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4 unusual facts about Russian colonization of the Americas


Russian colonization of the Americas

Eager to release themselves of the burden, the Russians sold Fort Ross in 1842, and in 1867, after less than a month of negotiations, the United States accepted Emperor Alexander II's offer to sell Alaska.

The Orthodox Church in America, which was formerly a missionary diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, traces its history back to the early Russian missionaries in 'Russian America'.

Count Nikolay Rumyantsev funded Russia's first naval circumnavigation under the joint command of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov in 1803–1806, and was instrumental in the outfitting of the voyage of the Riurik's circumnavigation of 1814–1816, which provided substantial scientific information on Alaska's and California's flora and fauna, and important ethnographic information on Alaskan and Californian (among others) natives.

So following the Union victory in the American Civil War, Tsar Alexander II instructed the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl, to enter into negotiations with the United States Secretary of State William H. Seward in the beginning of March 1867.


Mount Furuhelm

Mount Furuhelm was named for Johan Hampus Furuhjelm (known in Russian as Ivan Vasiliyevich Furugelm), who was governor of Russian America from 1859 to 1863.


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