About the Embassy

U.S. Ministers and Ambassadors to Russia

For two centuries, the United States of America has sent a long line of distinguished envoys to represent its interests in Russia, first in St. Petersburg and then in Moscow. These representatives have included men whose career paths would lead them from Moscow to become President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury. More than a dozen served as members of Congress. Newspaper editors, governors, generals and career diplomats have promoted American interests in the courts of the Tsars, the halls of the Kremlin, and directly to the people of Russia.

Many of these envoys have played pivotal roles in the often tumultuous events that have forged America's relationship with Russia. The tradition began, fittingly, with a man who later would become Secretary of State and the sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. His perceptive dispatches on Napoleon's invasion of Russia began a tradition of diplomatic excellence that has continued to the present day. Some of America's most illustrious career diplomats have served in Moscow: legends of the U.S. Foreign Service like George Kennan, Llewellyn Thompson and Thomas Pickering. Through revolutions, in peace and at war, representing the United States as ally or adversary, these American envoys have helped shape the destiny of both nations.

1809-1836

1812 Napoleon invades Russia; burning of Moscow; Napoleon's forces retreat
1812-14 War of 1812
1823 Monroe Doctrine
1825 John Quincy Adams elected President
1825 Decembrist uprising
1830 Pushkin completes Evgeniy Onegin
1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion

Appointed by President James Madison, John Quincy Adams was the first official U.S. representative to Russia, serving with the official title of Minister Plenipotentiary in the Russian imperial capital of St. Petersburg. Son of President John Adams, a gifted linguist, he became Minister to the Netherlands (1794), to Portugal (1796), Prussia (1797-1801), a member of the U.S. Senate (1803-1808), Minister to Russia (1809-14), Minister to England (1815-17), and Secretary of State to President James Monroe (1817-25). The Presidential election of 1824 was decided, according to the Constitution, by the House of Representatives; Adams, second in the electoral vote, was chosen over Andrew Jackson, and served as the Sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. After leaving the White House, he served nine terms in the House of Representatives, dying in the Capitol Building in 1848. Adams first visited Russia in 1781 as French-language interpreter for U.S. envoy Francis Dana. He served in St. Petersburg during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, strolled along the banks of the Neva with Czar Alexander I, and visited the Observatory in Pulkovo Heights. At the request of dictionary author Noah Webster, he provided books of Russian grammar and vocabulary, the beginning of Russian studies in the United States. His infant daughter died and was buried in St. Petersburg.

William Pinkney, from Annapolis Maryland, was a delegate to the Maryland State Convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788. He was appointed by President Washington as an envoy to Britain (1806-1811); was Attorney General of the United States under President Madison (1811-14), and as a major in The War of 1812, he was wounded at the Battle of Bladensburg. He was elected to Congress in 1814, but resigned in 1816 to accept the diplomatic assignment to Russia. After another diplomatic post in Naples, he returned to Maryland and served again in Congress as a Representative and Senator from Maryland until his death in 1822.

Born in Scotland, George Washington Campbell served as both U.S. Representative at-large and Senator from Tennessee, as well as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President James Madison, before accepting his assignment to Russia under President James Monroe. Campbell County in Tennessee is named after him.

Born in England, Henry Middleton was a member of South Carolina's State Senate before becoming Governor of that state. He served the longest term of service in Russia, spanning the administrations of three Presidents. Appointed to Russia under President James Monroe, he served under President John Quincy Adams, and also under President Andrew Jackson. During Middleton's term as Minister, trade, maritime and fishing agreements were signed between Russia and the United States, and the boundaries of Russian Alaska were accepted by Canada and the United States. He was present at the time of the death of Czar Alexander I, and the tumultuous Decembrist Uprising of 1825.

John Randolph, a native of Virginia, served fourteen terms in Congress, and two years as a United States Senator (1825-27). As a young man, he engaged in several duels. Appointed to Russia by President Andrew Jackson, he proceeded to post, but did not present his credentials and left Russia after less than four months. When he returned to Virginia he was elected again to Congress (1833) but died two months later.

Like President Andrew Jackson who appointed him to Russia, James Buchanan was born in a log cabin. He was one of the first U.S. Army volunteers for the War of 1812, fighting in the defense of Baltimore. He served as U.S. Representative from two districts of Pennsylvania before his assignment to Russia, and as U.S. Senator after. He also served as U.S. Secretary of State in President James K. Polk's cabinet, and went on to become the fifteenth President of the United States. During his tour in St. Petersburg, a new trade and maritime treaty was signed between Russia and the United States.

