After the defeat of the White Army in the Russian Civil War in 1922, the United Kingdom recognised the Soviet Union as the legitimate successor of the Russian Empire in 1924. Following the outbreak of the Second World War and the land invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany, the Labor Government of John Curtin began to discuss the opening of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The "Congress of Friendship and Aid to the Soviet," a body created by the NSW Aid Russia Committee, requested, among other requests of aid and support, the posting of Australian diplomats to the Soviet Union. In May, 1942, Dr H.V. Evatt, the Australian Foreign Minister and Attorney General began backdoor negotiations in London with the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov for the establishment of formal relations between the two nations and the exchange of representatives. Despite this, there were no official bilateral relations between the Soviet Union and Australia until 1942, where the Labor government of John Curtin appointed William Slater as a diplomatic representative of Australia to the Soviet Union. On 2 January 1943, Australia opened the Australian Legation in Kuybyshev, the temporary seat of the Russian government due to the ongoing invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis powers. The legation then moved to Moscow on 12 August 1943. The legation was upgraded to the status of embassy on 16 February 1948.