Alaska Assignment Treaty: schemers and intrigues. Withdraw from the Alaska Sale Agreement Sign the Alaska Sale Agreement year

Analyzing the Alaska sale and purchase agreement, experts make a preliminary conclusion that the agreement is clearly illegal, since the US Senate, represented by the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed doubts about the advisability of such a burdensome acquisition, especially in a situation when the country had just ended Civil War. Doubts were also expressed in connection with the fact that the payment was made in non-cash dollars, and not in gold, and not to the accounts of the Russian Ministry of Finance, but to the account of a private person (Steklya), which contradicted the terms of the agreement. However, the deal was upheld in the Senate by 37 votes to 2 against (they were Fessenden and Justin Morrill from Vermont). On May 3, the treaty was ratified. On June 8, an exchange of instruments of ratification took place in Washington. Later, in accordance with the established procedure, the contract was printed and then included in the official collection of laws of the Russian Empire.
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION:
- the purchase and sale agreement of Alaska is illegal and in the case of the appeal of the Russian Federation to international courts, a large percentage of a positive decision is made, the termination of an invalid agreement and the transfer of Alaska back to Russia!

BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMARY:
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Manifesto of Alexander II
The sale of Alaska is a deal between the governments of the Russian Empire and the North American United States, as a result of which in 1867 Russia, for 7.2 million dollars, sold its possessions in North America (with a total area of \u200b\u200b1,518,800 km²).
For the first time, the initiative to sell Alaska was made by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N. Muravyov-Amursky in 1853 before the start of the Crimean War.

] Background

Alaska, discovered in 1732 by a Russian expedition led by M. S. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov, was the possession of Russia in North America. At first, it was mastered not by the state, but by private individuals, but, starting in 1799, by a specially established monopoly - the Russian-American Company (RAC).
The area of \u200b\u200bthe sold territory was 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km²) and was practically uninhabited - according to the RAC itself, at the time of the sale, the population of all Russian Alaska and the Aleutian Islands was about 2,500 Russians and up to about 60,000 Indians and Eskimos. In the early 19th century, Alaska was generating income from the fur trade, but by the middle of the century it began to appear that the costs of maintaining and protecting this remote and geopolitically vulnerable territory would outweigh the potential profit.
The first question about the sale of Alaska to the United States before the Russian government was raised by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Count N.N.Muravyev-Amursky in 1853, indicating that this, in his opinion, is inevitable, and at the same time will strengthen Russia's position in the Asian the Pacific coast in the face of the increasing penetration of the British Empire:
“... now, with the invention and development of the railways, more than ever before, we must be convinced of the idea that the North American States will inevitably spread throughout North America, and we must bear in mind that sooner or later they will have to to cede our North American possessions. It was impossible, however, with this consideration not to keep in mind something else: which is very natural for Russia, if not to own the whole of East Asia; then dominate the entire Asian coast of the Eastern Ocean. Under the circumstances, we allowed the British to invade this part of Asia ... but this matter can still be improved by our close ties with the North American States. "
Directly east of Alaska was the Canadian possession of the British Empire (formally the Hudson's Bay Company). Relations between Russia and Britain were shaped by geopolitical rivalry, and at times were openly hostile. During the Crimean War, when the British fleet tried to land troops in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the possibility of a direct clash in America became real. Under these conditions, in the spring of 1854, the American government, wishing to prevent the occupation of Alaska by the British Empire, received an offer to fictitiously (temporarily, for a period of three years) sale by the Russian-American company of all its possessions and property for 7 million 600 thousand dollars. The RAC entered into such an agreement with the US-controlled American-Russian Trade Campaign in San Francisco, which was controlled by the US government, but it did not enter into force, as the RAC was able to negotiate with the British Hudson's Bay Company.

