During the American Revolution, Russia remained neutral in the conflict between Great Britain and rebelling colonists in Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire. Prior to the war's outbreak in 1775, Russian colonisers, operating under the ultimate direction of Empress Catherine the Great, had begun exploring the Western Seaboard, and in 1784 began colonizing Alaska, establishing the colony of Russian America. Although Russia did not directly become involved in the conflict, with Catherine rejecting British diplomatic overtures to dispatch the Imperial Russian Army to North America, the Russians did play a major role in diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War and contributed to the lasting legacy of the American Revolution abroad.
Russia in North America prior to the war
As other European states expanded westward across the Atlantic Ocean, the Russian Empire went eastward and conquered the vast wilderness of Siberia. Although it initially went east with the hope of increasing its fur trade, the Russian imperial court in St. Petersburg hoped that its eastern expansion would also prove its cultural, political, and scientific belonging to Europe.Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin, 2001), 447. The Eurasian empire looked to North America after reaching the Pacific Ocean in 1639 and occupying the Kamchatka Peninsula in the 1680s.
From 1729 to 1741, the Russian court sponsored the Danish-born Russian explorer Vitus Bering and his Russian colleague Aleksei Chirikov to begin the Russian search for North America.Taylor, American Colonies, 447–48. In their initial 1729 expedition, the pair missed the Alaskan coast due to thick fog. When they set off again in 1741, Chirikov reached the shore of the Alaskan panhandle only to have his search party ambushed and killed by the native Tlingits.Taylor, American Colonies, 448. After the dreadful event, Chirikov hurriedly sailed back to Kamchatka. Bering, on the other hand, had worse luck. He made it ashore to central Alaska, and then sailed back to Kamchatka along the barren Aleutians, only to endure a hard winter on one of the islands, losing many men.Taylor, American Colonies, 448. However, when Bering and his remaining crew returned to Petropavlovsk, they brought with them over nine hundred sea otter pelts.Taylor, American Colonies, 450.
The valuable furs with which survivors of Bering's expedition returned sparked greater interest in the fur trade. Russian Promyshlenniki, or fur traders, began to set off to Alaska in droves with hopes of striking it rich. The drive to obtain furs led the promyshlenniki to conflict with the native Aleuts who raided the settlements, causing the traders to respond with threats, and forced commerce.Taylor, American Colonies, 451. The traders also inadvertently caused environmental harm - many animals were hunted to near extinction.Taylor, American Colonies, 451. The tribes attacked their imperial overlords again in 1764, but their rising was met by fierce retribution and defeat at Russian hands in 1766.Taylor, American Colonies, 451–52. Prior to the onset of the American Revolutionary War, the Russian expansion into North America boosted the empire's economy and prestige, but caused much detriment to the local wildlife of Alaska, and brought about the desolation of the Aleut through disease and warfare.Taylor, American Colonies, 452.
Russia and the Declaration of Independence
News of the Declaration of Independence's penning and signing finally reached Imperial Russia on August 13, 1776.Nikolai Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence: A View from Russia," The Journal of American History (1999), 1389. In imperial correspondence, Vasilii Grigor'evich Lizakevich, a Russian ambassador in London, wrote to Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, a Russian statesman, and praised the leadership, bravery, and virtue of colonial leaders as shown through the declaration. It is worth noting, though, that, in this same dispatch, Lizakevich never noted the "natural rights of man" mentioned in the document; and, instead only focused on the actions of the American forefathers.Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence," 1389. When Catherine the Great learned of the declaration, she attributed the reason behind its creation to "personal fault" on the part of the British Crown's policies towards Britain's North American colonies. Moreover, Catherine believed "that the separation of the colonies from the mother country did not conflict with the interests of Russia and might even be advantageous to her."Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence," 1390.
More documentation of the Russian reception of the Declaration of Independence comes from the accounts of Pavel Petrovich Svinyin, a representative of the tsarist government to the United States. In his accounts from 1811 to 1813, Svinyin noted that it appeared that American civilians enjoyed almost all the enumerated liberties as outlined by the declaration and constitution.Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence," 1391–92. Despite the publication of Svinyin's observations of American life, the full text of the Declaration of Independence was outlawed in the Russian Empire until the reign and reform era of Tsar Alexander II (1855–1881).Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence," 1393. Historians attribute this absence of the document to the disconnect between the Declaration of Independence's values and the policies which the Russian monarchy enforced.Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence," 1393–94.
The Declaration of Independence also inspired the beliefs and doctrines of some members of Russia's Decembrist Uprising. To them, America represented a sort of "motherland of freedom." Even though it was never fully published before the Decembrist Revolt, the Declaration of Independence still managed to infiltrate the minds of members of Russian society.Bolkhovitinov, "The Declaration of Independence," 1392–93.
