History of a Geopolitical Choice of the Russian Empire

Abstract

This article analyses the cession of Russian America (Alaska) to the United States (1867), the role of American geopolitical plans and dreams, and Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky’s strategic decision to concentrate Russia’s resources on its continental regions. He considered Russia’s main task to be the development of the Amur and its consolidation at its mouth and on the Pacific Ocean coast to head off the clear aspirations of Britain and France. The East Asian achievements of Nikolay N. Muravyov-Amursky are recognized, while his personal authorship of the original political plan linking Alaska’s peaceful concession to the United States was a hidden consequence of subsequent events. The undeclared but real connection between the development of the Amur and the cession of Alaska was no mystery to contemporaries in Europe, but in Russia itself, due to the censorship, this issue has not entered the public consciousness, remaining the topic of basic historical works alone.