William Wilkins was first president of the Bank of Pittsburgh, a U.S. District Court Judge from Western Pennsylvania, and U.S. Representative and Senator from Pennsylvania. President Andrew Jackson appointed him to Russia. After leaving Russia he became Secretary of War under President Tyler, and later was major general of the Pennsylvania Home Guards.

1837-1860

1837 Pushkin killed in a duel
1846-48 Mexican-American War
1849 California Gold Rush
1851 St. Petersburg-Moscow railway
1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin published
1853-56 Crimean War
1855 Death of Nicholas I
1858 Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech

George Mifflin Dallas served as mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and U.S. District Attorney for Pennsylvania's Eastern District before becoming Senator from that state. As a Senator, he was a vocal advocate of annexing Texas to the United States. Appointed to Russia by President Martin Van Buren, he was recalled two years later at his own request. In 1844 he was elected Vice President of the United States under President James K. Polk. Dallas counties in Texas, Missouri, Iowa, and Arkansas are named after him, and a plaque in downtown Dallas, Texas attributes the name of the City to him.

Born in Washington, Beaufort Country, North Carolina, Churchill Caldom Cambreleng moved to New York in 1802 and served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1821 to 1839. After he was defeated for reelection to the 26th Congress, President Martin Van Buren appointed him as Minister to Russia.

Colonel Charles Stewart Todd, from Kentucky, served with the Kentucky Militia in the War of 1812 and with General William Henry Harrison in his victory over the Indian leader Tecumesh. He was named Secretary of State of the State of Kentucky in 1816 at the age of 25. In 1820, he became U.S. Minister to Colombia. In 1841 President John Tyler named him Minister to Russia.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll was a graduate of Yale College in 1808, where he studied Classics. After several years in Connecticut state politics, he served as U.S. Representative from Connecticut from 1825-33. He was appointed envoy to Russia by President Polk. He later served as Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut.

Arthur Pendleton Bagby was born in Louise County, Virginia, but adopted Alabama as his state of residency. He was active in Alabama state politics, becoming Governor and U.S. Senator from that state. Appointed to Russia by President James K. Polk, he served only four months as Minister.

A native of Tennessee, Neill Smith Brown was Governor of that state from 1847-49. He was nominated as Minister by President Zachary Taylor, but served under President Millard Fillmore. Brown's younger brother John Calvin Brown was a Confederate Army General during the Civil War. During Brown's tour of duty in St. Petersburg, Russia closed its outpost of Fort Ross in California.

Born in Hartford County, Connecticut, Thomas Henry Seymour served as Congressman from Connecticut's 1st District. During the Mexican-American War, he served in the U.S. Infantry first as Major, then Lieutenant Colonel. He was Governor of Connecticut before serving in Russia under President Franklin Pierce and President James Buchanan. During Seymour's tour in Russia, the U.S. and Russia signed an agreement of neutrality at sea. In 1855, a group of American volunteer doctors joined the Russian forces fighting in the Crimean War.

Francis Wilkinson Pickens was born on a plantation in South Carolina on the Toogoodoo River. From 1834-43 he served as a member of the House of Representatives. President James Buchanan appointed him to Russia. After returning from Russia, he was elected Governor of his state at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, John Appleton resided in Portland, Maine. He practiced law, was editor of the newspaper "Eastern Argus," chief clerk for the Navy Department and Department of State, U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Bolivia, and a member of the House of Representatives from Maine. Under President James Buchanan he served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for three years before his appointment to Russia.

1861-1874

1861 Emancipation of the serfs
1861-65 Civil War
1863 Emancipation Proclamation
1865 President Lincoln assassinated
1866 Moscow Conservatory founded
1867 Alaska sold to United States
1868 Impeachment trial of President Johnson
1869 War and Peace published

Cassius Marcellus Clay, a native of Kentucky and a graduate of Yale, became known as the most famous Southern emancipationist, freeing his own slaves and editing the only Southern antislavery newspaper. The given name of the boxer Muhammad Ali, also born in Kentucky, was Cassius Marcellus Clay, after the Ambassador. Clay volunteered and served as Captain in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. He was appointed to Russia by President Abraham Lincoln, but recalled after one year to receive the commission of Major General in the Union Army. In 1863 he returned as Minister to Russia with the mission of keeping Russia from intervening on the Southern side in the Civil War. In 1863, Russian naval squadrons visited San Francisco and New York, signaling Russian support for the Union cause. An American squadron commanded by Captain Fox visited St. Petersburg in 1865. In 1867, Clay played a key role in the purchase of Alaska.

Simon Cameron was elected U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania three times. Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Secretary of War, he fell out of favor early in the Civil War and was dispatched to Russia as U.S. Minister. In Russia, he served less than four months before being replaced by Cassius Clay.

