| Russian America Русская Америка Russkaya Amerika | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colony of theRussian Empire | |||||||||
| 1732–1867 | |||||||||
 Russian Creole settlements | |||||||||
 Russian possessions in North America (1835) | |||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||
| "Боже, Царя храни!" Bozhe Tsarya khrani! (1833–1867) ("God Save the Tsar!") | |||||||||
| Capital |
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| Demonym | Alaskan Creole | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| • Coordinates | 57°03′N135°19′W / 57.050°N 135.317°W /57.050; -135.317 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||
• 1799–1818 (first) | Alexander Baranov | ||||||||
• 1863–1867 (last) | Dmitry Maksutov | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 15 July 1732 | |||||||||
| 18 October 1867 | |||||||||
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| Today part of | United States | ||||||||
| Part of a series on the |
| History of Alaska |
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From 1732 to 1867, theRussian Empire laid claim to northernPacific Coast territories in theAmericas. Russian colonial possessions in the Americas were collectively known asRussian America from 1799 to 1867. It consisted mostly of present-dayAlaska in theUnited States, but also included the outpost ofFort Ross inCalifornia.Russian Creole settlements were concentrated in Alaska, including the capital,New Archangel (Novo-Arkhangelsk), which is nowSitka.
Russian expansion eastward began in 1552, and in 1639 Russian explorers reached thePacific Ocean. In 1725, EmperorPeter the Great ordered navigatorVitus Bering to explore the North Pacific for potential colonization. The Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur-bearing mammals on Alaska's coast, as stocks had been depleted byoverhunting in Siberia. Bering'sfirst voyage was foiled by thick fog and ice, but in 1741 asecond voyage by Bering andAleksei Chirikov discovered part of the North American mainland. Bering claimed the Alaskan country for theRussian Empire.[1] Russia later confirmed its rule over the territory with theUkase of 1799 which established the southern border of Russian America along the55th parallel north.[2] The decree also provided monopolistic privileges to the state-sponsoredRussian-American Company (RAC) and established theRussian Orthodox Church in Alaska.
Russianpromyshlenniki (trappers and hunters) quickly developed themaritime fur trade, which instigated several conflicts between theAleuts and Russians in the 1760s. The fur trade proved to be a lucrative enterprise, capturing the attention of other European nations. In response to potential competitors, the Russians extended their claims eastward from theCommander Islands to the shores of Alaska. In 1784, with encouragement from EmpressCatherine the Great, explorerGrigory Shelekhov founded Russia's first permanent settlement in Alaska atThree Saints Bay. Ten years later, the first group ofOrthodox Christian missionaries arrived, evangelizing thousands of Native Americans, many of whose descendants continue to maintain the religion.[3] By the late 1780s, trade relations had opened with theTlingits, and in 1799 the RAC was formed in order to monopolize the fur trade, also serving as an imperialist vehicle for theRussification ofAlaska Natives.
Angered by encroachment on their land and other grievances, the indigenous peoples' relations with the Russians deteriorated. In 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed several Russian settlements, most notablyRedoubt Saint Michael (Old Sitka), leavingNew Russia as the only remaining outpost on mainland Alaska. This failed to expel the Russians, who re-established their presence two years later following theBattle of Sitka. Peace negotiations between the Russians and Native Americans would later establish amodus vivendi, a situation that, with few interruptions, lasted for the duration of Russian presence in Alaska. In 1808, Redoubt Saint Michael was rebuilt asNew Archangel and became the capital of Russian America after the previous colonial headquarters were moved fromKodiak. A year later, the RAC began expanding its operations to more abundantsea otter grounds inNorthern California, whereFort Ross was built in 1812.
By the middle of the 19th century, profits from Russia's North American colonies were in steep decline. Competition with the BritishHudson's Bay Company had brought the sea otter to near extinction, while the population of bears, wolves, and foxes on land was also nearing depletion. Faced with the reality of periodic Native American revolts, the political ramifications of theCrimean War, and unable to fully colonize the Americas to their satisfaction, the Russians concluded that their North American colonies were too expensive to retain. Eager to release themselves of the burden, the Russians sold Fort Ross in 1841, and in 1867, after less than a month of negotiations, theUnited States accepted EmperorAlexander II's offer to sell Alaska. TheAlaska Purchase for $7.2 million (equivalent to $162 million in 2024) ended Imperial Russia's colonial presence in the Americas.