Sale negotiations

Formally, the next offer to sell came from the Russian envoy to Washington, Baron Eduard Stekl, but this time the initiator of the deal was the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (younger brother of Alexander II), who first voiced this offer in the spring of 1857 in a special letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs A.M. Gorchakov. Gorchakov supported the proposal. The position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reduced to studying the issue, and it was decided to postpone its implementation until the expiration of the privileges of the RAC in 1862. And then the issue temporarily became irrelevant in connection with the American Civil War.
On December 16, 1866, a special meeting was held, which was attended by Alexander II, Grand Duke Constantine, the finance and naval ministers, and the Russian envoy to Washington, Baron Eduard Steckl. All participants approved the sale idea. At the suggestion of the Ministry of Finance, a threshold was set for the amount - at least $ 5 million in gold. On December 22, 1866, Alexander II approved the border of the territory. In March 1867, Steckle arrived in Washington and reminded Secretary of State William Seward "of the offers that have been made in the past for the sale of our colonies" and added that "the Imperial Government is now disposed to negotiate." Having secured the consent of President Johnson, Seward was able to negotiate the main provisions of the future treaty during the second meeting with Stekl on March 14.
On March 18, 1867, President Johnson signed official credentials to Seward, and almost immediately the Secretary of State negotiated with Steckle, during which, in general terms, a draft agreement was agreed on the purchase of Russian possessions in America for $ 7 million.

Sale and transfer of Alaska

Signing of the agreement for the sale of Alaska on March 30, 1867. From left to right: Robert S. Chu, William G. Seward, William Hunter, Vladimir Bodisko, Edward Steckl, Charles Sumner, Frederick Seward
The signing of the treaty took place on March 30, 1867 in Washington. The agreement was signed in English and French ("diplomatic" languages), there is no official text of the agreement in Russian. The deal was valued at $ 7.2 million in gold (at the 2009 exchange rate, approximately $ 108 million in gold). The United States crossed the entire peninsula of Alaska (along a line running along the meridian 141 ° W), a coastal strip 10 miles wide south of Alaska along the western coast of British Columbia; Alexandra archipelago; Aleutian Islands with Attu Island; islands Blizhnie, Krysi, Lisyi, Andreyanovskie, Shumagina, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikova, Afognak and other smaller islands; islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribilov Islands - St. George and St. Paul. The total land area sold was about 1,519,000 km², therefore, $ 4 73 cents per square kilometer was paid, that is, 1.9 cents per acre. Together with the territory, all immovable property, all colonial archives, official and historical documents related to the transferred territories were transferred to the United States.
The treaty was submitted to Congress in accordance with normal procedure. Since the session of Congress ended on that very day, the President called an emergency executive session of the Senate.
The fate of the treaty was in the hands of the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee at the time included: Charles Sumner from Massachusetts - chairman, Simon Cameron from Pennsylvania, William Fessenden from Maine, James Harlan from Iowa, Oliver Morton from Indiana, James Paterson from New Hampshire, Raverdee Johnson from Maryland. That is, it was up to the representatives of the Northeast to decide on the annexation of the territory in which the Pacific states were primarily interested.
The US Senate, represented by the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed doubts about the advisability of such a burdensome acquisition, especially in a situation when the civil war had just ended in the country. Doubts were also expressed in connection with the fact that the payment was made in non-cash dollars, and not in gold, and not to the accounts of the Russian Ministry of Finance, but to the account of a private person (Steklya), which contradicted the terms of the agreement. However, the deal was upheld in the Senate by 37 votes, with two votes against (they were Fessenden and Justin Morril from Vermont). On May 3, the treaty was ratified. On June 8, an exchange of instruments of ratification took place in Washington. Subsequently, in accordance with the established procedure, the contract was printed and then included in the official collection of laws of the Russian Empire.

Check for $ 7.2 million for the purchase of Alaska
On October 18, 1867, Alaska was officially ceded to the United States. On the part of Russia, the transfer protocol was signed by a special government commissar, captain 2nd rank A. A. Peshchurov.
On the same day, the Gregorian calendar in force in the United States was introduced. So the Alaskans went to bed on October 5 and woke up on October 18.
The decision on the allocation of funds provided for in the agreement was adopted by the House of Representatives of the US Congress a year later, by 113 votes to 48. On August 1, 1868, Steckle received a check from the Treasury, but not for gold, but for Treasury bonds. He transferred the amount of 7 million 35 thousand dollars to London, to the bank of the Baring brothers.

Comparison of the transaction price with similar transactions of the time

The building of the New York District Court was more expensive than all of Alaska
The Russian Empire sold the hard-to-reach and uninhabited territory at 2 cents per acre ($ 0.0474 per hectare), that is, nominally one and a half times cheaper than it was sold 50 years earlier (at a different cost of a cent) by Napoleonic France (in the conditions of war and consistent confiscation of the French colonies by Britain) and a much larger (2,100,000 km²) and fully developed territory of historical Louisiana: for the port of New Orleans alone, America initially offered $ 10 million in a more "weighty" dollar of the very beginning of the 19th century.
At the same time that Alaska, the one and only three-story building in downtown New York, the New York District Court, built by the Tweed Gang, was sold, it cost the New York State Treasury more than the US government did all of Alaska.

