History of Alaska

The first inhabitants of Alaska came to the territory of the modern US state about 15 or 20,000 years ago - they moved from Eurasia to North America through the isthmus that then connected the two continents in the place where the Bering Strait is today.

By the time the Europeans arrived in Alaska, several peoples inhabited it, including the Tsimshians, Haida and Tlingit, Aleuts and Athabaskans, as well as Eskimos, Inupiat and Yupik. But all modern natives of Alaska and Siberia have common ancestors - their genetic relationship has already been proven.

Discovery of Alaska by Russian explorers

History has not preserved the name of the first European who set foot on the land of Alaska. But at the same time, it is very likely that it was a member of the Russian expedition. Perhaps it was the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev in 1648. It is possible that in 1732 members of the crew of the small ship "Saint Gabriel", who explored Chukotka, landed on the coast of the North American continent.

However, the official discovery of Alaska is July 15, 1741 - on this day, from one of the ships of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, the famous explorer Vitus Bering saw the land. It was Prince of Wales Island, which is located in the southeast of Alaska.

Subsequently, the island, the sea and the strait between Chukotka and Alaska were named after Vitus Bering. Assessing the scientific and political results of the second expedition of V. Bering, the Soviet historian A.V. Efimov recognized them as huge, because during the Second Kamchatka expedition, the American coast for the first time in history was reliably mapped as “part of North America”. However, the Russian Empress Elizabeth did not show any noticeable interest in the lands of North America. She issued a decree obliging the local population to pay a fee for trade, but did not take any further steps towards developing relations with Alaska.

However, the attention of Russian industrialists came to the sea otters living in coastal waters - sea otters. Their fur was considered one of the most valuable in the world, so sea otters were extremely profitable. So by 1743, Russian traders and fur hunters had established close contact with the Aleuts.

Development of Russian Alaska: North-Eastern Company

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in subsequent years, Russian travelers repeatedly landed on the islands of Alaska, fished for sea otters and traded with local residents, and even entered into skirmishes with them.

In 1762, Empress Catherine the Great ascended the Russian throne. Her government turned its attention back to Alaska. In 1769, the duty on trade with the Aleuts was abolished. The development of Alaska went by leaps and bounds. In 1772, the first Russian trading settlement was founded on the large island of Unalaska. Another 12 years later, in 1784, an expedition under the command of Grigory Shelikhov landed on the Aleutian Islands, which founded the Russian settlement of Kodiak in the Bay of Three Saints.

The Irkutsk merchant Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian explorer, navigator and industrialist, glorified his name in history by the fact that since 1775 he was engaged in the arrangement of commercial shipping between the Kuril and Aleutian island ridges as the founder of the North-Eastern Company.

His associates arrived in Alaska on three galliots, "Three Saints", "St. Simeon" and "St. Michael". "Shelikhovtsy" begin to intensively develop the island. They subdue the local Eskimos (Konyags), try to develop agriculture by planting turnips and potatoes, and also conduct spiritual activities, converting the indigenous people to their faith. Orthodox missionaries made a tangible contribution to the development of Russian America.

The colony on Kodiak functioned relatively successfully until the early 90s of the XVIII century. In 1792, the city, which was named Pavlovsk Harbor, was moved to a new location - this was the result of a powerful tsunami that damaged the Russian settlement.

Russian-American company

With the merger of the companies of merchants G.I. Shelikhova, I.I. and M.S. Golikovs and N.P. Mylnikov in 1798-99, a single "Russian-American Company" was created. From Paul I, who ruled Russia at that time, she received monopoly rights to fur trade, trade and the discovery of new lands in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The company was called upon to represent and defend with its own means the interests of Russia in the Pacific Ocean, and was under the "highest patronage." Since 1801, Alexander I and the Grand Dukes, major statesmen have become shareholders of the company. The main board of the company was located in St. Petersburg, but in fact the management of all affairs was carried out from Irkutsk, where Shelikhov lived.

Alexander Baranov became the first governor of Alaska under the control of the RAC. During the years of his reign, the boundaries of Russian possessions in Alaska expanded significantly, new Russian settlements arose. Redoubts appeared in the Kenai and Chugatsky bays. The construction of Novorossiysk in Yakutat Bay began. In 1796, moving south along the coast of America, the Russians reached the island of Sitka.