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The earliest written accounts indicate that the Eurasian Russians were the first Europeans to reach Alaska. There is an unofficial assumption that EurasianSlavic navigators reached the coast of Alaska long before the 18th century.
In 1648,Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the mouth of theKolyma River through theArctic Ocean and around the eastern tip of Asia to theAnadyr River. One legend holds that some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska. However, no evidence of settlement survives. Dezhnev's discovery was never forwarded to the central government, leaving open the question of whether or notSiberia was connected to North America.[4]
The first sighting of the Alaskan coastline was in 1732; this sighting was made by the Russian maritime explorer and navigatorIvan Fedorov from sea near present-dayCape Prince of Wales on the eastern boundary of theBering Strait opposite RussianCape Dezhnev. He did not land.
The first landfall happened in southernAlaska in 1741 during the Russian exploration byVitus Bering andAleksei Chirikov. In the early 1720s, TsarPeter the Great called for another expedition. As a part of the 1733–1743Second Kamchatka expedition, theSv. Petr under the Danish-born RussianVitus Bering and theSv. Pavel under the RussianAlexei Chirikov set sail from theKamchatkan port ofPetropavlovsk in June 1741. They were soon separated, but each continued sailing east.[5] On July 15, Chirikov sighted land, probably the west side ofPrince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska.[6] He sent a group of men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America. On roughly July 16, Bering and the crew ofSv. Petr sightedMount Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland; they turned westward toward Russia soon afterward. Meanwhile, Chirikov and theSv. Pavel headed back to Russia in October with news of the land they had found. In November, Bering's ship was wrecked onBering Island. There Bering fell ill and died, and high winds dashed theSv. Petr to pieces. After the stranded crew wintered on the island, the survivors built a boat from the wreckage and set sail for Russia in August 1742. Bering's crew reached the shore of Kamchatka in 1742, carrying word of the expedition. The high quality of thesea otter pelts they brought sparked Russian settlement in Alaska.
Due to the distance from central authority in St. Petersburg, and combined with the difficult geography and lack of adequate resources, the next state-sponsored expedition would wait more than two decades until 1766, when captains Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashov embarked for theAleutian Islands, eventually reaching their destination after initially been wrecked onBering Island. Between 1774 and 1800Spain also ledseveral expeditions to Alaska in order to assert its claim over the Pacific Northwest. These claims were later abandoned at the turn of the 19th century following the aftermath of theNootka Crisis. CountNikolay Rumyantsev fundedRussia's first naval circumnavigation under the joint command ofAdam Johann von Krusenstern andNikolai Rezanov in 1803–1806, and was instrumental in the outfitting of the voyage of theRiurik's circumnavigation of 1814–1816, which provided substantial scientific information on Alaska's and California's flora and fauna, and important ethnographic information on Alaskan and Californian (among other) natives.
Imperial Russia was unique among European empires for having no state sponsorship of foreign expeditions or territorial (conquest) settlement. The first state-protectedtrading company for sponsoring such activities in the Americas was theShelikhov-Golikov Company ofGrigory Shelikhov andIvan Larionovich Golikov. A number of other companies were operating inRussian America during the 1780s. Shelikhov petitioned the government for exclusive control, but in 1788Catherine II decided to grant his company a monopoly only over the area it had already occupied. Other traders were free to compete elsewhere. Catherine's decision was issued as the imperialukase (proclamation) of September 28, 1788.[7]
The Shelikhov-Golikov Company formed the basis for theRussian-American Company (RAC). Its charter was laid out in a 1799, by the newTsarPaul I, which granted the company monopolistic control over trade in theAleutian Islands and the North America mainland, south to55° north latitude.[5]: 102 The RAC was Russia's firstjoint stock company, and came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia. Siberian merchants based inIrkutsk were initial major stockholders, but soon replaced by Russia's nobility and aristocracy based inSaint Petersburg. The company constructed settlements in what is today Alaska,Hawaii,[8] andCalifornia.
