Petition to “return” Alaska reaches 20 signatures

A petition demanding the return of Alaska to Russia, posted on the White House website by a man with the initials SV, who introduced himself as a resident of the city of Anchorage, gained more than 20 signatures in four days.

As Russian media reported, the author of the petition is a Volgograd activist Sergey Voropaev.

If the document during the month (that is, before 20 April) collects more than 100 thousands of signatures, then the Washington administration, according to the law, will have to discuss it and give an answer on the merits.

The text says that the 10-16 tribes thousands of years ago crossed the Bering Strait and settled in Alaska, came from Siberia. Subsequently, the Russians began to gradually master the peninsula.

In August 1732, members of the crew of the ship “St. Gabriel”, led by geodesist Mikhail Gvozdev, landed on the shores of Alaska. The expedition was led by Russian polar explorers Afanasy Shestakov and Dmitry Pavlutsky.

About a year ago, a similar petition was posted on the White House website demanding that Texas leave the United States, which scored more than 120 thousands of signatures. The administration replied that the US Constitution, created by the founding fathers of the country, does not provide for the possibility of separation of states.

"Keep an eye on Alaska"

Last Sunday, Russia's permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, jokingly advised US Senator John McCain to "keep an eye on Alaska."

The presenter quoted Senator’s words that Moldova could join Russia after the Crimea.

“Watch Moldova!” McCain said. To this, Chizhov replied: “Tell McCain to keep an eye on Alaska,” adding that the peninsula was previously part of Russia. Marr called such a thought “scary,” but the permanent representative immediately made a reservation that he was just joking.

Since July 1799, Alaska and its adjacent islands were under the control of the “Russian-American Company,” whose founder, Grigory Shelikhov, became famous for the phrase: “Merchant origin is not vile.”

One of the tasks of the first Russian round-the-world expedition under the leadership of Ivan Kruzenshtern was to help the Russian-American Company in the fight against the Kolosha Indians and organize the supply of Alaskan furs to China and Japan.

March 30 1867 in Washington signed an agreement according to which an area of ​​1,5 million square kilometers was sold to the United States for 7,2 million dollars in gold: contrary to the fairly common opinion in Russia, it was sold, not leased for 99 years. Since 1959, Alaska has been a US state.

Some Russians today find the decision of Alexander II short-sighted. Others indicate that Russia did not have the resources to develop Alaska along with the endless Siberia and the Far East. Its Russian population at the time of sale was about three hundred people.

In the United States, the acquisition of Alaska was received by contemporaries without much enthusiasm. Congressmen and journalists made fun of Secretary of State William Suard for “buying a huge block of ice from the Russians.”