Russia–Switzerland relations
Encyclopedia
Russia–Switzerland relations are foreign relations between Russia
and Switzerland
. Switzerland opened a consulate in Saint Petersburg
in 1816, upgrading it to a legation 90 years later. The two countries broke off diplomatic relations in 1923, when Russia was going through a period of revolutionary turmoil – and they were not resumed until 1946. Russia has an embassy in Bern and a Consulate-General in Geneva
. Switzerland has an embassy in Moscow
and since 2006, a Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg
.
Contacts of some consequence between the Swiss and the Russians started as early as the 17th century, when a twenty-year old Swiss soldier François (Franz) Lefort
came to Moscow in 1675 to serve the Romanov Dynasty, and soon reached a position of prominence. Although
Czar Peter I
was crowned while still a child (1682), it was Peter's sister Sophia
, and later his mother Nataliya Naryshkina, and their boyar
relatives, who were running the country for over a decade after - leaving young Peter with plenty of time to dream of how to change his country when he has real power. Lefort happened to be one of the people who greatly influenced the young Czar's world view, and, once Peter became fully in charge of the country, the Swiss soldier became one of his top advisers and became highly influential during the first several years of Peter's modernization campaign.
Even though Lefort died fairly early in Peter's reign (1699), quite a few other Swiss soldiers, adventurers, educators, and scholars made a contribution in the history of Russian Empire
. The Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini
was the general manager of the construction of Saint Petersburg
until 1712, and is credited with the creation of Petrine Baroque
, characteristic of that city's early architecture. The mathematician Leonhard Euler
and five members of the Bernoulli family became members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Science. A century after Lefort, Frédéric-César de La Harpe
was influential in the upbringing of the future Czar Alexander I
.
The first large-scale appearance of Russians in Switzerland dates to the early years of the Napoleonic Wars
, when Suvorov
's army fought back and forth
across Switzerland and northern Italy in 1799-1800. While the results of these campaigns were inconclusive, they earned Suvorov the rank of Generalissimo
, and became (in particular, the retreat over Panix Pass
) a favorite topic for Russian painters.
To reciprocate, around 8,000 Swiss men joined Napoleon's army that invaded Russia
in 1812. Only a few hundreds survived the disastrous campaign. The heroism of the Swiss at Berezina
is immortalized in the Beresinalied
.
In the 19th century Switzerland became a popular refuge with Russian anti-Czar émigrés, due to its culture of freedom, absence of a particularly close relationship between the Swiss republican government and that of Imperial Russia, and on occasions, its neutrality is wars as well. The list of Russian exiles who found shelter in Switzerland runs from Alexander Herzen
, who became Swiss citizen in 1851, to Vladimir Lenin
, who stayed in Switzerland during World War I
, and was only able to leave the country in 1917 thanks to the famous "sealed train".
The same reasons, as well as greater gender equality
in academia, made the country a magnet for Russian students, both male, and, even more, female. The number of Russian students in Switzerland peaked in 1906-07, just after the defeat of the Russian Revolution in 1905, when 36% of all university students in Switzerland were Russians (2,322 out of the total of 6,444). Not only the majority of all foreign students enrolled in Swiss universities that year (there were 3,784 of them) had come from Russia, but, even more interestingly, over two thirds of these Russian students (1,507 of 2,322) were female mostly because of the russian educational qualification for the jewish population.
, the number of Russian visitors and migrants to Western Europe increased significantly, compared to the Soviet period. However, for most of them Switzerland remained somewhat of a flyover country
on the way to the more popular Mediterranean destinations.
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Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Switzerland opened a consulate in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in 1816, upgrading it to a legation 90 years later. The two countries broke off diplomatic relations in 1923, when Russia was going through a period of revolutionary turmoil – and they were not resumed until 1946. Russia has an embassy in Bern and a Consulate-General in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. Switzerland has an embassy in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and since 2006, a Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
.
Czarist Russia and Switzerland
Franz Lefort
Franz Lefort was a Russian military figure of Swiss origin, general admiral , and close associate of Peter the Great....
came to Moscow in 1675 to serve the Romanov Dynasty, and soon reached a position of prominence. Although
Czar Peter I
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
was crowned while still a child (1682), it was Peter's sister Sophia
Sophia Alekseyevna
Sophia Alekseyevna was a regent of Russian Tsardom who allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Galitzine, to install herself as a regent during the minority of her brothers, Peter the Great and Ivan V...
, and later his mother Nataliya Naryshkina, and their boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
relatives, who were running the country for over a decade after - leaving young Peter with plenty of time to dream of how to change his country when he has real power. Lefort happened to be one of the people who greatly influenced the young Czar's world view, and, once Peter became fully in charge of the country, the Swiss soldier became one of his top advisers and became highly influential during the first several years of Peter's modernization campaign.