Beginning in 1743, small associations offur-traders began to sail from the shores of the Russian Pacific coast to theAleutian islands.[9]
Rather than hunting the marine life themselves, the Sibero-Russianpromyshlenniki forced theAleuts to do the work for them, often by taking hostage family members in exchange for hunted seal-furs.[10] This pattern ofcolonial exploitation resembled some of thepromyshlennikipractices in their expansion intoSiberia and theRussian Far East.[11]As word spread of the potential riches in furs, competition among Russian companies increased and a large number of Aleuts were apparentlyenserfed.[12][10][13][14]
As the animal populations declined, the Aleuts, already too dependent on the newbarter-economy fostered by the Russian fur-trade, were increasingly coerced into taking greater and greater risks in the highly dangerous waters of theNorth Pacific to hunt for more otter.[citation needed] As theShelekhov-Golikov Company of 1783–1799 developed a monopoly, its use of skirmishes and violent incidents turned into systematic violence as a tool of colonial exploitation of the indigenous people. When the Aleutian serfs revolted and won some victories, thepromyshlenniki retaliated, killing many and destroying their boats and hunting gear, leaving them no means of survival.[citation needed] The most devastating effects came from disease: during the first two generations (1741–1759 & 1781–1799) of Sibero-Russianpromyshlenniki contact, 80 percent of the Aleut population died from Eurasianinfectious diseases; these were by then endemic among Eurasians, but the Aleuts had noimmunity against the diseases.[15]
Though the Alaskancolony was never very profitable because of the costs of transportation, most Russian traders were determined to keep the land for themselves. In 1784,Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov, who later set up theRussian-American Company[16][better source needed]that developed into the Alaskan colonial administration, arrived inThree Saints Bay onKodiak Island with two ships, theThree Saints (Russian:Три Святителя) and theSt. Simon.[17] The KoniagAlaska Natives harassed the Russian party and Shelekhov responded by killing hundreds and taking hostages to enforce the obedience of the rest. Having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelekhov founded the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska (afterUnalaska, permanently settled since 1774) on the island's Three Saints Bay.[citation needed]
In 1790, Shelekhov, back in Russia, hiredAlexander Andreyevich Baranov to manage his Alaskan fur-enterprise. Baranov moved the colony to the northeast end of Kodiak Island, wheretimber was available. The site later developed as what is now the city ofKodiak. Russian colonists took Koniag wives and started families whose surnames continue today, such as Panamaroff, Petrikoff, and Kvasnikoff.[citation needed] In 1795 Baranov, concerned by the sight of non-Russian Europeans trading with the natives in southeast Alaska, established Mikhailovsk six miles (9.7 km) north of present-daySitka.[citation needed] He bought the land from theTlingit, but in 1802, while Baranov was away, Tlingit from a neighboring settlement attacked and destroyed Mikhailovsk. Baranov returned with a Russian warship and razed the Tlingit village. He built the settlement of New Archangel (Russian:Ново-Архангельск,romanized: Novo-Arkhangelsk) on the ruins of Mikhailovsk.[citation needed] It became the capital of Russian America – and later the city of Sitka.[citation needed]
As Baranov secured the Russians' settlements in Alaska, the Shelekhov family continued to lobby Empress Catherine the Great for amonopoly on Alaska's fur trade.[18] In 1799 Shelekhov's son-in-law,Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov, succeeded when he acquired a monopoly on the American fur trade from EmperorPaul I. Rezanov formed theRussian-American Company. As part of the deal, theEmperor expected the company to establish new settlements in Alaska. Thus, while the company was focused on its commercial enterprise, it also effectively became an outpost for the Russian Empire in North America.[19]
By 1804, Baranov, now manager of the Russian–American Company, had consolidated the company's hold on fur trade activities in the Americas following his suppression of the Tlingit clan at theBattle of Sitka. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska. For the most part, they clung to the coast and shunned the interior.[citation needed]
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From 1812 to 1841, the Russians operatedFort Ross, California. From 1814 to 1817,Russian Fort Elizabeth was operating in theKingdom of Hawaii. By the 1830s, the Russian monopoly on trade was weakening. The BritishHudson's Bay Company was leased the southern edge of Russian America in 1839 under theRAC-HBC Agreement, establishingFort Stikine which began siphoning off trade.[citation needed]
