Russia and Serbia maintain diplomatic relations established in 1816 between the Russian Empire and the Principality of Serbia. The Soviet Union maintained relations with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until the dissolution and breakup of both countries in 1991. Russia (as the sole successor of the Soviet Union) established relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) of which Serbia is considered the sole successor.
The two nations are close geopolitical and military allies with their historical alliance spanning centuries. Through their shared Slavic heritage and Eastern Orthodox Christian faith, they support diverse bilateral cultural traditions. Economic activity between Russia and Serbia is maintained through regional free trade agreements and foreign investment.
History Middle Ages After the Ottoman invasion of Serbia in the 14th century, Serbian refugees found refuge in Russia. Lazar the Serb and Pachomius the Serb were some of the notable Serbs in Russian medieval history. Elena Glinskaya, the mother of Russian emperor Ivan the Terrible, was maternally Serb. The Orthodox worship of Saint Sava was established in Russia in the 16th century.
18th century
In the 1750s, in a re-settlement initiated by Austrian Colonel Ivan Horvat, a vast number of Orthodox Serbs, mostly from territories controlled by the Habsburg monarchy (the Serbian Grenzers), settled in Russia's military frontier region of New Serbia (with the centre in Novomyrhorod, mainly in the territory of the present-day Kirovohrad Oblast of Ukraine), as well as in Slavo-Serbia (now mainly the territory of the contested Luhansk Oblast). In 1764, both territorial entities were incorporated into Russia's Novorossiya Governorate.
19th century After the Ottoman Empire had allied itself with Napoleon in 1806 and was subsequently attacked by Russia and Great Britain, it sought to meet the demands of the Serbian rebels under Karađorđe. Konstantin Rodofinikin initially proposed that Serbia become a protectorate of the Russian Empire and that Russian garrisons be stationed in Serbia, as well as a high representative, which would oversee the affairs in the country. Karađorđe refused the proposition, claiming that it would turn Serbia into a Russian province. At the same time, the Russians offered the Serbs aid and cooperation. The Serbs accepted the Russians′ offer over autonomy under the Ottomans (as set by the "Ičko's Peace") and signed an alliance with the Russian Empire in 1807. Karađorđe was to receive arms and military and medical missions; nevertheless, the terms of the Russo-Turkish settlement agreed in 1812 effectively provided for Turkish re-occupation of Serbia, and the First Serbian Uprising was definitively suppressed in 1813. The Second Serbian Uprising achieved Serbian autonomy within the Ottoman Empire, which was internationally recognized through the Russo-Turkish Akkerman Convention and the Treaty of Adrianople. Serbia was thus put under Russian protection, although Russia was unable to exert control as it did in Wallachia and Moldavia, territories also dealt with at the Akkerman Convention. Serbian autonomy was briefly abolished by the Ottoman sultan in 1828, then re-granted in 1829. Russian protection was recognized until its abolition thereof in 1856, after the Russian defeat in the Crimean War. In 1838, then Prince of Serbia Miloš Obrenović received the first Russian consul, Gerasim Vashchenko.Србија и Русија – 180 година пријатељства, поверења и сарадње Politika, 20 February 2018 (print edition of 21 Feb 2018, p. 1.)
In 1876, Serbia, along with the Principality of Montenegro, declared independence and war on the Ottoman Empire. The war eventually ended with Serbian victory in 1878, while Russia had been involved in its own war with Turkey, with the final settlement of both wars decided by the great powers at the Congress of Berlin. The Treaty of Berlin, whose deliberations and decisions were greatly influenced by Austria-Hungary′s Gyula Andrássy, recognized Serbia's independence, yet left Serbia's ruling class disgruntled at Russia, which was seen as favoring the newly established Principality of Bulgaria at the expense of Serbia. In line with Andrássy's idea that Austria-Hungary, in order to neutralise inimical irredentist tendencies, should establish close legally binding ties with all her neighbors, with whom she had ethnic connections, Austria-Hungary, which bordered Serbia to the north in modern-day Serbian Vojvodina), and the west in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, sought to integrate Serbia economically by concluding a series of trade conventions with her and pressured Milan Obrenović to enter into a comprehensive bilateral political treaty.″Austro-ugarsko-srpska tajna konvencija g. 1881.″ // Hrvatska Enciklopedija, Zagreb: Naklada Konzorcija Hrvatske Enciklopedije (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), 1941, Vol. I, p. 784. In June 1881, Obrenović and Austria-Hungary concluded a secret convention that effectively turned Serbia into Austria-Hungary's client state. In turn, Russia in the 1880s intensified her courtship of Montenegro.
Serbia's People's Radical Party, founded by Nikola Pašić, gained parliament majority in 1891 and sought to free the country of Austro-Hungarian dependence. Serbia was defeated in the war with Bulgaria in 1885 and the Bulgarian unification was internationally recognized. Meanwhile, tensions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary grew. Serbian pretensions in creating a South Slavic state (Yugoslavism as opposed to Austro-Slavism) put fear in Austria-Hungary of the potential devastation of the Austro-Hungarian empire. On the other hand, Russia became increasingly disgruntled with Bulgaria, where the rulers of the German dynasties, Alexander of Battenberg and, from 1887, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria pursued policies that Russia opposed. The visit to Saint Petersburg of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and his conference with Nicholas II of Russia in 1897 brokered a secret agreement between the two empires to honor and seek to maintain the status quo in the Balkans, which was in line with Austria-Hungary's attempts to forestall an emergence of a large Slavic state in the region. The 1901 massacres of Serbs in Kosovo was instrumental in causing a diplomatic conflict between Austria-Hungary, which supported the Albanians, and Serbia, which was supported by Russia.
