U.S. Representation in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg was the site of the original U.S. Mission to Russia, established in 1780, with Frances Dana as the Minister-designate. In the three years Mr. Dana was in St. Petersburg, he never had an opportunity to present his credentials. The first true "Minister Plenipotentiary" of the United States in St. Petersburg, therefore, was John Quincy Adams, who presented his credentials to the Tsar Alexander I on the 5 of November, 1809.

Minister Adams served almost five years in St. Petersburg during the Napoleonic Wars. He left St. Petersburg because, as he wrote to President James Madison, he could not afford the job-related expenses. John Quincy Adams would later become the Sixth President of the United States.

Another future President of the United States, James Buchanan, served as "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary" from 1832-1833.

Ambassador David R. Francis departed Russia on November 7,1918, leaving Felix Cole to serve as Charge d'Affaires ad interim until the U.S. Embassy in Russia closed on September 14, 1919. By then the capital had been moved from Petrograd (the name was changed at the outbreak of the First World War) to Moscow, and the U.S. diplomatic presence in Peter's City disappeared for over half a century.

The U.S. Mission in Russia was not restored until 1933, when the U.S. Embassy was opened in Moscow, the capital of the USSR.

In Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) U.S. diplomatic presence was reestablished later, in 1972, with the opening of the U.S. Consulate General on Furshtatskaya street, down the block from the former Embassy building. Now the Consulate is located in Furstatskaya Street, building 15.