19,283.8 million dollars), including Russian exports of 7,474.9 million dollars (in 2014 year - 11,474.2 million dollars) and imports - 3,722.1 million dollars (in 2014 - 7,809.6 million dollars).

In the first half of 2016, trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $4,798.0 million (for the corresponding period in 2015 - $6,138.6 million).

In the structure of exports to the UK, the majority are mineral fuels, oil and their distillation products. Russian exports are also represented by chemical products; precious stones, metals and products made from them; machines, equipment and apparatus; metals and products made from them; wood, wood products and pulp and paper products; food products and agricultural raw materials (this product group is represented mainly by fish, cereals, fats, oils and drinks).

The leading positions in Russian imports from the UK are occupied by machinery, equipment and apparatus, as well as chemical industry products, food products and agricultural raw materials, metals and products made from them in the import structure.

Contacts are developing in the fields of education, science and culture. In 2014, at the initiative of Russia, a cross Year of Culture was held. Its consolidated program included about 300 events. The development of Russian-British cultural ties will also be served by the events planned within the cross-Year of Language and Literature in 2016. With great success at the National Portrait Gallery "Russia and Art. The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky", at which the British public were shown masterpieces from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, many of which had never previously left the territory of Russia.

Plans for holding a “cross” Year of Science and Education in 2017 are being discussed. In this regard, a significant impetus to the development of Russian-British contacts in the scientific field was given by the participation of British astronaut Timothy Peake in the work of the next expedition to the International Space Station (from December 15, 2015 to June 18, 2016).

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Russian-British relations have undergone many transformations, but they have never been particularly friendly. The rise, which began in 1997, quickly came to a halt due to preparations for the invasion of Iraq by Western coalition forces and problems associated with extradition requests. The military conflict in South Ossetia in 2008 added particular urgency to bilateral interaction. In 2009, a “thaw” began in Russian-British relations, but as contradictions on key international issues deepened, it gradually faded away. However, starting from the collapse of the USSR and up to 2014, trade and economic ties between the countries developed along an ascending line. The Ukrainian crisis became a critical point. Having accused Russia of annexing Crimea and supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine, Great Britain introduced anti-Russian sanctions and froze almost all official channels of interaction. In this regard, a “reset” of Russian-British relations in the political sphere is unlikely to be possible in the near future. The potential for cooperation, although small, is only in the economic and cultural spheres.

Ukrainian crisis

political sphere

economic cooperation

Russian-British relations

1. Bugrov D.Yu. Prospects for the development of Russian-British relations during the period of Prime Minister D. Cameron // Bulletin of Volgograd State University. Episode 4: History. Regional studies. International relationships. 2012. No. 2. P. 91-95.

2. Gromyko A.A., Ananyeva E.V. Russian-British relations at the present stage: workbook. No. 19/2014 / Russian Council on International Affairs. M.: Spetskniga, 2014. 32 p.

3. Declaration of knowledge-based partnership for modernization between the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [Electronic resource] // Official website of the President of Russia. 09/12/2011. URL: http://kremlin.ru/supplement/1032

4. Dilemmas of Britain: the search for development paths / Ed. A.A. Gromyko, E.V. Ana-nyeva. M.: The whole world, 2014. 480 p.

5. Treaty on the principles of relations between the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (ratified by the Russian Federation - Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 29, 1993 No. 4891-1) [Electronic resource] // Laws of Russia. URL: http://www.lawrussia.ru/texts/legal_185/doc185a379x136.htm

6. Foreigners invested three times less in the Russian Federation than in 2013 [Electronic resource] // Financial One. 03/16/2015. URL: http://www.fomag.ru/ru/news/exchange.aspx?news=6650

7. The concept of foreign policy of the Russian Federation (approved by decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 12, 2013) [Electronic resource] // Official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry. 02/18/2013. URL: http://archive.mid.ru//brp_4.nsf/0/6d84ddededbf7da644257b160051bf7f3.

8. Crimea: reports of the first victims of the confrontation [Electronic resource] // BBC Russian Service. 03/19/2014. URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/international/2014/03/140318_crimea_shooting_first_deaths

9. National Security Strategy and Strategic Defense and Security Review 2015 // Gov.uk. November 23, 2015. URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61936/national-security-strategy.pdf

Russian-British relations have a long and very difficult history. The first connections between the countries began in the 16th century during the reigns of Ivan IV and Edward VI. Then, in fact, diplomatic relations were established. Over more than four centuries of interaction between London and Moscow, acute contradictions have repeatedly arisen, which have prevented the maintenance and development of bilateral contacts. Russian-British relations can be represented in the form of a pendulum, which personifies instability, sharp changes from cooling to warming and, conversely, from a fairly favorable stage to a state of outright hostility. Thus, Great Britain has been and remains one of the most difficult Western partners for Russia, but at the same time this does not exclude its importance.

In this regard, the purpose of this work is to characterize the current state and prospects of Russian-British interaction. To achieve this goal, the following tasks must be completed:

To trace the general dynamics of bilateral relations in the political and economic spheres after the collapse of the USSR;

Identify “pain points” and “common ground” on key global issues;

Predict the scenario for the further development of Russian-British relations.

First of all, it is worth noting once again that relations between Russia and Great Britain have undergone many transformations, but they have never been particularly friendly. There has always been some tension, although in the early 90s. XX century and it might seem that all the contradictions that existed earlier remained behind the collapsed Iron Curtain.

On December 24, 1991, London officially recognized Russia as a successor state to the USSR. The document that laid the foundations for Russian-British interaction was the Treaty on the Principles of Relations between the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1992. According to it, the parties committed themselves to maintaining relations of peace and friendship and to closely cooperating on major international issues. However, in London, at first, the “new” Russia was treated with distrust.

