Moscow, Nauka Publ. 1981. 374 p.

Although the book by G. P. Kuropyatnik, a senior researcher at the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, is devoted to a relatively small period in the history of Russian-American relations, it is extremely important for understanding the whole complex of relations between the two countries. In fact, it is probably appropriate to start studying the processes that determined the future course of relations between Russia and the United States, and in some aspects still affect us today. It is very important that the author actually made the first attempt to comprehensively cover the period under consideration, which was previously described only fragmentally.

As in the previous works of G. According to P. Kuropyatnik, in the peer-reviewed work, economic analysis is impeccable, the reported facts are carefully checked. Naturally, the study focuses on trade and economic relations between Russia and the United States, which were regulated by the 1832 treatise on trade and navigation. "On the American initiative," the author emphasizes," the core idea of the treatise was the principle of the most favored nation " (p.59). During the study period, the idyllic picture of trade and economic relations between Russia and the United States, characteristic of the previous decades, is being intruded by competition on world markets. This is understandable - post-reform Russia straightened its shoulders and the United States, which eliminated the consequences of the civil war, became more active. At the same time, the author concludes, "both the development of trade and business ties and the growing rivalry between Russia and the United States in these areas were determined by the real economic interests of both states. Concrete facts from history show that with mutual consideration of the partner's interests and a sound approach to the problems that arose, stable and productive trade and economic ties could develop to the mutual benefit of the two peoples" (p.83).

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At that time, Russia and the United States entered into various contacts in many areas. 1876 marked the centennial of the United States, which was marked, among other things, by an industrial exhibition in Philadelphia. The exhibits presented at the exhibition from Russia struck the imagination of Americans - steam engines of Putilov factories, rails, anchors, sheet iron (Demidov factories), agricultural machines of the inventor from Orel Meshcherin, printing machines of the inventor Alisov, Vonlyarovsky cargo platform, machine tools, ship models, silver products and much more. The Russians who worked at the exhibition made an even greater impression. The book contains a review of the American newspaper "The Boston Evening Journal": "You see before you a group of strong and beautiful people, each of whom is an outstanding master in his profession or craft. Moreover, almost everyone we interviewed speaks at least one of the European languages. All of them are also genuinely striking in their free demeanor" (p. 178).

The exhibition in Philadelphia coincided with the visit of D. I. Mendeleev to the United States, who came to study the development of the oil business in America, because the influx of American oil products to the world market by the mid-70s of the XIX century created serious problems for the Russian oil industry. The" warrior of Russian Science, " as Mendeleev called himself, understood the case in detail. His trip had practical results, and undoubtedly Mendeleev's recommendations were a contribution to the development of oil production in Russia. It is known that Russia, at the time of his trip overseas, was 14 times inferior to the United States in oil production, by the end of the century, came out in this respect to the first place in the world.

But the American experience was not taken blindly. Mendeleev noted a characteristic feature of American technology - an abundance of "sometimes very useful, sometimes useless, but always a variety of mechanical devices" while ignoring fundamental research. "Such an arrangement of affairs always threatens with surprises and can cost the country a lot," which is compounded, Mendeleev lamented, by the fact that the "need for money" is rampant, which has developed "greed, deception and bribery", and America has become a country of "the all-powerful dollar, the philistinism that rules and dominates" (p.182, 185, 187). Mendeleev's general conclusion about trends prevailing in American society: "To make and profit by all sorts of untruths, to use the labor of those unrequited who are deprived of capital" (p. 190). " I do not advise anyone who has developed to understand social tasks to stay there. I think they'll be terrified in America. There is a place for others" (p. 189).

How these "others" felt about Russia is one of the important themes of the book. In its presentation, the author cites a rich scattering of unknown and little-known facts, which he often learned for the first time in the archives. With an easily discernible sarcasm, he writes about the phenomenal ignorance of Americans in everything that concerned Russia. The conductor and preacher of Russian culture in the West, including in the United States, was then I. S. Turgenev. American readers were surprised to learn, notes G. P. Kuropyatnik, that Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter, directed against serfdom, was published in the same year as G. Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (p. 107).

Russia at that time was the scene of a growing struggle against the autocracy. Some Russian revolutionaries, including those from Narodnaya Volya, tried to appeal to American public opinion. M. A. Bakunin, having visited the United States, apparently pointed out the exact reason: American "people's self-government, despite the appearance of national omnipotence, remains almost always in a state of fiction", and in order for it to become a reality, it will take "a much deeper revolution than all those that have already been created." so far, the old and new worlds have been shaken up." Yes, P. L. Lavrov confirmed it in 1875: "Venality, plunder, indifference to the common good, speculation of all kinds, hypocrisy in political programs and statements were more pronounced in the "model republic" than even in the decrepit states of Europe " (pp. 126-127).

As for official relations, they were generally smooth, both sides expressed sympathy, exchanged visits, warships mutually visited the ports of the United States and Russia, etc. D. M. Twain, invited with a group of American travelers to the Livadia Palace, Sochi-

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Neil sent a welcome address to Alexander II, ending with the words: "America owes Russia in many ways, and especially for its unselfish and firm friendship during its difficult times... Only a madman would imagine that America would ever break its loyalty to this friendship by a hostile statement or action" (p.49). For its part, the tsarist government consistently instructed its envoy in Washington that relations with the United States should maintain "the traditional character of heartfelt sincerity, but without intimacy" (p.51).

A thorough investigation of the facts led the author to the conclusion that at the turn of the 70 - 80s of the last century "active diplomatic cooperation between the two countries... it was coming to an end " (p. 339). Turning to the final chords of this "cooperation", he points out its root cause - it was "dictated not by altruistic considerations of the highest order, but by quite mundane goals" - the general ill-will of St. Petersburg and Washington towards England (p.334). Since the beginning of the 1980s, relations between the United States and Britain have been changing, and US-Russian relations are taking on a different character. The author describes in detail the reasons for these changes related to the new political situation in both countries in connection with the abolition of serfdom and a series of reforms in Russia and the results of the second American Revolution.

By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the two English - speaking states of the United States and Great Britain had come to diplomatic reconciliation, which could not but cause disappointment and irritation in St. Petersburg. The book also mentions such factors of changes in Russian-American relations as overseas grain competition, rivalry in the oil market, changes in Russian import tariffs, the emergence of real contradictions between the United States and Russia in the Far East, "and then their deepening in connection with the beginning of the process of transition of both capitalist powers to a monopolistic stage of development, involving the industrial, commercial, and financial interests of the bourgeoisie of Russia and the United States in other spheres and regions in the struggle" (p. 335).

The rich factual material contained in the book allows us to make important generalizations that open a new stage in the study of the history of Russian-American relations. The subject of these studies should be primarily the years immediately following the period so thoroughly studied by G. P. Kuropyatnik.

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