What sum did Russia receive for selling Alaska to the United States in 1867?

Russia received $7.2 million for selling Alaska to the United States in 1867.

The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1867. U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated with Eduard de Stoeckl, the Russian diplomat representing Emperor Alexander II. The formal transfer took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867, when Russian officials handed the territory to the United States.

The price worked out to about two cents per acre at the time. Critics mocked the transaction as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox,” believing the remote Arctic territory had little value. Alaska later became important for its natural resources, strategic position, and enormous geographic area.

The purchase was not the same event as Alaska’s admission as a state. Alaska became a U.S. territory in 1912 and entered the Union as the forty-ninth state in 1959. The United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a separate deal often confused with the Alaska transaction.