Romanovs discussion

Anybody know of a book specifically on the history of Russian America? Many general histories of Alaska touch on this, but has any historian done a dedicated volume on this topic?

An excellent book titled "The Tsar and the President" dealing with Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln's freeing of the slaves resulting in Alexander II liberating the serfs in Russia. This volume is presented by the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation.

Actually, the serfs were freed in 1861, some time before the proclaimation in America. I found a real surprise when I was reading up on Korean history, and slavery was abolished there in the late 18th century.

As to Russian involvement in the Americas, I haven't been able to find anything specific, but Michener's novel Alaska has quite a bit and is realitively painless to read.

Thanks!

Alexander II liberated serfs because he had no choice. In his own words, "we have to liberate them from above, or they will be liberated from below."

In Russia, the proclamation was made in 1861, but actual process of freeing the serfs took years. Russia was an agrarian country with varied and complex system of land ownership, and just "letting them go" without providing part of the land previously owned by gentry would mean that serfs, who made the living partially by working the master's land and partially by growing crops on common land assigned to them, would starve.

Besides Alaska, another notable Russian involvement in the American history was Civil War on the side of the North. Russian navy was stationed in NYC and in San Francisco harbors.