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Author : A. Zaitsev
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Russian ambassador to the Republic of Iceland in
1998-2002, Candidate of Science (Economics);
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS between the USSR/Russia and the
Republic of Iceland have a long history, rich in important events and
facts. Many of them became known to the broad readership only
now from Russian and Icelandic archival documents (a significant
part of them have been published for the first time) in a special col-
lection prepared by the foreign ministries of the Russian Federation
and the Republic of Iceland.
The publication of this collection was timed to coincide with an im-
portant jubilee - namely, the 70th anniversary of the establishment
of direct diplomatic ties between our two countries. It happened on
October 4, 1943, at the height of World War II, before the inde-
pendence of the Republic of Iceland was proclaimed (June 17,
1944).
The process of the establishment of direct diplomatic relations between the USSR and Iceland
began in the middle of 1942 with contacts in London between Soviet Ambassador I.M. Maisky and
Icelandic Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Petur Benediktsson. The analysis of
the positions of the USSR and Iceland made through their mediation confirmed their mutual interest
in the establishment of direct diplomatic relations.
The situation of the government and the country at that time remained complex and uncertain.
The diplomatic recognition of Iceland by such an influential world power as the Soviet Union, one
of the first to immediately respond to the appeal from the newly independent republic at the height
of World War II, was highly appraised in Iceland as important and concrete support for the fledgling
Icelandic state.
In preparing to proclaim its independence, Iceland was highly interested in ensuring international
support for its future status, primarily on the part of the three world powers - the Soviet Union, the
United States and Great Britain, regarding them as a guarantee of the preservation of its state sov-
ereignty.
Moscow's move was perceived as the recognition of the role of Iceland, which had noticeably grown
with the outbreak of World War II.
Located at the junction of oceanic routes between the American continent and Europe, that island
state, by virtue of its special location, proved to be an object of an intensifying struggle for control
over the strategic sea communication lines in the Northern Atlantic between anti-Nazi coalition
and Nazi Germany.
In December 1955, the diplomatic missions in Moscow and Reykjavik were promoted to embassies.
New Pages in the History of Diplomatic Relations with Iceland