Correspondent of the newspaper "Krai Rodnoy" Igor Nikolaevich Kompaniets

History always repeats itself. Another of its peculiarities is that all the facts of the previous centuries in the field of politics and diplomacy are stored and do not disappear anywhere. This means that agreements between countries can always be taken and read. And even ... to terminate. Or, as they say now, "withdraw from the contract."

The United States does it today with extraordinary ease. President of the U.S.A Donald Trumpannounced his withdrawal from the INF Treaty (intermediate and shorter-range missiles), who flew to Moscow John Bolton (Adviser to the President of the United States for National Security. - Approx. FAN) continued the rhetoric in the same spirit. So far, there has been no official statement from the United States to withdraw from the treaty, but the very "discussion" on the topic of termination of its operation makes it impracticable and practically dead.

The Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile Treaty was signed on December 8, 1987. According to its letter, a whole class of missiles with a range from 500 to 1000 and from 1000 to 5500 kilometers fell under the reduction. The corresponding land-based weapons were destroyed and were no longer deployed. And now the United States is actively talking about the termination of this treaty.

But until an official statement from Washington has been made, we have time to recall another treaty between Russia and the United States. It was concluded more than a century and a half ago, but in world diplomacy, all treaties are significant and are valid if none of them left. On October 18, 1867, in Novoarkhangelsk (now Sitka), the official ceremony of transferring Russian Alaska to the North American United States (USA) took place. According to the agreement signed between St. Petersburg and Washington on March 30, 1867, the Americans acquired 1,519 thousand square kilometers of territory from Russia (Alaska with the nearby Aleutian Islands) for the amount of 7,200 thousand dollars (14,320 thousand rubles at the then exchange rate). This agreement is still valid. Curiously, the agreement between Russia and the USA was an assignment agreement, that is, an assignment, not a sale!

We remembered the dates of signing and the peculiarities of the conclusion of two agreements - let's move on. Over the past few days, we have heard several arguments on the topic of why and why Washington wants to withdraw from the INF agreements. Liberal experts, US government officials and the media recalled a whole bunch of similar reasons, which should soften the impression of the world community on the actions of the States, which will certainly aggravate the international situation.

So, the arguments in favor or in justification of Washington's steps were made as follows:

The treaty is outdated as it was signed in a different geopolitical reality. Even such facts speak about its moral obsolescence that since then, for example, drones have appeared, which they had no idea about in 1987;

Russia itself is to blame for breaking the treaty, which allegedly constantly violates it;

Medium-range missiles are the backbone of China's nuclear forces, and Trump's threat to withdraw from the INF Treaty is more directed against China than Russia. This means that it does not seem to matter that the States violate their obligations towards our country, because they are supposedly not marking at us at all;

In addition to China, Pakistan, India, Iran and North Korea have similar missiles, and so on. What can I say - the United States is even better at inventing beautiful explanations for its policy than at creating bright marketing packaging for manufactured goods and products. But this does not change the essence of the matter.

Why is the US going to withdraw from the INF Treaty? After all, the presence of missiles of this range in China and all other countries will not allow them to cover the entire territory of the United States, but the deployment of American missiles in allied states will cause enormous damage to the security of both Russia and China.

The key words here are flight time. The rocket, stationed in Poland, reaches Moscow in 3-4 minutes. The missile has a nuclear warhead. Comments, I think, are superfluous. The same situation will be with the vital centers of the PRC in the event of the deployment of American missiles in South Korea, Japan, etc. Among other things, we must not forget that today not only Russia and the United States, but also Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Washington's withdrawal from the treaty means that Kiev has the legal right to develop or deploy American missiles of this class with an unusually short flight time on its territory. That is, the US withdrawal from the treaty is capable of creating a Russophobic state on our borders, calling us an "aggressor" and armed with lethal weapons. At the same time, the security of the United States itself will not be threatened by anything - in the case of playing the card, "they themselves created and adopted everything."

A new reality is coming. As usual, when it is being formatted in Washington, this reality is unpleasant for everyone except the United States.

And now the question is: what to do?

