It never before occurred to me to seriously look into this. I knew that the original occurrence of
“I can see Russia from my house” was not from Sarah Palin, but from an SNL actress mocking her. But Mrs. Palin really did say,
“They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
Was she correct?
She didn't say she could see Russia from her house. She said that Russia could be seen from an Island in Alaska.
I present to you,
The Diomede Islands. Little Diomede Island is part of Alaska. Big Diomede Island is part of Russia. The distance between the two islands is less than two and a half miles. Mrs. Palin did say that it was from an Island in Alaska, that Russia could be seen. Do you suppose that from one island, one would be able to see another island less than two and a half miles away?
Now, if we ignore the Diomede Islands, then
the nearest part of mainland Alaska to the nearest part of mainland Russia would be Wales in Alaska, which is about fifty-four miles from the nearest part of the Russian mainland. I wouldn't know for sure, but it seems plausible that you could see Mainland Russia from there.
And on another note, there are the islands trailing eastward from Alaska. Some of these islands are real, and well documented. But there are an appearance of islands that are not really there. You think you see them, but if you sail up to them, there's just water. Those are the Optical Aleutians.