#fruk?

American admiration and respect for Tsar Nicholas I:

In my mind, the following description of Nicholas I by Andrew White is essentially how America saw Russia in the 19th century (lots of fawning and adoration for the sole European power that wasn't hostile or indifferent toward the new country; desperate for any semblance of friendship in the Old World, America clung tight with something resembling neediness and an overeagerness to please, which Russia probably liked considering his own outcast status in Eurasia):

American surgeons and physicians volunteering as medics for the Russian Army (I imagine America was among them):

America studying Russian siege techniques in the Crimean War, which were later used during the American Civil War:

America sending mechanics to help build Russian rails + the Boston Submarine and Wrecking Company to help "raise the sunken Russian fleet":

I think the Crimean War saw their relationship truly flourish beyond mere acquaintance and into a budding friendship (situationship ? 😭 i mean "ardent desire for friendship of the US and for drawing still closer the bonds of political and commercial intercourse"), all in an effort to somewhat shield themselves from the Franco-Anglo duo (situationship) lol

Russia's role in the American Civil War (that followed 6 years after the Crimean War) cemented the affection that had been built up in the years prior.

Also, they'd be Boomers but young ones born at the tail end of the baby boom (probably in 1964?), with Arthur being one of the youngest out of his siblings, and Arthur and Marianne having kids in the late 90s/early 2000s when they're in their 30s. They'd raise Matthew and Amelia in a wealthy suburbia in New England and send them to a rich Catholic school even though Arthur himself was raised episcopalian, but he doesn't really care. They both come from well-off salt water families, though Arthur did have a rebellious punk phase during the 80s (much to his strait-laced parents grief), which is how he met Marianne anyway, so he doesn't regret it.

So then, Amelia and Matthew's childhood is like summers at Martha's Vineyard/Cape Cod, visiting Grandma Alice and Grandpa Alfie at the family mansion that's been passed down for generations, while going to rich private schools and eventually Ivy League universities like Yale or Columbia.