Announce the possibility of Russia to withdraw from the agreement on the transfer of Alaska.

We take arguments from our American partners:

The treaty is outdated as it was signed in a different geopolitical reality;

The US itself is to blame for breaking the treaty, which not only constantly violates all treaties in general, but also violated this particular one (the American side did not fulfill all the terms of the treaty!);

Russia's withdrawal from this treaty is not directed against the United States, but at expanding Russia's trade opportunities, for which it will be more convenient to compete with China in the trade sphere;

Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, is ready to return 7 million 200 thousand dollars to the United States and, having withdrawn from the cession agreement, return Alaska to its jurisdiction. Moreover, there are all legal grounds for this (the treaty speaks of the cession of territory, but does not say for how long, that is, there is no formula “for eternity”, traditional for Russian diplomatic treatises);

Being consistent fighters for human rights and defending the property rights of the heirs of the owners of the Russian-American company, which mastered and managed our overseas territories, the Russian Federation was forced to recognize the treaty with the USA in 1867 as null and void and declare its withdrawal from it.

But until an official statement from Washington has been made, we have time to recall another treaty between Russia and the United States. It was concluded more than a century and a half ago, but in world diplomacy, all treaties have significance and are valid if none of them left. On October 18, 1867, in Novoarkhangelsk (now Sitka), the official ceremony of Russian Alaska in the North American United States (NUSS) took place. According to the agreement signed between St. Petersburg and Washington on March 30, 1867, the Americans from Russia have 1,519 thousand square kilometers of territory (Alaska with the nearby Aleutian Islands) for the amount of 7,200 thousand dollars (14,320 thousand rubles at the then exchange rate). This agreement is still valid. Curiously, the agreement between Russia and the USA was an assignment agreement, that is, an assignment, not a sale!

So, the arguments in favor or in justification of Washington's steps were made as follows:

Russia itself is to blame for breaking the treaty, which allegedly constantly violates it;

Medium-range missiles are the backbone of China's nuclear forces, and Trump's threat to withdraw from the INF Treaty is directed more towards China than Russia. This means that it does not seem to matter that the States violate their obligations with respect to our country, because they allegedly do not mark us at all;

A new reality is coming. As usual, when it is being formatted in Washington, this reality is unpleasant for everyone except the United States.

And now the question is: what to do?

Announce the possibility of Russia to withdraw from the agreement on the transfer of Alaska.

We take arguments from our American partners:

The treaty is outdated as it was signed in a different geopolitical reality;

Something like this…

Information evaluation

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Arrived in Washington for signing contract about sale Alaska... Rumor has it that they say not ... when more than 30 states demanded go out from the compositions of the "country". That's really ... a plus in their own budget can go out Texas that pays the highest ...

Threaten the United States to withdraw from contract about transfer Alaska... Thus, the Russian Federation can ... it was treaty assignment, that is, concessions, and not sales... Its term ... Russia is ready to admit contract on the transfer of the USA Alaska "Insignificant" and go out out of him...

Europeans did not know about Alaska until the 18th century, when its shores were noticed by the members of the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev. For the first time, members of the crew of the ship “St. Gabriel ", which arrived there as part of the expedition of Afanasy Shestakov and Dmitry Pavlutsky.

