How long has Alaska belonged to America? Why did Russia sell Alaska to America? How much did the American government pay for Alaska?

Alaska once belonged to the Russian Empire. But due to certain circumstances, Russia was forced to sell the territory of Alaska to America. Many people mistakenly assume that Catherine II sold Alaska. This is a false statement that gained popularity because of one popular song, “Don't Be a Fool, America,” by the Lube group. From this article you will find out who gave Alaska to America.

How the deal went

It is well known that in 1867, on October 18, Alaska was officially given to the United States for seven million US dollars. The protocol on the transfer of land to American ownership was signed by Russian Commissioner Peshchurov on board the American ship Ossipee. Immediately on this day, the Gregorian calendar was introduced, which synchronized time with the Western Territory of the United States. That's why people in Alaska went to bed on October 5th and woke up immediately on October 18th. After which American troops were brought into possession, who evicted the local residents and resettled their own citizens.

Why Alaska was given to the USA

signing of an agreement between the United States and Russia on the sale of Alaska

This was not the first time that the idea of selling Alaska arose, but it became urgently necessary during the Crimean War. During this period, Russia's enemy, Britain, demanded its rights to own Alaska. The United States was also concerned that Great Britain could seize the northern continent of America in order to advance to the states. The government of the Russian Empire considered it unprofitable to keep its possessions in Alaska. Therefore, Emperor Nicholas II (great-grandson of Catherine II) decided to sell Alaska to the US government. Russian diplomat Eduard Stekl was appointed as the person directly responsible for negotiations on the sale of Alaska.

On March 30, 1867, an agreement was signed between Russia and America on the sale of Alaska. The value of the transaction was about 7.2 million dollars in gold, which is approximately 108 million dollars in gold today. However, the treaty had to be approved by the US Senate. At first, many senators had doubts about spending so much money on acquiring an unknown piece of land, given that the country had recently ended a difficult civil war. But still, the agreement was adopted on May 3. And a couple of months later Alaska was transferred to America.

Thus, it turns out that Nicholas 2 is the one who officially gave Alaska to America. Although the idea of selling was not his personal initiative, but other people’s.

Why did Russia sell Alaska? The geopolitical reason was outlined by Muravyov-Amursky. It was important for Russia to maintain and strengthen its positions in the Far East. Britain's ambitions for hegemony in the Pacific also caused concern. Back in 1854, the RAC, fearing an attack by the Anglo-French fleet on Novo-Arkhangelsk, entered into a fictitious agreement with the American-Russian Trading Company in San Francisco for the sale of all its property for 7 million 600 thousand dollars for three years, including land holdings in North America. Later, a formal agreement between the RAC and the Hudson's Bay Company was concluded on the mutual neutralization of their territorial possessions in America.

Historians call one of the reasons for the sale of Alaska the lack of finances in the treasury of the Russian Empire. A year before the sale of Alaska, Finance Minister Mikhail Reitern sent a note to Alexander II, in which he pointed out the need for strict savings, emphasizing that for the normal functioning of Russia a three-year foreign loan of 15 million rubles was required. in year. Even the lower limit of the transaction amount for the sale of Alaska, set by Reutern at 5 million rubles, could only cover a third of the annual loan. Also, the state annually paid subsidies to the RAC; the sale of Alaska saved Russia from these expenses.

The logistical reason for the sale of Alaska was also outlined in Muravyov-Amursky’s note. “Now,” wrote the Governor General, “with the invention and development of railroads, we must be more convinced than before that the North American States will inevitably spread throughout North America, and we must bear in mind that or later they will have to cede our North American possessions.”

Railways to the East of Russia had not yet been built and the Russian Empire was clearly inferior to the states in the speed of logistics to the North American region.

Oddly enough, one of the reasons for selling Alaska was its resources. On the one hand, there is their disadvantage - valuable sea otters were destroyed by 1840, on the other, paradoxically, their presence - oil and gold were discovered in Alaska. Oil at that time was used for medicinal purposes, and the “hunting season” for Alaskan gold was beginning on the part of American prospectors. The Russian government quite rightly feared that American troops would follow the prospectors there. Russia was not ready for war.

In 1857, ten years before the sale of Alaska, Russian diplomat Eduard Stekl sent a dispatch to St. Petersburg in which he outlined a rumor about the possible emigration of representatives of the Mormon religious sect from the United States to Russian America. American President J. Buchanan himself hinted at this to him in a joking manner.