A company ship visited the Russian American outposts only every two or three years to give provisions.[20] Because of the limited stock of supplies, trading was incidental compared to trapping operations under the Aleutian laborers.[20] This left the Russian outposts dependent upon British andAmerican merchants for sorely needed food and materials; in such a situation Baranov knew that the RAC establishments "could not exist without trading with foreigners."[20] Ties with Americans were particularly advantageous since they could sell furs atGuangzhou, closed to the Russians at the time. The downside was that American hunters andtrappers encroached on territory Russians considered theirs.[citation needed]
Starting with the destruction of thePhoenix in 1799, several RAC ships sank or were damaged in storms, leaving the RAC outposts with scant resources. On June 24, 1800, an American vessel sailed to Kodiak Island. Baranov negotiated the sale of over 12,000 rubles worth of goods carried on the ship, averting "imminent starvation."[21] During his tenure Baranov traded over 2 million rubles worth of furs for American supplies, to the consternation of the board of directors.[20] From 1806 to 1818 Baranov shipped 15 million rubles worth of furs to Russia, only receiving under 3 million rubles in provisions, barely half of the expenses spent solely on the Saint Petersburg company office.[20]
TheRusso-American Treaty of 1824 recognized exclusive Russian rights to thefur trade north of latitude 54°40'N, with the American rights and claims restricted to below that line. This division was repeated in theTreaty of Saint Petersburg, a parallel agreement with the British in 1825 (which also settled most of the border withBritish North America). However, the agreements soon went by the wayside, and with the retirement ofAlexandr Baranov in 1818, the Russian hold on Alaska was further weakened.
When the Russian-American Company'scharter was renewed in 1821, it stipulated that the chief managers from then on be navalofficers. Most naval officers did not have any experience in the fur trade, so the company suffered. The second charter also tried to cut off all contact withforeigners, especially the competitive Americans. This strategy backfired since the Russian colony had become used to relying on American supply ships, and the United States had become a valued customer for furs. Eventually the Russian–American Company entered into an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company, which gave the British rights to sail through Russian territory.[citation needed]
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The first Russiancolony in Alaska was founded in 1784 byGrigory Shelikhov.[5]: 102 Subsequently, Russian explorers and settlers continued to establish trading posts in mainland Alaska, on theAleutian Islands,Hawaii, andNorthern California.
TheRussian-American Company was formed in 1799 with the influence ofNikolay Rezanov for the purpose of huntingsea otters for their fur.[5]: 40 The peak population of the Russian colonies was about 4,000 although almost all of these wereAleuts,Tlingits and otherNative Alaskans. The number of Russians rarely exceeded 500 at any one time.[5]: xiii
The Russians established an outpost calledFortress Ross (Russian:Крѣпость Россъ,Krepost' Ross) in 1812 nearBodega Bay inNorthern California,[5]: 181 north ofSan Francisco Bay.The Fort Ross colony included a sealing station on theFarallon Islands off San Francisco.[22]By 1818 Fort Ross had a population of 128, consisting of 26 Russians and of 102 Native Americans.[5]: 181 The Russians maintained it until 1841, when they left the region.[23] As of 2015[update] Fort Ross is a FederalNational Historical Landmark on theNational Register of Historic Places. It is preserved—restored in California'sFort Ross State Historic Park, about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of San Francisco.[24]
Spanish concern about Russian colonial intrusion prompted the authorities inNew Spain to initiate[when?] the upperLas Californias Province settlement, withpresidios (forts),pueblos (villages), and theCalifornia missions. After declaring their independence in 1821, the Mexicans also asserted themselves in opposition to the Russians: theMission San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma Mission, 1823) specifically responded to the presence of the Russians at Fort Ross; and Mexico established theEl Presidio Real de Sonoma or Sonoma Barracks in 1836, with GeneralMariano Guadalupe Vallejo as the Commandant of the Northern Frontier of theAlta California Province.
