Birds Are Flying Over Europe's Skies

**Historical Note: During this time period the Russian Empire maintained a relatively positive relationship with the United States government. By the 1830s, the relationship between England and Russia, which had once been strong during the Napoleonic Wars, began to deteriorate due to conflicting interests in Eastern Europe and toward the Ottoman Empire. By the 1850s relations had turned outright hostile, as in the Crimean War (1853-1856) and popular British support for Polish uprisings within the Russian Empire. This hostility continued throughout the 19th century, culminating in "The Great Game," where Britain and Russia competed for influence in Central Asia (particularly Afghanistan).

Although Russia had maintained friendly, but distant relations during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the United States' growing power both in the Western Hemisphere and on the world stage positioned it as a potential counterbalance to the power of the British Empire, and therefore a potential ally. By the 1860s, Russia made more explicit overtures of friendship, such as expressing public support for the Union during the Civil War and wintering its navy in American ports. This culminated in the Alaska Purchase in 1867, in which Russia sought to rid itself of Alaska but feared upsetting the balance of power by selling it to Canada (and by extension England). The United States, particularly Secretary of State William Seward, took an interest for the opportunity to expand trade in Asia (though until gold was discovered several jeered the purchase as "Seward's Folly").

Lithuanians began to immigrate to the United States as early as 1861 after serfdom was abolished in the Russian Empire, but 1867-1868 saw a rise in Lithuanian immigration to the United States due to a famine. This steady pace continued until the outbreak of WW1, despite some Russian attempts to stop this. Between 300,000-600,000 Lithuanians emigrated, though we'll likely never know for sure due to errors in immigration records and name notations.