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Exact time The beginning of the settlement of this cold and inhospitable territory is unknown. The first people who began to develop these lands were small tribes of Indians, displaced by stronger peoples from fertile lands. Gradually they reached the islands, which today are called the Aleutian Islands, settled these harsh lands and firmly settled on them.

Many years later, on these lands, the Russians are from the far north. While the European powers were scouring the tropical seas and oceans in search of new colonies, the Russians were exploring the lands of Siberia, the Urals and the regions of the far north. Alaska was opened to the entire civilized world during the expedition of Russian pioneers Ivan Fedorov and Mikhail Gvozdev. This event took place in 1732, this date is considered official.

But the first Russian settlements appeared in Alaska only half a century later, in the 80s years XVIII centuries. The main occupations of the people living in these settlements were hunting and commerce. Gradually, the harsh conditions of the far north began to turn into a good source of income, since the fur trade in those days was equated to the gold trade.

In 1781, entrepreneur Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov founded the North-East Company in Alaska, which was engaged in fur mining, building schools and libraries for the local population and developing the presence of Russian culture in these lands. But, unfortunately, the lives of many talented, intelligent people who care about the cause and Russia are cut short in the prime of life. Shelekhov died in 1975 at the age of 48.

Soon his company was merged with other fur trading enterprises, and it became known as “Russian-American trading company" Emperor Paul I, by his decree, endowed new company monopoly rights to the extraction of furs and the development of lands in the northeastern region of the Pacific. Until the 30s of the 19th century, Russia’s interests in these northern lands were jealously protected by the authorities and no one was going to sell or give them away.

Sale of Alaska to the USA

By the end of the 1830s, at the court of Emperor Nicholas I, an opinion began to form that Alaska was unprofitable, and investing money in this region was a pointless exercise. By that time, the uncontrolled predatory destruction of foxes, sea otters, beavers and minks had led to a sharp drop in fur production. “Russian America” has lost its original commercial significance, vast territories have practically ceased to be developed, and the influx of people has dried up.

There is a widespread myth, and even a whole one, that Alaska was sold by Catherine II, the buyer supposedly being proud Britain. In fact, Catherine II did not sell or even lease Alaska. Emperor Alexander II sold these northern lands belonging to Russia, and this transaction was forced. Having ascended the throne in 1855, Alexander was faced with numerous problems, the solution of which required money. Understanding very well that selling one’s lands is a shameful thing for any state, he tried to avoid this during the 10 years of his reign.

Initially, the US Senate expressed doubts about the advisability of such a burdensome acquisition, especially in a situation when the country had just ended a civil war and the treasury was depleted.

However financial position the yard was getting worse, and it was decided to sell “Russian America”. In 1866, a representative was sent to Washington imperial court, who negotiated the sale of the northern lands of Russia, everything was done in an atmosphere of strict confidentiality, they agreed on an amount of 7.2 million dollars in gold.

The feasibility of acquiring Alaska became obvious only thirty years later, when gold was discovered in the Klondike and the famous “gold rush” began.

To comply with all political conventions, the sale was officially completed a year after secret negotiations; for the whole world, the deal was initiated by the United States. In March 1867, after the legal registration of the deal, “Russian America” ceased to exist. Alaska received the status of a colony, a little later it was renamed a district, and in 1959 it became a full-fledged United States. In Russia, the deal to sell distant northern lands went virtually unnoticed, only some newspapers noted this event on last pages their publications. A lot of people didn’t even know about the existence of these distant northern lands belonging to Russia.

TASS DOSSIER. October 18, 2017 marks 150 years since the official ceremony of transferring Russian possessions to North America under the jurisdiction of the United States, which took place in the city of Novoarkhangelsk (now the city of Sitka, Alaska).

Russian America

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

It was created on the initiative of Shelikhov and his heirs and received a monopoly right to fisheries, trade and development of minerals in the north-west of America, as well as on the Kuril and Aleutian Islands. In addition, the Russian-American Company had the exclusive right to open and annex new territories in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean to Russia.

In 1825-1860, RAC employees surveyed and mapped the territory of the peninsula. Local tribes that became dependent on the company were obliged to organize the harvest of fur-bearing animals under the leadership of RAC employees. In 1809-1819, the cost of furs obtained in Alaska amounted to over 15 million rubles, that is, approximately 1.5 million rubles. per year (for comparison, all Russian budget revenues in 1819 were calculated 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 the Russian possessions in America were allocated to the Novo-Arkhangelsk Vicariate of the Kamchatka diocese. By 1867, about 12 thousand representatives of indigenous peoples 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 secured by treaties with the USA (1824) and the British Empire (1825).

