Аннотация

As this article has shown, the fundamental transformation on the way Americans tended to view Russia between the assassination of Alexander II and the fall of the Romanov autocracy cannot be explained only as the development of a «realistic» understanding of the tsarist system and its revolutionary foes. Negative images of Russia as a vast prison housing persecuted ethnic groups, religious minorities, and political dissidents were strongly influenced by the agitation of Jewish, Finnish and other immigrant groups in the United States, as well as by Russian revolutionaries who toured America. On the other hand, positive images of a new Russia that would be more like America were often projections of American economic ambitions, political ideals, and religious aspirations. Both the demonic and the romantic images of Russia served to reassure Americans about the superior virtues of the United States in an era of great turmoil. Authors conclude that images of Russia came to play important roles in the definition of American national identity between 1881 and 1917.