A thaw in Russian-British relations began only after Labor, led by T. Blair, came to power in 1997. The countries intensified cooperation in the economic sphere, and also established a Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism. In 2000, the intensity of contacts at the highest level increased noticeably. The British Prime Minister became the first Western leader to arrive in Russia to meet with V. Putin, and Great Britain became the first Western country visited by the new Russian president. Since then, T. Blair and V. Putin have met more than once at various summits and, most importantly, as part of state and working visits.

However, the upswing in Russian-British relations ceased in 2002. New “freezes” appeared in connection with the preparation of the Western invasion of Iraq, and then the situation escalated due to problems associated with extradition requests. Moscow has repeatedly demanded the extradition of the fugitive Russian oligarch B. Berezovsky and one of the leaders of the Chechen separatists A. Zakayev, who were accused of committing crimes on Russian territory. Great Britain did not satisfy these demands, but, on the contrary, granted these individuals the status of political refugees.

The deterioration of bilateral relations was largely facilitated by the scandal that unfolded over the “Litvinenko case.” The fact is that in 2000, a number of criminal cases were opened in Russia against former FSB officer A. Litvinenko, and therefore he was forced to flee to the UK, where he received political asylum. In November 2006, he died in a London hospital, allegedly from poisoning with radioactive polonium-210. The United Kingdom accused A. Lugovoy, a former Russian state security officer and now a State Duma deputy, of his murder and sent a request for his extradition. Moscow rejected this request, citing Article 61 of the Constitution, which prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens to a foreign state. The consequence of this was a diplomatic conflict: Great Britain declared four Russian diplomats persona non grata, to which Russia responded in kind by expelling four British diplomats. In addition, the countries tightened the visa regime and suspended cooperation between the intelligence services.

The military conflict in South Ossetia in August 2008 added particular urgency to Russian-British relations. Great Britain took one of the toughest positions on this issue, accusing Russia of violating international law and advocating the introduction of sanctions against it.

Despite the political tension in bilateral relations, trade and economic ties developed along an ascending line, and Great Britain continued to be one of Russia's ten main foreign economic partners. From 2000 until the global economic crisis of 2008, trade between the two countries expanded. The crisis had a negative impact on the dynamics of Russian-British trade, but it also pushed London to establish contacts with Moscow. The countries proceeded from pragmatic considerations: Great Britain needed Russian raw materials, Russia needed British technologies and investments.

In this regard, trade turnover between the countries began to grow again. In 2009 it reached 12 billion dollars, in 2010 - 16 billion, in 2011 - already 21.2 billion, and in 2012 it exceeded the pre-crisis level and amounted to 23 billion dollars. In 2013, trade turnover increased continued and reached $24.6 billion. The UK was also one of Russia’s largest investment partners. According to data for 2013, the volume of British direct investment amounted to $18.9 billion, and the total volume of accumulated British capital investment in the Russian economy was $28 billion. These figures allowed the United Kingdom to take fifth place among countries investing in the Russian economy. Great Britain was second only to Cyprus, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and China in this matter.

The economy largely pulled politics along with it, pushing the existing problems between countries into the background. In addition, in 2009, a “reset” of Russian-American relations was initiated, which also gave Russia and Great Britain the opportunity to look at each other with different eyes. In November 2009, the first visit in five years by the Foreign Secretary of the Labor government of the United Kingdom, D. Miliband, took place in Moscow, during which three statements were signed - on Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East. Although the parties failed to achieve any significant breakthroughs, there was still a desire to begin a political dialogue.

The trend towards improving bilateral relations continued after the coalition government led by D. Cameron came to power in 2010. In October of the same year, British Foreign Secretary W. Haig made an official visit to Moscow, who stated that the United Kingdom views Russia as an important partner in the field of international security and trade and intends to build productive relations with it. In February 2011, there was a return visit to London by Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov, the first in seven years, who also expressed Russia’s desire to develop cooperation and establish ties with Great Britain. In addition, the countries managed to approve six main areas of work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Investment (ICTI): financial sector, high technology, energy, small and medium-sized businesses, the use of Olympic and other sports infrastructure, as well as improving the business climate.

The turning point that finally resumed the dialogue at the highest level was the event of September 2011, when the British Prime Minister came to Moscow. The main result of D. Cameron's visit was the decision to develop cooperation between the countries in accordance with the “Declaration of Knowledge-Based Partnership for Modernization.” Its essence was the desire to contribute to the process of modernization of Russia, to promote the exchange of practical experience with Great Britain, as well as to maintain and develop efforts aimed at improving the business climate for trade and investment. In the summer of 2012, after a break of 7 years, Russian President V. Putin came on an official visit to London, during which the parties agreed to further develop cooperation in the field of energy supply and trade. The British media called this visit “a move of sports diplomacy”, because At this time, the Olympic Games were being held in the capital of the United Kingdom.

2013 was marked by another push towards the normalization of Russian-British interaction. The parties agreed to hold negotiations within the framework of the Strategic Dialogue in the “2+2” format (ministers of foreign affairs and ministers of defense). In addition, in the same year, a significant event occurred in bilateral relations: for the first time in history, British authorities extradited Russian citizen M. Vintskevich, who was accused of murder. And already in May 2013, London agreed to a partial resumption of cooperation between intelligence services to improve security during the Olympic Games in Sochi.

As permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and Great Britain act as guarantors of global stability, so it is impossible not to touch upon the topic of international cooperation. Thus, both sides are interested in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and ensuring stability in Afghanistan. As members of the Middle East Quartet, Russia and Great Britain reaffirmed their commitment to a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the concept of two states - Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In addition, despite the existing contradictions, and thanks to common efforts, in particular the efforts of Russia and the United Kingdom, an agreement was reached on the Iranian nuclear program.