Andrew Gregg Curtin served as Superintendent of Public Instruction and then Governor of Pennsylvania for six years. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Ambassador to Russia. After returning from St. Petersburg, Curtin was elected U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania for three terms. During Curtin's time as Minister in St. Petersburg, the young Grand Duke Alexander Alekseyevich, the future Czar Alexander III, visited the United States as an officer with a Russian naval squadron, the first official visit of a Romanov to the United States.

James Lawrence Orr was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina from 1849 to 1859 from South Carolina, and was Speaker of the House during his last term. A member of South Carolina's secession convention, he was a Confederate Senator, and served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After the war he was elected Governor of South Carolina. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Minister to Russia. He died of pneumonia in St. Petersburg less than two months after he arrived at Post.

Born in Winchester, New Hampshire, Marshall Jewell was Governor of Connecticut before President Ulysses S. Grant named him Minister to Russia. He left St. Petersburg after only seven months. After his Russian assignment, he was Postmaster General of the United States and Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

1875-1889

1876 Alexander G. Bell invents the telephone
1877-78 Russo-Turkish War
1880 Brothers Karamazov published
1881 Clara Barton founds American Red Cross
1881 Assassination of Alexander II
1883 Brooklyn Bridge opens

George Henry Boker was a graduate of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he studied law. Instead of practicing law, he chose to write poetry and verse dramas in classical form. He published several books of poems and plays and was a founder of the "Nassau Monthly" as well as the Union Club (now Union League of Philadelphia). He served as Minister to Turkey under President Ulysses S. Grant, before becoming Minister to Russia. He was recalled from Russia early in the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. During his tour to Russia, the future Czar Alexander III paid a second visit to America with a Russian naval squadron.

Born in Springfield, Vermont, Edwin Wallace Stoughton moved to New York when he was eighteen to study law. As a lawyer he was involved in several celebrated cases, including the patent trial of tire pioneer Charles Goodyear. In the disputed Presidential election of 1876, he served as counsel before the Electoral Commission for the eventual winner, Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes appointed Stoughton Minister to Russia, but the difficult St. Petersburg climate affected his health, and he departed after a year.

During the Civil War John Watson Foster served in the Union western armies of Ulysses S. Grant and William Sherman, beginning as a major and rising to the rank of general. In his second term, President Grant appointed Foster Minister to Mexico, where he served from 1873 to 1880. President Rutherford B. Hayes subsequently assigned him to Russia. He later became Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison.

William Henry Hunt was born in Charleston, South Carolina. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army. Before he was appointed to Russia by President Chester A. Arthur, he was Attorney General of the State of Louisiana, Judge of the U.S. Court of Claims, and U.S. Secretary of the Navy. He died at post in St. Petersburg during the winter in February 1884.

Born in Townshend, Vermont, Alphonso Taft graduated from Yale University and taught as a tutor there before studying law and beginning a practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. He later became a superior court judge. Late in the second term of President Ulysses S. Grant he served as Secretary of War, then Attorney General. He was appointed Minister to Russia by President Chester A. Arthur. Taft's son, William Howard Taft, became the President of the United States in 1909.

George Van Ness Lothrop was born in Easton, Connecticut, graduated from Brown University, and resided in Detroit, Michigan. He practiced law in Detroit before serving as Michigan state Attorney General. He was appointed Minister to Russia under President Grover Cleveland. During his service as Minister, the first extradition treaty was signed between Russia and the United States.

Before his appointment as Minister to Russia by President Grover Cleveland, Lambert Tree served as a Circuit court judge in Illinois, and as President Cleveland's Minister to Belgium. He served the shortest tour-less than one month-of all U.S. Ministers to Russia: after his presentation of credentials on January 4, 1889, he left post on February 2, 1889, not long before the inauguration of President Cleveland's successor, Benjamin Harrison, a Republican.

1890-1913

1891-05 Trans-Siberian Railway constructed
1898 Spanish-American War
1903 Wright Brothers' first airplane flight
1904-05 Russo-Japanese War
1905 Revolution: Bloody Sunday
1905 Theodore Roosevelt negotiates settlement in Russo-Japanese War
1906 First Duma established

A resident of Pennsylvania, Charles Emory Smith was born in Mansfield, Connecticut. He was appointed Minister to Russia by President Benjamin Harrison. Two administrations later, under President William McKinley, he served as U.S. Postmaster General. During his time as Minister, in 1891, the U.S. government offered Russia food assistance to deal with a serious famine.

