Tsar Alex.

This is coolbert:

As extracted from the outstanding Internet web site Mad Monarchist we have this item most germane to some previous blog entries.

That role of Imperial Russia during the American Civil War.

"Monarch Profile: Czar Alexander II of Russia"

"During the American Civil War, some feared that the biggest and bloodiest conflict in the western hemisphere might draw the Old World into conflict as well. With the British and French empires being seen as sympathetic to the southern Confederacy, Russia had little choice but to foster good relations with the United States. Expansion in Asia was also underway at this time and there, again, the British were the primary opposition to Russia. 1861-62 saw the Russian Imperial Navy wintering in New York so that, in the event of war with Britain and France, the Russian fleet would be free to prey upon their ships in the Atlantic rather than being stuck in the ice blocked ports of the Russian coast. San Francisco, California also received a visit from the Russian navy."

"The effort to foster better relations with the United States, it must be said, was not because of any political or ideological sympathy, despite what some historians have tried to portray as a friendship between President Lincoln and Czar Alexander II as two crusaders against slavery. At most, Russia wished to encourage the United States as a counter-weight against the British Empire, particularly at a time when Anglo-American relations were extremely poor due to the U.S. blockade of southern ports and the building of ships for the Confederate navy in England. It was also not as though the spread of the American Civil War to Europe was the only potential source of conflict."

IMPERIAL RUSSIAN DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR FAVORABLY DISPOSED TOWARD THE UNION! RUSSIAN WARSHIPS MAKING COURTESY CALL TO AMERICAN PORTS NOT NECESSARILY THE RUSSIAN DOING SO OUT OF PURELY ALTRUISTIC REASONS.

GRAND STRATEGY OF A GEO-POLITICAL NATURE ON A GLOBAL SCALE!

See previous blog entries regarding the topic:

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/09/russians.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/09/admiral-lisovski.html

coolbert.