ABSTRACT
The sale of Russian America has attracted the attention of both Soviet and foreign researchers for a long time. In 1939, the now deceased Professor S. B. Okun’ published a monograph in which he gave, for the first time in Soviet literature, an adequately detailed and documented account of the general history of the Russian American Company and the 1867 sale of Alaska. “It was impossible to preserve our colonies in case of war, it was impossible to protect them from the consequences of widespread rumors concerning the presence of gold there … and finally, there was a transfer of Russian interests to the Asian mainland—these were the reasons that nudged the tsar’s government toward selling Alaska.” The most significant factors, in Okun’s opinion, were the awkward position of the Russian American Company, which “was able to exist only with the support of the government,” the serious financial problems of that government, and several international considerations. “Attempting to strike a blow against English power in North America and to force a collision between the United States and the British Empire, Russia decided to put Alaska up for sale. Yet, it was this drive for supremacy on the American continent that compelled the United States to acquire it.” 1
