Background Peru and the
Russian Empire first established
bilateral relations on May 16, 1874. Said relations were handled by the
Peruvian Minister Plenipotentiary, based in the legation in
Saint Petersburg and also accredited to
Germany. With the
execution of the Romanov family and the downfall of the
Russian Republic as a result of the
Russian Civil War, both countries ceased to have any diplomatic relations in 1918. Only after the
coup that deposed
Fernando Belaúnde and allowed
Juan Velasco Alvarado to establish his so-called
revolutionary government were relations reestablished at an embassy level in 1969, alongside
other socialist countries. With relations reestablished, the
Soviet government bought a manor in Orrantia Del Mar, a borough of the upper-class
San Isidro district that originally belonged to
Anita Fernandini de Naranjo and would eventually become the embassy in 1970. In 1975, after Alvarado announced the
Plan Inca, a rationing plan in line with the government's attempts at implementing
socialist policies, a unique type of protests took place outside of the embassy, as several cars with covered license plates drove by the building, with their occupants hurling rocks at the embassy and driving away. With the
internal conflict between the Peruvian government and leftist guerrillas beginning in 1980, both the Soviet Embassy and Soviet citizens became targets of these terror groups. Because Soviet–Peruvian relations had strengthened after
Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power, guerrillas such as the
Shining Path attacked the embassy several times due to the former's support of the latter against the group. In 1985, the embassy was bombed alongside the
Chinese and
U.S. embassies, and the following year, Shining Path terrorists
almost bombed the building from the inside. The embassy was again bombed in October 1989, being preceded by a
car bomb attack that targeted Soviet sailors in
Callao. with the embassy now representing the new Russian state. ==Cultural Centre==