Alaska, once a Russian colony, to host the US summit Russia: NPR

Russia lost a war in the Crimea in the 1950s, leaving the country deep in debt. To reduce this burden, Russia cut a real estate deal with the American government, and sold the Alaska colony to Americans.

Now, the Russian and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold Friday’s summit in Alaska to discuss a difficult and expensive Russian war that includes Crimea, one of the areas that Russia seized in its battle with Ukraine.

The decision to meet in Alaska is often practically – as it touches almost the United States and Russia, separated by only 55 miles of the Beer Strait. But behind geography, there is also a wonderful symbolism and a great common history.

Alaska was complete Russian colony From 1799 to 1867. Some Russians, including the Kremlin envoy, Kirill Dimitrev, refer to that period on social media, Publish photos One of the Russian Orthodox Churches, with onion domes, which was built in Alaska in the nineteenth century and still stands.

Some Americans said that we bought Alaska from Russia, but they do not necessarily know that it is a real colony there. ” Lee VaroHistory Professor at the University of Oborn at Montgomery and author of the book ” Seoard’s foolishness: A new look at Alaska’s purchase.

“It was not just a piece of land [the Russians] The flag holds in. They also had a strong presence in California. “

Varu was referring to Fort Ross, a site outside the Russians who are now created by part of Sonoma Province in North California.

It is sold to eradicate

The motive behind Russia’s decision to sell Alaska was motivated by its need to pay the debts of the accumulated war during the Crimean War 1853-1856, which Russia lost to the integrated forces in Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire.

By this time, Russian fishermen in Alaska killed most of the bears that can be accessed, wolves, foxes, other furniture and valuable vocabulary, and thus the Russians have not seen a little economic reason for survival.

Alaska looked more responsible for the origins, and was very far away from the standards of the Russian Empire. It was sometimes called “Siberia Siberia”.

After short negotiations in the spring of 1867, the United States agreed to pay $ 7.2 million, which amounts to 2 cents per acre. Alaska covers more than half a million square miles and is the largest American state.

The agreement became known as “Fools of Ciuer”, referring to Foreign Minister William Seyard, who negotiated the deal during the era of President Andrew Johnson.

Critics Alaska described the frozen arid lands, although Varu said the description is inaccurate, then and now.

The deal attracted relatively little attention in the United States, although the country was expanding quickly west. She said that the purchase raised a bit of trees in Washington, and some newspapers have argued against it, but it was never a major political issue.

A little investment in the US government

In its early days as American lands, Alaska and people were mostly ignored. The United States government has invested little, and a few Americans who ventured there were missionaries or adventurers who were largely alone.

Just decades after Alaska began to develop. Gold was discovered in 1896, Alaska became a country in 1959 and found large oil reserves in the fifties and sixties.

There are some Russians today who believe that Alaska should be for them. When Faro went to Russia in 2017 after publishing her book and spoke to groups, she can always rely on a predictive question.

She said: “In every audience, there was at least one person who asked if the United States had legally bought Alaska.” “There was a very strong narration in Russia that we did not pay for that or was a lease contract, and we should have already returned it.”

Crimea link link

While Alaska changed his hands safely, the Crimea is a region often in conflict because of its strategic location as a peninsula in the Black Sea.

Russia wanted full control of the Crimea when it launched a war against the Ottoman Empire in 1853. The Russians expected a quick and easy victory, and they did not expect Western powers.

But Britain and France joined the war against Russia, and the Russian army proved that it was less capable of Caesar Nicholas I. Russia has suffered a humiliating defeat.

In the twentieth century, Crimea was part of the Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukraine.

Quickly forward until 2014. Putin sent Russian forces to the Crimea while launching his invasion of Ukraine, and he took over the land without any dangerous fighting.

Ukraine calls for a return to Crimea, and regularly carried out air strikes with drones and missiles in the Russian forces there. Crimea will have to be part of any serious peace negotiations, and it can appear at the Trump Putin summit on Friday.