Alaska, everyone knows. It’s far away, it’s cold and it’s in the United States. But what is less known, on the other hand, is the history of colonization, then of attachment to the American giant, of these isolated lands which cover more than 1.7 million square kilometers. Lands formerly under the leadership of Russia.
How did a territory under the influence of Moscow thus find in the hands of the United States? The question is all the more relevant since the imperialist and expansionists of Vladimir Putin may well question the legitimacy of Uncle Sam on these lands. The Kremlin would see itself recovering this former colony that left too early.
Alaska, a galley
The short romance between Russia and Alaska begins in the 18th centurye century. In 1732 more exactly. On this date, the Russian browser Ivan Fedorov is one of the first Europeans to set foot on the coasts of this still unexplored territory. A handful of years later, in 1741, it was the turn of Vitus Bering, a Danish in the service of Russia, to discover the Aleutian islands (beginnings of the name Alaska, from Russian “Hazard”). Connection with the Russian Empire is launched.
Very quickly, the territory took on a major economic issue for imperial Russia. What did the Russians find in these lost regions? Mainly fur, especially sea otters, which was tearing up at gold prices. From the 1780s, the Russians hastily established trade counters on the coast. Then, in 1790, the Russian-American company was created, with the monopoly of trade and administration of the territory. The adventure begins.
Intensive hunting completely decimates the population of sea otters and fur resources are dried up at high speed.
Happy like a Russian in Alaska? Not really. Only 2,500 Russians live in the colony before its sale and the least we can say is that we are far from the right vein. The distance between these lands and Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, is far too large. The administration is tedious, not to say impossible and communications prove to be a real ordeal.
Worse still, economically, business quickly fell at half mast. Intensive hunting completely decimates the population of sea otters and fur resources are dried up at high speed. At the end of the 19th centurye century, the profits of the Russian-American company collapsed. No luck: Russia is itself in a delicate economic posture, especially after its disastrous defeat during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Do you feel the future?
We break the prices, everything must disappear
Tsar Alexandre II must resolve it: Alaska is a hassle. And that could become even more so if the United Kingdom and its formidable navy, present in neighboring Canada, decides to approach a little too close to this fief as isolated as available. No choice: you have to sell Alaska, before it falls into enemy hands. But who? A friendly power rises at the top of the list: the United States.
In no time, the contract takes shape. On March 30, 1867, the Russian representative in Washington negotiated the sale. The case is concluded for the sum of $ 7.2 million, or around $ 140 million today. THE deal of the century? We don’t make you say. But at the time, history passes badly. On the Russian side, but also on the American side.
In Russia, the sale is quickly perceived as a humiliation. A humiliation for a misery which is more! Some even cry out for national betrayal. In the United States, the decision is far from unanimous. The press mocked what it calls “the madness of William Henry Seward”, in reference to the American Secretary of State at the origin of the purchase. For many, Alaska is nothing other than an unnecessary icy earth.
A profitable affair … and sensitive
The future will prove that William Henry Seward had targeted right. Gold, copper, wood, fish, oil, gas … from the start of the XXe A century, Alaska reveals all its riches, which the United States did not hesitate to exploit. Not to mention the major geostrategic position of these territories in the Pacific, which has enough to make the Russian teeth cringe. More than a century and a half after sale, they do not bother. In 2022, the president of Duma (the Russian Parliament), Viatcheslav Volodine, even mentioned the idea of a referendum to attach Alaska to Russia! Just that.
Since then, speculation is going well. In 2025, some Internet users even claimed that Vladimir Putin would have declared the sale of the territory illegal. Affirmations without proof, but which, in a context of exacerbated geopolitical tensions, do not sound hollow. Especially when you know the imperialist dream of the Russian president and his desire to reconstruct a master’s Russia of his lost territories.