However, the goals pursued and the methods used by Russia and Great Britain in solving global and regional problems do not always coincide. Moscow actively opposed the Western, including British, invasion of Iraq. In addition, the positions of Russia and Great Britain differ significantly on the issue of resolving the status of Kosovo, NATO expansion to the East, and the deployment of the American missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

In 2011, with the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, crisis phenomena also began to develop in Russian-British relations. As is known, Moscow supported the current President B. Assad, while Great Britain opposed the Syrian leader. In general, Russia blocked three UN Security Council resolutions, which were fully supported by London. The reason for a new cooling of relations was Russia’s military operation against the terrorist organization Daesh, which the countries preferred to fight in different coalitions.

However, all these differences pale in comparison with the Ukrainian crisis, which has raised the degree of tension in Russian-British relations to a critical level. All the positive changes that have emerged in recent years were largely undermined in 2014. Great Britain condemned the annexation of Crimea to Russia and regarded this act as annexation. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom D. Cameron said: “Russia’s use of force to change borders following a sham referendum held at Russian gunpoint is unacceptable. President Putin has no doubt that Russia will face more serious consequences.” The UK was one of the initiators of EU sanctions against Russia, interrupted bilateral military cooperation, suspended licenses for the export of military products, canceled joint naval exercises and refused the visit of a Royal Navy ship to the Russian Federation.

Despite all these actions, it can be said that London’s initial position towards Russia was rather restrained. Anti-Russian rhetoric intensified sharply after the crash of a Malaysian Boeing 777 in the Donetsk region, on board which were ten citizens of the United Kingdom. According to a YouGov poll conducted on July 24-25, 2014, 66% of Britons believed that it was shot down by “Ukrainian separatists with the support of Moscow.” 65% of respondents were in favor of trade sanctions against Russia, and 31% were in favor of breaking diplomatic relations. In turn, British Foreign Secretary F. Hammond and Defense Minister M. Fallon expressed the opinion that Russia is the main challenge and threat to the world community, ahead of even the terrorist organization Daesh in this matter.

As a result, almost all official channels of Russian-British interaction were frozen, including mechanisms such as the Strategic Dialogue in the format of meetings of foreign and defense ministers, the Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Investment (ICTI) and the High-Level Energy Dialogue. In addition, the United Kingdom reduced the volume of direct investment in Russia by 26.5 times - from $18.9 billion to $714 million and refused to officially support a joint project - the Cross Year of Culture between Russia and Great Britain.

It is also necessary to understand what place countries assign to each other in their foreign policy documents. Thus, the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation of 2013 notes that Russia is developing mutually beneficial bilateral ties with European countries, but makes a reservation that the Russian Federation “would like the potential of interaction with Great Britain to be used in the same direction.” This point indicates that even before 2013, close contacts were not established between Russia and the United Kingdom, not to mention 2014, when even the few successes in bilateral relations were crossed out.

With regard to the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defense and Security Review of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 2015, this document contains a separate paragraph dedicated to “Russian behavior”. It says that compared to 2010, Russia has become a more aggressive and authoritarian country that disregards international standards to pursue its interests, annexed Crimea in 2014, continues to support separatists in eastern Ukraine and is a threat to European security. In addition, the Strategy notes that the UK cooperates with NATO, the EU, the UN and supports the sanctions regime against Russia in order to hold it accountable for its actions. These provisions once again confirm the corresponding position of London in relation to Moscow.

In October 2015, the Russian Ambassador to Great Britain A. Yakovenko said that, on London’s initiative, the political dialogue between the countries had completely stopped, and contacts were maintained only in the cultural sphere. However, immediately after this statement, the Foreign Office issued a refutation, noting that dialogue continues at all levels.

However, it is unlikely that anyone will argue that Russian-British relations are today at their lowest point in the last twenty-five years. This is largely due to the fact that Russia began to play a more prominent role in the international arena and began to actively participate in world processes. The Kremlin's independent course of foreign policy apparently did not suit its Western partners, in particular Great Britain.

Thus, based on the study, we can conclude that countries still have potential for cooperation in the economic and cultural spheres. Trade turnover has decreased noticeably, but it has not gone away. The UK did not officially support the Cross Year, but in 2014 more than 250 joint events took place in the fields of culture, science, education and sport. However, in the political sphere, a “reset” in Russian-British relations is unlikely to be possible in the near future. Too many contradictions have accumulated between the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom, which are slowing down, and in some cases even stopping, bilateral ties. Moscow is more willing to make compromises in its interaction with London, but Great Britain is a difficult partner, which, moreover, has a “special relationship” with Washington.

Bibliographic link

Shamugiya I.Sh. RUSSIAN-BRITISH RELATIONS: CURRENT STATE AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS // International Student Scientific Bulletin. – 2016. – No. 2.;
URL: http://eduherald.ru/ru/article/view?id=15140 (access date: 09/02/2019). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"

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Russian-British relations

Russo-British relations are the relations between Great Britain and Russia, including the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.

The history of Russian-British relations goes back several centuries: in 1553, diplomatic relations were established between Russia and Great Britain, when the representative of King Edward VI, Richard Chancellor (Chancellor), trying to find a “northeast passage” to China and Asia, stopped in capital city of Muscovy and in 1553 was presented to Tsar Ivan IV, who later experienced such deep trust in England that, according to contemporaries, he did not exclude the possibility of temporary relocation to the shores of Foggy Albion in the event of insurmountable unrest in the state under his control.

After Richard Chancellor's return to England, he was sent back to Russia in 1555. In the same year the Moscow company was founded. For the guests of the MK, chambers were built in Kitai-Gorod, next to the Kremlin; only English laws were in effect on the territory of the chambers.

The Moscow company had a monopoly on trade between Russia and England until 1698.

In 1697-1698, Tsar Peter I and the Great Embassy stayed in England for three months.

Relations between the Russian Empire and Great Britain

The states fought against each other in the Seven Years' War.