Joking aside, Stekl was seriously afraid of the mass migration of sectarians, since they would have to offer military resistance. The “creeping colonization” of Russian America really took place. Already in the early 1860s, British smugglers, despite the prohibitions of the colonial administration, began to settle on Russian territory in the southern part of the Alexander Archipelago. Sooner or later this could lead to tension and military conflicts.

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150 years ago, on October 18, 1867, in the city of Novoarkhangelsk (now called Sitka), the Russian flag was lowered and the US flag was raised. This symbolic ceremony sealed the transfer of our American territories to the United States. Alaska Day is a holiday celebrated in the state on October 18th. However, disputes about the advisability of selling the territory have not subsided to this day. Why Russia abandoned its possessions in America - in the RT material.

Signing of the Treaty for the Sale of Alaska, March 30, 1867
© Emanuel Leutze / Wikimedia Commons

In the early 60s of the 19th century, Russia was in crisis, which was associated with defeat in the Crimean War (1853-1856). Russia suffered, if not a crushing, but extremely unpleasant defeat, which exposed all the disadvantages of the political and economic system.

This land was ours: how Alaska was sold

On March 30, 1867, an agreement was signed in Washington on the sale by Russia of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States of America. Solution…

Much needed reforming. Nicholas I, who died before the end of the war, left his heir, Alexander II, many unresolved issues. And to get out of the crisis, boost the economy and restore authority in the international arena, strength and money were required.

Against this background, Alaska did not look like a profitable asset. The economic rationale for the development of American territories was primarily the fur trade. However, by the middle of the 19th century this resource was largely exhausted. Russian industrialists, being far from the “sovereign eye,” did not care about preserving natural wealth. The sea animal sea otter, whose fur represented the most valuable resource, was already on the verge of destruction due to uncontrolled fishing.

Pragmatic calculation

Neither the Russian government nor the residents of Russian Alaska had any idea that the region was rich in gold and oil. And the value of oil in those years was not at all the same as it is today. Alaska was located many months by sea from St. Petersburg, so the government had no real ability to control it. Skeptics can also be reminded that Russia properly began to develop the northeast of the Asian part of the country only in the Soviet years. It is unlikely that Alaska would have been developed faster and more efficiently than Chukotka.

Russian church on Kodiak Island off the southern coast of Alaska. The ground is covered in volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Katmai
© The Library of Congress

Finally, only shortly before the sale of Alaska, Russia concluded the Aigun and Beijing treaties. According to them, the state included significant territories of the Far East, all of present-day Primorye, a significant part of the modern Khabarovsk Territory and the Amur Region. All these lands required intensive development (this is precisely why Vladivostok was founded).

The Aigun Treaty was the merit of an outstanding administrator, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, whom every Russian today knows by the image of his monument on the five-thousandth banknote. It was he who initiated the idea of selling Alaska. And it’s hard to blame Muravyov-Amursky for his lack of patriotism. His position boiled down to a rational choice, well expressed in the proverb “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch either.”

"Map of the Arctic Sea and Eastern Ocean", drawn up in 1844
© The Library of Congress

Russia had to either gain a foothold in the rich Far East, or continue to cling to remote Alaska. The government understood: if the Americans or the British from neighboring Canada took the remote outpost seriously, it would not be possible to fight on equal terms with them - the distances were too great to transport troops, the infrastructure was too vulnerable.

Alaska in exchange for empire

The sale of remote territories was not some unique Russian practice. At the beginning of the 19th century, France sold the United States a much warmer Louisiana, closer to the metropolis and rich in obvious resources at that time. Recent and not the best examples were Texas and California, which Mexico ceded for next to nothing after direct American aggression. Between the Louisiana and Texas options, Russia chose the first.

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In the 60s of the 19th century, the United States and Russia were at the peak of friendly relations. Reasons for political conflicts between states have not yet appeared; moreover, Russia supported Washington during the civil war. Therefore, negotiations on the sale of Alaska took place in a calm tone and on mutually beneficial terms, although there was some bargaining. The United States did not exert any pressure on Russia, and did not have any grounds or tools for this. The transfer of American territories to the United States became, although secret, a completely transparent deal for the participants themselves.

Russia received about 11 million rubles for Alaska.

The amount was significant at that time, but still they gave less for Alaska than, for example, for Louisiana. Even taking into account such a “thrift” price on the American side, not everyone was sure that the purchase would justify itself.

The money received for Alaska was spent on the railway network, which was then just being built in Russia.

