However, diplomacy as a foreign policy tool originated with the emergence of the early feudal Russian state with centers in Kiev and Veliky Novgorod. The first representative body of the interests of Russia was the embassy in Constantinople, which was opened in 838.
In 839, the Russian embassy was established in the Frankish Kingdom. One of the first international legal acts of Ancient Russia was the treaty "On Peace and Love" with the Byzantine Empire, according to which Constantinople was obliged to pay tribute to Kiev.
In the IX—XI centuries, the East Slavic tribes were constantly at war with their neighbors – Byzantium and nomadic southern peoples (Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy). The baptism of Russia in 988 was of great importance for the development of statehood (and, as a consequence, diplomacy). According to legend, Prince Vladimir made a choice in favor of Christianity after a conversation with foreign ambassadors.
In the XI century, Russia turned into an influential player in the European arena. The practice of dynastic marriages contributed to the expansion of contacts with the Western world. In 1019, Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev married the daughter of the King of Sweden Ingigerde.
Almost all the children of the Kiev prince became related to European aristocratic houses. Yaroslav's daughter Anna was given in marriage to the French king Henry I, Elizabeth – to the Norwegian King Harald the Harsh, Anastasia – to the King of Hungary Andras I.
Yaroslav's sons, at the insistence of their father, also found wives abroad. Iziaslav married the daughter of the Polish king Gertrude, Svyatoslav – the Austrian Princess Ode, Vsevolod – the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX.
The fundamental condition for the existence of diplomacy is a unified and independent State. The fragmented and dependent territories have no common tasks, there is no sovereign foreign policy, which means there is no need for intensive external contacts and defending interests from the outside. Therefore, with the collapse of united Russia, diplomacy could also disappear.
§2 Современная российская дипломатия: новые приоритеты3
Современная Россия сделала выбор в пользу внешней политики, ориентированной прежде всего на реализацию национальных интересов. Это придает ей черты исторической преемственности. Внешняя политика в том виде, в каком она сформировалась к началу XXI века, представляет собой сплав наследия Российской империи, Советского Союза и, конечно, тех новых подходов, которые были обусловлены коренными изменениями в последнее десятилетие.