Serbian King Alexander I was assassinated in a coup d'état in 1903, which ushered in the end of the Obrenović dynasty and the return of the House of Karađorđević. The new political regime of Prime Minister Nikola Pašić under Peter I re-oriented Serbia towards Russia. Serbia was supported by Russia in the economic Pig War with Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908; Russia did not interfere in the Bosnian crisis.
World War I
One of the factors that led to the beginning of World War I was close bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Russian Empire. While Russia and Serbia were not formally allied, Russia openly sought political and religious influence in Serbia. In May 1914, Serbian politics were polarized between two factions, one headed by the prime minister Nikola Pašić, and the other by the radical nationalist chief of Military Intelligence, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, known by his codename Apis. In that month, due to Colonel Dimitrijević's intrigues, Peter I dismissed Pašić's government, but the Russian Minister in Belgrade intervened to have Pašić's government restored. Pašić, though he often talked in public, knew that Serbia was near-bankrupt and, having suffered heavy casualties in the Balkan Wars and in the suppression of an Albanian revolt in Kosovo, needed peace in that moment of time. Since Russia also favoured peace in the Balkans, from the Russian viewpoint, it was desirable to keep Pašić in power. However, the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia during the July Crisis. Russia mobilized its armed forces in late July ostensibly to defend Serbia, but also to maintain its status as a great power, gain influence in the Balkans and deter Austria-Hungary and the German Empire. This led Germany to declare war on Russia, ultimately turning the local conflict into World War I.
Interwar period
A few months after the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Russian Civil War ensued, in which a small number of mercenaries from Serbia fought for both the Russian Whites and the Bolsheviks. After the Civil War ended in 1922 in a Bolshevik victory, relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were frosty. It was not until 1940 that the Kingdom of Yugoslavia formally recognized the Soviet Union and established diplomatic relations, one of the last European countries to do so.Branko Petranović. Srpski narod u prvoj fazi drugog svetskog rata 1939-1941. // SRBIJA U DRUGOM SVETSKOM RATU, p. 39.
Since 1920, the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia welcomed tens of thousands of anti-Bolshevik Russian refugees, mainly those who fled after the final defeat of the Russian Army under General Pyotr Wrangel in Crimea in 1920, explaining its hospitality by presenting it as paying back the debt Serbia owed Russia for its intervention on the side of Serbia at the outbreak of World War I. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia became home for 40,000 exiles loyal to the late Russian Empire.Мирослав Јовановић. Руска емиграција на Балкану (1920-1940), Београд, 2006, pp. 183-190 In 1921, at the invitation of the Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije, the leadership of the Russian Church in exile moved from Constantinople to Serbia and in 1922 in Sremski Karlovci established a de facto independent ecclesiastical administration that a few years later, was instituted as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The exiled Russian clergy's devotion and dedication to the Church was held up as an example by the church people in Serbia.″Прихваћен позив патријарха Димитрија: Из тајних архива УДБЕ: РУСКА ЕМИГРАЦИЈА У ЈУГОСЛАВИЈИ 1918–1941.″ // Politika, 21 December 2017, p. 25. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia's Head Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky was widely viewed as a spiritual leader of all the Russian émigrés until his death in 1936.Радован М. Пилиповић. СРПСКА ПРАВОСЛАВНА ЦРКВА, РУСКА ПРАВОСЛАВНА ЗАГРАНИЧНА ЦРКВА, МОСКОВСКА ПАТРИЈАРШИЈА (1920-1940) – УЗАЈАМНЕ ВЕЗЕ, УТИЦАЈИ И ОДНОСИ // ″1. 1. 1. Митрополит Антоније Храповицки″, Belgrade, 2017, pp. 39–41. Serbian Patriarch Varnava came to be a staunch defender and advocate of the Russian exiles in Yugoslavia and exerted constant pressure on the Royal Court and government to forestall any rapprochement and establishment of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.″Велика улога патријарха Варнаве: Из тајних архива УДБЕ: РУСКА ЕМИГРАЦИЈА У ЈУГОСЛАВИЈИ 1918–1941.″ // Politika, 22 December 2017, p. 17. The Russian community in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was effectively in a privileged position in a number of ways, as it enjoyed support and protection on the part of the ruling House of Karađorđević.Škiljan, Filip (2014). Rusi u Hrvatskoj [Russians in Croatia] (in Croatian). Zagreb: Savez Rusa u Republici Hrvatskoj. . p. 23.
The Russian military servicemen under the command of General Pyotr Wrangel were partly enlisted into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's Border Guard troops and deployed on the country's southeastern and northwestern borders.″Врангелове команде у Врању и Скопљу: Из тајних архива УДБЕ: РУСКА ЕМИГРАЦИЈА У ЈУГОСЛАВИЈИ 1918–1941.″ // Politika, 4 December 2017, p. 19. This service was terminated by a law passed in 1922 that abolished the Border Guard troops; in 1923–1924 Wrangel's men were engaged in a contract to build a road between Kraljevo and Raška.