Andrew Dickson White graduated from Yale University in 1853, and spent the next two years in Europe, including six months as an attache in the U.S. Embassy in St. Petersburg. Following a further year of studies in history at Yale, he became professor of history and English literature at the University of Michigan. In 1867, he became the first president of Cornell University, and held that post for nearly twenty years, contributing generously to the university from his own funds. The school of history and political science at Cornell was named after him. He served as Minister to Germany, and then was appointed Minister to Russia under President Benjamin Harrison, continuing into the term of President Grover Cleveland. During his time as Minister, Russia opened a pavillion at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Clifton Rodes Breckinridge served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He settled in Arkansas and engaged in cotton planting for thirteen years, before becoming a member of the House of Representatives from 1883 to 1894. He was appointed Minister to Russia by President Grover Cleveland. During his term the U.S. company Westinghouse received a concession to provide pneumatic brakes for the Russian railroads, the first U.S. company to establish itself in Russia.

Ethan Allen Hitchcock was born in Mobile, Alabama. He was appointed to Russia by President William McKinley, initially with the official title of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, before being promoted to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary-the first to have the official title of Ambassador to Russia. President McKinley recalled him to join his cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, where he served from 1899 to 1907 under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt.

Charlemagne Tower served as Minister to Austria-Hungary for President William McKinley before being transferred to Russia as Ambassador. Following his post in St. Petersburg, he served as Ambassador to Germany from 1902 to 1908 under President Theodore Roosevelt. He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, donating a large collection of 2,300 Russian books to the library, which forms the nucleus of Penn's Russian and East European collection.

Robert Sanderson McCormick was appointed Minister and then Ambassador to Austria-Hungary by President William McKinley. Under President Theodore Roosevelt he served first as Ambassador to Russia, and later to France. McCormick's son, Joseph Medill McCormick, served as both U.S. Representative and Senator to Illinois.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, George von Lengerke Meyer was active in Massachusetts state politics before serving as Ambassador to Italy from 1900 to 1905 under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. At the beginning of his second term, President Roosevelt moved him to Russia, and then recalled him two years later to make him U.S. Postmaster General. Meyer served as U.S. Secretary of the Navy for President William H. Taft from 1909-13. Meyer was Ambassador during the Russo-Japanese War and the widespread uprisings in Russia which followed. In September 1905 the United States negotiated the Portsmouth Treaty, which ended the war.

John Wallace Riddle served briefly as Minister to Romania and to Serbia in 1905, before being appointed Ambassador to Russia by President Theodore Roosevelt. He served as Ambassador to Argentina from 1921 to 1925 under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

From 1897 to 1899, under President William McKinley, William Woodville Rockhill served as Minister to Romania, Serbia, and Greece. He was Minister to China in 1905 under President Theodore Roosevelt. Besides his diplomatic career, Rockhill was also a scholar, explorer and author. After his assignment in China, he visited Tibet, befriending and advising the Dalai Lama. President William H. Taft appointed Rockhill Ambassador to Russia, and later to Turkey.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Curtis Guild, Jr., graduated from Harvard. During the Spanish-American War, he served as Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, and as Inspector General of Havana, Cuba. Returning to civilian life, he served as Lieutenant Governor, then Governor of the state of Massachusetts. Guild was appointed as Ambassador to Russia by President William H. Taft. During his time as Ambassador there was a crisis in Russian-American relations, when Congress abrogated the trade treaty of 1832 because of the Russian government refusal to allow the travel of Jewish U.S. citizens to Russia.

1914-1932

1914-18 First World War
1914 Panama Canal completed
1917 U.S. enters First World War
1917 October Revolution
1918 Murder of Tsar Nicholas II and family
1918 Wilson's Fourteen Points
1918-20 Civil War
1918 U.S. breaks relations with Russia

George T. Marye, a San Francisco banker, was appointed Ambassador to Russia by President Woodrow Wilson. Arriving in Petrograd 18 months after Ambassador Guild had left post, he tried without success to restore or renegotiate the 1832 trade treaty. He served during the first half of the First World War and witnessed the beginning of the end of the Romanov dynasty. In 1929, he published his journals under the title, Russia Observed: Nearing the End in Imperial Russia, containing observations of the Romanov family, Rasputin, and the Russian upper classes.

Born in Richmond, Kentucky, David Rowland Francis settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and eventually became Mayor of St. Louis, and then Governor of Missouri. He was U.S. Secretary of the Interior in President Grover Cleveland's cabinet. President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Ambassador to Russia. Francis was the last U.S. Ambassador to be received at the Russian Imperial Court, and the last to serve in St. Petersburg. Following the February Revolution (1917), Francis immediately extended the official U.S. recognition of the Russian Provisional Government-the first by any nation. The October Revolution (November 7, 1917), however, marked the end of normal relations between Russia and the United States. Francis moved the U.S. Embassy for several months to Vologda. The Bolshevik government was still unrecognized by the Wilson administration when Francis left Russia exactly one year later on November 7, 1918. The U.S. Embassy in Russia was closed on September 14, 1919. In 1921, Francis published a book about his experiences: Russia from the American Embassy, April 1916 - November 1918.

