Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, was the only constant friend the Union had from start to finish during the Civil War, while liberal heroes like Gladstone waxed poetic about magnolias and plumed knights-errant, and Napoleon III invaded Mexico. https://twitter.com/CelebratedDust/status/1345527001319428101

Salisbury, towards the end of his life, was wont to regret that HMG hadn't intervened on the side of the Confederacy, and turned North America into a sort of South America--a continent of petty, fragmented republics.

The fact that these graves are those of Russian sailors makes sense. Alexander II sent Russian fleets on friendly port calls to NY and the West coast at various critical junctures of the war; unsubtle warnings to London and Paris that the Union had powerful friends.

But let Mitt Romney and the rest of his lot--who wouldn't know most history if it got into the tub with them--casually insult Russia, one of the great world civilizations, as "a gas station with a flag." Makes me ill.