Plans for selling Alaska

For the first time in government circles, the idea of selling Alaska to the United States was expressed in the spring of 1853 by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky. He presented a note to Emperor Nicholas I, in which he argued that Russia needed to give up its 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 US claims.

Muravyov wrote: “We must be convinced that the North American States will inevitably spread throughout North America, and we cannot help but keep in mind that sooner or later we will have to cede our North American possessions to them.” Instead of developing 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 United States was the younger brother of Emperor Alexander II, chairman State Council and Administrator of the Naval Ministry Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. On April 3 (March 22, old style), 1857, in a letter addressed to Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov, he proposed for the first time at the official level to sell the peninsula to the United States. As arguments in favor of concluding the deal, the Grand Duke referred to the “constrained situation of public finances” and the allegedly low profitability of the 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 aforementioned colonies from us, and we will not be able to return them.”

The emperor supported his brother's proposal. The note was also approved by the head of the foreign policy department, but Gorchakov proposed not to rush to resolve the issue and postpone it until 1862. The Russian envoy to the United States, Baron Eduard Stekl, was instructed to “find out the opinion of the Washington Cabinet on this subject.”

As the head of the Naval Department, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich was responsible for the security of overseas possessions, as well as for the development of the Pacific Fleet and the Far East. In this area, his interests collided with the Russian-American company. In the 1860s, the emperor's brother began a campaign to discredit the RAC and oppose its work. In 1860, on the initiative of the Grand Duke and Minister of Finance of Russia Mikhail Reitern, an audit of the company was carried out.

The official conclusion showed that the annual treasury income from the activities of the RAC amounted to 430 thousand rubles. (for comparison, total state budget revenues in the same year amounted to 267 million rubles). As a result, Konstantin Nikolaevich and the Minister of Finance who supported him managed to achieve a refusal to transfer the rights to the development of Sakhalin to the company, as well as the abolition of many trade benefits, which led to a significant deterioration in the financial performance of the RAC.

Make a deal

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

At the meeting, an agreement was unanimously reached on the sale of Alaska. However, this decision was not made public. The secrecy was so high that, for example, Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin learned about the sale of the region only after the signing of the agreement from British newspapers. And the board of the Russian-American company received notification of the transaction three weeks after its official registration.

The conclusion of the treaty took place in Washington on March 30 (18), 1867. The document was signed by the Russian envoy Baron Eduard Stoeckl and US Secretary of State William Seward. The transaction amount was $7 million 200 thousand, or more than 11 million rubles. (in terms of gold - 258.4 thousand troy ounces or $322.4 million in modern prices), which the United States pledged to pay within ten months. Moreover, in April 1857, in a memo by the main ruler of the Russian colonies in America, Ferdinand Wrangel, the territories in Alaska belonging to the Russian-American Company were valued at 27.4 million rubles.

The contract was drawn up in English and French. The entire Alaska Peninsula, the Alexander and Kodiak archipelagos, the islands of the Aleutian chain, as well as several islands in the Bering Sea passed to the United States. total area The land area sold amounted to 1 million 519 thousand square meters. km. According to the document, Russia transferred all RAC property to the United States free of charge, including buildings and structures (with the exception of churches), and pledged to withdraw its troops from Alaska. Indigenous people 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, the 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 the document, the Russian text of which, under the heading “The Highest Ratified Convention on the Cession of the Russian North American Colonies to the United States of America,” was published in Full meeting laws Russian Empire. On May 3, 1867, the treaty was ratified by the US Senate. On June 20, the instruments of ratification were exchanged in Washington.

Execution of the contract

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

In January 1868, 69 soldiers and officers of the Novoarkhangelsk garrison were taken to the Far East, to the city of Nikolaevsk (now Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Territory). Last group Russians - 30 people - left Alaska on November 30, 1868 on the ship "Winged Arrow" purchased for this purpose, which was heading 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. At the same time, as follows from the correspondence between Russian Finance Minister Reitern and Ambassador to the United States Baron Steckl, $165 thousand of the total amount went to bribes to senators who contributed to the decision-making of Congress. 11 million 362 thousand 482 rubles. in the same year they came into use Russian government. Of these, 10 million 972 thousand 238 rubles. was spent abroad on the purchase of equipment for the Kursk-Kyiv, Ryazan-Kozlov and Moscow-Ryazan railways under construction.

The vast territory of Alaska accommodates three Frances. There are gold deposits, tungsten ore, platinum, mercury, molybdenum, coal. Oil reserves have been discovered and are being developed. And this, for a minute, is about 20%...

