Alaska who sold it to America. Why did Russia sell Alaska to America? How much the American government paid for Alaska

   The entire land of Alaska is approximately three territories in France. Initially, it belonged to Russia. In Alaska, platinum, tungsten, coal and other minerals are mined. There are many huge oil fields.

And now all this wealth is being extracted by the USA. So who gave Alaska to America and in what year? Many believe that the culprit of the transfer was Catherine II. However, this opinion is erroneous, and to understand the situation, you need to delve into the story.

How did Russia get Alaska?

  Many are sure that the Russian traveler Vitus Bering was the first to discover Alaska. The pioneer overcame the strait, which was later named after him. A little later, on October 22, 1784, a merchant Grigory Shelikhov appeared on the shores of Alaska. He became the founder of the first settlement on about. Kodiak. After 4 years, the village was badly hit by the tsunami, and the village moved to the other side of the island, which was called Pavlovskaya harbor.

Shelikhov taught the Indians to eat potatoes and turnips, became a distributor of Orthodoxy and founded the settlement “Glory to Russia”. Since the start of colonization (in 1795), Alaska has officially become Russian territory. A few years later, the capital appeared - Sitka. 200 Russian people and 1 thousand aulets lived in it.

Alaska Sitka

However, really discovered Alaska was not Bering, but Semyon Dezhnev in 1648. He began his journey from the mouth of Kolyma and ended it in Anadyr. Dezhnev, of course, shared the discovery with Peter I. However, the emperor decided to verify that Asia and America were connected. Therefore, he sent the ships of Chirikov and Bering to Alaska.

In 1732, the first expedition to the new Russian territory took place. In 1741, it was first examined. Of the Europeans, the first person to visit Alaska was James Cook, then the Spanish expedition was met by the Russians. In any case, it turns out that the territory from the very beginning was Russian.

Who and when sold Alaska to America?

  To figure out who sold Alaska from the kings, you need to return again for a short time to history. Until Shelikhov died, he managed to significantly (only in the first 3 years - 20 times) increase his capital. First, fur was mined in Alaska, which was highly valued not only in Russia but also abroad.

In 1799, his son-in-law, chamberlain and count concurrently founded the Russian-American company (in the likeness of the East India). It included members of the imperial family. By decree of Paul the First, the right to manage Alaska was transferred to the company. The territory even had a flag and an armed fleet.

So who gave Alaska to America - Catherine or Alexander? When gold was discovered on the territory, American prospectors rushed there. The Russian empire was not ready for a confrontation, but Alaska did not want to give so easily.

The idea of \u200b\u200bselling it was born for the first time by Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, Governor-General of V. Siberia. The proposal was made strictly secret before the start of the Crimean War. In 1853, the governor handed over the idea in the form of a note to Emperor Nicholas the First. In a letter, the general described in detail the importance of establishing relations with the United States and strengthening positions in the Far East.

Then the idea was supported by Konstantin Romanov, the brother of the emperor. Alexander II approved this proposal, and an agreement between the countries was signed. Alaska was sold for just $ 7.5 million. Payment Russia sent in gold scrolls, by sea. However, the ship sank near St. Petersburg.

When the question arises, which king gave Alaska to America, for some reason many people are sure that it was Catherine. There is even a certain story that the Empress did not know Russian well and entrusted the preparation of the contract to her confidant. And that instead of transferring Alaska to America “forever” wrote “forever” and it turned out that forever. Other people connect this story with Catherine because of the famous song of the Lyube group. However, history refutes the participation of the empress.

If you consider what year Alaska was sold, then at that time Catherine did not conclude any contracts. Documents appeared only under Alexander II, which is officially confirmed by history.

In what year did they give Alaska to America?

  So, in what year did Alaska go to America? Officially called the date of the transfer of territories - 1867. It was then that the papers were signed between the two countries. Then, the American flag began to flutter in Alaska. Lands began to be considered an American colony. If we consider in what year Alaska became an American colony, then this date is 1959.

Negotiations on the transfer of land began in December 1866, when a "special meeting" was held at the Russian Foreign Ministry. This meeting was attended by Alexander II. After all the issues were resolved, the agreement was signed on March 30 (by the old calculation - on the 18th) of 1867. The official transfer of Russian territories took place on October 18 of the same year. The point at the end of the transaction was set after receiving a check from the United States for 7.2 million dollars. It happened in the summer of 1968.

Why did they give Alaska to America?

  Why they gave Alaska to America - so far all possible reasons do not sound intelligible. There are several options. At the origins of the company that controlled Alaska, there were merchants from two provinces. They asked the empress for an interest-free loan in order to direct this money to develop land. However, Catherine refused, since she was completely occupied by the current Crimea.

Then the company received the right to a monopoly, but already under Paul I. The cessation of land passed secretly from the Russian-American company. The approval of the government after the letter of the emperor’s brother was already considered a regular formality. Interestingly, this paper with the proposal to cede Alaska was written 10 years before the fait accompli.

When Russia gave Alaska to America, it was simply a concession of territories for one century. Money for the sale of Russia was never received, as well as dividends for the use of territories. It turns out that the Americans simply selected Alaska by cunning. Moreover, they took advantage of the time when the Russian Empire had many problems, and it was not ready to defend distant lands with war.

Interestingly, the Russian side does not have any sales documents at all. The reason was a strange reservation (when transferring land to America) that the entire archive (relating to disputed territories) should also be transferred to its use. What are the arguments put forward by the emperor’s brother, so that the empire will get rid of these lands:

1.   Konstantin Nikolaevich was a member of the geographical society. He began to argue that Alaska is located too far from Russian territories. However, Chukotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin are no closer, but it was Russian America that was chosen.

2.   The second argument was that the company that owns Alaska is suffering from land loss. There is supposedly no profit from them. However, there is documentary evidence that there were still incomes (though not fabulous).

3. The third argument is the empty treasury. This was true. However, 7.2 million dollars, for which Alaska was ceded, could not fill an empty niche. At that time, 500 million rubles was required to fill the budget. The sum of 7.2 million dollars was approximately equal to only 10 million Russian. Moreover, the empire also owed 1.5 billion. Then it is completely unclear why conclude such an unprofitable deal with America.

4. A fairly good argument could be considered the outbreak of war, with which the empire could not cope in order to keep the land of Alaska. However, in 1854 the war was fought in several directions at once - in the Crimea, in the East, in the Baltic. The Empire successfully repelled the British and French squadrons in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In 1863, the American Civil War and international conflict were completely stopped.

The idea that originated with Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, Governor-General of V. Siberia, led to the writing of a letter to the emperor. In the message, the result of the argument sounded in the form of a proposal to cede America to overseas possessions. The general was confident that this question would be raised sooner or later.

If the Russian Empire does not make such a compromise, then all the same the land will be taken away, since it cannot protect them. It turns out that if you make a deal now, you can even make money on it.

At that time in Alaska, approximately 800 Russians actually lived, 1900 - creoles and almost 5 thousand Aleuts. In the territories also settled 40 thousand Indians. However, they did not recognize the power of Russia. For an area of \u200b\u200b1.5 million km², the Russians really were in a large minority.

After such calculations, the St. Petersburg authorities reacted to the letter of Muravyov very loyally. The proposals of the general began to be carefully studied and miscalculated. Spurred a positive decision and the empty treasury.

Perhaps the Russian empire hoped that after the cession of the territory of Alaska, relations between the countries would improve. This argument would be most naive. At that time, Russia did not have a common border with the Americans, and even if a deal was concluded, it would be much more profitable with the British. True, after the transition of territories to the United States, almost friendly relations were established for some time. However, as history has shown, not for long.

The assigned territories included not only the entire peninsula, but also 10 miles of coastal strip in southern Alaska along the coast of British Columbia. Many islands were included in the agreement (Aleutian, in the Bering Sea and many others).

At the same time, all archives and property located on the former Russian territory, as well as documents of historical and legal value, were transferred to America.

Alaska Sale   - a deal between the governments of the Russian Empire and the North American United States, as a result of which in 1867 Russia sold its holdings in North America for a total of $ 7.2 million (total area of \u200b\u200b1,518,800 km²).

For the first time, the offer to sell Alaska was made by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov-Amursky in 1853.

Alaska, opened to the Old World in 1732 by a Russian expedition led by M. S. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov, was the possession of Russia in North America. At first, it was mastered not by the state, but by private individuals, but, starting in 1799, - by a specially established monopoly - the Russian-American Company (RAC).

The area of \u200b\u200bthe sold territory was 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km²) and was practically uninhabited - according to the RAC itself, at the time of the sale, the population of the whole of Russian Alaska and the Aleutian Islands was about 2,500 Russians and about 60,000 Indians and Eskimos. At the beginning of the 19th century, Alaska brought in revenues from the fur trade, but by the middle of the century it seemed that the costs of maintaining and protecting this remote and vulnerable, from a geopolitical point of view, territory would outweigh the potential profit.

