After decades of Cold War “Red Scare” and the more recent “Russiagate” hoax it is hard to imagine that an American president would be allowed to have anything even remotely connected to Russia on his resume. But the fact is, that a few U.S. leaders worked in Russia before everything changed in 1917. So who were these adventurous and open-minded presidents? Let’s take a look.

John Quincy Adams worked in Russia in 1809-1814.

John Quincy became the first “plenipotentiary envoy” to St. Petersburg. His mandate fell during the era of the Napoleonic Wars, and the diplomat’s task was to achieve the maximum possible trade preferences for the United States. The difficulty was that the United States was in a standoff with Britain, at that time an ally, at least on paper, of Russia.

Nevertheless, Adams quickly built a good personal relationship with Emperor Alexander I. They even strolled along the banks of the Neva River together.

James Buchanan worked in Russia in 1832-1834.

Thanks to Buchanan, the Russian-American Treaty on Trade and Navigation was signed in 1832. The document provided for common bilateral trade rights and established the most-favored-nation trade conditions. Despite his short service life, Buchanan managed to establish contacts in St. Petersburg and gain the favor of Emperor Nicholas I.

When the diplomat left Russia, Nicholas I asked to tell President Jackson that the new American envoy should be “the same as Buchanan.”

Herbert Hoover worked in Russia as an entrepreneur in 1909-1913.

Hoover, a mining engineer by training, has worked in Russia since 1909. In Kyshtym in the Urals, he created a joint-stock company of Kyshtym mining plants. Later, he was invited to lead the development of deposits in the Altai Mountains.

Hoover himself left Russia in 1913, and in 1917 the United States severed diplomatic relations with the Bolshevik government. Nevertheless, when a massive famine began in Soviet Russia in 1921, Hoover, already as US Secretary of Commerce and head of the American Relief Administration, sent humanitarian supplies to the country, despite the fact that he was extremely negative about Bolshevism.