Russian–Austrian contacts began with Frederick III in 1436, and towards the end of the 15th century, Emperor Maximilian I and Ivan III exchanged diplomatic missions. Regular Russian communications with the Austrian court began in 1698, when Peter the Great led the Grand Embassy to Vienna and met with Kaiser Leopold I.[1] Since Peter the Great's reign, the ambassadors to Vienna have been typically senior government officials and experienced Russian diplomats, which have included Dmitry Golitsyn, Andrey Razumovsky, Alexander Gorchakov and Mikhail Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin.[2]
The first ambassador to the Austrian capital was Prince Dmitriy Vladimirovich Golitsyn, where during the period 1763 to 1792 he served for 18 years. Gallitzinstraße, the street where his ambassadorial villa was located is named after him. In 1792 Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky became ambassador in Vienna, where he kept contact with representatives of the European aristocracy, politicians and artists. While in Vienna, he built the Palais Rasumofsky, and also financed construction of a stone bridge across the Danube. As a patron of the arts, Razumovsky established an art gallery, and commissioned Beethoven to compose the famous Razumovsky string quartets.[2][3]
Austria is closely linked to the fate of prominent Russian diplomat and statesman Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov. He arrived in Vienna in 1833 as an adviser to the embassy, and from 1854 to 1856 he led the Russian diplomatic mission. Gorchakov became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Austrian court at the most difficult period for Russia during the Crimean War, during which time he was able to preserve diplomatic relations with Austria and helped to overcome the international isolation of the Russian Empire and reinforced Russia's status as a great power. The Vienna Conference in 1855 was the first presence of Gorchakov in an international forum, and his performance in representing Russia at the Paris Conference of 1856 saw Alexander II appoint him as Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.[2]
In 1882, scientist and diplomat Prince Aleksey Borisovich Lobanov-Rostovsky was appointed as the Empire's representative in Vienna. In 1891 he bought several houses on Reisnerstraße from Adolphe I, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the former Duke of Nassau, which still houses the embassy and consular section in Vienna, and he also began construction of the Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral.[2]
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918 and the proclamation of the First Austrian Republic, diplomatic relations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were established on 25 February 1924. The first Soviet Plenipotentiary in Vienna was Yan Antonovich Berzin. Diplomatic relations were broken in March 1938 after the German invasion of Austria and its incorporation into Nazi Germany.[2] After the Second World War, the USSR and Austria re-established diplomatic relations at the level of political representation, which in 1953 was converted into embassies. The preamble of the Austrian State Treaty, signed on 15 May 1955 by the USSR, United States, United Kingdom, France and Austria, established that the treaty formed the basis of Soviet relations with Austria.[2][4]
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, relations continued between the Russian Federation and the Austrian state.[2]
| Name | Photo | Title | Date from | Date until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn | Ambassador | October 1761 | April 1792 | |
| Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky | Ambassador | 5 October 1801 | 10 August 1804 | |
| Source: Embassy of Russia in Vienna.[5] Worldwide Historical Project[6] |
||||
| Name | Photo | Title | Date from | Date until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky | Ambassador | 11 August 1804 | 7 September 1806 | |
| Gustav Ernst Graf von Stackelberg | Ambassador | 14 May 1810 | 9 November 1818 | |
| Yury Aleksandrovich Golovkin | Envoy | 9 November 1818 | 16 September 1822 | |
| Dmitry Pavlovich Tatishchev | Ambassador | 22 August 1826 | 11 September 1841 | |
| Pavel Ivanovich Medem | Envoy | 24 December 1848 | 31 August 1850 | |
| Pyotr Kazimirovich Meyendorf | Envoy | 31 August 1850 | 7 January 1854 | |
| Aleksandr Mikhailovich Gorchakov | Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | 6 May 1854 | 15 April 1856 | |
| Viktor Petrovich Balabin | Envoy | 22 July 1860 | 12 August 1864 | |
| Ernest Gustavovich Stackelberg | Envoy | 3 August 1864 | 28 May 1867 | |
| Source: Embassy of Russia in Vienna.[5] Worldwide Historical Project[6] |
||||
| Name | Photo | Title | Date from | Date until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ernest Gustavovich Stackelberg | Envoy | 29 May 1867 | 25 April 1868 | |
| Nikolay Alekseyevich Orlov | Envoy | 13 December 1869 | 2 May 1870 | |
| Yevgeny Petrovich Novikov | Ambassador | 2 March 1874 | 22 December 1879 | |
| Pavel Petrovich Ubri | Ambassador | 22 December 1879 | 1 June 1882 | |
| Aleksey Borisovich Lobanov-Rostovsky | Ambassador | 13 July 1882 | 6 January 1895 | |
| Pyotr Alekseyevich Kapnist | Ambassador | 9 April 1895 | 1904 | |
| Lev Pavlovich Urusov | Ambassador | 1905 | 1910 | |
| Source: Embassy of Russia in Vienna.[5] Worldwide Historical Project[6] |
||||
| Name | Photo | Title | Date from | Date until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voldemar Khristianovich Aussem | Plenipotentiary Representative | 21 May 1924 | 10 December 1924 | |
| Adolf Abramovich Ioffe | Plenipotentiary Representative | 12 December 1924 | 19 June 1925 | |
| Yan Antonovich Berzin | Plenipotentiary | 19 June 1925 | 7 September 1927 | |
| Konstantin Konstantinovich Yurenev | Plenipotentiary | 1 October 1927 | 24 January 1933 | |
| Adolf Markovich Petrovsky | Plenipotentiary | 1 April 1933 | 10 November 1934 | |
| Ivan Leopoldovich Lorents | Plenipotentiary | 17 March 1935 | 31 September 1938 | |
| Source: Embassy of Russia in Vienna.[5] Worldwide Historical Project[7] |
||||
| Name | Photo | Title | Date from | Date until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivan Ivanovich Ilyichev | Supreme Commissar of the USSR Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary[8] |
13 June 1953 27 May 1955 |
26 May 1955 31 March 1956 |
|
| Andrey Andreyevich Smirnov | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 31 March 1956 | 14 October 1956 | |
| Sergey Georgyevich Lapin | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 19 October 1956 | 16 June 1960 | |
| Viktor Ivanovich Avilov | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 16 June 1960 | 13 June 1965 | |
| Boris Fedorovich Podtserob | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 30 June 1965 | 20 September 1971 | |
| Averky Borisovich Aristov | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 20 September 1971 | 11 July 1973 | |
| Mikhail Timofeyevich Yefremov | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 10 March 1975 | 24 October 1986 | |
| Gennady Serafimovich Shikin | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 24 October 1986 | 24 May 1990 | |
| Valery Nikolayevich Popov | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 24 May 1990 | 25 December 1991 | |
| Source: Embassy of Russia in Vienna.[5] Worldwide Historical Project[7] |
||||
| Name | Photo | Title | Date from | Date until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valery Nikolayevich Popov | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 25 December 1991 | 30 August 1996 | |
| Vladimir Mikhailovich Grinin | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 30 August 1996 | 29 April 2000 | |
| Alexander Vasiliyevich Golovin | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 4 August 2000 | 6 August 2004 | |
| Stanislav Viliorovich Osadchy | Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 14 September 2004 | Present | |
| Source: Embassy of Russia in Vienna.[5] Worldwide Historical Project[9] |
||||