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The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Belgium: the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations and the First Envoys
 
PIIS013038640016502-0-1
DOI10.31857/S013038640016502-0
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Alla Namazova 
Affiliation: Institute of World History, RAS
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Journal nameNovaia i noveishaia istoriia
EditionIssue 5
Pages94-104
Abstract

The author analyses the initial period of the history of diplomatic relations between Russia and the Kingdom of Belgium, from 1853 onwards. The essay is based on the study of diplomatic documents from the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire. The author focuses on Russia’s important role in the international recognition of the independence of Belgium: after the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the former was one of the great powers which guaranteed, through international legal acts, the existence of a young neutral Belgian state. The close dynastic ties between the House of Romanov and the royal family of Belgium, House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, especially between the Romanovs and the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I. The latter took up a military career in the Imperial Russian Army (1812–1815), gained a certain degree of credibility at the Imperial Court in St. Petersburg; the personal correspondence established between the two ruling Houses helped to strengthen Russian-Belgian relations. Official documents of this period demonstrate that Brussels was strategically important as an information centre where information from the nearest European capitals was accumulated. That is why the Russian Foreign Ministry approached the selection of diplomatic personnel for the Russian representation in Brussels with special care, as evidenced by the guidelines of the Foreign Ministry to envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary cited in the article. The author also gives close attention to the life and work of the Belgian envoy in St. Petersburg, Count Camille de Briey, and the first Russian envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary in Brussels in 1853–1869, namely Count Mikhail Khreptovich and Prince Nikolay Orlov, as well as Alexandr Rikhter, who contributed to the development of friendly relations between the two countries.

Keywordsdiplomatic relations, Kingdom of Belgium, Russian Empire, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Leopold I, King of the Belgians, Mikhail Khreptovich, Nikolay Orlov, Camille de Briey.
Received15.04.2021
Publication date11.10.2021
Number of characters31737
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