Russia lost a war in Crimea in the 1850s. To pay off war debts, Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. Now presidents Trump and Putin will meet Friday in Alaska to discuss another war involving Crimea.
Russia lost a war in Crimea in the 1850s, leaving the country deep in debt. To ease that burden, Russia cut a real estate deal with the U.S. government, selling its colony of Alaska to the Americans.
Now, Presidents Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold a summit Friday in Alaska to discuss another difficult and costly Russian war involving Crimea, one of the territories Russia has captured in its fight with Ukraine.
The decision to meet in Alaska appears mostly practical — it’s where the U.S. and Russia almost touch, separated by just 55 miles of the Bering Strait. Yet beyond geography, there’s also symbolism and a fascinating shared history.
Alaska was a full-fledged Russian colony from 1799 to 1867. Some Russians, including Kremlin envoy Kirill Dimitriev, are pointing to that period on social media, posting photos of Russian Orthodox Churches, with their onion domes, that were built in Alaska in the 19th-century and still stand.
« Some Americans might know that we bought Alaska from Russia, but they don’t know necessarily that it was a real colony there », said Lee Farrow, a history professor at Auburn University at Montgomery and author of Seward’s Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase.
« It wasn’t just a piece of territory that [the Russians] stuck a flag in. They had a strong presence in California as well. »
Farrow was referring to Fort Ross, an outpost the Russians established in what’s now part of Sonoma County in northern California.