The states fought on the same side in 1740-1748 during the War of the Austrian Succession.

Russia and Great Britain fought on the same side during the Revolutionary Wars of the 1790s. The unsuccessful joint invasion of the Netherlands in 1799 marked the beginning of a change in relations.

On September 5, 1800, Britain occupied Malta, while the Russian Emperor Paul I was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, that is, the head of state of Malta. In response, on November 22, 1800, Paul I issued a decree imposing sequestration on all English ships in all Russian ports (there were up to 300 of them), as well as suspending payments to all English merchants pending settlement of their debt obligations in Russia, with a ban on sales English goods in the empire. Diplomatic relations have been interrupted.

The deterioration of Russian-British relations was accompanied by an improvement in Russia's relationship with Napoleonic France. There were, in particular, secret plans for a joint Russian-French expedition to the Indian possessions of Great Britain - the Indian campaign of 1801. These plans were not put into practice due to the assassination of the Emperor of Russia, Paul I.

According to Russian and British sources, the English Ambassador Whitworth took an active part in the preparation of the palace coup in Russia, whose mistress Olga Zherebtsova (Zubova) was the sister of the Zubov brothers, who took a direct part in the murder of Paul I.

March 24, 1801 -- the day after the palace coup and the assassination of Paul I, the new Emperor Alexander I cancels the measures taken against England and property claims against the property of the British in Russia. Diplomatic relations have been restored again.

Both countries fought against each other from 1807 to 1812 during the Russo-English War, after which Russia and Great Britain formed an alliance against Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars.

The countries fought on the same side during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829).

Both countries accepted the London Convention in 1827, also signed by France, which asked the Ottoman Empire and Greece to stop fighting each other and recognized Greek independence.

Britain and Russia fought against each other during the Crimean War of 1853-1856.

Russia and Britain were rivals in the late 19th century during the Great Game of Central Asia.

Anglophobia was widespread in 19th-century Russia.

The countries fought on the same side during the Yihetuan Uprising in 1899-1901.

The Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 organized the military-political bloc of the Entente, as a result of which both powers were allies in the First World War against the Central Powers.

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A. V. Puzakov, A. V. Kermas

In 1553, an expedition under the command of Sir H. Willoughby was sent from London in search of a north-eastern route to India. In his accompanying letter, King Edward VI asked all influential persons “everywhere under the common firmament” to take into account that “Our Lord in heaven and on earth, who looks after the seas with kindness, did not provide for everything necessary to have in one region, so that some need others, thereby strengthening friendship between all people, and so that everyone would seek thanksgiving for everyone.”

H. Willoughby was not destined to survive in the White Sea, but his deputy R. Chancellor brought the survivors to Moscow, where they were warmly received by Ivan the Terrible. On Chancellor’s second visit, in 1555, the king sent with him the envoy Osip Nepeya - not only to develop trade relations, but also to explore the possibilities of purchasing weapons and hiring artisans. Unfortunately, in November 1556, on his way back, Chancellor drowned off the northeast coast of Scotland. Nepeya escaped, although the expensive gifts that he carried with him were lost - either in a shipwreck, or not without the participation of his “rude and greedy companions,” as the chronicler assessed them. At the same time, Bishop Leslie, in his History of Scotland, spoke more favorably of them, noting that Nepean had "good support from his countrymen." The royal envoy, having reached London, managed to establish strong relations not only with Edward VI, but also with his successor Mary.

During the reign of the Tudors, a correspondence began between Ivan IV and Elizabeth, and the king went so far as to invite his English addressee to conclude an agreement on asylum and even marriage - if not with the queen herself, then with one of the ladies of her court. Trade developed through the Moscow Company, and in 1588, ships equipped with equipment from Russia went into battle against the Spanish Armada.

One of the first written evidence about the Muscovite kingdom belongs to G. Turberville, who complained that “the cold here is extraordinary,” and “the people are rude,” and that if he wrote in more detail, his “pen would not stand it.” Thus, the author set the biased tone characteristic of many British writings about Russians, which could undoubtedly negatively affect the work of many typewriters and electronic text editors.

The next Russian envoy's negotiating partner was a representative of James VI of Scotland. The year was 1603. The kingdoms of England and Scotland have already united, but their heraldic lions on their coats of arms have not yet. James VI Stuart even had the courage to consider expropriating part of Russian territory in 1611, when the state actually fell apart due to civil war, aggravated by foreign invasion. This project was presented to the king as "the greatest and most successful initiative that has ever been made to any of the rulers of this kingdom since Columbus approached Henry VII with the idea of \u200b\u200bopening the West Indies." G. Brereton in “Notes on the current Russian disasters that happened from the last war in this country” (1614) wrote about the invasion in 1610 of the Swedish army, which also consisted of the English, French and Scots: “Although they came as friends , to the rescue, it’s unlikely that anyone can keep the army from looting and robbery, which the unfortunate Russians fully felt during this bloody war.” But the election of Mikhail Romanov to the kingdom in 1613 marked the beginning of a new unity of the state.

James's son Charles I became involved in civil war in his homeland. The Russian envoy G.S. Dokhturov, who arrived in London in 1645 to report the death of Tsar Michael and the accession of his heir Alexei, received a sufficient impression of the troubles that befell England and Scotland. It is a pity that the ambassador was not able to familiarize himself with more recent research by historians on this topic and thereby avoid a simplified understanding of the issue. In his opinion, the conflict between the king and parliament arose as a result of Charles’s commitment to autocracy and Catholicism, and the merchant people sided with parliament, while the nobility supported the king.

