Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation. Standard of the President of the Russian Federation. Emblem of the Federation Council russian foreign minister 1945 Russia.

Emblem of the CEC of Russia. Emblem of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Coat of Arms of Russia 1577. State Emblem of the Soviet Union. Coat of arms of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Follow the link for more information. State Emblem of the Soviet Union.

16 July 1923, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. The primary duty of the foreign ministry was directing the general line of Soviet foreign policy. The MER represented the country abroad and participated in talks with foreign delegations on behalf of the Soviet government. Exit visas were issued by the federal MER, but also by its all-union foreign affairs ministries and by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The inner policy making group of the ministry was the Collegium. The members of the Collegium were usually the minister, the two first deputy ministers, the nine deputy ministers, a chief of the general secretariat and fourteen other members.

In total there were 27 members of the Collegium in 1990. Each deputy minister was responsible for a department. Because the communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989, there was no longer any distinction between the Eastern and Western European departments. A separate administration body known as “embassy affairs” existed for servicing the Soviet diplomatic corps abroad.