The basis of the economy of Russian America was still the fishing of sea animals: sea otters, sea lions, which was carried out with the support of the Aleuts.

Russian Indian War

However, the indigenous people did not always meet the Russian settlers with open arms. Having reached the island of Sitka, the Russians ran into fierce resistance from the Tlingit Indians, and in 1802 the Russo-Indian War broke out. Control of the island and fishing for sea otters in coastal waters became the cornerstone of the conflict.

The first skirmish on the mainland took place on May 23, 1802. In June, a detachment of 600 Indians, led by the leader Katlian, attacked the Mikhailovsky fortress on the island of Sitka. By June, during the ensuing series of attacks, the 165-member Sitka Party had been completely crushed. The English brig Unicorn, which sailed into the area a little later, helped the miraculously surviving Russians to escape. The loss of Sitka was a severe blow to the Russian colonies and personally to Governor Baranov. The total losses of the Russian-American Company amounted to 24 Russians and 200 Aleuts.

In 1804, Baranov moved from Yakutat to conquer Sitka. After a long siege and shelling of the fortress occupied by the Tlingits, on October 8, 1804, the Russian flag was raised over the native settlement. The construction of a fort and a new settlement began. Soon the city of Novo-Arkhangelsk grew up here.

However, on August 20, 1805, the Eyak warriors of the Tlahaik-Tekuedi clan and their Tlingit allies burned Yakutat and killed the Russians and Aleuts who remained there. In addition, at the same time, in a distant sea crossing, they got into a storm and about 250 more people died. The fall of Yakutat and the death of Demyanenkov's party became another heavy blow for the Russian colonies. An important economic and strategic base on the coast of America was lost.

Further confrontation continued until 1805, when a truce was concluded with the Indians and the RAC tried to fish in the waters of the Tlingit in large numbers under the cover of Russian warships. However, the Tlingits even then opened fire from guns, already at the beast, which made fishing almost impossible.

As a result of Indian attacks, 2 Russian fortresses and a village in Southeast Alaska were destroyed, about 45 Russians and more than 230 natives died. All this stopped the advance of the Russians in a southerly direction along the northwestern coast of America for several years. The Indian threat further fettered the RAC forces in the area of ​​the Alexander Archipelago and did not allow the systematic colonization of Southeast Alaska to begin. However, after the cessation of fishing in the lands of the Indians, relations improved somewhat, and the RAC resumed trade with the Tlingit and even allowed them to restore their ancestral village near Novoarkhangelsk.

It should be noted that the complete settlement of relations with the Tlingit took place two hundred years later - in October 2004, an official peace ceremony was held between the Kiksadi clan and Russia.

The Russo-Indian War secured Alaska for Russia, but limited the further advance of the Russians deep into America.

Under the control of Irkutsk

Grigory Shelikhov had already died by this time: he died in 1795. His place in the management of the RAC and Alaska was taken by the son-in-law and legal heir of the Russian-American Company, Count Nikolai Petrovich Ryazanov. In 1799, he received from the ruler of Russia, Emperor Paul I, the right to monopoly the American fur trade.

Nikolai Rezanov was born in 1764 in St. Petersburg, but after some time his father was appointed chairman of the civil chamber of the provincial court in Irkutsk. Rezanov himself serves in the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, and is even personally responsible for the protection of Catherine II, but in 1791 he was also assigned to Irkutsk. Here he was supposed to inspect the activities of Shelikhov's company.

In Irkutsk, Rezanov met "Columbus Rossky": that was how contemporaries called Shelikhov, the founder of the first Russian settlements in America. In an effort to strengthen his position, Shelikhov marries his eldest daughter, Anna, for Rezanov. Thanks to this marriage, Nikolai Rezanov received the right to participate in the affairs of the family company and became a co-owner of huge capital, and the bride from a merchant family - the family coat of arms and all the privileges of the titled Russian nobility. From that moment on, the fate of Rezanov is closely connected with Russian America. And his young wife (Anna was 15 years old at the time of marriage) died a few years later.

