Does Russia regret having sold Alaska?
BY HENRY SREBRNIK
As all those who study nationalism know, one of the major sources of conflict between states relates to what is known as irredentism.
This refers to any movement or country that seeks to reclaim and occupy a land that it considers to be a “lost” or “unredeemed” territory that it once owned.
Such territorial claims are justified on the basis of real or imagined national notions of historic, territorial, religious or ethnic affiliations. There are many serious cases of irredentist claims around the world, and they often spark wars. Some seem dormant – but are they?
Visiting Alaska recently, I wondered if there was any “seller’s remorse” in Russia regarding a former colony that is now an American state. It’s been more than 150 years since Tsar Alexander II of Russia sold Alaska, across the Bering Strait from Siberia, to the United States. At the time, it seemed to make sense. The Russians had lost the Crimean War to European rivals Britain and France a decade earlier, and they feared that the British, already in control of most of northern North America, might wrest it from them.
To forestall this, in 1867 they sold Alaska to the United States, then still a relatively minor power and certainly no threat to them. Russian America was the name of the tsarist colonial possessions in North America from 1733 to 1867. The Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur-bearing mammals on Alaska’s coast.
The fur trade proved to be a lucrative enterprise, and in 1784, with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great, permanent settlement in Alaska began. In 1799 the Russian-American Company was created in order to monopolize the fur trade. Alexander Baranov (for whom a hotel is named in present-day Juneau) was promoted by the company as chief manager, effectively becoming the first governor of Russian America.
The capital was established in New Arkhangelsk (today’s Sitka) and became known as the “Paris of the Pacific Ocean.” Angered by encroachment on their land, Tlingit warriors destroyed several Russian settlements, but the Russians reestablished their presence following the Battle of Sitka in 1804.
By the middle of the 19th century, though, profits from the colony were in steep decline and the Russians concluded that it was too expensive to retain. They also feared that if gold were discovered (as it eventually was), Americans might overrun the territory.
U.S. Secretary of State William Seward had wanted to purchase Alaska for quite some time as he saw it as an integral part of “manifest destiny.” The purchase would position the U.S. closer to trade with China and fend off any British thoughts of encroachment on the West Coast.
Though many skeptics called it “Seward’s folly,” Washington purchased the colony for $7.2 million. As it turned out, it was money well spent!
Some Russians now regret the decision. So, the 150th anniversary last year of Russia’s sale was a day of mourning for some right-wing Russian nationalists who see the transaction as a gigantic blunder, one that lessened Moscow’s influence in an Arctic with natural riches in an age of climate change.
“If Russia was in possession of Alaska today, the geopolitical situation in the world would have been different,” Sergey Aksyonov, the prime minister of Crimea, remarked. A Russian military magazine ran an article on “The Alaska We’ve Lost.”
Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher and strategist known for his fascist views, and one of the founding fathers of the “Eurasian civilization doctrine,” has stated that the sale should be re-discussed.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, was more diplomatic. “The anniversary may, of course, trigger diverse emotions,” he said. “But it is a good occasion to refresh memories of Russians’ contribution to exploration of the American continent.” Andrei Znamenski a history professor at the University of Memphis, told the New York Times that irredentist calls to reclaim Alaska were not limited to extremists.
“It’s a very convenient episode for nationalists, who want Russia to expand, to exploit,” he said. “It fits into national rhetoric: Look how the Americans have treated us.” Today the Russian-American border runs through the Diomede Islands in the middle of the Bering Strait. Big Diomede belongs to Russia and Little Diomede to the U.S. The distance between them is a mere 3.8 kilometres.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at UPEI.