American views of post-Soviet Russia have swung from one extreme to another over the last decade: from enthusiasm about an overnight transformation to pessimism about an unchangeable country; from libera democratic universalism to stigmatization of a unique, non-Western culture; from optimism about international cooperation to demonization of Russian opposition to U.S. policies and then back to near-euphoria about an alliance against terrorism. To move beyond such pendular swings and stabilize American-Russian relations, Americans need to abandon teleological assumptions about Russia’s future and Russia should avoid steps that reinforce negative American stereotypes.

Between 1885 and 1905 the traditional American view of Russia as a friendly Christian empire gave way to a missionary crusade to reform the backward autocracy and emancipate the oppressed Russian people. This historic shift in American attitudes did not arise solely from increasing realism about tsarist repression or anger at Russian expansion in the Far East, as previous studies asserted. To fully understand the fundamental reorientation, historians must also examine how Americans came to channel their evangelical fervor toward Russia and how they reconsidered the racial status of the Russian people. In that light, the crusade for a «free Russia» can be understood as part of the global extension of an American civilizing mission, which had the gratifying effect of reinforcing confidence in the special virtues of the United States. Thus, we can see in the 1885−1905 period the early origins of both a century-long drive to remake Russia and a long-term tendency to treat Russia as a «dark double» or «imaginary twin» of the U.S.