150 Years After Sale of Alaska

A bill of sale for the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

Credit...Robert W. Kelley/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images


In 1867, Russia sold the territory of Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million. A mere 50 years later, the Americans had earned that amount back 100 times over.

“If Russia was in possession of Alaska today, the geopolitical situation in the world would have been different,” Sergey Aksyonov, the prime minister of Crimea, told a Crimean television network this month.

A petition calling for Russia’s annexation of Alaska that was posted on the White House website gathered more than 35,000 signatures before it was canceled. Many people still think that the Americans either stole Alaska from the Russians or leased it and did not return it. Despite the widespread myths, the deal was an honest one, and both sides had valid reasons to make it.

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