What was going on in Russia when the United States declared independence?
The Russians welcomed the emergence of the United States. They believed they would only benefit from it.
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia unanimously adopted the American Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed the separation of the 13 British colonies from Great Britain. Thus, a new, but as yet unrecognized state appeared on the political map of the world.
Russian Empress Catherine II learned of these events in August. She blamed the British Crown for what had happened and declared that "the separation of the colonies from the mother country is not contrary to Russia's interests and may even be beneficial to it."
At this time, the country was recovering from the devastating 1773-1775 uprising led by Yemelyan Pugachev. This Don Cossack pretended to be the long-dead Emperor Peter III, rallied the masses of Cossacks, peasants and indigenous peoples of the Urals and Volga regions, captured numerous fortresses and small towns, but was ultimately defeated and executed.
Authorities were busy rebuilding the factories in the Urals that had been destroyed by the rebels, as well as finishing off Pugachev's followers. At the same time, in order to avoid a repeat of the terrible rebellion, they used not only brute force, but also diplomacy and compromise. Thus, in Spring 1776, a Kazakh uprising, led by the so-called ‘Invisible Man’ (Koktemir), was successfully quelled through bribery.