So, thanks to this deal, the Russian Far East developed, railways were built, and the successful reforms of Alexander II were carried out, which provided Russia with economic growth, returned international authority and made it possible to get rid of the consequences of defeat in the Crimean War.

Dmitry Fedorov

Flag of Russian Alaska

On January 3, 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States, although these lands were sold by Russia to America back in 1867. However, there is a version that Alaska was never sold. Russia leased it for 90 years, and after the lease expired, in 1957, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev actually donated these lands to the United States. Many historians argue that the agreement on the transfer of Alaska to the United States was not signed by either the Russian Empire or the USSR, and the peninsula was borrowed free of charge from Russia. Be that as it may, Alaska is still shrouded in an aura of mystery.

The Russians taught the Alaskan natives to turnips and potatoes.

Under the rule of the “quiet” Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov in Russia, Semyon Dezhnev swam across the 86-kilometer strait that separated Russia and America. Later this Strait was named Bering Strait in honor of Vitus Bering, who explored the shores of Alaska in 1741. Although before him, in 1732, Mikhail Gvozdev was the first European to determine the coordinates and map the 300-kilometer coastline of this peninsula. In 1784, the development of Alaska was carried out by Grigory Shelikhov, who accustomed the local population to turnips and potatoes, spread Orthodoxy among the Horse natives, and even founded the agricultural colony “Glory to Russia.” Since that time, residents of Alaska have become Russian subjects.

The British and Americans armed the natives against the Russians

In 1798, as a result of the merger of the companies of Grigory Shelikhov, Nikolai Mylnikov and Ivan Golikov, the Russian-American Company was formed, the shareholders of which were statesmen and grand dukes. The first director of this company is Nikolai Rezanov, whose name is known to many today as the name of the hero of the musical “Juno and Avos”. The company, which some historians today call “the destroyer of Russian America and an obstacle to the development of the Far East,” had monopoly rights to furs, trade, the discovery of new lands, granted Emperor Paul I. The company also had the right to protect and represent the interests of Russia

The company founded the St. Michael's Fortress (today Sitka), where the Russians built a church, an elementary school, a shipyard, workshops and an arsenal. Every ship that came into the harbor where the fortress stood was greeted with fireworks. In 1802, the fortress was burned by the natives, and three years later the same fate befell another Russian fortress. American and British entrepreneurs sought to liquidate Russian settlements and for this purpose they armed the natives.

Alaska could become a cause of war for Russia

For Russia, Alaska was a real gold mine. For example, sea otter fur was more expensive than gold, but the greed and short-sightedness of the miners led to the fact that already in the 1840s there were practically no valuable animals left on the peninsula. In addition, oil and gold were discovered in Alaska. It was this fact, as absurd as it may sound, that became one of the incentives to quickly get rid of Alaska. The fact is that American prospectors began to actively arrive in Alaska, and the Russian government rightly feared that American troops would come after them. Russia was not ready for war, and giving up Alaska penniless was completely imprudent.

At the ceremony for the transfer of Alaska, the flag fell on Russian bayonets

October 18, 1867 at 15.30. The solemn ceremony of changing the flag on the flagpole in front of the house of the ruler of Alaska began. Two non-commissioned officers began to lower the flag of the Russian-American Company, but it got tangled in the ropes at the very top, and the painter broke off completely. Several sailors, on orders, rushed to climb up to untangle the tattered flag hanging on the mast. The sailor who got to the flag first did not have time to shout to him to get off with the flag and not throw it, and he threw the flag down. The flag fell directly on Russian bayonets. Mystics and conspiracy theorists should rejoice.

Immediately after the transfer of Alaska to the United States, American troops entered Sitka and plundered the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, private homes and shops, and General Jefferson Davis ordered all Russians to leave their homes to the Americans.

Alaska has become an extremely profitable deal for the United States

The Russian Empire sold uninhabited and inaccessible territory to the United States for $0.05 per hectare. This turned out to be 1.5 times cheaper than Napoleonic France sold the developed territory of historical Louisiana 50 years earlier. America offered $10 million for the port of New Orleans alone, and besides, the lands of Louisiana had to be repurchased from the Indians living there.

Another fact: at the time when Russia sold Alaska to America, the state treasury paid more for one single three-story building in the center of New York than the American government paid for the entire peninsula.

The main secret of selling Alaska is where is the money?