1933-1949

1933 Franklin Roosevelt elected President; US recognizes USSR; "New Deal"
1934 Kirov assassinated; purges begin
1939 Nazi-Soviet nonagression pact
1941 Germany invades Russia
1941 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
1945 Russian forces take Berlin
1945 US drops atomic bombs on Japan
1949 USSR tests atomic bomb
1949 NATO established

Bullitt was the first Ambassador to the Soviet Union following its formal recognition by the U.S. in 1933. Born in Philadelphia, William Christian Bullitt learned French and German traveling abroad before graduating from Yale in 1912. He was named Assistant Secretary of State by President Wilson in 1917, and served on Wilson's staff at the Paris Peace Conference. In March 1919 he led a secret delegation to the Soviet Union, and met with Lenin. Two months later, he resigned from the State Department in protest over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. After leaving government, he divorced and remarried Louisa Bryant, the widow of John Reed, author of Ten Days That Shook the World. The couple divorced in 1930. Bullitt also co-authored with Sigmund Freud a psychological study of President Woodrow Wilson. In 1933, having worked on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's successful election campaign, Bullitt was appointed special assistant to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. In November 1933 his negotiations with Soviet diplomats led to formal recognition by the United States, and Bullitt was appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Bullitt negotiated the first U.S.-Soviet trade agreement in 1935. In Moscow, he chose Spaso House as the ambassador's residence, and his parties there became legendary. One memorable party was described in Bulgakov's novel, "Master and Margarita." Despite cordial relations with Stalin and other Soviet leaders, he reported back to Washington on the darker side of Stalin's regime. Resigning his position in 1936, he was appointed Ambassador to France by President Roosevelt, where he served until the Nazi occupation in 1940.

Born in Watertown, Wisconsin, Joseph Edward Davies resided and practiced law in Washington, D.C. During President Woodrow Wilson's administration, he was Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission for two years. In 1919, he was economic adviser to President Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference. In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Davies Ambassador to the Soviet Union, where he remained for two years. He served during a period of tension in Europe and the Soviet Union, during the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Nazi Germany, and the great purge trials in Moscow. In 1938, he was named Ambassador to Belgium, and served there until World War II broke out. During the war he was an assistant to Secretary of State Hull, and then Chairman of the President's War Relief Control Board. Between 1936 and 1955, Davies was married to Marjorie Merriweather Post, sole heir to the Postum Cereal Company, which became the General Foods Corporation. Post, a serious fine and decorative arts collector, acquired many pieces in Russia, at a time when church and imperial family treasures were being sold by the Soviet authorities. These pieces eventually filled one of her residences, which is today the Hillwood Museum in Washington D.C.

A native of New York City, Laurence Adolph Steinhardt served in the U.S. Army during the First World War. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he served first as Minister to Sweden, then Ambassador to Peru, before being appointed to the Soviet Union less than six months before the start of the Second World War. The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 prompted the evacuation east to Kuybyshev (today Samara) of foreign embassies. Steinhardt departed for Kuybyshev in late 1941, leaving Second Secretary Llewellyn E. Thompson in Moscow with a skeleton staff. After leaving Russia, Steinhardt served the remainder of the war as Ambassador to Turkey. Later President Truman appointed him Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and then Ambassador to Canada, where he died in a plane crash. Steinhardt served during a difficult period, during the time of the Hitler-Stalin pact, the German-Soviet division of Poland, the fall of France, and the lead-up to the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941, when the United States was still formally neutral but quietly aided Great Britain. In June of 1941, immediately after the German attack, President Roosevelt promised military aid to the Soviet Union.

Born in Ukiah, California, William Harrison Standley was a schoolteacher before beginning a long naval career. He graduated from Annapolis in 1891, served as Commandant of Midshipmen at Annapolis, captain of the battleships "Virginia" and "California," and eventually achieved the rank of full Admiral and the post of Chief Naval Operations. He retired from the Navy in 1937, but was called back to active duty in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, President Roosevelt named Standley Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He presented his credentials on April 14, 1942. Under Standley, large amounts of U.S. military aid began to arrive in Russia to help in the fight against the Nazis. A U.S. guided missile cruiser, a California State Park featuring redwoods, and a secondary school all bear Admiral Standley's name.