Over time, Russian settlements appeared on the territory of Alaska, missionaries actively converted pagans to Orthodoxy. The economy of Russian America, which, in addition to Alaska, included a number of other territories (the Aleutian Islands, the Alexander Archipelago, etc.), was built on the fishing of sea animals. Alaska was colonized by the Russian American Company (RAC), a semi-state trading company with a focus on the fur trade. Initially, it competed with the company of the merchant Lebedev-Lastochkin, but then the Lebedevites left Alaska, and the RAC remained a monopolist.
Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky was the first to talk about the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1853, even during the reign of Nicholas I. “With the invention and development of railways, more than ever before, one should be convinced that the North American States are inevitable will spread throughout North America, and we must bear in mind that sooner or later they will have to cede our North American possessions, ”
- he thought.
Russia was in hostile relations with Britain. During the Crimean War, Britain, seeking to dominate the Pacific Ocean, sent a fleet with a Marine Corps on board to the port city of Petropavlovsk (now Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky). The Peter and Paul defense became one of the most significant battles of the Crimean War. Despite the significant numerical superiority of the enemy - almost three times - the Russian troops managed to defend the city. But the threat of a clash on the territory of Russian America became obvious. The US government, not interested in the occupation of Alaska by the British Empire, offered Russia to conclude a deal on the temporary, for three years, transfer of Alaska and other territories of Russian America to the possession of the United States. But in the end, the transfer did not take place - Russia managed to negotiate with the British company of the Hudson's Bay.
The next time the question of selling Alaska was raised by the emperor's younger brother, Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, in correspondence with Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov, who supported the idea.
During the 125 years that Alaska was owned by the Russian Empire, it remained practically undeveloped - only on the coast and in several places along the Yukon were rare settlements and hunting bases located. The Alaskan Indians, unlike the Aleuts, refused to cooperate and did not accept the Russians. Clashes between Russians and Indians often ended tragically. The colony was going through serious difficulties - the number of the Russian population during its entire existence did not exceed 600-800 people, and the economic situation was rapidly deteriorating. The economic base of the colony was based on the fur trade, and problems arose with it: the sea otter, whose fur was highly valued, was almost exterminated, and fur seals were not in demand. Minks, beavers and foxes were hunted by the Indians on land.
In order to somehow survive, the colony traded in fish, coal, and even Alaskan ice.
Russian America needed constant financial support from St. Petersburg, but after the Crimean War Russia itself needed money. In addition, Alaska was vulnerable - it could be captured by Britain or the United States, poachers appeared in coastal waters every now and then, and tensions with the Indians threatened the lives of Russians. All this led Russia to the idea of \u200b\u200bselling Alaska before it was simply lost.
Consideration of the sale lasted until the end of 1866. In December, a meeting was held, which was attended by the Emperor and his brother, the finance and naval ministers and the Russian envoy to Washington, Baron Eduard von Steckl. As a result, the participants approved the sale idea.

Steckle informed US Secretary of State William Seward about Russia's readiness to discuss the sale of Alaska. The payment had to be at least five million dollars in gold. Such conditions were arranged by the US government, and on March 30, 1867, an agreement on the sale of Alaska for US $ 7.2 million was signed in Washington.
The USA got Alaska and the adjacent islands, the total area of \u200b\u200bthe transferred territory was about 1,519,000 square meters. km.
The main reasons for the sale of Alaska were voiced by the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. He was the main inspiration and implementer of this sale. The first is that the Russian-American company is unprofitable. In fact, this was not the case, and it brought substantial profits to the treasury. Second, Russia's attention should be focused more on the development of the Amur region and, as they said at the time, rounding off the borders of the Russian Empire. Third, it is necessary to develop and establish more friendly relations with the United States. "
Many were outraged by what happened. The St. Petersburg newspaper Golos wrote in April 1868: “Selling for a song to the Americans of Alaska is a shame and oblivion to the memory of our pioneers. We cannot treat such an incredible rumor otherwise than the most cruel joke on the gullibility of society ... Should foreigners really use the works of Shelikhov, Baranov, Khlebnikov and other people who are selfless for Russia? "
Despite the fact that the Senate expressed doubts about the advisability of such an acquisition, on October 10, 1868 at 15.30 Alaska was officially transferred to the United States.
After the announcement of the treaty and a 42-shot salute, the Russian flag was lowered and the American Stars and Stripes raised.
Alaska's concession will always have a positive connotation in Russian-American relations. The establishment of Russian-American relations began in Alaska. It was necessary to formalize the ties that existed between the Russian-American company and the so-called Bostonians - traders from the young US state. Alaska has become the cradle of Russian-American relations. "
The sale of Alaska was the first case of the Russian Empire's voluntary abandonment of acquired possessions. Together with the land, the Americans received all real estate, colonial archives, official and historical documents.
Now the population of Alaska is over 700 thousand people. An important role in the economy is played by the extraction of oil and other natural resources, hunting, fishing, logging, and tourism. “Now we can say with confidence that Alaska is the territory,” says Petrov, “where they love Russia, they understand where local residents have preserved elements of Russian culture, there are regions where the Russian Orthodox Church is developing, the Russian language has been preserved. But 150 years have passed! "

On August 1, 1868, Baron Eduard Andreevich Stekl, Russian Chargé d'Affaires in Washington, received a check for $ 7.2 million from the Treasury of the North American United States. This financial transaction put an end to the largest land sale transaction in world history. Russian colonies on the North American continent with an area of \u200b\u200b1519 thousand square meters. km, according to the treaty signed on March 18 (30), 1867, passed under the sovereignty of the United States. The official ceremony for the transfer of Alaska took place even before the receipt of the check on October 18, 1867. On this day, in the capital of Russian settlements in North America, Novoarkhangelsk (now the city of Sitka), under an artillery salute and during a parade of the military of the two countries, the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised. Alaska Day is celebrated on October 18 in the United States. In the state itself, the day of the signing of the Treaty is considered an official holiday - March 30.

