Italy–Russia relations

Peter the Great and other Russian leaders looked to Italian cities for cultural models, especially in architecture and music. Italy for Russians has been the exemplar of the highest stages of culture, whether classical, Renaissance, or Baroque.2 For example, the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg was in part modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Classical Russian literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries was strongly influenced by Renaissance Italy.[5]

After the victory against Napoleon in 1815, Russia's challenged Austria's dominant position in northern Italy. Prince Klemens von Metternich successfully responded and Tsar Alexander I of Russia finally went along in 1819–20.[6]

"Petrushka" remains the most famous of the puppet shows in Russia. Italian puppeteers introduced it in the first third of the 19th century. While most core characters came from Italy, they were soon transformed by the addition of material from the Russian 'lubki' and 'intermedii.'[7]

Italian merchants flourished in Odessa in the 19th century. They helped develop commercial shipping in the Black Sea. They took an active role in the public and cultural life of the city and initiated projects for the improvement of business conditions in Odessa.[8]

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (ruled 1825–1855) was a major collector, patron and promoter of the arts. He favored Italian culture and imposed his tastes and aesthetic orientation on the works he bought for his personal art collection and for the ‘New Hermitage’ museum, which he inaugurated in 1852.[9]

In 1914, Italy refused to follow its official allies Germany and Austria into World War I. It negotiated for a better deal with the Allies, especially in terms of gaining territory from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, Russia had its own interest in that region, and complicated negotiations. However Russia's negotiating position was greatly weakened by its heavy military losses. London and Paris insisted and Russia, by April 1915, abandoned its support for most of Serbia's claims and accepted terms for Italy's entry into the war, which would limit the Russian strategic presence in the postwar Adriatic.[10]

The governments of Benito Mussolini's Italy and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union recognized each other as de jure governments of their respective countries and established diplomatic relations on 7 February 1924 (shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin). A preliminary trade agreement had been made on 26 December 1921, which one historian noted the pact "signified the de facto recognition of the Soviet Union" by Italy. [11] The two states signed a Treaty on Friendship, Non-Aggression and Neutrality on 2 September 1933, and although the treaty formally remained in effect until the Italian declaration of war against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, relations had already degraded with the advent of the Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War.[12]

Palmiro Togliatti was the longtime leader of the Communist Party in Italy, 1927–1964. He remained in Moscow when Mussolini's Fascist government arrested all the leading members of Italy's Communist Party. The Comintern, under Stalin's guidance, chose Togliatti as the party leader for Italy. He remained in Moscow but kept his Party solidly together. During World War II he directed the Italian Communist resistance, returning to Italy in 1944. Stalin did not permit the Italian Communist from making an effort to take over Italy in 1944–45. Togliatti kept in close touch with Moscow while becoming a major player in Italian politics. He was typically outmaneuvered by the Christian Democrats with their American allies.[13][14]

In 1936 the League of Nations imposed economic sanctions on Italy for its aggression in Ethiopia. The Soviet Union was in good standing with the League at the time, and generally applied the sanctions by sharply reducing trade with Italy.[15] In the late 1930s Hitler planned to gain 'Lebensraum' by invading the Soviet Union with support from Italy, co-operation with Poland, friendship with Britain, and the isolation of France. Italy was mildly supportive. However Hitler's program failed through Polish aloofness, British rejection of appeasement in 1939, Soviet strength, and the American entry into the War in support of the USSR.[16]

Even during World War II, when Italy was on Germany's side fighting against USSR, Italian troops were known for treating Soviet civilians much better than the Germans did. After the Italians signed an act of surrender to the Allied powers of World War II on 29 September 1943, at the Three Powers Conference in Moscow, the Soviets, Americans and British adopted the Declaration Regarding Italy, within which they agreed to the overthrow of Fascism in Italy, the barring of Fascists from public life and setting up "democratic organs." The Soviet Union restored full diplomatic relations with Italy on 25 October 1944. A treaty on trade and navigation was signed on 11 December 1948.[17]

In the decisive 1948 election, both the Soviets and the Americans intervened. The PCI launched strikes, mass rallies, assaults on police stations, and occupations of factories. The U.S. responded by threatening military intervention in the event of a Communist coup. The Christian Democrats won on an anti-Communist platform and the Communists were frozen out of power at the national level in Italy, while still in control of local governments in industrial cities.[18]

In the 1960s, Italy's FIAT built a car-assembling plant in the Soviet city of Tolyatti (a city named after the Italian Communist Party's secretary Palmiro Togliatti).[19]

Italy had the largest communist party in the Western world, with over 2 million members in the PCI. After the Sino-Soviet Split, the Italian Communist Party PCI had much more maneuver room. While not officially aligning with China, they sharply disagreed with Moscow on numerous points: the PCI's "Historic compromise" and acceptance of pluralism at home, the Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, relations with the Chinese Communist Party, and Soviet Interventions in Afghanistan and Poland. The Soviets offered concessions to win PCI support for its foreign policy. But when the PCI denounced Soviet actions in Poland and suggested that Soviet and American foreign policies were both obnoxious, Pravda denounced the "blasphemy" of the PCI.[20] As communism was falling apart in Russia, the PCI disintegrated in 1991, and split into the Democratic Party of the Left and the Communist Refoundation Party ("Rifondazione Comunista").[21]

In 2006, Russia and Italy signed a protocol of cooperation for fighting crime and defending civil liberties. There are close commercial ties between the two countries. Italy is Russia's second most important commercial partner in the EU, after Germany, and its state-owned energy company, ENI, has recently signed a large long-term contract with Gazprom to import Russian gas into Italy.

In modern times, Russia has continued to have a privileged relationship[22] with Italy. The Silvio Berlusconi Governments (2001–2006 and 2008–2011) strengthened Italy's ties with Russia, due to his personal friendship with President Vladimir Putin. Cooperation extends also to the aviation sector, between Italy's Alenia and Russia's Sukhoi, who are jointly developing a new aircraft. Russians have always visited Italy in great numbers.

In 2017 United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin, signed a deal with the Northern League, strengthening their political cooperation.[23]

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, leader of the PD party, suggested that Russian-backed organizations[24] may have been promulgating fake news in Italy in order to influence electoral outcomes,[25][26] and accused the Five Stars Movement to spread information supportive of the Russian government and its foreign policy.[27][26] In December 2017, former US Vice President Joe Biden accused Russia of helping the opposition parties Five Stars Movement and Lega Nord.[28] In March 2018, the Italian government led by Paolo Gentiloni expelled 2 Russian diplomats after the Skripal poisoning case in the United Kingdom[29]

The parties that won the recent 2018 election and formed a coalition government, the Lega Nord and Five Star Movement, have been giving voice to the Italian industry's discontent with American and European sanctions on Russia.,[30][26] and plan to improve relations between the two states by lifting the sanctions imposed as a consequence of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis. The incumbent Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, has said he "will support an opening towards Russia as sanctions are damaging Italy’s economy."[31]

On 22 March 2020, after a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army to deploy medics, special disinfection vehicles and other medical equipment to Italy, which was the European country most severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.[32]