A native of New York City, Harriman was the son of the President of the Union Pacific Railroad, E. H. Harriman, and became Chairman of the Railroad in 1932. When the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt named Harriman the chief overseas administrator of Lend-Lease aid to Great Britain. In 1943, Roosevelt named Harriman Ambassador to the Soviet Union. After his service in Moscow, Harriman was briefly Ambassador to Britain, U.S. administrator overseas of the Marshall Plan, and National Security Advisor to President Truman. In 1954, he was elected Governor of New York, and served one term. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him Special Ambassador-at-large. He played a key role in negotiating the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. President Johnson appointed him Ambassador-at-Large in 1965, and made him the U.S. negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks with North Vietnam. During the Russian tour of Ambassador Harriman, massive U.S. assistance was sent to the Soviet Union to aid in the fight against Nazi Germany. During his tour, President Roosevelt met with Stalin at Teheran and Yalta, and President Truman met with Stalin at Potsdam. In June 1945, the first UN Conference was held in San Francisco, with Soviet participation. In August 1945, General Eisenhower came to join Marshal Zhukov to celebrate the defeat of Hitler's Germany and Japan. Signs of strain began to appear between the U.S. over the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. In March 1946, two months after Harriman left Moscow, Winston Churchill proclaimed that an "Iron Curtain" had fallen between the West and the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, marking the beginning of the Cold War.

Walter Bedell ("Beetle") Smith, a career soldier, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and served as second lieutenant in the First World War. During World War II, he was General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, reaching the rank of lieutenant general by 1943. As General Eisenhower's, representative, he negotiated and signed the terms of surrender with Italy in 1943, and Germany in 1945. After the war, President Harry S. Truman appointed Smith as Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Smith later served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Truman from 1950 to 1953. During Smith's tour in Moscow, Soviet-backed governments were installed in Eastern Europe, and tensions mounted between the United States and the USSR.

1950-1973

1950-53 Korean War
1953 Death of Stalin
1955 Warsaw Pact established
1961 Yuriy Gagarin first man in space
1963 Assassination of President Kennedy
1964 Civil Rights Act
1964 Nikita Khrushchev ousted
1972 SALT Treaty signed
1968 Growing protests against Vietnam War
1969 US astronauts land on moon

A career Naval Officer, Alan Goodrich Kirk graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1909, served in the First World War, was Naval Attache in London from 1939-1941, and commanded naval amphibious groups during the invasions of Sicily and Normandy. He retired from the Navy as a full admiral in 1946. President Truman named him Ambassador to Belgium, and then sent him to Moscow when Ambassador Walter Smith fell ill. A decade later in 1962, he was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of China, Taiwan. Ambassador Kirk served in Moscow during the second term of President Truman, when North Korea invaded South Korea, the Soviet Government blockaded Berlin, and the two nations settled into the icy confrontation of the Cold War.

George Frost Kennan served a very short tour of Ambassador - less than a year - but his ideas, particularly the doctrine of "containment," had a powerful influence on future U.S.-Soviet relations. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he graduated from Princeton University in 1925 with a degree in History, and entered the Foreign Service the following year. In 1933, he was an aide to Ambassador Bullitt in Moscow when the Embassy opened there. From 1944 to 1946, he was Minister Counselor in Moscow, and Charge d'Affaires after Ambassador Harriman left post in January 1946. In February 1946, he wrote his famous "Long Telegram," calling for a policy of containment of Soviet expansion. In 1947, he became Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, and then adviser to Secretary of State Dean Acheson. President Truman named him Ambassador to Moscow, and he presented his credentials on May 14, 1952. While he was out of the country in October 1952, Kennan was declared persona non grata by the Soviet Government for remarks critical of Stalin, and he did not return. He retired from the Foreign Service the following year, and became a Professor at Princeton, where he wrote many influential books about Russian-American relations and foreign policy.

Charles Eustis ("Chip") Bohlen was born in Clayton, New York, and joined the Foreign Service in 1929. He was among the first American diplomats in Moscow in 1933 after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR. As a specialist in Soviet affairs, he was Russian interpreter for President Roosevelt at the Teheran and Yalta conferences, and for President Truman at Potsdam. He was named Ambassador to Moscow by President Dwight Eisenhower, and arrived soon after Stalin's death. As a result of policy differences with Secretary of State John F. Dulles, he was transferred to the Philippines as Ambassador in 1957. In October 1962, he served briefly a member of President John F. Kennedy's Executive Committee (ExComm) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He later became U.S. Ambassador to France. Bohlen was present in Moscow at the time of the denunciation of Stalin's "cult of personality" by Khrushchev, and Soviet invasion of Hungary.