The activity of the RAC was a unique phenomenon in the history of Russia at that time. It was the first such a large monopoly organization with fundamentally new forms of doing business that took into account the specifics of the Pacific fur trade. Today, this would be called a public-private partnership: merchants-dealers and fishermen closely interacted with the state authorities. Such a need was dictated by the moment: firstly, the distances between the areas of fishing and marketing were huge. Secondly, the practice of using equity capital was approved: financial flows from people who had no direct relation to it were involved in the fur trade. The government partly regulated these relations and supported them. The fortunes of merchants and the fate of people who went to the ocean for "soft gold" often depended on his position.

And in the interests of the state was the speedy development of economic relations with China and the establishment of a further path to the East. The new Minister of Commerce N.P. Rumyantsev presented two notes to Alexander I, where he described the advantages of this direction: until the Russians themselves pave the way to Canton.” Rumyantsev foresaw the benefits of opening trade with Japan "not only for American villages, but for the entire northern region of Siberia" and proposed using a round-the-world expedition to send "an embassy to the Japanese court" led by a person "with abilities and knowledge of political and commercial affairs" . Historians believe that even then he meant Nikolai Rezanov as such a person, since it was assumed that upon completion of the Japanese mission, he would go to survey Russian possessions in America.

Around the world Rezanov

Rezanov knew about the planned expedition already in the spring of 1803. “Now I am preparing for a campaign,” she wrote in a private letter. - Two merchant ships, bought in London, are given to my superiors. They are equipped with a decent crew, guard officers are assigned to the mission with me, and in general an expedition has been set up for the journey. My journey from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, from there to Tenerife, then to Brazil and, bypassing Cape Horn, to Valpareso, from there to the Sandwich Islands, finally to Japan, and in 1805 wintering in Kamchatka. From there I will go to Unalaska, to Kodiak, to Prince William Sound and go down to Nootka, from which I will return to Kodiak and, loaded with goods, I will go to Canton, to the Philippine Islands ... I will return around the Cape of Good Hope.

In the meantime, the RAC took on the service of Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern and entrusted two ships, called Nadezhda and Neva, to his "bosses". In a special supplement, the board announced the appointment of N.P. Rezanov as the head of the embassy to Japan and authorized "his full master's face not only during the voyage, but also in America."

“The Russian-American company,” reported the Hamburg Vedomosti (No. 137, 1802), “is zealous about the expansion of its trade, which in time will be very useful for Russia, and is now engaged in a great enterprise, important not only for commerce, but also for the honor of the Russian people, namely, she equips two ships that will be loaded in Petersburg with food, anchors, ropes, sails, etc., and should sail to the northwestern shores of America in order to supply the Russian colonies on the Aleutian Islands with these needs, to load there with furs, exchange them in China for its goods, establish a colony on Urup, one of the Kuril Islands, for the most convenient trade with Japan, go from there to the Cape of Good Hope, and return to Europe. Only Russians will be on these ships. The emperor approved the plan, ordered to select the best naval officers and sailors for the success of this expedition, which will be the first Russian trip around the world.

The historian Karamzin wrote the following about the expedition and the attitude of various circles of Russian society towards it: “Anglomans and Gallomaniacs, who wish to be called cosmopolitans, think that the Russians should trade locally. Peter thought differently - he was Russian at heart and a patriot. We stand on the ground and on Russian land, we look at the world not through the glasses of taxonomists, but with our natural eyes, we also need the development of the fleet and industry, enterprise and daring. In Vestnik Evropy, Karamzin printed letters from officers who had gone on a voyage, and all of Russia awaited this news with trepidation.

On August 7, 1803, exactly 100 years after the founding of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt by Peter, the Nadezhda and the Neva weighed anchor. The circumnavigation has begun. Through Copenhagen, Falmouth, Tenerife to the coast of Brazil, and then around Cape Horn, the expedition reached the Marquesas and by June 1804 - the Hawaiian Islands. Here the ships separated: "Nadezhda" went to Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka, and "Neva" went to Kodiak Island. When Nadezhda arrived in Kamchatka, preparations began for an embassy to Japan.

