Without America

On March 30, 1867, Russia, in the person of the ambassador in Washington, Baron E. A. Stekli signed an agreement with the United States, which lost its last possessions on the American continent. The territories, namely, Alaska with adjacent islands - were given forever, voluntarily and for money - that is, of all the conceivingly possible ways to challenge.

In connection with this date, I would like to bring here some scattered information related to the subject, often remaining aloof from the consciousness of our curious fellow citizens.

1. "Drain" opened by Russian explorers and mainly officially included in Russia in America and around began by no means in 1867 and not even under Alexander the Liberator. This process was going on by that time for a very long time - it began even under Alexander I Blessed. By that time, as you know, Russia had almost the most powerful positions from all European powers in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. At least - theoretically, taking into account the stooped glade. Otherwise, it is clear that all this looked taking into account the internal resources of the country that it was ready, i.e. I could and wanted to spend for the development of America. It was this real picture apparently that the three consistently ruled emperors to the idea that Russian America did not have a long prospect.

Be that as it may, the first surrender of positions, it seems, was an agreement with Spain of 1801. This kingdom then also reached California and came close with the Russian people who settled there.

The next step was taken at the very end of the reign of the winner of Napoleon. In 1824 -1825 Russia signs two conventions on distinction with England and the USA. According to them, Russian possessions are pushed to the Pacific Ocean from the depths of the mainland and push up to the north - from 42o c. Sh. ' up to 54O 40 'p. Sh. In the territories lost by Russia, the American states Oregon and Washington, as well as the Canadian province of British Colombia, later arose. Not to mention the land of California. In return, Russia does not receive anything, in addition to obligations not to base settlements in newly marked Russian territories, as well as not selling alcohol and weapons to the indigenous population.

Other events took place - for example, the initiative to approve the Russian flag on some islands of the Hawaiian archipelago is known. The initiative was private, as well as the majority of initiatives in Russian America, but, be that as it may, one of the Gawaiian rulers accepted Russian citizenship, granted the Russian-American company of the Earth and Harbor, and the emperor in response granted him a gold medal on the Annenskaya tape with the inscription: "The benefactor of the Sandwich Islands of Tomari as a sign of his friendship to the Russians." And also a dagger, as well as a raincoat with golden brushes and a gully. However, the Russian factor on this king is defeated by the natives - as well as the other, on the island of Kauai, founded in 1815 and lasting two years.

2. According to the contract, Alaska was sold for $ 7,200,000 in gold. It was somewhere around 11,0000,000 rubles at the then rate. How significant was this amount? Wikipedia says that, on the one hand, it is comparable, being attributed to the purchase area, to the amount paid by France for the Louisiana acquired from it, and on the other, with the cost of only a building in New York, bought for its needs by the federal treasury. But, how this amount correlates with the Russian numbers of that period:

Public finances in 1867:

State Revenues - 483 million rubles,
Including:
Excise tax on vodka - 134 million rubles
Customs tariffs - 37 million rubles
Loan revenues - 68 million rubles

State expenses - 460 million rubles,
Including:
Debt payment - 82 million rubles
The expenses of the military ministry - 127 million rubles
The expenses of the Ministry of Finance - 80 million rubles

The average annual foreign trade figures for 1866-1870:
Export - 263 million rubles
Including bread - 104 million rubles
Import - 260 million rubles

During the redemption operation, the landowners received:
5 percent papers-approximately 570 million rubles
cash - 9.6 million rubles

That is, we see that the income from the sale of Alaska is slightly smaller, but in general we are comparable with the size of the cash gap during the peasant reform. That is, the amounts are not too critical for the state financials of the empire - in any case, the thesis about the forces of the sale of Alaska from direct financial considerations is clearly incorrect.

3. It is clear that the measures to assign land under a foreign sovereignty did not cause strong positive emotions either among the Russian public or even among those who prepared them in Russia. So much so that the agreements of 1824-1825. In general, they tried to hide the inquisitive public from the eyes of the eyes, in all official registers, placing somewhere among economic contracts. And the Alaskan agreement, for example, did not have an official text in Russian - only English and French. Nevertheless, they were perceived as forced, inevitable actions - the main "fan" of the sale of Alaska led. Prince. Konstantin Nikolaevich wrote in 1857 to the chancellor A. M. Gorchakov: “This sale would be very timely,” the Grand Duke wrote, “for it should not be deceived and must be foreseen that the United States ... Wanting to dominate the North America, we will take the mentioned colonies from us, and we will not be able to turn them out. And their loss would not be too sensitive ... ”(This is, generally speaking, about 6% of the Russian territory!). In any case, violations of Russian sovereignty in America from the British and American persons were calculated almost hundreds. It is difficult to say whether the chances of holding Russian America were more precisely what could be done in order to solve this problem. It is believed that at a certain time it was enough to destroy the monopoly of the Russian-American company to develop these colonies, allowing private business to work freely in the region. In fact, cancer is, of course, by world standards an anachronism, England and Holland worked like this with colonies in the 17th century - however, removing this agent not only development, but also the authorities, it was necessary to create in return for new others. Which? In my opinion, fundamentally, this task, of course, had a solution and even, perhaps, not the only thing-but in these cases it would demand a different step in the ladder of the national priorities of Russia, to the detriment of something else. And we know that in those years the government in St. Petersburg regarding the reform did not suffer from boredom. In general, we can say that the loss of Alaska is a fee for the limited managerial, reform resources of the country during the Great Reforms. You always have to pay for all the good - and then and now.

4. Money, bribes and outlandish telegram.

Contrary to common legends, the money under the contract was paid by the American side in full and it is precisely with those gold dollars. Although, of course, non -cash payment, i.e. A check - not a caravan loaded with coins of camels. The entire amount was first adjusted in the bank of the Riggs, and then $ 7035,000 were transferred to London, to the Bargs Bank, who had quite dense contacts with imperial finances. 165,000 remained at the disposal of glass, from this money he paid his famous bribes to American influential people. Again, contrary to the widespread representation, the bribes were paid not to sign the contract in March 1867 or its ratification at the end of May of the same year (although there were enough opponents of the transaction in American ruling circles), and for the sake of execution of its points regarding the fact that the contract was ratified by both parties, and control over Alaska was fully transferred by the American side.

In fact, America detained payments relative to the agreed deadline (10 months from the date of exchange of ratification letters). The reason was, in general, technical. The payment required a separate legislative decision, and at that time the House of Representatives of the US Congress voted for impeachment to the then president of the country, and the corresponding trial began in the Senate. Before its end, there was no question of any decisions on Alaskan payments. In principle, the Americans counted on understanding in St. Petersburg, and not in vain - Gorchakov did not particularly worry and sent the glass instructions to refrain from serious demarchees. However, the baron felt that circumstances allow him to start his own game, whose goals were exclusively personal and, of course, selfish. Glass began to form his authorities with the conviction that the execution of the contract hangs in the balance and requires exceptional actions. In fact, there was practically no threat to the breakdown of the calculation-even despite the fact that the party of influential opponents of the territorial increments of the United States did not go away (by the way, she managed to block the initiative to buy from Denmark what is called by American Virgin Islands-the only colony of Denmark in the West Indies; these islands were still bought from Denmark, but only in 1917-paid For them, the amount was equal to half of the then state budget of Denmark).

There was, however, the so -called “Perkins problem” - the lawsuit of the heirs of a certain weapon’s tradel from whom Russia seemed to order a large batch of weapons at the end of the Crimean war - the weapon was neither delivered nor paid, but Perkins accused Russia of ruining and filed a lawsuit (in 1858 the claims amounted to 373,613 dollars). The case was considered in the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs managed to get 200 (two hundred) dollars under the refusal of the lawsuit, but then they resumed their complaints and managed to take them even to the interstate level - the US ambassador in St. Petersburg was quite formally, being confident in failure, put forward this requirement to the Russian side and, having received a categorical refusal, no longer returned to the case. However, during the discussion of payments under the Agreement of March 30, 1867, they wished to return to this issue, proposing to arrest the corresponding part of the funds to be transferred. The chances of such a decision were a little disappearing, but it was quite possible to scare Petersburg to them - than glass and did not fail to use. In general, a whole group of influential leaders of the congress, lawyers, journalists, and even (with the highest degree of probability), Secretary of State Seward himself received more than large bribes - in large amounts of $ 26,000 at that time. The bribe takers themselves were very surprised by this fact, because they did not see any reasons for solving the issue not in favor of Russia and without this lubrication-however, it was important, firstly, to depict yourself with the savior of the enterprise, and secondly, distributing an unaccounted for, not to forget yourself.

Anyone who dealt with the current Russian business practice, of course, understands this fabulous situation: an agent authorized to give bribes, by definition, is invulnerable - even though no one has a doubt that some of the money stuck to his own hands. And the point is not that his reports to the owners are not lended to verification, and the agent itself, in the case of a scandal, is able to very much annoy its owner. The fact is that the owner does not want to verify these reports - among other things, it is also unpleasant. That is how it happened with Eduard von Stekhl - we can assume that out of $ 165,000, he seemed to have left a few tens of thousands. In any case, the royal reward - 25,000 rubles (i.e. $ 21,000), he remained unhappy and resigned in the middle of 1869. The remainder of his days spent glass in France, receiving a pension of 6,000 rubles a year from the state treasury. However, he probably believed that his conscience is clean - the Minister of Finance Reuters set him the task of selling Alaska no less than $ 50,000. Glass gave the state more than 7,000,000 and in his own eyes was quite worthy of a fee paid to himself.

Another famous artifact of the sale of Alaska was the famous telegram sent by glass to St. Petersburg with the news of the signing of the treatise and as if $ 10,000. The telegraph was then a new thing, state telegrams require, obviously, special surroundings-but still not so. Moreover, in his reports, the baron indicated the total telegraph expenses within 150 dollars. What is the matter? Yes, they will be forgiven a pun - in a spoiled phone. The story about a telegram worth 10k gold bucks arose from the materials of the investigation in the Congress regarding the Alaskan case. Then the Riggs banker was interrogated, who literally said the following: "I Know Not Directly, But by Rumor - I am Pretty Sure Founded on the Truth - That He (Baron Glass - L.U.) Had Some Pretty Heavy Expenses, and Among Other Things on Telegraphic Despatches. That is, this figure is recorded by the stenographer of the Congress (not very neat in things that were not of interest for the purpose of that investigation) from the words of the crossbars who does not very confidently convey the words of the glass. In general, this is most likely complete nonsense.