When American Russian Relations Shone Brightest

PAPILLION, Neb. - March 24, 2022 - PRLog -- Dr. Lee Farrow is an expert in Russian history, particularly of the late 19th century. A department chair at Auburn University, Montgomery, she is the author of several books on US-Russia relations in the late Tsarist period of Alexander II, the Romanov emperor who freed the serfs three years before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Her 2014 book, "Alexis in America - A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1872-1872" recounts the adventures of the Tsar's fourth son, 20 year-old Alexis and his visit to the United States, a visit that included perhaps the most famous buffalo hunt of history. Closely followed by the American press and public at the time, that visit likely may have been the high point of American and Russian relations for the last 150 years.

Dr. Farrow sat down with the Camp 1872 Project over the course of the three months mirroring the 150th anniversary of Grand Duke's American tour, to talk about the then-high profile visit. Tragically, during that time, global tensions have steadily risen, culminating in the Russia invasion of Ukraine, an event that may portend regime change in Moscow.

In the fourth installment of "Ghost of the Buffalo Grass" interviews, Dr. Farrow, who is fluent in Russian, shares her insight into the current crisis, having made multiple research trips to Russia, as well as giving her perspective on the life of the Grand Duke, who died in self-imposed exile in Paris in 1908 after the disastrous Russo-Japanese war in 1905, the loss of which history accords him considerable blame.

But in 1871, he was young, tall, handsome, virile; the epitome of European aristocracy. He was also love sick; and it was the main reason his father, the Tsar, ordered him on a nearly two year-long diplomatic mission that would take him three-quarters of the way around the world, starting with the United States.

Camp 1872 Project's "Royal Buffalo Hunt 1872" series of four interviews with Dr. Farrow, and hosted by project director, Bill Moore, are available on Youtube (see link below).

The Camp 1872 Project aims to recreate, in Augmented Reality, the events and personages of the Royal Buffalo Hunt that brought together European nobility, American military, and Lakota tribesmen in peaceful collaboration on the Nebraska frontier, including George A. Custer and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

https://tinyurl.com/ghostbuffalograss