The Republic of Poland Ambassador to Russia is the leader of the Poland delegation to Russia.
As with all Poland Ambassadors, the ambassador to Russia is nominated by the President of Poland and confirmed by the Parliamentary Commission of the Foreign Affairs. The ambassador serves at the pleasure of the president, and enjoys full diplomatic immunity.
Poland Embassy in Russia is located in Moscow. In addition there are Consulates General located in Irkutsk, Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg. There is also Consular Agency in Smolensk, which is responsible for looking after the Katyn massacre and Smolensk air disaster memorials.
History
Poland and Russia had exchanged diplomatic missions for centuries. The first ambassador in the modern meaning of this word, from Poland to Russia, was Antoni Augustyn Deboli, in late 18th century. After the period of partitions of Poland, in 1918, relations were established between the Second Polish Republic and Soviet Union. After Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 those relations were broken, to be briefly reestablished in 1941 after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, when the Soviet Union and Polish government in exile agreed to cooperate against their common enemy, Nazi Germany. Those relations were broken in 1943 after discovery of the Katyn massacre. From that point onward, Soviet Union created its own puppet Polish government, which had its "ambassadors" in the Soviet Union. In 1989 the People's Republic of Poland was transformed into the modern Poland; in 1991, Soviet Union was transformed into modern Russia.
List of ambassadors of Poland to Russia
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
1556 Stefan Zbaraski
1571 Michał Haraburda
1686 Krzysztof Grzymułtowski
1702 Krzysztof Białłozor
1704 Tomasz Działyński
1707–1709 Józef Tausz
1712 Marcin Wołłowicz i Michał Puzyna
1717–1718 Franciszek Poniński
1718 Lesiowski
1719–1720 Stanisław Chomętowski
1735 Ignacy Zawisza
1739–1743 Ignacy Ogiński
1762 Alojzy Fryderyk von Brühl
1763 Jan Jędrzej Borch
1764 Gerwazy Ludwik Oskierka
1764–1765 Franciszek Rzewuski
1765–1766 Jakub Psarski
1766–1767 Franciszek Rzewuski
1767–1772 Jakub Psarski (rezydent) 1771 Franciszek Ksawery Branicki 1767–1792 Antoni Augustyn Deboli (first ambassador in the modern meaning of this word)
Second Polish Republic
Note: Second Republic was created in 1918. Its ambassadors were sent to the newly created successor state of Russia, the Soviet Union. 1917–1918 Aleksander Lednicki (of the Regency Council) 1918–1919 Ludwik Darowski (j.w.) 1919–1920 Józef Targowski (Minister Pełnomocny i Wysoki Komisarz RP na Syberię) 1921 Tytus Filipowicz (Chargé d'Affaires) 1921–1923 Roman Knoll (Poseł) 1923–1924 Kazimierz Wyszyński (Chargé d'Affaires a.i.) 1924 Ludwik Darowski 1924–1925 Kazimierz Wyszyński (Chargé d'Affaires a.i.) 1925–1926 Stanisław Kętrzyński 1926–1932 Stanisław Patek 1932–1933 Henryk Sokolnicki (Chargé d'Affaires a.i.) 1933–1934 Juliusz Łukasiewicz 1934–1936 Juliusz Łukasiewicz (Ambasador) 1936–1939 Wacław Grzybowski
Polish government-in-exile
Note: Legal successor of the Second Polish Republic. 1941 Józef Retinger (Chargé d'Affaires) 1941–1942 Stanisław Kot 1942 Henryk Sokolnicki (Chargé d'Affaires a.i.) 1942–1943 Tadeusz Romer
People's Republic of Poland
Note: Officially, People's Republic of Poland is the name used since 1952. Unofficially, this name is used for all Polish communist governments since 1944. 1944 Stefan Jędrychowski 1945 Zygmunt Modzelewski 1945–1946 Henryk Raabe 1947–1950 Marian Naszkowski 1953–1957 Wacław Lewikowski 1957–1959 Tadeusz Gede 1959–1963 Bolesław Jaszczuk 1963–1964 Edmund Pszczółkowski 1968–1971 Jan Ptasiński 1971 Zenon Nowak 1978–1982 Kazimierz Olszewski 1982–1985 Stanisław Kociołek 1985–1989 Włodzimierz Natorf
Third Polish Republic
Note: modern Poland. 1989–1996 Stanisław Ciosek 1996–2002 Andrzej Załucki 2002–2005 Stefan Meller 2005–2006 Wiktor Ross (chargé d'affaires a.i.) 2006–2010 Jerzy Bahr 2010–2014 Wojciech Zajączkowski 2014–2016 Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz 2016–2020 Włodzimierz Marciniak since 2021 – Krzysztof Krajewski
See also
Ambassadors and envoys from Russia to Poland (1763–1794) Ambassadors and envoys from the Soviet Union to Poland Poland–Russia relations