GOP resistance to funding Ukraine’s war effort, along with the refusal by several Republicans to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been a clear sign that this is no longer the staunchly anti-Soviet, anti-Russia GOP of yesteryear. And it’s not just elected Republicans who are expressing affinity for the Russians. The admiration for Putin on the right borders on sycophancy — which was evident from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s softball interview with the Russian leader.
Yet, while this is a major turn away from the GOP of the 1980s, it’s not the first time in American history that radical conservatives have lionized a Russian autocrat. During the War of 1812, New England Federalists venerated Russian Tsar Alexander I. The similarities between the two stories reveal the potency of conspiracy theories in politics, as well as the dangers of seeing politics as a battle between good and evil.
On March 25, 1813, Massachusetts politicians, merchants, and clergymen packed into King’s Chapel in Boston to thank God for inspiring Russia’s victory over French invaders. After a series of sermons, these conservatives reconvened at the Exchange Coffee House. The gathering spot was decorated with a transparency depicting Alexander I in military uniform while the Russian imperial anthem echoed through its halls. The dinner guests toasted in honor of Alexander, bestowing him with the epithets “the Great” and “the Deliverer of Europe.”
On its face, this celebration made no sense: after all, Russia was allied with Great Britain, which was currently at war with the U.S. But there was a crucial reason for the jubilation in the room, as explained by wealthy Boston merchant Harrison Gray Otis, who had organized the gathering. Otis proclaimed that the Russian Tsar’s victory had saved the U.S. from its “greatest danger” — French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
The claim was striking given that British redcoats were currently occupying American territory. But it made sense if one understood the false conspiracy theory that had taken hold among Federalists during the previous two decades.