Throughout the 1930s, British elites were deeply divided: some saw Stalin as a lesser evil to Hitler; others, like Winston Churchill, despised communism but pragmatically noted the need for a second front against Nazism. The German invasion of the USSR in June 1941 forced Britain and Soviet Russia into a wartime marriage of convenience. Churchill famously declared: "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."
Interestingly, Ivan proposed marriage to Queen Elizabeth I’s relative, Lady Mary Hastings, and even offered himself as a political exile in England if his throne were usurped. Elizabeth politely declined. The relationship intensified under Peter the Great. During his Grand Embassy to Western Europe (1697–98), Peter spent three months in England—mostly in Deptford, where he famously trashed the house of writer John Evelyn while studying shipbuilding and astronomy. He met King William III and recruited hundreds of English sailors, engineers, and doctors for his new Russian navy. rus eng
Chancellor met Tsar Ivan IV ("the Terrible"), who was eager to bypass the Hanseatic League and Polish-Lithuanian rivals for trade. In 1555, England’s Muscovy Company was granted a monopoly on Anglo-Russian trade. Ivan granted the English their own courtyards in Kholmogory and Vologda, and later in Moscow itself. For decades, England supplied rope, saltpeter (for gunpowder), and luxury goods in exchange for Russian furs, wax, and tallow. Throughout the 1930s, British elites were deeply divided:
Tsarina Alexandra was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. King George V and Tsar Nicholas II were first cousins—they looked nearly identical. When Nicholas abdicated, Britain initially offered asylum, but George V—fearing revolutionary contagion and political backlash from Labour—withdrew the offer. Nicholas and his family were executed in 1918. This decision haunted the British monarchy for decades. Elizabeth politely declined
The annexation of Crimea (2014), the Skripal poisonings in Salisbury (2018), and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (2022) pushed Rus-Eng relations to a post-Cold War low. By 2023, the UK had sanctioned over 1,600 Russian individuals and entities, frozen Russian state assets, and supplied Ukraine with advanced weaponry—making Britain one of Ukraine’s most vocal military supporters. Conclusion: An Enduring, Fractious Dialogue From Richard Chancellor’s chance landing in 1553 to the expulsion of diplomats in the 2020s, the relationship between Russia (the heir to Rus') and England has been defined by mutual necessity and deep suspicion . They have been trading partners, wartime allies, imperial rivals, nuclear adversaries, and now economic enemies. No single label fits.
In a symbol of this thaw, Tsar Nicholas II (whose mother was Danish) and King Edward VII (whose mother was Danish as well) were cousins. In 1909, Edward made a landmark state visit to Russia—the first and last by a reigning British monarch to Imperial Russia. The Russian Revolution of 1917 shattered everything.
The relationship between the peoples of Russia (historically referred to as Rus') and England is one of the oldest continuous diplomatic threads in European history. Spanning over 450 years of official contact—and unofficial trade long before that—the "Rus-Eng" dynamic has weathered everything from Tsarist autocracy and revolutionary upheaval to wartime alliance and Cold War hostility. Part 1: The Tudor Beginnings (1553–1598) The formal relationship began not with ambassadors, but with a search for gold and a frozen corpse.