Russian involvement in the American Revolutionary War[edit]

Despite being geographically removed from the American colonies, Russia under Catherine the Great significantly affected the American Revolution through trade and diplomacy. While Catherine personally oversaw most of Russia’s interactions with the American colonies, Britain and the other nations directly or indirectly involved in the Revolutionary War, she also entrusted certain tasks to her foreign advisor Nikita Panin, who often acted on Catherine’s behalf when it came to matters of international diplomacy. Catherine and Panin interacted with the British government through James Harris, an Earl at the Russian court.[1] The decisions made by Catherine and Panin during the Revolution to continue trade with the colonies, remain officially neutral, refuse Britain’s requests for military assistance, and insist on peace talks that linked a resolution of the American Revolution with the settlement of separate European conflicts indirectly helped the Americans win the Revolution and gain their freedom.