Who did we buy Alaska from
Executive summary
The United States bought Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867, formalized by the Treaty of Cession negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and Russian Minister Edouard (Baron Edouard) de Stoeckl for $7.2 million, a transaction consummated on March 30, 1867 and paid with a Treasury check the following year [1] [2] [3]. Contemporary critics derided the deal as “Seward’s Folly,” but the purchase became widely accepted after gold discoveries and growing recognition of Alaska’s strategic and resource value [4] [5].
1. The simple answer: from Russia — the legal seller was the Russian Empire
The territory long administered as Russian America was ceded to the United States by the Russian Empire under a treaty negotiated in 1867; most standard histories and primary-document repositories state explicitly that the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million [1] [6] [5].
2. Who negotiated and signed the deal: Seward and de Stoeckl
The treaty was negotiated and signed on the American side by Secretary of State William Seward and on the Russian side by Minister Edouard de Stoeckl (often styled Baron), who had been Washington’s Russian envoy and reopened the sale talks after the U.S. Civil War [2] [6] [7].
3. Price, timing and paperwork: $7.2 million and the Treasury check
Congress appropriated $7.2 million for the purchase, and the National Archives preserves the cancelled Treasury check and the Russian exchange copy of the Treaty of Cession that document the payment and legal transfer; the appropriation vote and disbursement were completed in 1868 after ratification procedures [3] [4].
4. Why Russia sold: strategic, economic and logistical motives
Historians and reference works explain that Russia’s interest in holding Alaska had waned by the 1850s because the fur trade declined, supply and defense costs were high, and Russia feared losing the territory to Britain in any future conflict, leading it to prefer selling to the United States [8] [5] [9].
5. American politics and opposition: “Seward’s Folly” and congressional debate
The purchase faced mockery and political resistance at home — labeled “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox” — and required sustained advocacy in the Senate (notably from Charles Sumner) and a contested appropriation process that included lobbying to secure the final votes [4] [8] [10].
6. Broader perspectives: indigenous peoples and long-term consequences
Contemporary scholarship and journalistic treatments stress that the transfer has multiple narratives: while U.S. policymakers framed it as strategic expansion, Alaska’s Indigenous peoples view the cession as a moment with mixed meanings—loss, disruption, and later complex interactions with U.S. governance—an angle emphasized by sources that foreground native perspectives [9].
7. What the document record shows and limits of reporting
Primary records cited by the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the State Department detail the treaty text, signatures, ratifications, and payment, firmly showing Russia as the seller and the United States as the buyer; if further legal or local claims beyond the treaty text are of interest, those specifics are not established in the documents cited here and would require additional source material [3] [6] [2].
8. Bottom line and legacy
Legally and historically the answer is unequivocal: the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7.2 million, a transaction negotiated by Seward and de Stoeckl and later vindicated in popular opinion by resource discoveries and strategic importance [1] [2] [5].