American‑Russian relations in the times of the American Civil War (1861‑1865)

The 1860s were marked by an exceptional affection and friendship in the bilateral relations between the United States, a young American republic, and the long‑established tsarist Russia. This phenomenon, which had never occurred with such intensity before or since, inspired Russian and American researchers and politicians to organize The Tsar and the President: Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln, Liberator and Emancipator exhibition which was displayed, inter alia, in Moscow in 2011. The following article analyses (on the basis of numerous source materials from the period) the reasons of this mutual amity and trust, as well as their military and economic cooperation–both internal (the Civil War in the U.S., the January Uprising in the Russian Empire), and external (the rivalry with Great Britain and France, and political calculations in the search for suitable alliances)–in the period of world power rivalry for global spheres of influence.