Americans in Russia

U. S. Military Commission to Crimea, Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

The first American military men to arrive and the first to engage the Bolsheviks in northern Russia in late summer, 1918.Photo: Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library/Wall Street Journal

W. E. B. Du Bois and others gathered around table in Soviet Union, 1958. Courtesy of W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries

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The long history of Russian-American relations is little known to the general public, yet critical to understanding the complex relationship that the United States has today with one of the world’s most powerful states. While most people only think of Russian-American relations in the context of the Cold War, the relationship goes back much farther and manifested itself in various ways, from trade and tourism, to diplomacy. The mid-19th century featured as an era of cooperation, when Americans participated as non-combatants in the Crimean War, followed by a visit of the Russian Fleet to the United States in 1863 during the American Civil War. The subsequent purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 involved a flurry of exchanges, including a visit from the Russian Grand Duke Alexis to the United States in 1871-72. Many of these interactions were quite positive.

A great number of memoirs and monographs illustrate American and Russian perceptions of one another in the late nineteenth century, during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and into the early Soviet period. Even in the wake of the Cold War, this relationship continues to influence international diplomacy, and economic and domestic policy in both countries. In fact, one might argue that the American relationship with Russia (and the Soviet Union) has been one of the most important considerations in international diplomacy for well over a century.