Eduard Stekl, who since 1850 had been the charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in Washington, and in 1854 was appointed envoy, received a check in the amount of 7 million 35 thousand dollars. He kept 21 thousand for himself, and distributed 144 thousand to the senators who voted to ratify the treaty as bribes. 7 million was transferred to London by bank transfer, and the gold bars purchased for this amount were transported from the British capital to St. Petersburg by sea.

When converting the currency first into pounds and then into gold, they lost another 1.5 million. But this loss was not the last. On July 16, 1868, the barque Orkney, carrying a precious cargo, sank on the approach to St. Petersburg. Whether there was Russian gold on it at that moment, or whether it did not leave the borders of Foggy Albion, remains unknown today. The company that registered the cargo declared itself bankrupt, so the damage was only partially compensated.

In 2013, a Russian filed a lawsuit to invalidate the agreement on the sale of Alaska

In March 2013, the Moscow Arbitration Court received a claim from representatives of the Interregional public movement in support of the Orthodox educational and social initiatives “Bee” in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Nikita. According to Nikolai Bondarenko, chairman of the movement, this step was caused by the failure to fulfill a number of points in the agreement signed in 1867. In particular, Article 6 provided for the payment of 7 million 200 thousand dollars in gold coin, and the US Treasury issued a check for this amount, the further fate of which is unclear. Another reason, according to Bondarenko, was the fact that the US government violated Article 3 of the treaty, which stipulates that the American authorities must ensure that the residents of Alaska, formerly citizens of the Russian Empire, live in accordance with their customs and traditions and the faith that they professed at that time. The Obama administration, with its plans to legalize same-sex marriage, infringes on the rights and interests of citizens who live in Alaska. The Moscow Arbitration Court refused to consider the claim against the US federal government.

Alaska was discovered for themselves and for Russia by Russian Cossacks and merchants back in the time of Peter the Great. This discovery was a continuation of the conquest of Siberia and the development of eastern lands. Russian pioneers such as Grigory Shelikhov. Alexander Baranov and their associates, with a firm hand, subjugated the sea coast of the region.

The places were rich in fur and this attracted business people. In 1799, the Russian-American Company was created, which governed Alaska on behalf of Russia for 68 years. Settlements were built and connections with the local population were established. The Aborigines accepted Orthodoxy and Russian citizenship. It seemed that everything was heading towards Alaska becoming firmly part of the Russian Empire.

But fate decreed otherwise. In 1853-56, Russia had to go through the extremely difficult and unsuccessful Crimean War. Moreover, the aggressors, England and France, tested Russia’s strength along the entire border. The British even tried to capture Kamchatka. Naturally, relations between Russia and Britain deteriorated sharply. Russia could wait for the next blow precisely in Alaska, where Russian possessions bordered on English Canada. For various reasons, Russia could not adequately defend its possessions. And the Russian government, with the consent of Emperor Alexander II, made a difficult decision to sell the territory to the then friendly United States.

After lengthy negotiations, on March 30, 1867, an agreement on the sale of Alaska was signed in Washington. As a result of the deal, Russia received 7.2 million dollars in gold and the security of its eastern borders. Historians, politicians and ordinary Russian citizens are still arguing to this day whether this sale was justified.

Who Really Gave Alaska to America?

Alaska once belonged to the Russian Empire. But due to certain circumstances, Russia was forced to sell the territory of Alaska to America. It is well known that in 1867, on October 18, Alaska was officially given to the United States for seven million US dollars. The protocol on the transfer of land to American ownership was signed by Russian Commissioner Peshchurov on board the American ship Ossipee. Immediately on this day, the Gregorian calendar was introduced, which synchronized time with the Western Territory of the United States. That's why people in Alaska went to bed on October 5th and woke up immediately on October 18th. After which American troops were brought into possession, who evicted the local residents and resettled their own citizens.

Why Alaska was given to the USA

This was not the first time that the idea of selling Alaska arose, but it became urgently necessary during the Crimean War. During this period, Russia's enemy Britain demanded its rights to own Alaska. The United States was also concerned that Great Britain could seize the northern continent of America in order to advance to the states. The government of the Russian Empire considered it unprofitable to keep its possessions in Alaska. Therefore, Emperor Nicholas II decided to sell Alaska to the US government. Russian diplomat Eduard Stekl was appointed as the person directly responsible for negotiations on the sale of Alaska.

Thus, it turns out that Nicholas II is the one who officially gave Alaska to America. Although the idea of selling was not his personal initiative, but other people’s.