Llewellyn E. ("Tommy") Thompson Jr. served a total of seven years in Moscow in two separate tours under three Presidents; Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. The son of a Colorado rancher, he joined the Foreign Service in 1928 and served his first tour in Moscow during World War II, staying in the city while the Embassy was evacuated to Kuybyshev. Few Ambassadors to Moscow faced as many crises as Thompson - the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Sverdlovsk; a confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet Union over Berlin; the building of the Berlin Wall; difficult summits between Khruschev and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy; the August 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia; and tensions over the Vietnam War. In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Thompson, as an Ambassador-at-Large in Washington, was a member of President John F. Kennedy's Executive Committee (ExComm), advising the President. There were also steps toward better relations, particularly during Thompson's second tour. At Thompson's suggestion, Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the U.S. in 1959. Thompson helped arrange the 1967 meeting in U.S. between President Johnson and Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey, after the Six-Day War in the Middle East. In 1967, the Soviet Union and U.S. agreed to begin cooperation in space, with the joint Soyuz-Apollo program. The first treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was signed on July 1, 1968. Thompson's wife, Jane Monroe Goelet, an artist, originated the State Department's Art in Embassies Program at Spaso House.

Foy Kohler's thirty-five year diplomatic career took him to eleven countries on five continents, including Canada, Romania, Egypt, Vietnam, and Bolivia, before President Kennedy sent him to Moscow in 1962. Kohler presented his credentials September 27, 1962, just days before the most serious crisis in Soviet-American relations began, over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba. In 1963, in response to the crisis, a "hot-line" direct telephone link was established between Washington and Moscow. Nikita Khruschev was removed from his leadership posts in 1964 and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. In 1966 the U.S. and Soviet Union signed an agreement on nuclear testing, the beginning of a long series of arms-control agreements that marked the last phase of the Cold War.

The son of a German language Professor at Princeton University, Jacob Dyneley Beam began his foreign service career in 1931, serving in Geneva, in Berlin from 1934 to 1940, in London during World War II, and as a political advisor in occupied Germany after the War. From late 1952 to spring 1953, when Ambassador George F. Kennan was declared persona non grata by the Soviet government, Beam was briefly acting head at the Embassy in Moscow, and represented the U.S. at Stalin's funeral, where he was placed last in line. He served as Ambassador to Poland under President Eisenhower, and was Ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the Soviet invasion of that country in August 1968. After retiring from the Foreign Service, Beam worked as director of Radio Free Europe from 1974 to 1977. During his tour in Moscow, despite the Vietnam War, a notable improvement in Russian-American relations took place. In 1972, President Nixon became the first U.S. President in office to visit Moscow. In 1973, Pepsi-Co became the first U.S. company in decades to begin business in Russia.

1974-1996

1974 President Nixon resigns over Watergate scandal
1975 Helsinki Agreements signed
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1980 Moscow Summer Olympics
1981 Death of Leonid Brezhnev
1985 M. Gorbachev becomes General Secretary
1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes
1991 US-led "Desert Storm" operation against Iraq
1991 August coup; dissolution of USSR
1992 Presidents Bush, Yeltsin declare Cold War is over

Ambassador Stoessel presided over a continuing improvement in Soviet-American relations during President Nixon's second term. Stoessel, the son of a U.S. Army Calvary officer, joined the Foreign Service in 1942, and served in Venezuela, Paris, Washington, and two tours in Moscow. President Johnson named him Ambassador to Poland in 1968. When President Nixon began his second term, he named Stoessel to the Moscow Embassy. After serving in Moscow, he became Ambassador to West Germany, and Deputy Secretary of State under President Reagan. During his time in Moscow a series of meetings between President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev led to reduced tensions and progress in reducing strategic weapons. In 1973, the U.S. opened a Consulate in Leningrad, and Russia opened a Consulate in San Francisco. The U.S. also began major grain exports to Russia. In 1974 the U.S. Congress passed the Jackson-Vannick Amendment, linking expanded trade with Russia with progress toward easier emigration from Russia.

Malcolm Toon was a career diplomat, who served as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1969, just after the Soviet invasion, as Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and Ambassador to Israel. In 1976 President Ford moved Toon to Moscow, where he continued to serve under President Jimmy Carter. During his tour, a series of meetings between President Carter and General Secretary Brezhnev led to further progress on arms control. After retirement from the Foreign Service, Toon chaired the U.S. delegation of the United States-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA Affairs, which concluded that no American POWs from earlier wars were being held in Russia.

