The relevance of the study is determined both by the insufficient study of the diplomatic ceremonials of the USSR, and the fact that knowledge of the laws of their functioning expands our ideas about the cultural component of the life of Soviet society.
Taking into account the absence in Russian historiography of a special study devoted to the problem of the interaction of arts at diplomatic ceremonies, the author set the goal to conduct a comprehensive research of the problem of the interaction of arts in diplomatic ceremonials.
The article considers the stay of the Diplomatic Corps in Moscow from the point of view of the influence of foreign policy priorities on the norms of the diplomatic protocol.
Examples of balls, sports, receptions, organized by the embassies of Germany and Italy, which in the 20–30s played a leading role in the life of the Diplomatic Corps, are given.
The content of concert programs of official foreign visits, which contributed to the creation of a positive image of the country on the world stage, is analyzed.
For the first time the term “diplomatic counterculture” is introduced into scientific circulation – an intentional violation of the diplomatic protocol and diplomatic etiquette in order to achieve a specific result in international communication.
It was revealed that the diplomatic ceremonial in itself is a synthesis of arts – the picturesque design of space, music, choreography, costume.
Already in the first years of Soviet power, symbols of power entered the “struggle for power.” At diplomatic ceremonies this struggle was in the form of a confrontation between European protocol traditions and the rules of the Soviet diplomatic protocol and etiquette newly created by the employees of the Protocol Division of the USSR People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.
Dress code, concert programs, a list of dishes served – everything had to meet the standards of Bolshevik ideology.
Hospitality is an important component of national politics. The Protocol Division, through its work, tried to destroy stereotypes about the USSR as an evil empire. The multinational Soviet culture contributed to the creation of a positive image of the state on the world stage.

The concept of “diplomacy” combines the foreign policy activities of state leaders and supreme authorities. At various stages of the development of society the methods and means of diplomacy changed. In the Middle Ages the protocol is the rules of paperwork and archiving. Subsequently ceremonial issues began to be attributed to the diplomatic protocol. Currently the diplomatic protocol is a set of generally accepted norms, traditions and conventions that are observed in international communication. The purpose of the study is to analyze the evolution of the Soviet protocol as an instrument of the state’s foreign policy based on the analysis of regulatory documents. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the author considers the diplomatic legal culture as a component of the image of the state, in which ideology influenced all aspects of society, including the rules of communication between a Soviet citizen and foreign partners. It was revealed that the employees of the Protocol Department of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (PCFA), and primarily its head D.T. Florinsky (repressed in 1934) and V.N. Barkov (repressed in 1941, rehabilitated in 1958), were able to “reconcile”, as evidenced by regulatory documents, the European diplomatic protocol with the norms of Soviet ideology. Through its work the Protocol Department tried to destroy the idea of the USSR as an “empire of evil”; it was part of the positive image of the USSR, like the Bolshoi Theater, Soviet sports and Russian literature. As an actor in world politics the Soviet Union could not but accept the main provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Ignoring the international norms of the protocol is a denial of equality, sovereignty, territorial integrity of the state, and as a result, loss of reputation in the eyes of the world community.