On October 1, 1867, the formal transfer of Alaska to the United States from the Russian Empire took place. Oddly enough, the majority of our compatriots believe that the deal to sell Alaska was carried out by Catherine II.

The popular group “Lube” also made its contribution to consolidating this myth in the consciousness of our citizens, asserting in one of their songs that Catherine was wrong. In fact, neither Peter I, nor Catherine II, nor, especially, Nikita Khrushchev have anything to do with the sale of Alaska to our sworn friends the Americans.

This is the merit of the Tsar-Liberator Alexander II. On March 29, 1867, the Tsarist Ambassador Baron Eduard Andreevich Stekl and US Secretary of State William Seward signed an agreement to sell Alaska to America for $7 million 200 thousand. It would seem that the cunning Americans had deceived us. The amount for a territory two and a half times larger than the territory of Ukraine does not seem large at all. But it's not that simple.

In those days, the dollar had a slightly different real value, and $7 million 200 thousand of the century before last, in terms of today’s money, equals $8 billion 355 million. A fairly common version among people is that Alaska was not sold, but leased for 100 years. So it's time to demand it back. Gentlemen, sad as it may be, the train has already left, and it is pointless to demand Alaska back. It was sold permanently, and not leased, as confirmed by the relevant documents.

140 years ago, on March 18, 1867, Russia concluded the largest contract in its history. On this day, the North American United States purchased goods from us measuring 1.5 million square kilometers for 7.2 million dollars. The product was called Alaska. A square kilometer of his homeland thus cost Uncle Sam 20 cents. Now that deal is considered in patriotic circles almost a symbol of national shame. But was it really possible to hold on to Russian America?

What’s interesting: Alaska has not been with us for 140 years, but the myths associated with it are still alive. The most popular of them is myth 1: Alaska was sold by Catherine II. It would seem that to expose him it would be enough to compare the years of Catherine’s reign with the date of the sale of Alaska, but come on. Some Russian misogynist patriots still like to talk over a glass of wine about what Russia has lost through women’s stupidity. In fact, Catherine the Great’s participation in the fate of Alaska was limited to a decree of 1769 abolishing duties on trade with the Aleuts.

No less persistent myth 2: Alaska was not sold, but leased for 99 years. He speaks mainly of ignorance of the sources: in the first article of the document with the long title Agreement regarding the cession of Russian Property in North America between His Majesty the Emperor of All Russia and the United States of America it is said: His Majesty the Emperor of All Russia agrees to cede to the United States, in accordance with this agreement , immediately upon ratification, all the territory and dominion now possessed by his Imperial Majesty on the American continent and the adjacent islands.

Myth 3 has a financial-conspiracy origin and was born, most likely, in the 60s of the 19th century: American money did not reach Russia. They were converted into gold and loaded onto a ship, which sank during a storm somewhere in the Baltic. They even name the ship - the English barque Orkney. This reliable information has been passed on from mouth to mouth for the second hundred years; it has even been included in serious books. However, no one has yet bothered to clarify the coordinates of this shipwreck and raise American gold from the bottom of the shallow Baltic Sea. Why? Probably no one needs 7 million dollars. In addition, the idea of transporting gold by steamship was not very good even in those days. Why carry cash across the ocean if in St. Petersburg alone there are branches of fifty foreign, including American, banks?

The sale of Alaska is unique in that it was concluded within a very small circle. Only six people knew about the proposed sale: Alexander II, Konstantin Romanov, Alexander Gorchakov, Mikhail Reitern, Nikolai Krabbe and Edaurd Stekl. The fact that Alaska was sold to America became known only two months after the transaction was completed. Finance Minister Reuters is traditionally considered its initiator.

A year before the transfer of Alaska, he sent a special note to Alexander II, in which he pointed out the need for strict savings and emphasized that for the normal functioning of the empire a three-year foreign loan of 15 million rubles was required. in year. Thus, even the lower limit of the transaction amount, indicated by Reuters at 5 million rubles, could cover a third of the annual loan. In addition, the state annually paid subsidies to the Russian-American Company; the sale of Alaska saved Russia from these expenses. RAC did not receive a penny from the sale of Alaska.

Even before the historical note by the Minister of Finance, the idea of selling Alaska was expressed by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Muravyov-Amursky. He said that it would be in Russia's interests to improve relations with the United States to strengthen its position on the Asian Pacific coast, and to be friends with America against the British.

Sources: znayuvse.ru, socialskydivelab.com, ufastation.net, otvet.mail.ru, russian7.ru

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