Russia, like other European states, also experienced a crisis in the middle of the 17th century. But even despite quite serious opposition movements, Alexei sat confidently on the throne, which was further strengthened during the reign of his son, Peter the Great. The Stuarts, who again came to power in the person of Charles II in 1660 after the Cromwellian Interregnum, were overthrown again in 1688, now completely: both Charles and James VII lost their thrones and fled to France. Followers of the Jacobist movement, laboring over the restoration of the monarchy, could be found in many countries, including those surrounded by Peter the Great and his heirs. There was even a plan to arrange a marriage between Peter’s daughter Elizabeth and Karl Edward, which, however, failed.

Throughout the 17th century, England gave priority to trade, while Russia gave priority to politics. An example of this is the period after 1649, when Tsar Alexei expelled English merchants from Russia on trumped-up charges of their involvement in the execution of Charles I. The Scots gained fame in the mercenary service, and some of them, for example, Patrick Gordon, reached senior positions .

Interaction in the field of culture was scarce due to religious differences, although there was dialogue between the Orthodox and Protestant churches regarding possible cooperation in the fight against the common enemy - Catholicism. Before the advent of the secular book in Russia, literary connections were limited to quotes from English authors, in particular Shakespeare and Milton. In “A Brief History of Muscovy,” the latter, drawing comparisons with England in terms of “mores, faith, government, and the like,” argued that Russia is “the northernmost region of Europe that can be considered civilized.” The perception of Europe as a kind of unified space, which emerged towards the end of the 17th century, became more important than the differences between the leading movements in Christianity.

The famous visit of Peter the Great to London in 1698 opened a new page in both the diplomatic and cultural-economic sense. Although the writer D. Evelyn wrote in his diary that Peter and his entourage were “simply unbearable” (they destroyed the house they rented from him), the Bishop of Salisbury was pleasantly surprised by the level of Peter’s education and noted that the king “carefully studied the Bible.”

In 1707, the union of the Scottish and English parliaments helped reduce the threat of Jacobism. But when the Elector of Hanover became George I in 1714, Peter was still suspected of sympathizing with the disgraced Stuarts, as well as claims to the Baltic states and northern Germany. D. Defoe was among the writers who published “reliable notes from Russia,” which spoke with alarm about a new force gaining power. It is not without reason that in the second part of Robinson Crusoe, his hero makes his way through the harsh, endless Siberia.

Commercial relations were strengthened by a trade agreement in 1736. Russia and Great Britain fought side by side throughout most of the Seven Years' War. However, during the American War of Independence, the former allies were on opposite sides of the barricades: Catherine the Great pursued a policy of armed neutrality, looking down on what she considered the clumsy approach of “Brother George” to the American problem.

Thus, in the middle of a 450-year historical journey, relations between Great Britain and Russia were far from friendly. But then both countries united in the fight against the French Revolution, and at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries in Russia, a period of “Anglomania” can be clearly distinguished.

This later resulted in the literary influence of Lord Byron on Pushkin and Sir Walter Scott on Tolstoy.

As a Russian poet said in the second half of the 18th century, “Peter gave bodies to the Russians, Catherine gave souls,” thereby accurately noting the commitment of each of the monarchs to practical and cultural activities, respectively. British researchers highly appreciated Catherine's contribution to the development of the arts, including her tutelage of the Scottish architect Charles Cameron. One of them wrote: “Until now, the Russians have rarely shown themselves in the field of literature, but the highest patronage in the establishment of academies and other scientific colleges, recently provided by their monarchs, provides strong evidence that they are in no way lagging behind in mental abilities. The papers they discuss at their academic meetings receive the most enthusiastic evaluations in Europe."

However, soon Alexander I had to listen to unpleasant words addressed to him for the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 with Napoleon, and in 1812 to accept congratulations for the victory over the French invaders. When Alexander, as the winner, was invited to visit London, his marshal, Barclay de Tolly, was asked to return to his family's Scottish estate, Towie Barclay Castle in the County of Aberdeen.

However, almost immediately after the celebrations, relations deteriorated, and a new wave of Russophobia arose. This was due to the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830–1831. and the severity of the Eastern question. During his student years, Tennyson exclaimed: “God, how long will this go on? How long will these heartless Muscovites oppress this region? The slogan “We will not give Constantinople to the Russians!” resounded loudly during the Crimean War. Fears also grew. During a sermon on April 26, 1854, on the “day of national mourning,” warnings were sounded that hostilities could not only spread to the shores of Britain, but the enemy could win: “The very thought of it is terrible - a enslaved country, blood-stained streets, domination of despots, violated freedoms, trampled rights, shackles and death."

While Queen Victoria shared the widely held views of her subjects about the uncouth "Russian bear", the tsars, who had unlimited power, did not consider the British system to be a full-fledged monarchy, and this was unlikely to please the queen. Britain's Great Campaign in Afghanistan intensified the rivalry. At the same time, a common enemy emerged in Turkey, and with the weakening of the Ottoman Empire’s power in the Balkans, the “Eastern Question” was reformulated. K. Garnett, with her translations of Tolstoy and other leading Russian writers, helped dispel the myth of the “Russian barbarians.” Russian culture in all its diversity began to have a serious influence on British culture, especially after the tour of the Imperial Ballet.

In 1896, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna went on a grand tour of Europe. Queen Victoria was delighted to see again her granddaughter, "dear Aliki", who had spent several of her childhood years with her after her mother's untimely death. But the Queen was recommended to receive the royal family at the Scottish royal residence of Balmoral, and not in London. After all, Nicholas had already acquired an extremely negative reputation, so Russian radicals and members of the secret Irish Fenian society were overwhelmed with determination to eliminate the tsar. When Nicholas arrived in Aberdeen, the respectable local newspaper Bon Accord, which could hardly be suspected of revolutionary sentiments, wrote that he was “a tyrant who mercilessly trampled on the independence of his subjects.”

