I suspect that for the overwhelming majority of Americans our involvement with Russia began around the end of WW2. Some few may recall that there was actually a meeting in the middle of the war—1943, to be exact—but that’s about the size of it for most people. Oh, wait, there was that business of Russia selling Alaska to us—what was
Goes back farther than that. Catherine the Great, Tsarina of all the Russias was also a German Princess obliged by marriage treaties to provide her cousin, George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector Hanover, with thousands of German mercenaries. Essentially, the British should have been able to expect an extra 10k so Hessians in their 1776 invasion of New York. But Catherine decided that she liked the Americans more, and she'd prefer to use those German mercenaries in her own army to conquer the Crimea. She also became the first European sovereign after Louis XVI to recognize the independence of the United States, and John Adams had his first and favorite boy, John Quincy sent off to Petrograd as part of one of the first American ministries to a European capital. Nice guy, Ivan.
Russia was one of the first nations to recognize the U.S. They were probably our first true friend on the international scene. John Quincy Adams was ambassador to Russia and had a close personal friendship with the Tsar.
If you have the patience the book Dreadnought, around 1000 pages, is a grand overview of the European Politics that led to WWI. Much was afoot then.
Goes back farther than that. Catherine the Great, Tsarina of all the Russias was also a German Princess obliged by marriage treaties to provide her cousin, George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector Hanover, with thousands of German mercenaries. Essentially, the British should have been able to expect an extra 10k so Hessians in their 1776 invasion of New York. But Catherine decided that she liked the Americans more, and she'd prefer to use those German mercenaries in her own army to conquer the Crimea. She also became the first European sovereign after Louis XVI to recognize the independence of the United States, and John Adams had his first and favorite boy, John Quincy sent off to Petrograd as part of one of the first American ministries to a European capital. Nice guy, Ivan.
Russia was one of the first nations to recognize the U.S. They were probably our first true friend on the international scene. John Quincy Adams was ambassador to Russia and had a close personal friendship with the Tsar.
That and they didn’t want their fleet iced in as they had no warm water ports.