The article deals with the history of Spanish art exhibitions in Russia from the 19th century up to nowadays. The turning points of this history are closely related to the social, cultural and political situation both in Russia and in the world. It proves the relevance of one of the basic principles of art studies about the certain dependence of art research on the general cultural and ideological policy of the state. The article describes the first Spanish art exhibitions in Russia in the 19th – the early 20th centuries. The exhibitions were privately organized and presented some works from domestic collections. Only contemporary Spanish painting was brought from abroad at the time described. No works by old masters were brought, though it had already been done in other countries by the beginning of the 20th century. The reason might be the Russian –Japanese war and the Russian Revolution of 1905. After 1917 exhibitions of Spanish art (painting, drawing, applied art, weapons, posters) were held in Russia, particularly during the Civil War in Spain in 1936-1939, when the Republicans were strongly supported by the USSR. The exhibits were still from domestic museums, but the exhibitions were state funded. It was only since the Thaw that exhibitions of old painting started to come to Russia, at first from the so-called people’s democracy states. The high-class paintings by Spanish masters were also brought from capitalist countries. Intense immediate culture contacts with Spain started to develop only after General Franco’s death, since 1980. The biggest exhibition of Spanish painting from the Prado Museum was brought to the Hermitage in 1980. In the 1990s, during Perestroika, Russia started to get interested in the art of the 20th century, which was marked by a number of exhibitions of prominent modern Spanish artists. As to old masters from the Prado collection, their works were only brought to Russia again in 1998 after 1981, probably due to the economic and political instability in the country. In the last decades Russia and Spain have been actively exchanging exhibitions, within the framework of using culture as a mild diplomatic force. The author has analyzed the exhibition reports in the Hermitage and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts publications, comparing the history of the exhibitions with the history of the country, defining the factors of the development of exhibition policy. The result of this analysis is the panoramic view of the Spanish art exhibitions in Russia.