The Catacazy Affair and the Uneasy Path of Russian-American Relations

This is the first full treatment of the Catacazy Affair, and its far-reaching implications for Russian-American relations.
Constantin Catacazy whipped up scandal in Washington after his appointment there as Russian Ambassador in 1869. By 1871, President Grant and his Cabinet requested that he be recalled. But the timing of this request overlapped with the visit of the tsar’s son to the USA - a celebrated diplomatic event symbolising the friendship and good will between the two nations. Catacazy was allowed to travel with the tsar’s son, but only as a persona non grata. This tense resolution led many to worry about the future of the Russian-American friendship.
With a keen sense of the human interest, Farrow demonstrates that this affair was one of the earliest significant complications in the relationship between Russia and the USA. An increasingly uneasy relationship followed, culminating in the USA’s intervention against the new Bolshevik regime. This book provides an insight into 19th-century politics and diplomacy, and explores the pre-suffrage power of women in the political arena through an investigation of the Washington wives’ reactions to the controversial figure of Olga Catacazy. Using a lively micro-historical approach and fresh materials such as the letters of Catacazy and of Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, from archives in the USA, UK and Russia, this book provides cutting-edge analysis of a pivotal episode in modern history.