The article is devoted to the analysis of assessments of the rupture of the Russian-American trade treaty in 1911 by the liberal public, which previously remained outside the field of view of researchers. Materials from the liberal periodicals show the vision of leading publications and politicians about the reasons for the abolition of the treaty, the role of the Jewish question in this process, as well as the attitude towards possible retaliatory measures. The course of the discussion about the need to terminate the treaty in political circles and society in the United States during a period of diplomatic conflict, the prerequisites and reasons for the conflict itself have been studied. The differences between the Cadets, Octobrists and Progressives on these issues are shown. According to the Octobrists in the Duma and their mouthpiece, the «Voice of Moscow» newspaper, the agreement was extremely unfa-vorable for Russia due to the negative trade balance with the United States, and therefore it was necessary to reconsider the favorability of American goods on the Russian market. The Cadet Party drew attention to Russia’s dependence on imports from the United States, primarily cotton and agricultural machinery, and feared that the deterioration of relations between the countries would primarily hit Russian peasants and the economy as a whole. The Octobrists also recognized these problems and proposed accelerating the development of cotton growing in Turkestan and the Caucasus, and importing machinery from England and Germany. Progressives and the newspaper «Rech» were reserved about the fact that the United States was breaking the treaty and paid attention to the correct diplomatic form of this step. In general, the position of the Octobrists, who accused American Jews of inciting the conflict and proposed retaliatory measures against the United States, stood out from other liberals: they did not see a problem in terminating what they considered an outdated treaty and criticized the actions of the United States, finding that they were based on an attempt to intervene into the internal affairs of Russia through the Jewish question.
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