The first Russians came to America in the 17th century. Thy came through the Bering Straight and landed in Alaska, where they hunted blue fox, the fur seal and sea otter which they sold to some Asian countries.
Their first colony Kodiak was built in the northwest and their first governor was Baranov. The Colony was growing and the Orthodox Church decided to find a Russian Orthodoxy mission. Schools and churches were built for natives and now, after Alaska was sold to the USA, the Orthodoxy is still the predominant religion there.
The friendship between Russia and America began before the first settlement was founded in America. Russia was on the side of the then future US during the independence war between America and Great Britain and they supported the Americans with military supplies.
On the other hand Russia got support from the US when Russia was attacked by Great Britain and France in 1855.
During the years the Orthodoxy spread in Alaska.
After the Russian revolution in 1917 a lot of people came to the US. With those refugees a lot of smart people came to America. One invented the TV and another one the helicopter.
But during the cold war the Russian-Americans were not accepted anymore. The US government thought that the Russians were spies or a sort of comintern member. .
The prejudices that were published by the media as propaganda during the Cold War have manifested in the minds of the Americans. Unfortunately those prejudices remained even after the Cold War and until today a part of the conscience of most American people.
2 The Prejudices.
The Russian culture is a very rich one, but members of other societies and cultures mostly do not see that. Another thing is that most people lack background information about a specific culture and therefore treat and judge the Russian culture in a wrong way. This text tries to help understanding the Russian culture and to "clean up" the common prejudices about it, at least some of them.