From Russian America with Love?: Russia's Complicated Relationship with Alaska

The story of “Seward’s Folly” is often seen through an exclusively American lens. It is frequently told as an account of how Secretary of State Seward skillfully negotiated with Russia (and even his own government) to acquire a vast territory, cast as the triumphal tale of Seward proving his many doubters wrong by adding an important final chapter to his political legacy. But what about the Russian side of the story? On this sesquicentennial of Alaska Day— the date in when the U.S. officially took possession of what many called “Seward’s Icebox”—  join us to learn about the Russian perspective of the deal. Professor Tatyana Bakhmetyeva unpacks not only Czarist-era motivations to sell the Russian American colony, but the way Alaska has loomed large in Russian memory and national imagination ever since.

Tatyana Bakhmetyeva is a scholar of nineteenth Russian, Russian intellectual history, and Russian orthodoxy. She teaches history for the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women Studies at University of Rochester.

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