Thomas J. Watson, Jr. was the son of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). During the Second World War, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a B-24 pilot, and flew lend-lease planes to the Red Army in Siberia. He was elected president of IBM in 1952, chief executive officer in 1956, and chairman of the board in 1961. Under Watson's leadership, IBM grew from a medium-sized business into one of the world's dozen largest industrial corporations, with over 270,000 employees, and a gross revenue of $8.3 billion (1971). In 1971, after suffering a heart attack, Watson stepped down as chairman and CEO, but continued to serve as chairman of the executive committee. He was named Ambassador to the USSR by President Carter in 1979. Watson's tour in Moscow coincided with a difficult period in Soviet-American relations. He served during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Brown University's Institute for International Studies is named after Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

Arthur Hartman was born in New York and graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. During World War II, he served in the United States Army Air Corps. A career diplomat, he entered the Foreign Service in 1954, serving in Saigon, London, Brussels and Washington. He was Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1974-77) and Ambassador to France (1977) before being named by President Reagan to the Moscow Embassy. Hartman was Ambassador at the time of the death of three Soviet leaders (Brezhnev, Chernenko and Andropov) and witnessed the beginning of the era of Mikhail Gorbachev and Glasnost. Russian-American relations were still tense, with confrontations over strategic arms and the installation of medium-range missiles in Europe.

Jack Matlock was a career diplomat, Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and Russia specialist, serving three tours in Moscow and working as the head of the Russia Desk at the State Department and as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Reagan. He advised President Reagan on Russian affairs and prepared him for his summits with Mikhail Gorbachev. He served in Moscow during the turbulent period of Glasnost and the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and participated in the negotiation of many important arms control treaties. In June 1991 he warned Gorbachev of an impending coup, but his warning was not heeded. He departed Moscow just before the coup that led to the downfall of Gorbachev and the arrival of President Yeltsin and the Russian Federation.

Robert Strauss was the last U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union and the first U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. Born in West Texas, he was a Special Agent of the FBI before starting his own law firm in 1946. Strauss was very active in Democratic Party affairs, serving as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and chairman of President Carter's election campaigns, and as Carter's Special Trade Representative. Though Strauss was a prominent Democrat, President Bush named him U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He came to Moscow just days after the failed 1991 coup, and witnessed the last days of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Presidency of Boris Yeltsin. In 1992, Congress passed the Freedom Support Act, a program of exchanges and aid designed to help build new democratic institutions and a free market in Russia, along with funding for major programs of student exchanges. The U.S. also opened a new Consulate in Vladivostok.

A career diplomat, Thomas Pickering was a special assistant to Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and William Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Kingdom of Jordan, and Ambassador to the United Nations during the Gulf War, before being named to Moscow by President Clinton. During his period as Ambassador to the Russian Federation, U.S. exchange and assistance programs in Russia were greatly expanded.

1997- Current

James Collins, a career foreign service officer, had long experience in Russian affairs as a student and diplomat. He studied in Moscow (1965-66) and was an exchange scholar in the history faculty of Moscow State University. After joining the Foreign Service, he served twice in Moscow, first as Second Secretary (1973-75), then Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge D'Affaires (1990-93). He was Charge D'Affaires during the 1991 failed coup that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. He then served as Senior Coordinator and Ambassador at Large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States, before being named Ambassador by President Clinton. Collins was Ambassador during a series of summits between President Clinton and President Yeltsin, and when President Vladimir Putin came to power. He opened the first American Corners in regional libraries across Russia.

Alexander Vershbow came to Moscow as a career diplomat with extensive experience in U.S.-Russian relations and European security affairs. He held a series of assignments since joining the Foreign Service in 1977, including postings to the U.S. Embassies in Moscow and London. During the USSR's last years, he was director of the State Department's Office of Soviet Union Affairs. From 1994 to 1997, Vershbow served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council. His first ambassadorial assignment took him to Brussels, Belgium, where he served from 1998 to 2001 as the U.S Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Vershbow took up his duties as Ambassador to the Russian Federation on July 19, 2001. He served in Moscow during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent Russian expression of solidarity with America in the struggle against terrorism.

A career diplomat specializing in both Russia and the Middle East, Bill Burns served two tours in Moscow. During his three years as Ambassador, the U.S. and Russia concluded an historic bilateral accord on Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, and their first ever bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. In 2007, the Embassy marked 200 years of Russian-American diplomatic relations with a series of cultural and public diplomacy events across Russia, including the largest exhibition of American art ever presented in Russia. Promoted in 2008 to the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the Foreign Service, Ambassador Burns went on from Moscow to become Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the highest career position in the Department of State. His previous posts included: Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs; Ambassador to Jordan; Special Assistant to Secretaries Christopher and Albright and Executive Secretary of the Department; Acting Director of the Policy Planning Staff; and Senior Director at the National Security Council staff.