In 1900, Wiliam Rainey visited Russia in the company of Charles R. Crane, a wealthy Chicago businessman particularly interested in Eastern Europe.
Among others, William Rainey Harper met tsar Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoy on this trip (the latter was disturbed that the President spent much of his time trying to secure funds for the university).
[1] William Rainey Harper returned to Chicago determined to eventually start a program for the study of Russia and also to send his own son abroad to learn a new language.
He fell short of finishing his PhD dissertation when Pares suggested for him to come to University of Liverpool to teach Russian while closer to the country itself.
[1] He briefly served as Special Assistant to the U.S. State Department, Russian Division from 1918 to 1922, and on the committee that concerned itself with the authenticity of the Sisson Documents.