The article based on the Russian military-historical archive’s documents, represents a scrutiny of the first Russian military agent in Korea Colonel I.I. Strel’bitskii’s activity in Seoul in 1896-1903 with the Russo-Korean interrelations of the above period standing as a background of his mission. The author argues that Strel’bitskii’s contribution to the relations between the two countries has been historiographically miscalculated, mainly having dealt not due to the military sphere in a proper sense than to the cultural communication and “inter-recognition” of the two neighboring countries.