Scholarly record

THE "PASSPORT ISSUE" IN RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES

S. Spartak

Abstract

Topicality. Russia was always one of the main subjects of political thought as one of influential factor in world policy. The report is focused on the history of American political thought that remains still unknown in this aspect. And attempts to better understanding of the roots of actual negative connotation of Russia and Russians in USA. Aim: to reconstruct the logic of one of political argument of the negative image of Russia in America. Hypothesis: The USA authorities did not want to put up with the fact that American Jews, when they came to Russia, equated with their Russian co-religionists and fell under the discretionary national restrictions imposed by the tsarist regime. The government of the Russian Empire considered unacceptable the difference in the legal status of American and Russian Jews and defended the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the Empire. Discussion: The "passport issue" in relations between Russia and the United States appeared in the late 1860s and early 1870s, when Jewish emigration from Russia was just beginning, which contributed to an increase in the number of natural Americans of Russian-Jewish origin in the United States. Different positions of the two States in the" passport issue " clearly manifested themselves in connection with the case of two American Jews-M. Vilzhinsky and G. Pinkos, who were in Russia on business of their trading companies and were expelled from St. Petersburg in 1880. due to the fact that they, being Jews, according to local law, had no right to be outside the Jewish pale of settlement. Method: Historical reconstruction of political theories and real politics in the frame of the USA-Russian policy and strategic communications. Results: Historically and politically, the "passport issue" in relations between Russia and the United States consisted of three aspects : first, the "passport issue", which was that Russia refused to recognize the passport of naturalized USA citizens of the Jewish faith and, despite the mutual regime of the most favored nation established by the Russian-American Treaty on trade and navigation of 1832, equated the rights and freedoms of American Jews visiting Russia with extremely limited rights and freedoms of Jews in Russia itself; second, the immigration aspect, which was caused by the mass emigration of Russian Jews to the United States; third, the reaction of the American society to the policy of anti-Semitism pursued by the government of the Russian Empire.

Publication details

Back to publication list