Reza new in Japan

Leaving Petropavlovsk on August 27, 1804, Nadezhda headed southwest. A month later, the shores of northern Japan appeared in the distance. A great celebration took place on the ship, the participants of the expedition were awarded silver medals. However, the joy turned out to be premature: due to the abundance of errors in the charts, the ship embarked on the wrong course. In addition, a severe storm began, in which the Nadezhda was badly damaged, but, fortunately, she managed to stay afloat, despite serious damage. And on September 28, the ship entered the port of Nagasaki.

However, here again difficulties arose: a Japanese official who met the expedition stated that the entrance to the Nagasaki harbor was open only to Dutch ships, and for others it was impossible without a special order from the Japanese emperor. Fortunately, Rezanov had such permission. And despite the fact that Alexander I secured the consent of the Japanese "colleague" 12 years ago, access to the harbor for the Russian ship, albeit with some bewilderment, was open. True, "Nadezhda" was obliged to issue gunpowder, cannons and all firearms, sabers and swords, of which only one can be provided to the ambassador. Rezanov knew about such Japanese laws for foreign ships and agreed to hand over all weapons, except for the swords of officers and the guns of his personal guard.

However, several more months of sophisticated diplomatic treaties passed before the ship was allowed to come close to the Japanese coast, and the envoy Rezanov himself was allowed to move to land. The team, all this time, until the end of December, continued to live on board. An exception was provided only for astronomers who made their observations - they were allowed to land on the ground. At the same time, the Japanese vigilantly watched the sailors and the embassy. They were even forbidden to send letters to their homeland with a Dutch ship leaving for Batavia. Only the envoy was allowed to write a brief report to Alexander I about a safe voyage.

The envoy and the persons of his retinue had to live in honorable imprisonment for four months, until the very departure from Japan. Only occasionally Rezanov could see our sailors and the director of the Dutch trading post. Rezanov, however, did not waste time: he diligently continued his studies in Japanese, simultaneously compiling two manuscripts (“A Concise Russian-Japanese Manual” and a dictionary containing more than five thousand words), which Rezanov later wanted to transfer to the Navigation School in Irkutsk. Subsequently, they were published by the Academy of Sciences.

Only on April 4, Rezanov's first audience with one of the high-ranking local dignitaries took place, who brought the Japanese Emperor's response to the message of Alexander I. The answer read: “The ruler of Japan is extremely surprised by the arrival of the Russian embassy; the emperor cannot accept the embassy, ​​and does not want correspondence and trade with the Russians and asks the ambassador to leave Japan.

Rezanov, in turn, noted that, although it is not for him to judge which of the emperors is more powerful, he considers the response of the Japanese ruler to be bold and emphasized that the offer of trade relations between countries from Russia was rather a mercy "out of common philanthropy." The dignitaries, embarrassed by such pressure, proposed to postpone the audience until another day, when the envoy would not be so excited.

The second audience was quieter. The dignitaries generally denied any possibility of cooperation with other countries, including trade, as prohibited by the fundamental law, and, moreover, explained it by their inability to undertake a response embassy. Then a third audience took place, during which the parties undertook to provide each other with written answers. But this time, too, the position of the Japanese government remained unchanged: referring to formal reasons and tradition, Japan firmly decided to maintain its former isolation. Rezanov drew up a memorandum to the Japanese government in connection with the refusal to establish trade relations and returned to Nadezhda.

Some historians see the reasons for the failure of the diplomatic mission in the ardor of the count himself, others suspect that the intrigues of the Dutch side, who wanted to maintain their priority in relations with Japan, were to blame for everything, however, after almost seven months in Nagasaki on April 18, 1805, the Nadezhda weighed anchor and went out to the open sea.

The Russian ship was forbidden to continue to approach the Japanese shores. However, Kruzenshtern nevertheless devoted another three months to the study of those places that La Perouse had not previously studied enough. He was going to clarify the geographical position of all the Japanese islands, most of the coast of Korea, the western coast of the island of Iessoy and the coast of Sakhalin, describe the coast of the Aniva and Patience bays and conduct a study of the Kuril Islands. A significant part of this huge plan was carried out.

Having completed the description of Aniva Bay, Kruzenshtern continued his work on marine surveys of the eastern coast of Sakhalin to Cape Patience, but would soon have to turn them off, as the ship encountered large accumulations of ice. Nadezhda with great difficulty entered the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and a few days later, overcoming bad weather, returned to the Peter and Paul harbor.

The envoy Rezanov transferred to the vessel of the Russian-American company "Maria", on which he went to the main base of the company on Kodiak Island, near Alaska, where he was supposed to streamline the organization of local management of colonies and fisheries.

Rezanov in Alaska

As the "owner" of the Russian-American company, Nikolai Rezanov delved into all the subtleties of management. He was struck by the fighting spirit of the Baranovites, the tirelessness, efficiency of Baranov himself. But there were more than enough difficulties: there was not enough food - famine was approaching, the land was infertile, there were not enough bricks for construction, there was no mica for windows, copper, without which it was impossible to equip the ship, was considered a terrible rarity.

Rezanov himself wrote in a letter from Sitka: “We all live very closely; but our purchaser of these places lives the worst of all, in some kind of plank yurt, filled with dampness to the point that every day the mold is wiped off and in the local heavy rains it flows like a sieve from all sides. Wonderful person! He cares only about the quiet room of others, but about himself he is careless to the point that one day I found his bed floating and asked if the wind had torn off the side board of the temple somewhere? No, he answered calmly, apparently it had flowed towards me from the square, and continued his orders.

The population of Russian America, as Alaska was called, grew very slowly. In 1805, the number of Russian colonists was about 470 people, in addition, a significant number of Indians depended on the company (according to Rezanov's census, there were 5,200 of them on Kodiak Island). The people who served in the company's institutions were mostly violent people, for which Nikolai Petrovich aptly called the Russian settlements a "drunken republic."

He did a lot to improve the life of the population: he resumed the work of the school for boys, and sent some of them to study in Irkutsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. A school for girls for one hundred pupils was also established. He founded a hospital, which could be used by both Russian employees and natives, and a court was established. Rezanov insisted that all Russians living in the colonies should learn the language of the natives, and he himself compiled dictionaries of the Russian-Kodiak and Russian-Unalash languages.

Having familiarized himself with the state of affairs in Russian America, Rezanov quite correctly decided that the way out and salvation from hunger was in organizing trade with California, in the foundation of a Russian settlement there, which would supply Russian America with bread and dairy products. By that time, the population of Russian America, according to the Rezanov census, carried out in the Unalashkinsky and Kodiaksky departments, was 5234 people.

"Juno and Avos"

It was decided to sail to California immediately. For this, one of the two ships that arrived in Sitka was purchased from the Englishman Wolfe for 68 thousand piastres. The ship "Juno" was purchased along with a cargo of provisions on board, the products were transferred to the settlers. And the ship itself under the Russian flag sailed for California on February 26, 1806.

Upon arrival in California, Rezanov subdued the commandant of the fortress Jose Dario Arguello with court manners and charmed his daughter, fifteen-year-old Concepción. It is not known whether the mysterious and beautiful 42-year-old foreigner confessed to her that he had already been married once and would become a widow, but the girl was smitten.

Of course, Conchita, like many young girls of all times and peoples, dreamed of meeting a handsome prince. It is not surprising that Commander Rezanov, a chamberlain of His Imperial Majesty, a stately, powerful, handsome man easily won her heart. In addition, he was the only one from the Russian delegation who spoke Spanish and talked a lot with the girl, fogging her mind with stories about the brilliant St. Petersburg, Europe, the court of Catherine the Great ...

Was there a tender feeling on the part of Nikolai Rezanov himself? Despite the fact that the story of his love for Conchita became one of the most beautiful romantic legends, contemporaries doubted it. Rezanov himself, in a letter to his patron and friend Count Nikolai Rumyantsev, admitted that the reason that prompted him to propose a hand and heart to a young Spaniard was more good for the Fatherland than a warm feeling. The same opinion was shared by the ship's doctor, who wrote in his reports: “One would think that he fell in love with this beauty. However, in view of the prudence inherent in this cold man, it would be more cautious to admit that he simply had some diplomatic views on her.