Russian diplomacy during the war
Catherine the Great and her imperial policy
Catherine, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, played a modest role in the American Revolutionary War through her politicking with other European heads of state. Initially, she took a keen interest in the conflict because it affected "English and European politics" and sympathised with the view that British colonial policies had led to the war.Frank A. Golder, "Catherine II. and the American Revolution," The American Historical Review (1915), 92. Catherine held low opinions of George III and British diplomats in Russia, often treating the latter with contempt.Golder, "Catherine II. and the American Revolution," 92. In 1775, the British sought a military alliance with Russia and formally requested Catherine send 20,000 Russian troops to North America; she rebuffed both requests.Norman Desmarais, "Russia and the American War for Independence," Journal of the American Revolution (2015).Golder, "Catherine II. and the American Revolution," 93. Upon Spain's entry into the war in 1777, British diplomats requested support from the Imperial Russian Navy against the French and Spanish navies, but Catherine II once again rejected the request.
Catherine's greatest diplomatic contribution during the American Revolution came from the creation and proclamation of the First League of Armed Neutrality in 1780. This declaration of armed neutrality had several stipulations, but three crucial ones: first, "that neutral ships may freely visit the ports of belligerent Powers;" second, "that the goods of belligerent Powers on neutral ships are permitted to pass without hindrance, with the exception of war contraband;" and, third, "under the definition of a blockaded port falls only a port into which entry is actually hampered by naval forces."Nikolai Bolkhovitinov, Russia and the American Revolution, (Tallahassee: The Diplomatic Press, 1976), 34. Most European nations agreed to these terms, but the British refused to recognize the arrangement because it undermined their blockade of rebellious North American ports, which was Britain's most effective military strategy.Desmarais, "Russia and the American War for Independence," (2015). After establishing a league of neutral parties, Catherine attempted to act as a mediator between the Americans and Britain by submitting a ceasefire plan.Golder, "Catherine II. and the American Revolution," 95. However, the Franco-American victory at the siege of Yorktown in 1781 led to such attempts becoming irrelevant.Desmarais, "Russia and the American War for Independence," (2015).
In 1780, British diplomats offered Catherine the island of Menorca if the Russians would agree to join Britain in the war. Despite the economic boost such an acquisition offered, Catherine rejected it and publicised the offer, which made Britain look weak in the eyes of other European powers.Golder, "Catherine II. and the American Revolution," 96. Even though she took a rather ambivalent approach to Russian foreign policy during the American Revolution, some scholars believe that historians have been too favorable to Catherine during this period. This negative opinion of the tsarina holds that she simply acted in the best interest of the Russian Empire and did not actually care for the cause of the Thirteen Colonies.Thomas A. Bailey, America Faces Russia: Russian–American Relations from Early Times to Our Day, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1950), 1–11.
Francis Dana's mission
Francis Dana served as the United States ambassador to Russia from December 19, 1780, until September 1783. His original mission was to "sign in St. Petersburg the convention about the adherence of the United States to the armed neutrality, and to reach an agreement about a treaty concerning friendship and trade."Bolkhovitinov, Russia and the American Revolution, 62–75
Dana experienced some difficulties during his trip. First off, the Russian Empire had not yet recognized the United States as a nation, and, secondly, the Russians could not formally accept a representative from a state which they had not yet acknowledged. The American diplomat fought against these presumptions and put forth, in a long memorandum to the Russian imperial court, that America's nationhood stemmed from the Declaration of Independence and not from a peace treaty with Great Britain. However, "the argumentation of Francis Dana, based on the principles of popular sovereignty, could not, it goes without saying, make a special impression (on the contrary, only a negative one) on the Tsarist Government." Due to these hindrances to the success of his mission, Robert Livingston moved that the Continental Congress recall Dana from St. Petersburg. Ironically, Dana left Russia the day after the signing of the peace treaty between the United States and Britain. Unfortunately for Francis Dana, he spent years in the Russian courts only to see his mission uncompleted.Bolkhovitinov, Russia and the American Revolution, 62–75.
Many historians have overlooked the broader political occurrences at the time of Dana's mission. Several believe Catherine II's refusal to acknowledge the American diplomat rooted itself in Russia's desire to avoid conflict with Great Britain. However, Catherine the Great used her denial of Dana as a leverage point in her annexation of Crimea. She voiced to her fellow heads of state that she remained neutral during their conflicts, so they should not meddle with her political affairs. Perhaps this politicking on the part of Catherine II also played a role in the failure of Dana's quest.Bolkhovitinov, Russia and the American Revolution, 62–75.
Legacy of the war in Russia and America