title: In Service to the Tsar
abstract: The Crimean War began in 1853 and pitted Russia against Great Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and others. European powers chose sides in this conflict, the United States maintained official neutrality. Russia and the United States enjoyed fairly tranquil relations their mutual official recognition in the first part of the nineteenth century. The Russians, especially, had had a long-serving group of diplomats in the United States in the first half of the century. Dr. Nikolai Pirogov, who sup