Many in Russia are sure that Catherine II sold Alaska. This opinion is especially strong after execution famous group“Lube” songs about Alaska. The youth then decided that the Great Queen had made the wrong move.

A long time ago, the Bering Strait, with a crust of Arctic ice, connected two continents - Asian and American. There was no difficulty in moving from one bank to the other using dog sleds.

The width of the strait between the continents is only 86 kilometers. The Indians, moving to the north, were the first to explore Alaska. But the cold climate squeezed them out of the territory, and the Indians reached the Aleutian islands and settled there.

The Russian Empire was actively advancing eastward beyond the Ural Mountains and into Siberia. Encouraged by the Russian tsars, brave, courageous people They were not heading to the hot southern countries, but to the North and Far East.

1732 for Russia was the year of the annexation of Alaska. But the discovery of new lands is one thing, the development of new lands is quite another. Russian explorers began settling in Alaska at the end of the eighteenth century.

Immediately this area became a source of enrichment. There were a lot of fur-bearing animals there, and fur was equal to gold. Hunters caught animals, and merchants bought them, taking them to the continent. At the beginning of the exploration of Alaska, the Russians jealously guarded the territory.

But gradually the population of fur-bearing animals fell. The hunt was carried out without any rules and the animals disappeared, finding new habitats for life. Many species were on the verge of extinction. Fur production has decreased greatly.

The Russians had no intention of exploring new lands. It was cold there. The hunters hoped only for the fur trade. This was the primary reason why the territory of Alaska was sold to America. Business circles called the territories unprofitable.

The ruling emperor gradually came to the conclusion that the lands of Alaska would only bring headaches. Industrialists believed that by investing money in an unprofitable region, you could lose everything. The payback is zero.

Russia already has Siberian, Altai and Far Eastern territories. There climatic conditions better. This is how the lack of geological surveys in remote areas created the conditions for the loss of the richest territories.

During these years Crimean War siphoned huge amounts of money from the Russian treasury. Emperor Nicholas I died and was succeeded by Alexander II. The country's population expected a change in policy, the abolition of serfdom, and freedoms. But, as always, there was no money in Russia.

It was not Catherine who signed the Alaska Treaty. When it came to such a deal, her great-grandson, Alexander II, was on the throne. Those who believe that Alaska was given to tenants for 99 years are also mistaken.

You can often read in literature that the queen did not speak Russian well. And she signed the Alaska document without understanding well enough what it was about. we're talking about. So no. She spoke Russian better than many courtiers.

These events began several decades after the death of Catherine. Russian problems required an immediate solution, but, as always in Russia, there was no money. Alexander II did not immediately rush to sell the Northern Territory.

Another ten years passed before the situation turned out not to be better side. Selling land is a shameful fact for any country. Who wants to talk about the weakness of the ruling cabinet, which is incapable of governing the territory? But the treasury was in dire need.

Purchase and sale

Silence and secrecy shrouded the deal. There was no television or internet. The Russian Government sent a representative at large to the US Congress. The proposal took place in 1866.

Although times were difficult in America, they quickly realized the significance of owning an entire continent. It just ended in America Civil War, and the country's treasury was depleted to the limit.

In ten years, the Russian authorities could get much more for Alaska. But they agreed on the amount of seven million, two hundred thousand dollars in gold equivalent. Russia urgently needed money; America had no money.

Today it amounts to half a billion dollars. No one else would have bought these lands. They were most convenient only for America. The reader must agree that Alaska is immeasurably more expensive.

To preserve diplomatic relations between the countries, a year after the sale of the territories, America loudly proposed to Russia to sell Alaska.

The secret visit of the Russian representative was forgotten. It was believed that America itself offered Russia to buy Alaska from it. Russia's dignity was preserved. 1867 marked the official annexation of Alaska to America.

Food for thought

You can argue for a long time about selling or leasing Alaska. But let us remember, reader, that the recent abolition of serfdom, the lost Crimean War - all this placed enormous pressure on the country.

Deprived stable income The landowners expected the serfs to pay money from the state, which pledged to compensate for losses. Tens of millions of gold rubles flowed from the treasury.

The tsarist government was forced to make loans from foreign banks. Many countries gave loans to Russia with great pleasure. Rich country– Russia had untold riches.

But the current situation required immediate capital. Every ruble was on the emperor's personal account. The sale of Alaska became an urgent necessity. Its territories did not bring a penny of income to the treasury.

All business and financial world had an idea about this. No other country would buy Alaska. Russia did not notice the sale of the Northern Territories. Many citizens had no idea about it. The American Congress was also against the purchase.