For the first time, the idea of \u200b\u200bselling Alaska was expressed in a very delicate and highly secret form by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky the day before. In the spring of 1853, Muravyov-Amursky submitted a memo detailing his views on the need to strengthen Russia's position in the Far East and the importance of close relations with the United States.

His reasoning boiled down to the fact that the question of ceding Russian overseas possessions to the United States would sooner or later be raised, and Russia would not be able to defend these remote territories. The Russian population in Alaska was then, according to various estimates, from 600 to 800 people. There were about 1.9 thousand Creoles, and a little less than 5 thousand Aleuts. This territory was inhabited by 40 thousand Tlingit Indians who did not consider themselves subjects of Russia. For the development of an area of \u200b\u200bmore than 1.5 million sq. km, so remote from the rest of Russian lands, the Russians were clearly not enough.

The authorities in St. Petersburg reacted favorably to Muravyov's note. The proposals of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia to strengthen the position of the empire in the Amur Region and on the island of Sakhalin were studied in detail with the participation of the General-Admiral, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and members of the board of the Russian-American Company. One of the concrete results of this work was the order of the emperor dated April 11 (23), 1853, which allowed the Russian American Company "to occupy Sakhalin Island on the same grounds as it owned other lands mentioned in its privileges in order to prevent any foreign settlements ".

The main supporter of the sale of Russian America was the younger brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. The general state of finances in Russia, despite the reforms carried out in the country, was deteriorating, and the treasury needed foreign money.

Negotiations to acquire Alaska from Russia began in 1867 under President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) at the urging of Secretary of State William Seward. On December 28, 1866, at a special meeting in the ceremonial hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, held with the participation of Emperor Alexander II, Grand Duke Constantine, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Gorchakov, Minister of Finance Mikhail Reitern, Governor of the Naval Ministry Nikolai Krabbe and envoy to Washington Edward Stekl, there was a decision was made to sell Russian holdings in North America. At 4 o'clock in the morning on March 30, 1867, an agreement was signed on the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States of America for $ 7.2 million (11 million royal rubles). Among the territories ceded by Russia to the United States under the treaty on the North American continent and in the Pacific Ocean were: the entire Alaska Peninsula, a coastal strip 10 miles wide south of Alaska along the western coast of British Columbia; the Alexander archipelago; Aleutian Islands with Attu Island; the islands Blizhnie, Krysi, Lisyi, Andreyanovskie, Shumagina, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikova, Afognak and other smaller islands; islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribilov Islands - Saint Paul and Saint George. Together with the territory, all immovable property, all colonial archives, official and historical documents related to the transferred territories were transferred to the United States.

Most researchers agree that the agreement to sell Alaska was a mutually beneficial result of the implementation of American geopolitical ambitions and the sober decision of Russia to focus on the development of the Amur and Primorye regions, which were annexed to the Russian Empire in 1860. In America itself, at that time, there were few willing to acquire the vast territory, which opponents of the deal called a reserve for polar bears. The US Senate ratified the treaty with only a majority of one vote. But when gold and rich mineral resources were discovered in Alaska, the deal was hailed as a major achievement by President Andrew Johnson's administration.

The very name of Alaska appeared when the purchase agreement passed through the US Senate. Then Senator Charles Sumner, in his speech in defense of the acquisition of new territories, following the traditions of the indigenous population of the Aleutian Islands, gave them a new name Alaska, that is, "Big Land".

In 1884, Alaska received the status of a district, in 1912 it was officially declared a territory of the United States. In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States. In January February 1977, an exchange of notes took place between the governments of the USSR and the United States, confirming that the "western border of the ceded territories" provided for by the 1867 treaty, passing in the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi and Bering Seas, is used to delimit areas of jurisdiction of the USSR and the United States in the field of fishing in these sea areas. After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation became the legal successor of the international agreements concluded by the Union.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources