Russian Empire–United States relations

Relations between the Russian Empire and the United States predate the American Revolution, when the Russians began trading with the Thirteen Colonies in violation of the British Navigation Acts. The Russian government officially recognized the United States in 1803, and the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1809. From the 18th century until 1917, the United States and Russia maintained mostly cordial relations, with occasional cultural and commercial exchanges. Russia remained neutral during the American Civil War, and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867. The surrender and dissolution of the Russian Empire facilitated Americans to join the war, although they sided with Russia during the latters civil war.

However, there were also tensions between the two countries, particularly over pogroms in the Russian Empire between 1890 and 1914. Trade relations were cordial but were never a major factor for either nation. Large-scale migration to the U.S. from Russia began in the late 19th century, mostly attracting Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, and Finns but also a few ethnic Russians. In the late 19th century, the two countries began to cooperate on issues such as maritime law and trade, which continued into the early 20th century.

Country comparison
Leaders of the Russian Empire and the United States from 1800 to 1917.

Russian involvement in the American Revolutionary War


Relations between the two countries began in 1776, when the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.

Earlier contacts had occurred. In 1763, a Boston merchant had anchored his ship at the port of Kronstadt after a direct transatlantic voyage.

Despite being geographically removed from the North American scene, Russia under Catherine the Great significantly affected the American Revolution through diplomacy. While Catherine personally oversaw most Russian interactions with the new country, she also entrusted certain tasks to her foreign advisor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin, who often acted on Catherine's behalf when it came to matters of international diplomacy. Catherine and Panin interacted with the British government through James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, at the Russian court. The decisions made by Catherine and Panin during the Revolution to remain officially neutral, refuse Great Britain's requests for military assistance, and insist on peace talks that linked a resolution of the American Revolution with the settlement of separate European conflicts indirectly helped the Americans win the Revolution and gain independence.

Russian-American trade
Small scale direct trade between Russia and British North America began as early as 1763. Such trade was a violation of the British Navigation Acts, which allowed the Thirteen Colonies to trade only with Great Britain. Russian products such as hemp, sail linen and iron had started arriving in colonial ports years before the American Revolutionary War began and did not stop when the war started. America and Russia saw each other as trading partners.

Throughout the Revolutionary War, Catherine believed an independent American nation would be ideal for Russian business interests. While some Russian leaders worried that an independent America might interfere with Russia's trade with other European nations, Catherine saw direct Russian-American trade as an excellent opportunity to expand commerce. Catherine knew that after the war, a free America could trade directly with Russia without interference. Moreover, if the Americans gained their independence, Britain would have to turn to other countries such as Russia to supply it with the resources that could no longer be acquired from North America, such as timber for the Royal Navy.

Neutrality
Catherine chose to have Russia remain officially neutral during the Revolution and never openly picked sides during the war. On an unofficial basis, however, she acted favorably towards the American colonists by offering to provide them all that she could without compromising Russia's neutrality and her eventual desire to act as a mediator.

In March 1780, the Russian ministry released a "Declaration of Armed Neutrality." That set out Russia's international stance on the American Revolution and focused on the importance of allowing neutral vessels to travel freely to any Russian port without them being searched or harassed by the Navigation Acts. While the declaration kept Russia officially neutral, it supported many of France's own pro-American policies and resisted Britain's efforts to defeat the Americans via naval blockades. The declaration also gave the North American rebels an emotional lift, as they realized Russia was not solidly aligned with Great Britain. With Russia as a potential, powerful friend, Russian-U.S. connections and communications continued to improve. Nevertheless, Catherine refused to recognize the United States openly as an independent nation until the war had ended.

Great Britain's requests for assistance
As the Revolutionary War continued into the late 1770s, a growing list of European powers took sides against Great Britain. The British saw a need to solidify an alliance with Russia to bolster its North American war. As a world power that had allied with Great Britain, Russia was an obvious choice to assist with logistical and military support, as well as diplomatic efforts.

While Catherine seems to have admired the British people and culture, she disliked George III and his ministers. She was particularly disturbed by the Seven Years' War during which Catherine observed Great Britain's efforts to exit the conflict discreetly, which left Russia's ally Prussia vulnerable to defeat. She considered those efforts immoral and disloyal and saw Great Britain as an unreliable ally. She also viewed the American Revolution as Great Britain's fault. Citing the constant change in Great Britain's ministries as a major reason, Catherine understood the Americans' grievances.

Despite Russia's official neutrality, Catherine's negative opinions of the British government and her view that Great Britain had caused the revolution weighed on her decisions when Great Britain began to request Russian support. In the summer of 1775, Great Britain sent diplomats to Russia in an attempt to learn whether Catherine would agree to send troops to North America to aid Great Britain's forces. Although her initial response seemed positive, Catherine denied Britain's formal request for support. While her dislike of the British ministry likely influenced her decision, Catherine formally cited the fact that her army needed rest after it had just finished more than six years of war.

In November 1779, Great Britain made another plea for Russian assistance. Swallowing their pride, the British acknowledged to Catherine the collective power of Great Britain's enemies, as well as George III's desire for peace. The British letter to Catherine explained those concerns and offered to "commit her [Britain's] interests to the hand of the Empress." The British included a specific request for Russia to use force against all British enemies, including other European countries, to stop the American Revolution. After waiting several months, Catherine decided to refuse Great Britain's request.

In 1781, distressed and realizing that the British were close to losing the war, James Harris asked if a piece of British territory could convince Russia to join the fight. Offering the island of Minorca, Harris did not request soldiers in exchange. This time, Great Britain simply asked for Russia to convince France to exit the war and to force the American rebels to fight alone. Perhaps revealing her secret desire to have the U.S. gain its independence, Catherine used Harris's proposal to embarrass the British government. She declined Harris's offer and publicized it to the French and the Spanish.

Attempt at peacemaking
Catherine played a significant role in peacemaking efforts during the Revolutionary War. In October 1780, she sent a proposal to each of the European powers involved in the conflict. The proposal requested for the countries to meet to discuss what could be done to create peace. The powers met in Vienna after Great Britain requested for the Austrian ministry to co-mediate the peace talks. Catherine sent Prince Dimitri Galitzin to act on her behalf as the Russian mediator. She sent him with a proposed set of peace guidelines that included a multi-year armistice between the countries and a requirement for negotiations between Great Britain and its European enemies as well as between Great Britain and the Americans. Catherine chose not to include a proposal concerning whether the U.S. would become autonomous. Since the British would not accept U.S. independence, and the French would not accept anything short of it, Catherine realized that explicitly providing for either outcome would lead to an immediate breakdown in the talks. Catherine's ambiguous negotiation efforts ultimately fell through.

19th century
In 1801 Thomas Jefferson appointed Levett Harris as the first American consul-general to Russia (1803–1816). Russia attempted to join as a third-party mediator of peace in the War of 1812, but this idea was rejected by British officials.

The Monroe Doctrine was partly aimed at Holy Alliance support of intervention in Latin America which Russia several times tried to get the United States to join, as well as the Ukase of 1821 banning non-Russian ships from the Northwest Coast. The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 set parallel 54°40′ north as the boundary between Russian America and the Anglo-American Oregon Country.

American Civil War
During the American Civil War, Russia supported the Union, largely because it believed that the U.S. served as a counterbalance to its geopolitical rival, the United Kingdom. In 1863, the Russian Navy's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively. The Alexander Nevsky and the other vessels of the Atlantic squadron stayed in American waters for seven months (September 1863 to June 1864).

1865 saw a major project attempted: the building of a Russian-U.S. telegraph line from Seattle, through British Columbia, Russian America (Alaska) and Siberia. An early attempt to link East-West communications, it failed and never operated.

Alaska purchase, 1867
Russia operated a small fur-trade operations in Alaska, coupled with missionaries to the natives. By 1861, the project had lost money, threatened to antagonize the Americans, and could not be defended from Britain. It proved practically impossible to entice Russians to permanently migrate to Alaska; only a few hundred were there in 1867. In the Alaska Purchase of 1867, the land was sold to the United States for $7.2 million.

The Russian administrators and military left Alaska, but some missionaries stayed on to minister to the many natives who converted to the Russian Orthodox faith.

1880–1918


From 1880 to 1917, about 3.2 million immigrants arrived in the U.S. from the Russian Empire. Most were Jews or Poles, and only 100,000 were ethnic Russians. There were many Volga Germans or Russian German immigrants to the United States. Meanwhile large numbers of minorities, especially Jews, Poles, and Lithuanians, emigrated to the United States before 1914. Relations remained cool, especially because of the repeated pogroms in the Russian Empire.

Pogroms and aftermath
After 1880, repeated anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia alienated U.S. elite and public opinion. In 1903, the Kishinev pogrom killed 47 Jews, injured 400, and left 10,000 homeless and dependent on relief. American Jews began large-scale organized financial help and assisted in emigration. More violence in Russia led in 1911 to the United States repealing an 1832 commercial treaty.

Boxer Rebellion
In 1900, Russia and the United States were part of the Eight-Nation Alliance suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in China. Russia soon afterward occupied Manchuria, and the United States asserted the Open Door Policy to forestall Russian and German territorial demands from leading to a partition of China into closed colonies.

Wars
President Theodore Roosevelt played a major role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. During the war, Roosevelt had tacitly supported Japan. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in 1905 on the conditions favorable to the Russians. Roosevelt subsequently received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in mediation.

During World War I, the United States declaration of war on Germany (1917) came after Nicholas II had abdicated as a result of the February Revolution. When the Tsar was still in power, some Americans resisted fighting a war with him as an ally. With him gone, the Wilson administration used the new provisional government to describe how the democratic nations were fighting against autocratic old empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary. During the war, the American Expeditionary Forces were just starting to see battle when the October Revolution happened in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd and removed Russia from the war.

Before the armistice in November 1918, the Americans had helped the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the Polar Bear Expedition and the American Expeditionary Force Siberia. The Americans' goal was not necessarily ideological but rather to prevent the German enemy from gaining access to war supplies controlled by the Bolsheviks, though the United States also tacitly supported the White movement against the Bolsheviks.