Alexander Mikhailovich Kadakin (; 22 July 1949 – 26 January 2017) was a Russian diplomat and the Russian Ambassador to India from 2009 until his death in 2017. Kadakin had earlier served as the ambassador to India between 1999 and 2004. He was a noted

Indophile Indomania or Indophilia refer to the special interest that India, Indians and their cultures and traditions have generated across the world, more specifically among the cultures and civilisations of the Indian subcontinent, as well those of t ...

. Kadakin died from heart failure while in service in New Delhi in 2017. He was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

in 2018.

Career

Kadakin was born in

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ), also known as Kishinev (russian: Кишинёв, r=Kishinjóv ), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center, and is located in the ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

to ethnic Russian parents in 1949. He graduated with honours from the

Moscow State Institute of International Relations Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (russian: Московский государственный институт международных отношений (МГИМО), also known as MGIMO University) is an institute of ...

in 1972. He began his diplomatic career as a probationer at the Soviet Embassy in India in August 1971. He then joined the embassy as the third secretary before going on to work at different capacities for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

. Kadakin served as the translator during Soviet Premier

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...

's official visits to India in the 1970s. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as the Minister Counselor of the USSR/Russia to India. He was the Russian ambassador to Nepal from 1992 to 1997. His first term as Russian ambassador to India was between 1999 and 2004. He then became the Russian ambassador to Sweden in 2004, and remained in that position till he took over as the ambassador to India for a second term in 2009. He was a member of the

Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation The Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is among the oldest diplomatic institutes in the world, which trains specialists in the field of international relations, international economic relations and int ...

. He was a recipient of the

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (russian: Орден Дружбы, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds a ...

in 2016 and the Order of Honour in 2009.

Personal life

Apart from Russian, Kadakin was also fluent in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

, English, Urdu, Romanian and French. He was also fond of Bollywood films, and was known to hum classic Bollywood songs of the 1950s.

Death

Kadakin died from heart failure at a hospital in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

on 26 January 2017, India's 68th Republic Day. He was to have attended, as a top diplomat serving in

, the annual

Republic Day parade The Delhi Republic Day parade is the largest and most important of the parades marking the Republic Day celebrations in India. The parade takes place every year on 26 January at Rajpath, New Delhi. It is the main attraction of India's Republic ...

later that morning. With a total tenure, in two stints, of over 12 years, he was the longest-serving Russian Ambassador to India and to any nation in the Indian subcontinent. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup offered condolences saying, "In Kadakin, we lost a valued friend who nurtured India-Russia relationship for many decades as a distinguished Russian diplomat." Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

also offered his condolences and described Kadakin as a "glorious son of Russia and a great friend of India".

Awards and honours

In a press conference following the 18th India-Russia Annual Summit in Saint Petersburg on 1 June 2017,

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

announced that a road in New Delhi would be named in honour of Kadakin. The following day, the

New Delhi Municipal Council New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is the municipal council of the city of New Delhi, Delhi, India. It covers an area of 42.7 km2 under its administration, which is commonly referred as Lutyens' Delhi. The only owner is Government of In ...

(NDMC) passed a resolution officially declaring that the Officers' Mess Road in

Chanakyapuri Chanakyapuri (Sanskrit: चाणक्यपुरी; IAST: Cāṅakyapurī ) is a neighbourhood and diplomatic enclave established in the 1950s in New Delhi. It is also a sub-division of the New Delhi district and plays host to the majority ...

would now be called Alexander M Kadakin Marg. An NDMC official stated that while Kadakin was born in Russia, his ''"Karma-Bhoomi' was India. In January 2018, the Indian third-highest civilian award

was posthumously conferred upon Kadakin by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kadakin, Alexander 1949 births 2017 deaths Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Russian Federation) Ambassadors of Russia to India Ambassadors of Russia to Sweden Ambassadors of Russia to Nepal Moscow State Institute of International Relations alumni Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in public affairs Diplomats from Chișinău