Quotes used in this video:
Catherine II’s contribution to the American War of Independence is admittedly nuanced but cannot be understated. Hoping for the United States to gain its independence from Great Britain, Catherine II provided the colonists with anything she could – short of entering the war on their side. It was the Patriots who initially sparked the Revolutionary War, but it was Russia that helped fuel their motivation and resilience – a factor in their victory against British and Loyalist troops. By the time of its independence, the United States had already built a robust foundation of trade, diplomacy, and friendship with Russia.
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The two nations had enjoyed a diplomatic relationship since 1809, when James Madison appointed John Quincy Adams as the first minister to Russia. And in 1832, Russia became the first nation to enjoy “most favored nation” trading status with the United States. Staunch American support during Russia’s 1853-56 Crimean War against Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire would only strengthen the so-called “mysterious magnetism.”
U.S. doctors and American volunteers served with the Russian army throughout the conflict.
In a dispatch to Russian Foreign Minister Prince Alexander Gorchakov, Stoeckl revealed no misconceptions about American motivations. “The Americans will go after anything that has enough money in it,” he wrote. “They have the ships, they have the men, and they have the daring spirit. “The blockading fleet will think twice before firing on the Stars and Stripes.”
https://www.historynet.com/us-russian-alliance-civil-war/
For their part, the Russians viewed the United States as a valuable counterweight to the global ambitions of the British and so favored a reunion of North and South. In St. Petersburg, Prince Gorchakov warned Bayard Taylor that England “longs and prays for your overthrow…[and] France is not your friend.” Russia alone, he continued, “has stood by you from the first, and will continue to stand by you.
It is rather improbable that the people of the South could be persuaded “to form a new attachment to the Union.” Stoeckl predicted an equally bleak future for relations between Whites and the new freedmen and women. “The Negro will be tolerated only so long as he is useful to the Americans who, like all Anglo-Saxons, are always ready to speak piously about the rights of humanity, but are slow to put them into practice.”
Finally, the United States’ enmity for Britain in particular provided a strategic counterbalance that aided Russia’s emergence on the world stage. It proved to be an alliance of strange bedfellows that, however informal, served both nations well.
Americans read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and Russian literature lovers admired Poe and Twain. By the way, Mark Twain wrote: "America owes a lot to Russia." The great American writer visited the south of Russia and even met with Emperor Alexander II in 1867. However, his admiration for Russia would disappear in the future…
Russian American Relations in the 19th Century
by Professor Dmitriy Nikolayev
In the 1880s, the attitude towards Russia in the United States changed for the worse. In particular, due to political repression, discrimination against national minorities, Jewish pogroms, whose victims moved to the United States. Of course, they started to say not the best things about the Russian Empire. And if only five thousand people emigrated to America in 1881, then in 1900 this figure became already ninety thousand. American journalists described Russia as a prison of nations, a state where human rights were violated and autocracy reigns supreme. For example, George Kennan, who visited Siberia and met Russian political prisoners there, traveled across the United States with public lectures, describing the brutality and reactionary nature of the Russian regime. By the way, he lectured in Russian prison uniform and in shackles on his feet. Also, towards the end of the 19th century, the rivalry between Russia and the USA on the world oil and grain markets intensified and it increased the political tension as well.
In general, It's possible to state that in the nineteenth century Russia and the USA were mostly allies. This doesn’t mean that there were no contradictions and conflicts between the two countries. But they were resolved successfully and calmly. This cannot be said about the following twentieth century, when the two superpowers, two ideologies would fight in the Cold War for the world domination.
https://www.historycentral.com/BookReviews/RussianUS.html
Ulysses S. Grant (Photo: Wikimedia)
1878
Former President Grant Visits Russia
Former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant visited Russia, becoming the first U.S. president to make the journey. It would be decades before another president visited Russia, which Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Yalta Conference of 1945. Grant told Tsar Alexander II, that “although the two governments are very opposite in their character, the great majority of the American people are in sympathy with Russia,” which good feeling he hoped would long continue. Grant retained fond memories of his trip to Russia in his retirement.
https://usrussiarelations.org/2/timeline/first-contact/41
https://usrussiarelations.org/
Wilson’s intervention in the Russian Revolution was conceived with vague, limited goals that inevitably crept to encompass impossible ambitions. It was led astray working in cooperation with nominal allies that did not share the same objectives, fighting battles on behalf of local forces that were rapidly foundering. And it required relatively small numbers of American troops to hold vast swathes of inhospitable territory.
The Soviets later cited the U.S. intervention as yet another example of invasion from the West, adding the United States to a list of historical foes such as France, Germany, Sweden and Poland. The fumbling, small-scale expeditions surely amounted to something less than an all-out drive to overthrow the government in Moscow. Yet it provided early evidence that Russia and the United States were doomed to be intimately intertwined in each other’s affairs in the century to come.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/yes-it-true-1918-america-invaded-russia-77646
The US were allies during WWII under the leadership of FDR and Henry Wallace.
One of the reasons why relations with Russia are poor, is because the US has left treaties it was obliged to hold. So the Russians characterize the US as 'agreement non capable", that is incapable of negotiating sincerely. What is your assessment of this complaint?
The complaint that the U.S. has left treaties and is therefore seen as "agreement non-capable" by Russia is a perspective that reflects the complexities of international relations and the differing narratives that states use to justify their actions. Here are some key points to consider in assessing this complaint:
U.S. Withdrawal from Treaties: The U.S. has withdrawn from several significant treaties in recent years, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019, and the Open Skies Treaty in 2020. In each case, the U.S. justified its withdrawal by citing non-compliance or changing strategic circumstances. For example, the U.S. accused Russia of violating the INF Treaty by developing and deploying prohibited missiles, which Russia denied.
Russian Perspective: From Russia's viewpoint, these withdrawals are seen as evidence that the U.S. is unwilling to uphold its commitments, particularly when they become inconvenient or when geopolitical dynamics shift. This perception fuels the narrative that the U.S. is unreliable in negotiations and prioritizes its own interests over international agreements.
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