Omissions and misunderstandings carried over into the 20th century. When the Russian Pacific Fleet was defeated at the start of the war with Japan in 1904 and the Baltic Fleet took to the oceans to take revenge on the enemy, the Russians mistook British fishing boats in the North Sea for enemy ships and fired on them. Some British political forces used this incident as a reason to call for a declaration of war from the pages of newspapers.

As the Triple Alliance began to raise tensions in the Balkans and beyond, Britain joined forces with Russia and France to form the Entente. What is certain is that the Allies helped each other more than once at key moments in the First World War. For example, immediately after it began, Russia could rightfully claim that the Battle of the Marne, which saved Paris, was won at the cost of the lives of Russian soldiers in East Prussia.

“Nicholas the Bloody” and the autocracy continued to spoil the impression of the “noble mission of the West.” But his overthrow during the February Revolution of 1917, which occurred shortly after the US entered hostilities, made it possible to imagine events in such a way that the war was waged by the forces of democracy (both in the West and in the East) against the autocracy of the Triple Alliance. True, the tsar and his family were a problem for the Provisional Government. There was talk that George V should provide the Romanovs with asylum, and they could be taken out by sea. But neither the king nor Prime Minister L. George wanted to become targets of attacks from hostile newspapers and public opinion. Therefore, Kerensky sent the Romanovs to Siberia.

The fall of the Provisional Government and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in October 1917 put an end to the process of rapprochement between the two states: the aggravation of Russophobia was aggravated by the fear of communism. There were slightly more fans of the hammer and sickle in Britain than fans of the double-headed eagle. When news of the execution of the royal family reached London in July 1918, only a small note appeared in the newspapers. In 1919, information leaked that the Russian Revolution was spreading to British cities, especially Glasgow. But these were just rumors.

In 1921, commercial interests forced Great Britain to recognize the existence of Soviet Russia, and political recognition followed in 1924. But that same year, a false “letter from Zinoviev” calling for the violent overthrow of the government reignited anti-Soviet sentiment.

In 1927, due to the espionage activities of the USSR, S. Baldwin denounced the trade agreement and broke off diplomatic relations. There was even talk of declaring war. And although relations were restored in 1929, persistent mistrust, reinforced by “purges” in the leadership of the USSR, made closer cooperation impossible - even in the face of the growing fascist threat.

Britain's policy of "appeasement" was hardly designed to bring the Soviet Union closer. During the Spanish Civil War, when Britain, along with other Western countries, did almost nothing to curb Franco and his supporters, the USSR provided support to the long-suffering republic. And then, in August 1939, shortly before the conclusion of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, which provided for the division of Poland and the Baltic states, negotiations were interrupted between Britain and France, on the one hand, and the Soviet Union, on the other. However, Stalin's policy of containment also failed when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941.

A sharp turn in British-Soviet relations followed. Churchill, known in the Soviet Union as a militant anti-communist, now became a staunch ally of Stalin, who in the West was known only as a “heartless tyrant”, now in his own way called “Uncle Joe”. The purges stopped in the USSR, although conformism continued to be the dictate of the times. In the United Kingdom, previously despised left-wing intellectuals became welcome guests of the establishment, and propaganda films about the successes of Soviet power, once available only in closed film clubs (or even banned), appeared in wide release.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 led to the formation of an allied coalition and immediately forced Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to begin intensive negotiations. In a series of conferences that culminated in Yalta, the Big Three determined the strategy for victory and the fate of the post-war world. During an informal meeting with Stalin in October 1944, Churchill concluded the so-called “percentage agreement” on spheres of influence in Eastern Europe: the USSR received 90 percent in Romania, Great Britain - in Greece, etc.

The death of T. Roosevelt in April 1945 and the July defeat of W. Churchill in the elections heralded the collapse of the Big Three. Moreover, despite the impact of Churchill's Iron Curtain speech in March 1946, it soon became clear that there were only two superpowers. The Empire was disintegrating, and Britain found its forces too spread thin. And although the Labor Foreign Secretary E. Bevin, no less than Churchill, sought to maintain the status quo, by 1947 he was forced to admit that Britain was not able to keep Greece and the Middle East under control alone.

The advent of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan meant that the center of Western power had moved overseas. Eisenhower reacted to A. Eden’s attempts to turn back the clock during the Suez crisis with a sharp shout, and Khrushchev with threats.

Meanwhile, the West, led by the United States, could do little in response to calls for help that came from Hungary, Poland and other countries within the Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. After the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and the collapse of the colonial empires, the United States led the ranks of those who tried to contain communism in the Third World, fighting in Korea and Vietnam.

When the Cold War nearly turned hot during the Cuban Crisis of 1962, Britain played a minor role in the drama. And culturally, it also remained in the background, although several works by British authors were actively promoted by the organizers of the “struggle between the forces of light and darkness.” For example, American organizations and foundations contributed to the promotion of J. Orwell’s book “1984” to the market, and A. Toynbee’s “A Study in History” was praised by Time magazine as a work that is comparable in importance to the transition from the Ptolemaic picture of the world to the ideas of Copernicus, since she “shattered the icy schemes of historical determinism and materialism, again recognizing the Lord God as the active agent of the historical process.”

Britain, ahead of the United States in restoring constructive ties with the Soviet Union, has more than once acted as the “forerunner” in curtailing them. Thus, the “ice age” in relations between the USSR and the West in the first half of the 1980s was preceded by a “cooling” in Soviet-British relations. It was caused by Britain's military cooperation with China, London's dissatisfaction with the activity of the USSR and Cuba in Ethiopia, and the decision of the government of D. Callaghan to create a neutron bomb.

It was from London that the sharpest reaction to the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan and the events in Poland came. However, the alternation of diplomatic ebbs and flows in the interaction between England and Russia repeated itself. M. Thatcher, who set a course for restoring the international prestige of her country, was the first of the Western leaders to rely on M. S. Gorbachev. Counting on democratic reforms and the transformation of the USSR as a counterweight to the growing Germany, the “Iron Lady” unintentionally contributed to the development of events in the opposite scenario. Soon Germany, contrary to Thatcher's calculations, united and again became the dominant center of Europe.

Thus, the rich and complex history of relations between Russia and Britain shows that for most of the time, first the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union were the key elements shaping British foreign policy doctrine, and Moscow almost always considered London one of the main representatives of the community of Western powers. However, before the world plunged into the maelstrom of the Cold War, England and Russia, over the centuries-long history of their relations, managed to be both the main geopolitical rivals and allies.

Unusually different, they were, by the will of history and geography, surprisingly similar, although they understood each other poorly. The best illustration of this is the winged words of Winston Churchill, who called Russia “a mystery, shrouded in the darkness of the unknown.”

Closing Europe from the west and from the east, they occupied a border position between the continent and other parts of the world. They were not blocked by the masses of other states and successfully spread their influence far beyond the borders of Europe. The sea and land powers were open to the outside, saw themselves not only in the European, but also in the global context, were engulfed in world projects and were passionate about missionary work. These trends continued at the end of the twentieth century - since the collapse of the USSR and the formation of a new state - the Russian Federation.

Literature

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A little about the history of relations between Russia and Great Britain

Despite the fact that Russia and geographically are far from each other, over the centuries our countries have found common ground in different areas. In the relations between the two countries there are many examples of both successful cooperation and conflicts, sometimes bloody.

One of the first written confirmed political contacts between the two countries was the marriage of the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir Monomakh With Gita of Wessex.

Gita of Wessex, after the death of her father, the last Anglo-Saxon king Harald, who died at the Battle of Hanstings in 1066, fled from England through Flanders and ended up in Denmark with her uncle, who married her to Vladimir Monomakh (presumably in 1075). She gave birth to Vladimir several children (according to various sources, from 10 to 12), the eldest of whom, Mstislav the Great, inherited the Kiev throne from his father. Interestingly, in Europe he was known as Harald, which is what his mother called Gita of Wessex. According to some sources, she was the mother of another Grand Duke, Yuri Dolgoruky, during whose reign many cities were founded, including Moscow.

Diplomatic relations Russia and England established it in the 16th century. In this century, English navigators made several attempts to find the North-East route to China and India, since the overland caravan route was too difficult and expensive. In 1553, a merchant association was created in London: “The Society of Merchants, Seekers of Countries and Dominions, Unknown and Hitherto Unvisited by Sea.” Three ships were equipped for the expedition, two of which died during a storm, and the third, under the command of Richard Chancellor, was forced to stop in Arkhangelsk. And Chancellor ended up in Moscow and was introduced to the Tsar Ivan IV and presented him with a letter from the English King Edward VI. Since then, not only diplomatic but also trade relations have been established between the powers. The Moscow Trading Company was organized in London, to which Queen Mary Tudor granted monopoly rights to trade with Russia. The company existed until 1917.

In 1556, the first Russian envoy, Osip Nepeya, was sent to London, and the English diplomat Anthony Jenkins was sent to Moscow.

Ivan the Terrible, with his characteristic obsession, became fascinated by the idea of getting closer to the new Queen of England, Elizabeth I. Historians call this “Anglomania” of Ivan the Terrible, and contemporaries dubbed the tsar “English” for this. The British were given duty-free trade rights, the right to settle in Vologda and Kholmogory, to build an ironworks in Vychegda and other privileges. Ivan the Terrible offered Elizabeth a close alliance and an agreement to provide each other with asylum in the event of an aggravation of the situation in their native country. And then, unexpectedly, through an envoy in 1567, he proposed marriage to Elizabeth. The Queen, in order not to jeopardize trade with Muscovy, chose the tactic of delaying her response, and then, when the Tsar finally received an official refusal, he furiously wrote her a letter, calling her a “vulgar girl.”

In 1569, Ivan the Terrible proposed to England a political alliance directed against Poland. Elizabeth rejected this offer as well. The day after her answer was delivered to the king, the English merchants were deprived of all privileges.

The tsar remembered England only in 1581, when, after failures in the war with Poland, he asked for military help and the hand of the queen’s relative, Maria Hastings (despite the fact that at that time he was married to the noblewoman Maria Nagaya). Maria agreed to the marriage, but then, having learned the details of the king’s character, she flatly refused.

One of the first written descriptions of Rus' by the British dates back to this time; it belongs to the pen of G. Turberville, who testified that “the cold here is extraordinary” and “the people are rude.”

Boris Godunov, who ascended the throne after the son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ioanovich, also treated England favorably. In 1602, 5 “children of the boyars” were sent to London to teach “the science of various languages and literacy.” Having completed their studies, the boyar children decided not to return home, despite persistent demands from Russia. They apparently became the first Russian immigrants to the island.

In 1614, the young king Mikhail Romanov turned to the English King James I with a request to mediate in negotiations with Sweden on peace in the protracted war. Thanks to the efforts of the English envoy in Moscow, John Merick, this peace was concluded in 1617, for which the tsar generously thanked him.

The first visit of a royal person to Great Britain was Grand Embassy of Peter I. He arrived in London on 11 January 1698 on a private visit. Despite the private nature of the visit, Peter I met with the king twice William III, who presented the Russian Tsar with a 20-gun yacht. Peter visited Parliament, the Royal Society, Oxford University, the Mint, the Greenwich Observatory, and concluded an agreement with the East India Company for the supply of tobacco to Russia, which was previously considered a “devil’s potion” in Russia. 60 different English specialists, hired by him to work in Russia, left London with Peter.

In May 1707, the first permanent Russian ambassador to Great Britain, A.A., arrived in London. Matveev.

In the 18th century, Russian students began to actively come to Great Britain and studied at the universities of London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Glasgow. At this time, an embassy church “The Orthodox Greek-Russian Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary located in London” appeared in London.

The political relations of the Russian and British empires in the 18th - 19th centuries were quite contradictory. States fought against each other in Seven Years' War (1756-1763), fought in the alliance during Wars of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). When the British turned to Catherine II with a request to assist them in the war against the rebellious colonies in North America, the Russian empress refused. “What right do I have,” she said, “to interfere in a feud that does not concern me, in matters incomprehensible to me, and in the relations of powers that are very distant from me.” Catherine issued a declaration of the first armed neutrality.

In September 1800, British troops occupied Malta. Russian Emperor Paul I, being the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, was also the head of state of Malta. Paul responded by arresting all English ships in Russian ports and banning the sale of English goods. After breaking off diplomatic relations with Britain, he became close to Napoleon I, planning joint expansion in India.

These plans were not destined to come true; Paul I was killed as a result of a palace coup, in the preparation of which the English ambassador Whitworth played an important role.

New Emperor of the Russian Empire Alexander I restored diplomatic relations with Britain the day after his accession to the throne. After the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit, which was humiliating for Alexander I, the Russian Empire had to participate in the continental blockade of Great Britain and even participate in the Russian-English War of 1807-1812. Losses in this war amounted to about 1,000 people on both sides. In 1812, Russia and Great Britain entered into an alliance against Napoleon.

From 1821 to 1829, the countries fought in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire during the Greek War of Independence.

In 1839, the future emperor visited London Alexander II. The heir to the Russian throne was then 20 years old and he became seriously interested in the queen Victoria, who was not yet married at that time. He was even ready to marry her and leave Russia, becoming a prince consort, but his father, Emperor Nicholas I, did not allow him. Subsequently, as monarchs, Alexander II and Victoria experienced mutual hostility.

Crimean War 1853-1856 became the bloodiest conflict in the history of British-Russian relations. Anti-Russian sentiments were intensified in Great Britain, and anti-English ones in Russia.

In 1854, the London Times wrote: “It would be nice to return Russia to the cultivation of inland lands, to drive the Muscovites deep into the forests and steppes.” In the same year, D. Russell, leader of the House of Commons and head of the Liberal Party, said: “We must tear the fangs out of the bear... Until his fleet and naval arsenal in the Black Sea are destroyed, there will be no peace in Europe.”

The total losses in the Crimean or Eastern War - Russia and the anti-Russian coalition, in which Great Britain participated, amounted to about 250 thousand people.

In 1894, the imperial houses of Russia and Great Britain nevertheless became related through the granddaughter of Queen Victoria - Princess Alice of Hesse, who received the name Alexandra Feodorovna at baptism.

Moreover, Queen Victoria herself took a large part in organizing this marriage, despite the fact that Emperor Alexander III did not approve of this marriage. In 1896 Nicholas II And Alexandra Fedorovna visited Queen Victoria in London.

The Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 marked the beginning of the military-political alliance of the Entente; the empires were allies in the First World War.

Since the 19th century, numerous political emigrants from Russia settled in London. Of the most famous - A.I. Herzen and N.P. Ogarev with his wife N.A. Tuchkova. In 1853 they began publishing the newspaper “The Bell” and the almanac “Polar Star”. For many years, Kolokol was considered the mouthpiece of the revolutionary movement in Russia.

Many famous people from Russia came to Herzen in London. Among them is I.S. Turgenev, Baron A.I. Delvig, Prince V. Dolgorukov, I. Cherkassky, artist A.A. Ivanov, actor N.M. Shchepkin. Herzen and Ogarev were visited in London by Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

In 1886, an anarchist prince settled in London P.A. Kropotkin. He created the London Group of Russian Anarchist Workers, which published and distributed propaganda literature. Several of Kropotkin's books were published in London, including the famous Notes of a Revolutionary.

One of Kropotkin's closest associates in London was the writer and revolutionary CM. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky. He ended up in London after the murder of the chief of gendarmes N.V. Mezentsev. In London he published the magazine Free Russia.

In 1902, the editorial office of the newspaper Iskra moved to London from Munich, along with V.I. Lenin, N.K. Krupskaya, Yu.O. Martov and V.I. Zasulich. From April 1902 to April 1902, Lenin and Krupskaya lived in London under the name Richter.

In July-August, the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP took place in London, moving there after it was dispersed by the Brussels police.

After the October Revolution of 1917, emigrants of opposing political beliefs poured into London. There is no exact data on how many emigrants of the first wave settled in London; most often they talk about the figure of 50 thousand people. Now completely different organizations were created in the capital of Great Britain: the Committee for the Liberation of Russia, which professed the views of the Cadet Party, the Society of Northerners and Siberians, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary A.V. Baikalov; Russian-British Brotherhood; Russian academic group. In London, magazines and newspapers were published in Russian, Russian teachers taught at universities, Russian shops, restaurants, and banks operated.

At this time, Great Britain took an active part in the intervention in Soviet Russia. The British landed on the White and Baltic seas, in Transcaucasia, Vladivostok, on the Black Sea - in Sevastopol, Novorossiysk and Batum. Colonial troops from Canada, Australia, and India were also brought into Russian territory.

In 1921, Great Britain resumed trade relations with Soviet Russia, and in 1924 recognized the Soviet Union as a state.

Since 1941, the USSR and Great Britain cooperated within the framework of the anti-Hitler coalition. And with the outbreak of the Cold War, relations between the two powers remained cold for many decades, many times complicated by spy scandals.

Spy scandals and disagreements over extradition issues complicate relations between Britain and the Russian Federation in the 21st century. In 2010, MI5 released data that the number of Russian spies in Great Britain is at Cold War levels, and apparently there are no fewer British spies in Russia.

Russian-British relations at the present stage. Diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain International Russian-British relations conflicts

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