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At Three Saints Bay, Shelekov built a school to teach the natives to read and writeRussian, and introduced the first resident missionaries and clergymen who spread theRussian Orthodox faith. This faith (with its liturgies and texts, translated into Aleut at a very early stage) had been informally introduced, in the 1740s–1780s. Some fur traders founded local families or symbolically adopted Aleut trade partners as godchildren to gain their loyalty through this special personal bond. The missionaries soon opposed the exploitation of the indigenous populations, and their reports provide evidence of the violence exercised to establish colonial rule in this period.
The RAC's monopoly was continued by EmperorAlexander I in 1821, on the condition that the company would financially support missionary efforts.[25] The company board ordered chief managerArvid Adolf Etholén to builda residency inNew Archangel for bishopVeniaminov[25] When aLutheran church was planned for theFinnish population of New Archangel, Veniamiov prohibited any Lutheran priests from proselytizing to neighboring Tlingits.[25] Veniamiov faced difficulties in exercising influence over the Tlingit people outside New Archangel, due to their political independence from the RAC leaving them less receptive to Russian cultural influences than Aleuts.[25][26] A smallpox epidemic spread throughout Alaska in 1835–1837 and the medical aid given by Veniamiov created converts to Orthodoxy.[26]
Inspired by the same pastoral theology asBartolomé de las Casas orSt. Francis Xavier, the origins of which were in early Christianity's need to adapt to the cultures ofClassical antiquity, missionaries in Russian America applied a strategy that placed value on local cultures and encouraged indigenous leadership in parish life and missionary activity. When compared to later Protestant missionaries, the Orthodox policies "in retrospect proved to be relatively sensitive to indigenous Alaskan cultures."[25] This cultural policy was originally intended to gain the loyalty of the indigenous populations by establishing the authority of Church and State as protectors of over 10,000 inhabitants of Russian America. (The number of ethnic Russian settlers had always been less than the record 812, almost all concentrated in Sitka and Kodiak).
Difficulties arose in training Russian priests to attain fluency in any of the various Indigenous Alaskan languages. To redress this, Veniaminov opened a seminary for mixed race and native candidates for the Church in 1845.[25] Promising students were sent to additional schools in eitherSaint Petersburg orIrkutsk, the later city becoming the original seminary's new location in 1858.[25] The Holy Synod instructed for the opening of four missionary schools in 1841, to be located inAmlia,Chiniak,Kenai, andNushagak.[25] Veniamiov established the curriculum, which included Russian history, literacy, mathematics, and religious studies.[25]
A side effect of the missionary strategy was the development of a new and autonomous form of indigenous identity. Many native traditions survived within local "Russian" Orthodox tradition and in the religious life of the villages. Part of this modern indigenous identity is an alphabet and the basis for written literature in nearly all of the ethnic-linguistic groups in the Southern half of Alaska. Father Ivan Veniaminov (later St.Innocent of Alaska), famous throughout Russian America, developed an Aleutdictionary for hundreds of language and dialect words based on theRussian alphabet.
The most visible trace of the Russian colonial period in contemporary Alaska is the nearly 90 Russian Orthodox parishes with a membership of over 20,000 men, women, and children, almost exclusively indigenous people. These include severalAthabascan groups of the interior, very largeYup'ik communities, and quite nearly all of the Aleut and Alutiiq populations. Among the few Tlingit Orthodox parishes, the large group inJuneauadopted Orthodox Christianity only after the Russian colonial period, in an area where there had been no Russian settlers nor missionaries. The widespread and continuing local Russian Orthodox practices are likely the result of thesyncretism of local beliefs with Christianity.