One way or another, a marriage proposal was made and accepted. Here is how Rezanov himself writes about this:

“My proposal struck down her (Conchita’s) parents, raised in fanaticism. The difference of religions and ahead of separation from their daughter were a thunderous blow for them. They resorted to the missionaries, they did not know what to decide on. They took poor Concepsia to church, confessed her, persuaded her to refuse, but her determination finally calmed everyone.

The holy fathers left the permission of the Roman See, and if I could not complete my marriage, I made a conditional act and forced us to be engaged ... how my favors also demanded it, and the governor was extremely surprised, amazed, seeing that he assured me at the wrong time of the sincere dispositions of this house and that he himself, so to speak, found himself visiting me ... "

In addition, Rezanov got a cargo of “2156 pounds” very cheaply. wheat, 351 pounds. barley, 560 pounds. legumes. Fat and oils for 470 pounds. and all sorts of things for 100 pounds, so much so that the ship could not set off at first.

Conchita promised to wait for her fiance, who was supposed to deliver a cargo of supplies to Alaska, and then was going to St. Petersburg. He intended to secure the Emperor's petition to the Pope in order to obtain official permission from the Catholic Church for their marriage. This could take about two years.

A month later, full provisions and other cargo "Juno" and "Avos" arrived in Novo-Arkhangelsk. Despite diplomatic calculations, Count Rezanov had no intention of deceiving the young Spaniard. He immediately goes to St. Petersburg in order to ask permission to conclude a family union, despite the mudslide and the weather that is not suitable for such a trip.

Crossing the rivers on horseback, on thin ice, he fell into the water several times, caught a cold and lay unconscious for 12 days. He was taken to Krasnoyarsk, where he died on March 1, 1807.

Concepson never married. She did charity work, taught the Indians. In the early 1840s, Donna Concepción entered the third Order of the White Clergy, and after founding in 1851 in the city of Benicia the monastery of St. Dominica became its first nun under the name Maria Dominga. She died at the age of 67 on December 23, 1857.

Alaska after le Rezanov

Since 1808, Novo-Arkhangelsk has become the center of Russian America. All this time, the management of the American territories has been carried out from Irkutsk, where the main headquarters of the Russian-American Company is still located. Officially, Russian America is included first in the Siberian General Government, and after its division in 1822 into Western and Eastern, - in the East Siberian General Government.

In 1812, Baranov, the director of the Russian-American Company, established a southern representative office of the company on the shores of California's Bodidge Bay. This representative office was named Russian Village, now known as Fort Ross.

Baranov retired from the post of director of the Russian-American Company in 1818. He dreamed of returning home - to Russia, but died on the way.

Naval officers came to the management of the company, who contributed to the development of the company, however, unlike Baranov, the naval leadership was very little interested in the trading business itself, and was extremely nervous about the settlement of Alaska by the British and Americans. The management of the company, in the name of the Russian Emperor, banned the invasion of all foreign ships for 160 km into the water area near the Russian colonies in Alaska. Of course, such an order was immediately protested by Great Britain and the United States government.

The dispute with the United States was settled by an 1824 convention that determined the exact northern and southern boundaries of Russian territory in Alaska. In 1825, Russia also came to an agreement with Britain, also defining the exact eastern and western borders. The Russian Empire gave both sides (Britain and the USA) the right to trade in Alaska for 10 years, after which Alaska completely passed into the possession of Russia.

Sale of Alaska

However, if at the beginning of the 19th century Alaska generated income through the fur trade, by the middle of the 19th century it began to appear that the costs of maintaining and protecting this remote and vulnerable, from a geopolitical point of view, territory outweighed the potential profit. The area of ​​the territory subsequently sold was 1,518,800 km² and was practically uninhabited - according to the RAC itself, at the time of the sale, the population of all Russian Alaska and the Aleutian Islands numbered about 2,500 Russians and up to about 60,000 Indians and Eskimos.

Historians assess the sale of Alaska ambiguously. Some are of the opinion that this measure was forced because of Russia's conduct of the Crimean campaign (1853-1856) and the difficult situation on the fronts. Others insist that the deal was purely commercial. One way or another, the first question about the sale of Alaska to the United States before the Russian government was raised by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Count N. N. Muravyov-Amursky in 1853. In his opinion, this was inevitable, and at the same time would allow Russia to strengthen its position on the Asian coast of the Pacific in the face of the growing penetration of the British Empire. At that time, her Canadian possessions extended directly to the east of Alaska.