The first question on the sale of Alaska by the United States to the Russian government was raised by the Governor General of Eastern Siberia Count N. N. Muravyov-Amursky in 1853, indicating that this, in his opinion, was inevitable, and at the same time would strengthen Russia's position on the Asian the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the face of the increasing penetration of the British Empire:

“... now, with the invention and development of railways, more than ever before, I must be convinced that the North American States will inevitably spread throughout North America, and we must not bear in mind that sooner or later they will have to give way to the North American our possessions. It was impossible, however, with this consideration not to have in mind another thing: which is very natural for Russia if you do not own all of East Asia; then dominate the entire Asian coast of the Eastern Ocean. According to the circumstances, we allowed the British to invade this part of Asia ... but this matter can still be improved by our close relationship with the North American States. "

(N. N. Muravyov-Amursky)

It should be noted that no more than 2.5 thousand Russians lived in this space with an area of \u200b\u200bmore than 1.5 million square kilometers at a single moment in time, who were lost against the background of almost 70 thousand Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts. It is this correlation that explains the conventionality of the term "Russian" in the name - the Russians were here a national minority.

However, it was this minority that began the active development of the region, which, sadly enough, in fact turned into a predatory plunder of its natural reserves. The colonists were mainly engaged in the hunting of fur animals, both land and sea. The main prey was sea otters, which were exterminated in the most barbaric ways. By the way, it was thanks to this “sea robbery” that the Russian settlers completely knocked out a friendly and harmless Steller’s cow - a marine mammal from the detachment of sirens (they, however, were hunted not for fur, but for food purposes).

The destruction of American ecosystems was carried out as follows: since there were few Russians in the colony, Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts were used as the main labor force. Merchants and industrialists, acting allegedly on behalf of the "White Tsar" (that is, the Sovereign Emperor), imposed a heavy tribute (yasak) on local communities. For the lack of fulfillment of the “plan”, the natives were beaten with whips, put in pads, ravaged their villages, leading women and children into debt slavery. And sometimes the colonists staged real armed raids on the villages of the natives, taking away all their skins and food supplies - after such raids, the unfortunate only had to go into bondage to the "jambs" (as all Russians were called in Alaska, distorting the word "Cossack") .

Not surprisingly, the local population fiercely hated the aliens. The real Cossacks who constantly stole women from aborigines and raped them added fuel to the fire. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, who destroyed aboriginal religious buildings and persecuted shamans, did not behave particularly well. In a word, unlike what the then Russian press wrote about Russian America, there were no peaceful existence of aliens and natives.

  (Anton Evseev) ***

Immediately east of Alaska, were the Canadian possessions of the British Empire (formally the company of the Hudson's Bay). Relations between Russia and Britain were determined by geopolitical rivalry and were sometimes openly hostile. During the Crimean War, when the British fleet tried to land troops in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the possibility of a direct clash in America became real. Under these conditions, in the spring of 1854, the American government, who wanted to prevent the British Empire from occupying Alaska, received a proposal for a fictitious (temporarily, for a period of three years) sale of all its possessions and property by the Russian-American company for 7 million 600 thousand dollars. The RAC entered into such an agreement with the US-Russian trading company in San Francisco, controlled by the US government, but it did not enter into force, as the RAC was able to negotiate with the British company Gulf of the Gulf.

Sales Negotiations

Formally, the next offer to sell came from the Russian envoy in Washington, Baron Eduard Stekl, but this time the initiator of the deal was Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (younger brother of Alexander II), who first voiced this offer in the spring of 1857 in a special letter to Foreign Minister A. M Gorchakov. Gorchakov supported the proposal. The position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reduced to studying the issue, and it was decided to postpone its implementation until the expiration of the privilege of the RAC in 1862. And then the question temporarily became irrelevant in connection with the US Civil War.

A special meeting was held on December 16, 1866, attended by Alexander II, Grand Duke Constantine, ministers of finance and the naval ministry, and Russian envoy to Washington, Baron Edward Stekl. All participants approved the sale idea. At the suggestion of the Ministry of Finance, a threshold of the amount was determined - at least $ 5 million in gold. On December 22, 1866, Alexander II approved the border of the territory.

In March 1867, Stekl arrived in Washington and reminded Secretary of State William Seward "of proposals that had been made in the past to sell our colonies," and added that "the imperial government is now in a position to enter into negotiations." With the consent of President Johnson, Seward was able to discuss the main provisions of the future treaty already during the second meeting with Stekl, held on March 14.

On March 18, 1867, President Johnson signed the official powers to Seward, and almost immediately negotiations were held between the Secretary of State and Stekl, during which a draft agreement on the purchase of Russian possessions in America for $ 7.2 million was agreed on in general terms.

The signing of the contract took place on March 30, 1867 in Washington. The agreement was signed in English and French (“diplomatic” languages).

On May 3 (15), 1867, the treaty was signed by Emperor Alexander II, and on October 6 (18), 1867, the Governing Senate adopted a decree on the execution of the treaty, the Russian text of which under the heading “The Highest Ratified Convention on the Assignment to the North American United States of the Russian North American Colonies” was published in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire under No. 44518. The transaction value amounted to 7.2 million dollars in gold (at the 2009 exchange rate - approximately 108 million dollars in gold).

The entire peninsula of Alaska crossed the United States (along a line extending along the meridian 141 ° west of Greenwich), a coastal strip 10 miles wide south of Alaska along the west coast of British Columbia; Alexandra Archipelago; Aleutian islands with the island of Attu; Near islands, Krysi, Lissy, Andreyanovsky, Shumagina, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikova, Afognak and other smaller islands; islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the islands of Pribylov - St. George and St. Paul. The total amount of land sold amounted to about 1,519,000 m², therefore, 4 dollars 73 cents were paid per square kilometer, that is, 1.9 cents per acre. Together with the territory, the United States transferred all immovable property, all colonial archives, official and historical documents relating to the transferred territories.

In accordance with the usual procedure, the contract was submitted to Congress. As the congressional session ended just that day, the president called an extraordinary executive session of the Senate.

The fate of the treaty was in the hands of members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. The committee at that time included: Charles Sumner from Massachusetts - chairman, Simon Cameron from Pennsylvania, William Fessenden from Maine, James Harlan from Iowa, Oliver Morton from Indiana, James Paterson from New Hampshire, Reverdy Johnson from Maryland. That is, the representatives of the North-East had to decide the question of accession of the territory in which the Pacific states were primarily interested.

The US Senate, represented by the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed doubts about the appropriateness of such a burdensome acquisition, especially in an environment where a civil war had just ended in the country. There were also doubts about the fact that the payment was made in non-cash dollars, not gold, and not to the accounts of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, but to the account of a private person (Steklya), which contradicted the terms of the contract. However, the deal was upheld in the Senate by 37 votes, with two votes against (it was Fessenden and Justin Morril from Vermont). On May 3, the agreement was ratified. On June 8, an exchange of instruments of ratification took place in Washington. Subsequently, in accordance with the established procedure, the contract was printed and then included in the official collection of laws of the Russian Empire (No. 44518).

Alaska Handover Ceremony

On Friday, October 18, 1867, at 3:30 p.m. Alaska was officially transferred to the United States. From Russia, the transfer protocol was signed by a special government commissioner, 2nd-class captain A. A. Peshchurov. The transfer ceremony took place in Novoarkhangelsk (now Sitka), aboard the American military sloop Ossipi (English) Russian .. According to the Russian, which was in force at that time in Alaska, the transfer act was signed on Saturday, October 7, old style (19 October n.st.) - due to the fact that the Julian calendar was in effect in Russia, and also due to the fact that the date in Russian America, which was considered to be to the east, and not to the west of St. Petersburg, coincided with the continental date Russia (while differing by a day from the date at the same time Yeni in the USA).

The Gregorian calendar that was in effect in the USA was introduced on the same day and the time was synchronized with the west coast of the USA: as a result, the date was moved 11 days ahead (+12 days of the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars in the 19th century, −1 day due to the transition of the territory east of the date line), and Saturday became Friday (due to the transfer of the date line).

Immediately after the transfer of Alaska to the United States, American troops arrived in Sitka.

Comparing transaction prices with similar transactions of that time

A check for 7.2 million US dollars presented to pay for the purchase of Alaska. The amount of the check is approximately equivalent to USD 119 million in 2014 (see photo). By the way, according to some experts, the building of the New York District Court was more expensive than the whole of Alaska, although the cost of the building can be so high today, but not in the 19th century. In turn, the initial price is 7.2. million today is much higher.

The Russian Empire sold hard-to-reach and uninhabited territory at 2 cents per acre ($ 0.0474 per hectare), that is, nominally one and a half times cheaper than it was sold 50 years earlier (at a different cost of a cent) by Napoleonic France (during the war and consecutive confiscation of French colonies by Britain) a much larger (2,100,000 km²) and fully developed territory of historical Louisiana: only for the port of New Orleans, America initially offered $ 10 million in a more “weighty” dollar of the very beginning of the 19th century. But the lands of Louisiana had to be redeemed from their real owners - the Indians living on it.

At the same time that Alaska was sold, the one and only three-story building in downtown New York — the New York District Court, built by the Tweed Gang — cost the New York State Treasury more than the US government — all of Alaska.

