Lincoln and the Russians by Albert A. Woldman

Author:Albert A. Woldman [Woldman, Albert A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Biography & Autobiography, Adventurers & Explorers, Travel, Russia, Europe, Baltic States
ISBN: 9781789125054
Google: QoqbDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2018-12-01T22:30:52+00:00

10—The Myth of Russian Friendship

THE sensational, unheralded visit of the Russian fleet when the American future seemed so dark, was hailed with grateful rejoicing as an indication that, come what may, Russia—our old and staunch friend—was prepared to stand by the Union. The belief that the Czar had offered Lincoln the use of the Russian warships and that this gesture was responsible for stopping England’s and France’s efforts to recognize the sovereignty of the Confederate States, was to Unger long in American memory.

The poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, lyricized this legendary international friendship by singing the praises of the Czar “who was our friend when the world was our foe.” Statesmen eloquently expressed America’s undying gratitude for the support which came in our hour of trial and misfortune. It was a friendship, said Cassius Clay, which sprang from “a common cause in the advancement of our common humanity.”

Actually, Russia’s opposition to the British-French proposals for collective American intervention resulted from no concern or friendship for the United States. Rather it came from the necessity of being consistent in opposing foreign intervention in all domestic struggles; or to be more exact, in opposing threatened foreign intervention in Russia’s own explosive Polish question.

The Czar’s war vessels came to the United States not to aid the Union or to bolster up the morale of the North, but to escape the danger of being bottled up in European waters by the British navy, as had happened during the Crimean War. There were no “sealed orders” to go to the rescue of the United States in the event of intervention by European powers. If such mysterious orders existed they were kept secret even from President Lincoln and Secretary Seward. And no record of such orders has ever been found among the official archives of the United States or Russia.

Actually, the Polish crisis not only determined the Czar’s attitude toward American intervention but was also responsible for his sending the empire’s fleet to the United States. At the very time that France and England were endeavoring to induce Russia to join them in intervening in the American Civil War, they were also inviting the United States to join them in protesting against Russia’s treatment of her Polish subjects. Russia, the most hated nation in Europe, was even more friendless than Lincoln’s government. Her Polish policy was threatening to embroil her in another European war. She needed America’s support for non-intervention in the Polish insurrection, as much as Lincoln’s government needed Russian support for non-intervention in the rebellion of the Southern States. U.S. Minister Dayton wrote from Paris on February 23, 1863:

The Polish revolt, which has been smoldering since 1861, broke into a fierce flame, and has driven American affairs out of view for the moment. A disturbance on the continent, especially in Central Europe, is so near at hand and touches so many of the crowned heads of these countries, that distant events fall out of sight until these more immediate troubles are settled.

Russia was ruthless in crushing the insurrection.

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