When gold was found in Alaska, the emperor was ridiculed by all and sundry. But finance and politics do not have a subjunctive mood. But at that moment the Russian emperor made the only right decision.

On August 1, 1868, the Russian charge d'affaires in Washington, Baron Eduard Andreevich Stekl, received a check for $7.2 million from the United States Treasury. This financial transaction put an end to the largest transaction in world history for the sale of territorial possessions. Russian colonies on the North American continent with an area of 1519 thousand square meters. km, according to the treaty signed on March 18 (30), 1867, came under the sovereignty of the United States. The official ceremony for the transfer of Alaska took place before the check was received on October 18, 1867. On this day, in the capital of Russian settlements in North America, Novoarkhangelsk (now the city of Sitka), the Russian flag and the American one was raised. October 18 is celebrated as Alaska Day in the United States. In the state itself, the official holiday is the day of signing the Treaty - March 30.

For the first time, the idea of selling Alaska was expressed in a very delicate and strictly secret form by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, the day before. In the spring of 1853, Muravyov-Amursky presented a note in which he outlined in detail his views on the need to strengthen Russia’s position in Far East and the importance of a close relationship with the United States.

His reasoning boiled down to the fact that the question of ceding Russian overseas possessions to the United States would sooner or later be raised, and Russia would not be able to protect these remote territories. The Russian population in Alaska then, according to various estimates, ranged from 600 to 800 people. There were about 1.9 thousand Creoles, a little less than 5 thousand Aleuts. This territory was home to 40 thousand Tlingit Indians who did not consider themselves subjects of Russia. To develop an area of more than 1.5 million square meters. km, so remote from the rest of the Russian lands, there were clearly not enough Russians.

The authorities in St. Petersburg reacted favorably to Muravyov's note. The proposals of the Governor General of Eastern Siberia to strengthen the position of the empire in the Amur region and on the island of Sakhalin were studied in detail with the participation of the Admiral General, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and members of the board of the Russian-American Company. One of the specific results of this work was the emperor’s order dated April 11 (23), 1853, which allowed the Russian-American company to “occupy Sakhalin Island on the same basis as it owned other lands mentioned in its privileges, in order to prevent any foreign settlements."

The main supporter of the sale of Russian America was his younger brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The general state of Russia's finances, despite the reforms carried out in the country, was deteriorating, and the treasury needed foreign money.

Negotiations to acquire Alaska from Russia began in 1867 under President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) at the urging of Secretary of State William Seward. On December 28, 1866, at a special meeting in the main hall of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held with the participation of Emperor Alexander II, Grand Duke Constantine, Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov, Finance Minister Mikhail Reitern, the head of the Navy Ministry Nikolai Krabbe and the envoy in Washington Eduard Stekl, there was a decision was made to sell Russian properties in North America. At 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867, an agreement was signed on the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States of America for $7.2 million (11 million royal rubles). Among the territories ceded by Russia to the United States under the treaty on the North American continent and in Pacific Ocean were: the entire Alaska Peninsula, a 10-mile wide coastal strip south of Alaska along the west coast of British Columbia; Alexandra Archipelago; Aleutian Islands with Attu Island; the islands of Blizhnye, Rat, Lisya, Andreyanovskiye, Shumagina, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikova, Afognak and other smaller islands; Islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribilof Islands - St. Paul and St. George. Along with the territory, all real estate, all colonial archives, official and historical documents related to the transferred territories were transferred to the United States.

Most researchers agree that the agreement on the sale of Alaska was a mutually beneficial result of the implementation of American geopolitical ambitions and the sober decision of Russia to focus on the development of the Amur and Primorye regions, annexed to the Russian Empire in 1860. In America itself at that time there were few people willing to acquire the vast territory, which opponents of the deal called a reserve for polar bears. The US Senate ratified the treaty by only a majority of one vote. But when gold and rich people were discovered in Alaska mineral resources, this deal was recognized as the main achievement of the administration of President Andrew Johnson.

The name Alaska itself appeared during the passage of the purchase agreement through the US Senate. Then Senator Charles Sumner, in his speech in defense of the acquisition of new territories, following the traditions of the indigenous population of the Aleutian Islands, gave them a new name Alaska, that is, “Big Land”.

In 1884, Alaska received county status and was officially declared a US territory in 1912. In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States. In January February 1977, an exchange of notes took place between the governments of the USSR and the USA, confirming that the “western border of the ceded territories” stipulated by the 1867 treaty, passing in the Northern Arctic Ocean, Chukotka and Bering seas, is used to delimit areas of jurisdiction of the USSR and the USA in the field of fishing in these sea areas. After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation became the legal successor to the international agreements concluded by the Union.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources