Hi I'm the History Guy. I have a degree in history and I love history,
and if you love history too, this is the channel for you.
There's a lot of talk today about the sour relationship between the United States and
Russia. And in a way that is a bit ironic because most Americans do not realize that through the
first maybe century and a half of the existence of the United States, Russia was a very good friend,
sometimes when we had almost no other friends in Europe. And so it's worth noting that an
event that pretty much represented the height of relations between the United States and the
Russian Empire, also represented one of the very strangest true stories of the Wild West.
It is history that deserves to be remembered. When the United States declared independence in
1776, the news was received generally favorable in Russia, where the Empress Catherine the Great had
a personal dislike for British King George the Third and felt that American independence would
be good for Russian business interests. While Russia stayed neutral during the American War
for independence, the Empire served the American cause in a substantial way by creating an alliance
of European nations to preserve the rights of neutral shipping. While the first league of
armed neutrality certainly served the interests of Russia, it served the United States cause by
protecting neutral trade, and thus circumventing the British attempt to starve the colonies by
blockade. When Britain sought Catherine's help during the war, first asking for troops and
then asking for diplomatic assistance to keep the French from supporting the colonies, not only did
she refuse, she embarrassed Britain throughout Europe by revealing what had been a very
clumsy attempt, to bribe Russia to their side. After the war, the U.S. and Russia established
relations that generally serve each other's trading interests. Notably the American naval
hero John Paul Jones served as a Rear Admiral in the Russian Navy for a period in the 1780s.
Through the war of 1812, Russia offered to mediate a peace between the United States and Britain,
and while Britain refused that mediation, Russia later mediated a dispute over the
terms of the treaty that ended the war. Generally friendly trade relations continued. In the 1840s,
American civil engineer George Washington Whistler was hired to oversee the construction of the St.
Petersburg to Moscow railroad, which resulted in a long term American involvement with Russian
railway building. In 1853 ,when Russia came into conflict with an alliance of the Ottoman Empire,
France, Britain and Sardinia in what became known as the Crimean War, public opinion in the United
States supported Russia, and the United States helped the Russian cause by facilitating trade
across the Pacific. After the war, relations were so good that Russia commissioned the construction
of naval vessels in American shipyards, including the 1858 launch of the screw frigate General
Admiral at the time the largest ship ever built in the United States. During the Civil War,
Russia was one of the few European nations to openly support the Union cause, although
they preferred to negotiate a peace. During the war Russians sent fleets to the United States,
while this is really about Russian interests, as it was intended to keep their fleets from
being bottled up in the Baltics in case of war with Britain, it was seen as support for
the Union and deterred intervention from other European powers on behalf of the Confederacy.
But during this period, there was also an issue of potential conflict. Russia had begun
fur trading across the Bering Strait in the 1740s and had eventually resulted in colonization that,
at one point, was significantly down the coast of what is modern-day California. While the US
and Russia eventually managed peaceful trade, the borders of Russia America offered continued
potential for dispute. That potential disappeared of course in 1867 when Russia sold Russian America
to the United States for 7.2 million dollars, roughly just two cents an acre which the U.S.
paid with this check. While the Russian sale of what is today the state of Alaska really was
spurred by Russian interest, they feared that they would not be able to defend the territory in the
event of war with Great Britain, it did represent the significant degree of trust and goodwill that
existed between the two nations. But US Russia relations faced a significant challenge in 1870
when in a scandal eerily reminiscent of present US Russia relations, the Russian ambassador to the
United States, Konstantin Katakazi, was accused of trying to influence American domestic policy
partly by manipulating public opinion via the press. The scandal had to deal with the
ambassador's attempt to undermine negotiations between the United States and Great Britain,
and in 1871 prompted U.S. President Ulysses Grant to request that Russia recall Katakazi,
for attempting to influence and misdirect the public opinion of the country. It was into that
tense environment that Grand Duke Alexei, the fifth child of the youngest son of Czar
Alexander II, came to visit the United States. Born in 1850, Alexei was chosen for a naval
career at the age of seven and had been treading on Russian warships since the age
of ten he was commissioned a lieutenant at the age of 16. When famed US Admiral David
Farragut visited the Russian port of St. Petersburg with a naval squadron in 1867,
Russia decided to respond with a high-level naval visit to the United States in 1871 and decided
that the delegation would be led by the Grand Duke. While his reception from President Grant
was chilly due to the Katakazi affair, the Grand Duke was generally well received in the United
States. He was treated to a military parade in New York, visited West Point in Annapolis,
and visited the cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Everywhere he went, he found
huge crowds lining the streets, waving flags and cheering. He was hosted by important politicians,
famous artists, and Civil War generals. But he was most of all, entertained, with several
balls thrown in his honor, as the 21 year old Grand Duke was very fond of the ladies. The New
York Times described him and his entourage as a group of jolly tourists. In Washington DC he met
General Philip Sheridan, Sheridan was a civil war hero whose troops had played a major role
in defeating Robert E Lee's army of Northern Virginia in the Appomattox Campaign. In 1871,
he was a Major-General committing the military division of the Missouri in charge of the
ongoing Indian Wars. The Grand Duke confided to Sheridan that he wished to see real adventure in
the American West. Sheridan promised him that he could meet wild Indians and shoot Buffalo on the
Great Plains. While the Grand Duke continued his tour, visiting Montreal Canada, Niagara Falls,
Chicago, and St. Louis, Sheridan planned his real adventure. Determined to show the Duke a good
time. Sheridan asked a colorful Civil War hero who was the chief of scouts for the U.S. 3rd cavalry,
to plan the Duke’s buffalo hunt and put on a real show. That Scout was named William Frederick
Cody but everyone called him Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill went about recruiting Indians,
paying Chief Spotted Tail, a leader noted for being a statesman, to bring 100 of his men to
put on a show for the Duke and set about making preparations for the camp. But Sheridan added
another person to the cast of the show, choosing the commander of U.S. 7th cavalry, one of his most
dashing young officers, to being the Grand Marshal of the hunt. His name was George Armstrong Custer,
and so in January of 1872 Phil Sheridan, George Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Grand Duke Alexi
of Russia, along with two companies of infantry, two companies of cavalry, a regimental band,
and Alexa's entourage met up at Fort McPherson in the Nebraska territory to go hunt Buffalo, in what
has become known as the Great Royal Buffalo Hunt. At camp, Spotted Tail his Braves met them, Cody
noted that they were objects of great curiosity to the Grand Duke. They put on exhibitions of
horsemanship and then in the evening performed a grand war dance, the Duke and General Custer
flirted with Spotted Tails daughters. In the morning Buffalo Bill let the Grand Duke ride
Cody's own famous buffalo hunting horse Buckskin Joe, everyone of course was determined to give
Duke Alexei the first chance to shoot. They rode into a herd and the Grand Duke emptied his
pistol at a buffalo just 20 feet away, firing six times. He missed six times. Surprised, Cody handed
the Duke his pistol. After six more misses, Cody handed the Duke his rifle named Lucretia Borgia,
slapped Buckskin Joe on the rear so they came within ten feet of an animal, and the Grand
Duke finally scored a hit. Cody might have been worried that the Duke would be embarrassed but
instead he waved his hat in the air with joy, and his men brought up a wagon full of champagne and
they all got drunk. It might well have been the apex of US-Russian relations in all of history.
The Grand Duke continued his tour, shot more Buffalo in Colorado and then celebrated Mardi
Gras in New Orleans before heading off for a state visit to Japan. He and George Custer became great
friends, corresponding throughout the rest of Custer's life. The Great Royal Buffalo Hunt
inspired Buffalo Bill Cody, who that fall started performing in his first Wild West Show. In 1883,
he opened his own show Buffalo Bill's Wild West, which eventually traveled the world and made him
an international celebrity. As Buffalo Bills show was the model for much of the portrayal
of the Wild West in movies through the 20th century, you can in some small part credit
Grand Duke Alexei of Russia for helping to inspire the genre of Western entertainment.
The Grand Duke's popularity inspired trends in America. For example, his visit to the tunnels
behind the Niagara Falls was highly publicized and was said to help popularize the journey behind
the falls worldwide. But his famous hunt also helped to popularize buffalo hunting, an activity
enthusiastically supported by Phil Sheridan in the Army, as a means to win his war against the
Plains Indians and drive them onto reservations. Relations remained good between the United States
and Russia through the 19th century, but broke down after the Bolshevik October Revolution of
1917. Relations were not reestablished between the two countries until 1933, starting a new
era in U.S. Russian diplomacy. Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich continued in the Russian Navy and
visited the U.S. again in 1877. Eventually he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy where
he helped to modernize the fleet, but his career was destroyed with the bad performance of the
Navy in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 and 05. He spent most of the rest of his life in Paris
and died of pneumonia in 1908 at the age of 58. The Great Royal Buffalo Hunt represented an odd
point in history for both U.S.-Russia relations and for the Wild West,
and perhaps best represents a bygone era for both. It is history that deserves to be remembered.
I'm the History Guy and I hope you enjoyed this addition of my series, 5 minutes of history,
short snippets of forgotten history 5 and 10 minutes long, and if you did enjoy please go
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