Different interpretations of Alaska's sale history

It is widely believed in Russian journalism that Alaska was not actually sold, but leased for 99 years, but the USSR did not demand it back for certain political reasons. The same version is played out in Jeffrey Archer’s novel “A Matter of Honor”. However, according to the overwhelming majority of historians, there is no ground for these versions, because, according to the agreement of 1867, Alaska unambiguously, finally and irrevocably passes into the full ownership of the United States.

Some historians also claim that Russia did not receive the gold that drowned along with the transporting barque of Orkney. Orkney) during a storm. Nevertheless, the State Historical Archive of the Russian Federation contains a document written by an unknown employee of the Ministry of Finance in the second half of 1868, stating that “For the ceded to the North American States Russian possessions in North America came from the designated States 11 362 481 p. 94 [cop.]. Of the number 11 362 481 rubles. 94 kopecks spent abroad on the purchase of accessories for the railways: Kursk-Kiev, Ryazan-Kozlovskaya, Moscow-Ryazan, etc. 10 972 238 p. 4 K. The rest is 390,243 rubles. 90 to. Arrived in cash. "

In the VIII century, before Alaska passed to America, the peninsula was part of Russia. The land was discovered in 1732, but only in the 80s the first Russians began to settle in a new place, which was a large peninsula with many separate washed by the Pacific and Arctic oceans.

For Russia, the peninsula turned out to be a real gold mine. Here were discovered deposits of gold and precious metals. And fur animals, such as sea otters, mink, fox, brought good income. Furs were equated with precious metals at a price. In addition, the Russian government signed a decree allowing foreign citizens to conduct business on Russian soil for a period of 20 years.

The capital of Alaska as part of Russia at that time was called Novoarkhengelsk. It was a small town with wooden and stone buildings, with shops and churches. In the center of the settlement was the ruler’s house, there was a theater, a nautical school, hospitals, and industrial enterprises. The city grew rapidly and as a result became the central port of the west coast.

After several years of active life in Alaska, fur production fell sharply, and foreigners engaged in the oil and gold mining business were in great competition to Russian industrialists. At the end of the 30s, the Russian government considered Alaska an unprofitable region and refused to invest in its development.

Who sold Alaska to the USA?

The sale of the peninsula has overgrown with a considerable number of myths. For a long time, the question of who sold Alaska to the United States remained open. There is a misconception in the history of Russia that Catherine II sold the mainland to the Americans. There is also a version about renting Alaska for 99 years, after which Russia did not show any rights to the peninsula. But these facts have no scientific confirmation, since at the time of the sale of the territory more than 100 passed since the death of Catherine II.

The first to speak about the sale of Alaska was the Russian side during the reign of Alexander II.

There were enough reasons for getting rid of the peninsula:

1. Flood of poachers   destroyed the main state revenues that were formed from the sale of furs.
2. A lack of money   in the treasury after the defeat in the Crimean War, it hindered the economic recovery of the Russian state, and the development of new lands in Alaska was not possible, since the costs of its maintenance and research exceeded revenues.
3. General N.N. In 1853, Muravyov-Amursky proposed transferring the US peninsula with the aim of strengthening its position on the Pacific coast. The vast territory of the peninsula and the gold found in its bowels attracted the attention of the main enemy of Russia - England. The emperor understood that the Russian army was not able to confront a foreign state. If England captures Alaska, Russia will be left with nothing. Selling the mainland of the United States, Russia will benefit and strengthen relations with the Americans.

In 1866, the representative of the Russian government E. Stekl came to Washington for secret negotiations on the transfer of northern lands to the United States.

How much did Alaska sell to America?

On March 30, 1867, a sales contract for the transfer of Alaska to the United States was signed on both sides. The transaction price amounted to more than $ 7 million in gold. For Russia it was a lot of money, as well as for America. But based on the vast area (1,519,000 km 2), the deal was very profitable for the United States: 1 square kilometer of land was estimated at 4.73 dollars.

Thus, Alaska was sold, not leased. Confirmation of this is the agreement with the exact amount drawn up in English and French, since at that time they were recognized as diplomatic. The treaty stated that the mainland and a coastline 10 miles south would become US property. All real estate, archives and historical documents were transferred with the land. Surprisingly, there is no agreement in Russian. It is known that Russia received a check for the indicated amount, but no one still knows whether it was cashed.

Many Russians did not even know about the existence of northern lands in the state, so the information about how much they sold Alaska to America was kept secret for a long time. 2 months after the agreement, information was released on the last pages of newspapers. Due to illiteracy, people did not attach much importance to this fact. It is known that after Alaska passed to America, the Gregorian calendar came into force on the peninsula.

When did Alaska become an American state?

Alaska is the 49th US state largest and richest in natural resources. On its territory there are a large number of volcanoes, lakes and rivers.

For 30 years after the purchase, Alaska was not a state due to economic weakness, sparseness, and remoteness. Thanks to the Second World War, the importance of the peninsula has increased. Shortly before Alaska became an American state, a huge amount of oil and minerals was discovered in its bowels. In 1959, the peninsula received the status of a state.

Since 1968, Alaska has been in full swing:

• development of mineral resources;
• extraction of crude oil, natural gas, gold, copper, iron, coal;
• fishing;
• reindeer rearing;
• logging;
• military airbases were built.

In the 1970s, an oil pipeline was built in Alaska, which can be compared in scale to the pipelines on the Arabian Peninsula and Western Siberia.

Despite the huge development, the state population density is the lowest: about 800 people per square meter. The reason is the harsh climate of the peninsula with a large number of swamps and permafrost.

After Alaska passed to America, the capital of the peninsula was renamed from Novo-Arkhangelsk to Sitki, which existed until 1906. Currently, the status of the capital is the city of Juneau. Sitka is a small provincial with a population of 9 thousand people, which has preserved all historical monuments about the Russian past.

For some reason, most people believe that Catherine 2 sold Alaska to the United States. But this is fundamentally the wrong opinion. This North American territory was transferred to the United States almost a hundred years after the death of the great Russian empress. So, let's figure out when and to whom Alaska was sold and, most importantly, who and under what circumstances did it.

Russian Alaska

For the first time, Russians entered Alaska in 1732. It was an expedition led by Mikhail Gvozdev. In 1799, specifically for the development of America, the Russian-American Company (RAC) was founded, headed by Grigory Shelekhov. A significant part of this company belonged to the state. The objectives of its activities were the development of new territories, trade, fur trade.

During the XIX century, the territory controlled by the company expanded significantly and at the time of the sale of Alaska, the United States amounted to more than 1.5 million square kilometers. The Russian population grew and totaled 2.5 thousand people. Fur trade and trade yielded good profits. But in relations with local tribes, everything was far from cloudless. So, in 1802, the Tlingit Indian tribe almost completely destroyed the Russian settlements. They were saved only by a miracle, because by chance just at that time a Russian ship sailed under the command of Yuri Lisyansky, possessing powerful artillery, which decided the course of the battle.

However, this was only an episode that was generally successful for the Russian-American company of the first half of the 19th century.

Start of problems

Significant problems with the overseas territories began to appear during the difficult Crimean War for the Russian Empire (1853-1856). By that time, revenues from trading and mining furs could not already cover the costs of maintaining Alaska.

The first to sell it to the Americans was offered by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Nikolayevich Muravyov-Amursky. He did this in 1853, arguing that Alaska is the natural zone of influence of the United States, and sooner or later it will still be in the hands of the Americans, and Russia should concentrate its colonization efforts on Siberia. Moreover, he insisted on transferring this territory to the United States so that it would not fall into the hands of the British, who threatened it from Canada and were at that time in a state of open war with the Russian Empire. His fears were partially justified, since already in 1854 England made an attempt to capture Kamchatka. In this regard, even a proposal was made to fictitiously transfer the territory of Alaska to the United States in order to protect it from the aggressor.

But until then, Alaska was required to be maintained, and the Russian Empire of the second half of the 19th century did not financially pull out such a program. Therefore, even if Alexander II knew that in a hundred years they would begin to produce oil in huge quantities, he would hardly have changed his decision to sell this territory. Not to mention the fact that there was a high probability that Russia would be taken away from Alaska by force, and because of the remoteness in the distance it could not protect this distant territory. So it is entirely possible that the government simply chose the lesser of evils.

Rental version

There is an alternative version, according to which the Russian Empire did not sell Alaska to the United States, but simply leased it to the States. The term of the transaction, according to this scenario, was 99 years. The USSR did not demand the return of these territories when the time came, due to the fact that it abandoned the legacy of the Russian Empire, including its debts.

So, is Alaska sold or leased? The version of leasing for temporary use has few supporters among serious specialists. It is based on an allegedly preserved copy of the contract in Russian. But it is well known that it existed only in English and French. So, most likely, these are just speculations of some pseudo-historians. In any case, there are currently no real facts that would seriously consider the lease version.

Why is Catherine?

But still, why did the version that Catherine sold Alaska become so popular, although it is clearly erroneous? Indeed, under this great empress, overseas territories had only just begun to be developed, and then there could be no talk of any sale. Moreover, Alaska was sold in the year 1867. Catherine died in 1796, that is, 71 years before this event.

The myth that Catherine sold Alaska was born a relatively long time ago. True, it talks about selling the UK, not the United States. However, this still has nothing to do with the real situation. Finally, it was firmly established in the minds of most of our compatriots that it was the great Russian Empress who made this fateful deal after the release of the Lyube group's song “Don’t Get Fooled, America ...”.

Of course, stereotypes are a very tenacious thing, and once they get into a nation, a myth can begin to live its own life, and then it is very difficult to separate the truth from fiction without special training and knowledge.

Summary

So, in a small study on the details of the sale of Alaska by the United States, we have dispelled a number of myths.

Firstly, Catherine II didn’t sell overseas territories to anyone, which they only began to seriously study under her, and the sale was made by Emperor Alexander II. What year did they sell Alaska? Certainly not in 1767, but in 1867.

Secondly, the Russian government was well aware of what it was selling and what mineral resources Alaska had. But despite this, the sale was regarded as a good deal.

Thirdly, there is an opinion that if Alaska had not been sold in 1867, it would still be part of Russia. But this is too unlikely, given the considerable distances to the central parts of our country and the proximity of North American applicants to this territory.

Is it worth regretting the loss of Alaska? More likely no than yes. The maintenance of this territory cost Russia much more than it had any benefits from it at the time of sale or could have in the foreseeable future. In addition, it is far from a fact that Alaska could be kept and it would still remain Russian.

TASS DOSSIER. October 18, 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of the official ceremony of transfer of Russian possessions in North America to the US jurisdiction, which took place in the city of Novoarkhangelsk (now the city of Sitka, Alaska).

Russian America

Alaska was discovered in 1732 by Russian researchers Mikhail Gvozdev and Ivan Fedorov during an expedition to the St. Gabriel bot. The peninsula was studied in more detail in 1741 by the Second Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov. In 1784, the expedition of the Irkutsk merchant Grigory Shelikhov, who founded the first settlement of Russian America, the Harbor of Three Saints, arrived on Kodiak Island off the southern coast of Alaska. From 1799 to 1867, Alaska and the islands adjacent to it were under the control of the Russian-American Company (RAC).

It was created on the initiative of Shelikhov and his heirs and received a monopoly on fisheries, trade and mining in northwestern America, as well as on the Kuril and Aleutian islands. In addition, the Russian-American company owned the exclusive right to open and join new territories in the North Pacific Ocean to Russia.

In the years 1825-1860, the employees of the RAC examined and mapped the territory of the peninsula. Local tribes that became dependent on the company were obliged to organize the hunting of fur animals under the leadership of the staff of the RAC. In 1809-1819, the cost of furs produced in Alaska amounted to over 15 million rubles, that is, approximately 1.5 million rubles. per year (for comparison - all the revenues of the Russian budget in 1819 were estimated at 138 million rubles).

In 1794, the first Orthodox missionaries arrived in Alaska. In 1840, the Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleutian diocese was organized, in 1852 Russian possessions in America were allocated to the New Archangel Vicar of the Kamchatka diocese. By 1867, about 12 thousand indigenous people who converted to Orthodoxy lived on the peninsula (the total population of Alaska at that time was about 50 thousand people, including about 1 thousand Russians).

The administrative center of Russian possessions in North America was Novoarkhangelsk, their total territory was about 1.5 million square meters. km The borders of Russian America were fixed by treaties with the USA (1824) and the British Empire (1825).

Alaska Sale Plans

For the first time in government circles, the idea of \u200b\u200bselling Alaska to the United States was expressed in the spring of 1853 by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky. He presented to Emperor Nicholas I a note in which he argued that Russia needed to give up possessions in North America. According to the Governor General, the Russian Empire did not have the necessary military and economic means to protect these territories from the claims of the United States.

Muravyov wrote: "We must be convinced that the North American States will inevitably spread throughout North America, and we cannot but bear in mind that sooner or later they will have to cede our North American possessions." Instead of the development of Russian America, Muravyov-Amursky proposed focusing on the development of the Far East, while having the United States as an ally against Britain.

Later, the main supporter of the sale of Alaska to the USA was the younger brother of Emperor Alexander II, chairman of the Council of State and governor of the Ministry of the Sea, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. On April 3 (March 22, old style) in 1857, in a letter addressed to Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov, he first officially proposed to sell the peninsula to the United States. As an argument in favor of concluding a deal, the Grand Duke referred to the "cramped state of public finances" and the supposedly low profitability of American territories.

In addition, he wrote that "one should not deceive oneself and one must foresee that the United States, constantly striving to round off its possessions and wanting to dominate inseparably in North America, will take the mentioned colonies from us, and we will not be able to turn them back."

The emperor supported his brother's proposal. The note was also approved by the head of the foreign ministry, but Gorchakov proposed not to rush to resolve the issue and postpone it until 1862. The Russian envoy to the United States, Baron Edward Stekl, was instructed to "elicit the opinion of the Washington cabinet on this subject."

As the head of the Maritime Department, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich was responsible for the safety of overseas possessions, as well as for the development of the Pacific Fleet and the Far East. In this area, his interests clashed with the Russian-American company. In the 1860s, the emperor’s brother launched a campaign to discredit the RAC and counter its work. In 1860, at the initiative of the Grand Duke and Minister of Finance of Russia Mikhail Reitern, the company was audited.

The official conclusion showed that the annual treasury income from the activities of the RAC amounted to 430 thousand rubles. (for comparison - the total budget revenues in the same year amounted to 267 million rubles.). As a result, Konstantin Nikolayevich and the finance minister who supported him managed to refuse to transfer the company the right to develop Sakhalin, as well as the abolition of many trade benefits, which led to a significant deterioration in the financial indicators of the RAC.

Make a deal

On December 28 (16), 1866, in St. Petersburg, in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a special meeting was held on the sale of Russian possessions in North America. It was attended by Emperor Alexander II, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, Minister of Finance Mikhail Retern, Minister of the Sea Nikolai Krabbe, Russian Ambassador to the United States Baron Eduard Stekl.

The meeting unanimously agreed to sell Alaska. However, this decision was not made public. The secrecy was so high that, for example, Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin found out about the sale of the region only after signing the agreement from British newspapers. And the board of the Russian-American company received a notice of the transaction three weeks after its formalization.

The contract was concluded in Washington on March 30 (18), 1867. The document was signed by Russian envoy Baron Edward Stekl and US Secretary of State William Seward. The deal amounted to $ 7 million 200 thousand, or more than 11 million rubles. (in terms of gold - 258.4 thousand troy ounces or $ 322.4 million at current prices), which the United States pledged to pay within ten months. Moreover, in April 1857, in a memorandum to the chief ruler of the Russian colonies in America, Ferdinand Wrangel, the territories in Alaska belonging to the Russian-American company were estimated at 27.4 million rubles.

The contract was drawn up in English and French. The entire peninsula of Alaska, the Alexander and Kodiak archipelagos, the islands of the Aleutian ridge, as well as several islands in the Bering Sea crossed to the United States. The total area of \u200b\u200bland sold amounted to 1 million 519 thousand square meters. km According to the document, Russia donated to the United States all the assets of the RAC, including buildings and structures (except for churches), and committed to withdraw its troops from Alaska. The indigenous population was transferred under the jurisdiction of the United States, Russian residents and colonists received the right to move to Russia within three years.

The Russian-American company was subject to liquidation, its shareholders eventually received minor compensation, the payment of which was delayed until 1888.

On May 15 (3), 1867, an agreement on the sale of Alaska was signed by Emperor Alexander II. On October 18 (6), 1867, the Governing Senate adopted a decree on the execution of a document, the Russian text of which was published in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire under the heading "The Highest Ratified Convention on the Assignment of Russian North American Colonies to the North American United States." On May 3, 1867, the US Senate ratified the treaty. On June 20, an exchange of instruments of ratification took place in Washington.

Contract Execution

On October 18 (6), 1867, the official ceremony of transferring Alaska to US ownership took place in Novoarkhangelsk: the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised under gun salutes. From Russia, the protocol on the transfer of territories was signed by a special government commissioner, captain of the 2nd rank Alexei Peshchurov, from the United States - General Lowell Russo.

In January 1868, 69 soldiers and officers of the New Arkhangelsk garrison were taken to the Far East, to the city of Nikolaevsk (now - Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Territory). The last group of Russians - 30 people - left Alaska on November 30, 1868 on the winged arrow ship that was bought for this purpose, which was sailing to Kronstadt. Only 15 people accepted American citizenship.

On July 27, 1868, the US Congress approved the decision to pay Russia the funds specified in the agreement. Moreover, as follows from the correspondence of the Russian Minister of Finance Reiter with the ambassador to the United States, Baron Stekl, $ 165 thousand of the total amount went to bribes to senators, who contributed to the decision by Congress. 11 million 362 thousand 482 rubles. in the same year they came to the disposal of the Russian government. Of these, 10 million 972 thousand 238 rubles. It was spent abroad on the purchase of equipment for the Kursk-Kiev, Ryazan-Kozlov and Moscow-Ryazan railways under construction.