In America, Russia, and the Meeting of Frontiers: Overview, you can explore the comparative history of the Russian expansion across Siberia to the Russian Far East and the Pacific, the American expansion westward and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Americans tend to see their expansion westward as a process of free settlement. In contrast, Russians readily use the phrase "the conquest of Siberia" and have in their language no precise equivalent to the word "frontier" as used in American history, with its connotations of openness, freedom and opportunity.

"Meeting of Frontiers" is just one of the fascinating stories told in the Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources Web site of international materials. And if you want to test your foreign-language skills, you can view "Meeting of Frontiers" in Russian as well as English.

In addition, information on the former Soviet Union can be found in the Library's collection of Country Studies. The Library's Russian Collections are described in this section of the European Reading Room site.