Observers noted that while their religious ties were tenuous, before the sale of Alaska there were 400 native converts to Orthodoxy in New Archangel.[26] Tlingit practitioners declined in number after the lapse of Russian rule, until there were only 117 practitioners in 1882 residing in the place, by then renamed asSitka.[26]
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By the 1860s, the Russian government was ready to abandon its Russian America colony. Over-hunting had severely reduced the fur-bearing animal population, and competition from the British and Americans exacerbated the situation. This, combined with the difficulties of supplying and protecting such a distant colony, reduced interest in the territory. In addition, Russia was in a difficult financial position and feared losing Russian Alaska without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British. The Russians believed that in a dispute with Britain, their hard-to-defend region might become a prime target for British aggression fromBritish Columbia, and would be easily captured. So following the Union victory in theAmerican Civil War,TsarAlexander II instructed the Russian minister to the United States,Eduard de Stoeckl, to enter into negotiations with theUnited States Secretary of StateWilliam H. Seward in the beginning of March 1867. At the instigation of Seward theUnited States Senate approved the purchase, known as theAlaska Purchase, from theRussian Empire. The cost was set at 2 cents an acre, which came to a total of $7,200,000 on April 9, 1867. The canceled check is in the present dayUnited States National Archives.
After Russian America was sold to the U.S. in 1867, for $7.2 million (2 cents per acre, equivalent to $161,982,857 in 2024), all the holdings of the Russian–American Company were liquidated.
Following the transfer, many elders of the localTlingit tribe maintained that "Castle Hill" comprised the only land that Russia was entitled to sell. Other indigenous groups also argued that they had never given up their land; the Americans had encroached on it and taken it over. Native land claims were not fully addressed until the latter half of the 20th century, with the signing by Congress and leaders of theAlaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
At the height of Russian America, the Russian population had reached 700, compared to 40,000 Aleuts. They and theCreoles, who had been guaranteed the privileges of citizens in the United States, were given the opportunity of becoming citizens within a three-year period, but few decided to exercise that option. GeneralJefferson C. Davis ordered the Russians out of their homes in Sitka, maintaining that the dwellings were needed for the Americans. The Russians complained of rowdiness of and assaults by the American troops. Many Russians returned to Russia, while others migrated to thePacific Northwest andCalifornia.
TheSoviet Union (USSR) released aseries of commemorative coins in 1990 and 1991 to mark the 250th anniversary of the first sighting of and claiming domain overAlaska–Russian America. The commemoration consisted of asilver coin, aplatinum coin, and twopalladium coins in both years.
TheAlaskan Native peoples claimed that they still had title to the territory in that the U.S. bought the right to negotiate with the indigenous populations, rather than buying the territory outright; however, following the enactment of theAlaska Statehood Act, the U.S. government ceded 44 million acres to Alaska’s native populations.[27]
In the early 21st century, Russian officials and pro-Kremlin bloggers have fuelled discussion in Russia, generally facetious, of an ambition to regain control of Alaska.[28][29] SomeRussian ultra-nationalists viewed the purchase as a enormous mistake.[30]
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Russian merchants along the route from Kamchatka to Kiakhta must have been elated when Vitus Bering's expedition returned in 1742 to report that the northern coast of America was nearby and that its waters teemed with fur seals and sea otters. By the following year, the first commercial vessel had already been constructed in Kamchatka and had set off for a two-year voyage to the Aleutians. [...] A rush of fur-seeking expeditions followed
Agreeing withSoloviev that the history of Russia was the history of colonization,Shchapov described the process .... Two methods of colonization were primary: 'fur colonization,' with hunters harvesting and depleting the habitats of fur animals and moving further and further across Siberia all the way to Alaska; and 'fishing colonization,' which supplied Russian centers with fresh- or salt-water fish and caviar.
The Aleuts and other dependent Natives of the Russian colonies could never be considered slaves, or feudal serfs, or civilian workers in the usual sense of the terms. ... Up to the 1790s the Natives were obligated to pay tribute to the royal treasury, demonstrating personal dependence on the Russian emperor. Some of the Natives, evidently making up from a twelfth to an eighth of the adult population, belonged to the so-called kayury, whose position was in fact that of slaves, since they received nothing for their labor besides scanty clothing and food. However, this was not slavery as once existed in ancient Rome or in the American South ....
The people of Kodiak kept some slaves,kalgi, outsiders whom they acquired through trading and warfare with people from other areas.
... before he died, Shelikhov had appointed Alexandr Baranov as governor of the Russian Alaska Company, the first functional and approved Russian monopoly in Alaska.
Most of the talk is tongue-in-cheek, but it comes at a time of heightened sensitivity in the West over whether Russia is planning further incursions or land grabs.
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