Even though Lefort died fairly early in Peter's reign (1699), quite a few other Swiss soldiers, adventurers, educators, and scholars made a contribution in the history of Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. The Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini
Domenico Trezzini
Domenico Trezzini was a Swiss Italian architect who elaborated the Petrine Baroque style of Russian architecture.Domenico was born in Astano, near Lugano, in the Italian-speaking Ticino . He probably studied in Rome...
was the general manager of the construction of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
until 1712, and is credited with the creation of Petrine Baroque
Petrine Baroque
Petrine Baroque is a name applied by art historians to a style of Baroque architecture and decoration favoured by Peter the Great and employed to design buildings in the newly-founded Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, under this monarch and his immediate successors.Unlike contemporaneous Naryshkin...
, characteristic of that city's early architecture. The mathematician Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
and five members of the Bernoulli family became members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Science. A century after Lefort, Frédéric-César de La Harpe
Frédéric-César de La Harpe
Frédéric-César de La Harpe was a Swiss political leader and Vaudois patriot, who played a leading role in the creation of the Helvetic Republic.-Biography:...
was influential in the upbringing of the future Czar Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
.
The first large-scale appearance of Russians in Switzerland dates to the early years of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, when Suvorov
Alexander Suvorov
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov , Count Suvorov of Rymnik, Prince in Italy, Count of the Holy Roman Empire , was the fourth and last generalissimo of the Russian Empire.One of the few great generals in history who never lost a battle along with the likes of Alexander...
's army fought back and forth
Suvorov's Italian and Swiss expedition
The Italian and Swiss expeditions of 1799 and 1800 were undertaken by the Russian commander Alexander Suvorov against French forces in Piedmont and Switzerland as part of the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars in general and the War of the Second Coalition in particular.-Italian...
across Switzerland and northern Italy in 1799-1800. While the results of these campaigns were inconclusive, they earned Suvorov the rank of Generalissimo
Generalissimo
Generalissimo and Generalissimus are military ranks of the highest degree, superior to Field Marshal and other five-star ranks.-Usage:...
, and became (in particular, the retreat over Panix Pass
Panix Pass
Panix Pass or Panixer Pass is a Swiss Alpine pass in the canton of Graubünden....
) a favorite topic for Russian painters.
To reciprocate, around 8,000 Swiss men joined Napoleon's army that invaded Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
in 1812. Only a few hundreds survived the disastrous campaign. The heroism of the Swiss at Berezina
Battle of Berezina
The Battle of Berezina took place November 26–29, 1812 between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina , and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a mixed outcome...
is immortalized in the Beresinalied
Beresinalied
The Beresinalied, originally known as Unser Leben gleicht der Reise is a Lied composed by Friedrich Wilke after the 1792 poem die Nachtreise by Ludwig Giseke....
.
Alexander Herzen
Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism...
, who became Swiss citizen in 1851, to Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, who stayed in Switzerland during World War I
Switzerland during the World Wars
During both World War I and World War II, Switzerland managed to keep a stance of armed neutrality, and was not involved militarily. However, precisely because of its neutral status, Switzerland was of considerable interest to all parties involved, as the scene for diplomacy, espionage, commerce,...
, and was only able to leave the country in 1917 thanks to the famous "sealed train".
The same reasons, as well as greater gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
in academia, made the country a magnet for Russian students, both male, and, even more, female. The number of Russian students in Switzerland peaked in 1906-07, just after the defeat of the Russian Revolution in 1905, when 36% of all university students in Switzerland were Russians (2,322 out of the total of 6,444). Not only the majority of all foreign students enrolled in Swiss universities that year (there were 3,784 of them) had come from Russia, but, even more interestingly, over two thirds of these Russian students (1,507 of 2,322) were female mostly because of the russian educational qualification for the jewish population.
Modern Russia and Switzerland
After the dissolution of the Soviet UnionDissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, the number of Russian visitors and migrants to Western Europe increased significantly, compared to the Soviet period. However, for most of them Switzerland remained somewhat of a flyover country
Flyover country
Flyover country and flyover states are Americanisms describing the region of the United States between the East and the West Coasts. The terms, which are often used in a pejorative sense, refer to the regions of the country passed over during transcontinental flights – e.g., flights between the...
on the way to the more popular Mediterranean destinations.
See also
- Foreign relations of RussiaForeign relations of RussiaThe foreign relations of Russia is the policy of the Russian government by which it guides the interactions with other nations, their citizens and foreign organizations and sets standards of interaction for Russian organizations, corporations and individual citizens towards them...
- Foreign relations of SwitzerlandForeign relations of SwitzerlandThe foreign relations of Switzerland are the primary responsibility of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs . Some international relations of Switzerland are handled by other departments of the federal administration of Switzerland.-History:...
- Swiss emigration to RussiaSwiss emigration to RussiaThere was significant emigration of Swiss people to the Russian Empire from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Rauber estimates that a number of 50,000 to 60,000 Swiss lived in Russia between roughly 1700 and 1917...
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