Alaska: How Russia's Clearance Sale Brought Gold and Oil to America

Donald Trump appeared to confuse geography and history on Monday, saying on television that he planned to meet Vladimir Putin "in Russia" on Friday for their much-anticipated, high-stakes summit.

- Pjotr Sauer

It was the latest in a series of verbal slip-ups by the US president – though had he made it a little over a century and a half earlier, it would have been true.

Alaska, with Novo-Arkhangelsk as its regional capital, remained part of the Russian empire under Tsar Alexander II until its sale to the US in 1867.

When Putin's jet touches down in Alaska, he will be greeted by traces of Russia's former presence. From the wild, rugged shores of Baranof Island to Anchorage, the state's largest city, Russian Orthodox churches with their distinctive onion-shaped domes still dot the landscape.

Russia's foothold in Alaska began not with armies, but fur. In the mid-18th century, merchants and adventurers pushed east across Siberia, spurred by the promise of lucrative sea otter pelts. By the 1780s, Catherine the Great had authorized the creation of the Russian-American Company, granting it a monopoly over trade and governance in the territory.

Alexander Baranov, a hard-driving merchant, consolidated Russia's hold on the region in the late-18th century, expanding settlements and ruthlessly suppressing resistance, most famously from the native Tlingit, who gave him the grim nickname "No Heart".

Russian Orthodox priests soon followed, establishing missions and building churches. In New Archangel (now Sitka), they raised St Michael's Cathedral, its green dome rising against a backdrop of glaciers, still anchoring the town's view more than 150 years later.