Embassy of the United States Moscow, 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.