Relations between Russia and Britain were sometimes openly hostile. During the Crimean War, when the British fleet tried to land troops in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the possibility of a direct confrontation in America became real.

In turn, the American government also wanted to prevent the occupation of Alaska by the British Empire. In the spring of 1854, he received a proposal for a fictitious (temporarily, for a period of three years) sale by the Russian-American Company of all its possessions and property for 7,600 thousand dollars. The RAC entered into such an agreement with the American-Russian Trading Company in San Francisco, controlled by the US government, but it did not enter into force, since the RAC managed to negotiate with the British Hudson's Bay Company.

Subsequent negotiations on this issue took another ten years. Finally, in March 1867, a draft agreement was agreed upon in general terms for the purchase of Russian possessions in America for $7.2 million. It is curious that this is how much the building cost, in which the contract for the sale of such a vast territory was signed.

The signing of the treaty took place on March 30, 1867 in Washington. And already on October 18, Alaska was officially transferred to the United States. Since 1917, this day has been celebrated in the United States as Alaska Day.

The entire Alaska Peninsula (along the line running along meridian 141° west of Greenwich), a coastal strip 10 miles south of Alaska along the western coast of British Columbia passed to the USA; Alexandra archipelago; Aleutian Islands with Attu Island; the islands of the Middle, Krys'i, Lis'i, Andreyanovsk, Shumagin, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikov, Afognak and other smaller islands; islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribylov Islands - St. George and St. Paul. Together with the territory, all real estate, all colonial archives, official and historical documents related to the transferred territories were transferred to the United States.

Alaska today

Despite the fact that Russia sold these lands as unpromising, the United States did not lose out on the deal. Already 30 years later, the famous gold rush began in Alaska - the word Klondike became a household word. According to some reports, more than 1,000 tons of gold have been exported from Alaska over the past century and a half. At the beginning of the 20th century, oil was also discovered there (today, the region's reserves are estimated at 4.5 billion barrels). Coal and non-ferrous metal ores are mined in Alaska. Thanks to the huge number of rivers and lakes, the fishing and seafood industries flourish there as large private enterprises. Tourism is also developed.

Today Alaska is the largest and one of the richest states in the United States.

Sources

• Commander Rezanov. Website dedicated to Russian explorers of new lands
• Abstract "History of Russian Alaska: from discovery to sale", St. Petersburg State University, 2007, the author is not specified

Alaska remembers its roots. It is often called Russian America. Although, there are fewer Russians here than anywhere else in the country. But the names of villages and rivers have been preserved.

I looked into one of them, Ninilchik, where the descendants of our compatriots resettled here by the Russian-American Company live today. They have long different names and a different language.

But why is it so similar to Russia here?

1 The nature of Alaska is very different. South of Anchorage, it resembles our middle lane (and is located at almost the same latitudes). More and more often come across Russian names. Kasilof, Salamatov, or simply - Russian river, Russian lakes ...

2 Ninilchik - there is something native and familiar in this. When I arrived at the one-story building of the local administration, I immediately stumbled upon a drunken American woman who said that few people here speak Russian: there is a colleague from the administration, but today he is no longer available for communication. With these words, she staggered heavily and retired to the office building. The administration was no longer working, but something was clearly noted inside.

3 It's beautiful here. This is the first thing that catches your eye. The stingy northern sun just came out, and showed that autumn Alaska can be not only rainy-gray. The day took on different colors. I can't imagine Ninilchik in the rain.

4 As soon as we turned off the main road into the settlement, the asphalt suddenly ran out. How can this be? Just was - and no! Break in time.

5 And a colorful cemetery with fences, and a wooden church without electricity, only reinforce this feeling. Looks like we're not in Kansas anymore.

6 The first Russian colonists settled here in 1847. The Kvasnikov family “founded” this settlement, having moved from Kodiak Island. Grigory, his Aleut wife Mavra and children. After that, other families began to join them. We were engaged in fishing, the village is located right on the shore of the bay.

7 Today, several hundred people live in Ninilchik, only a few speak Russian. On the Internet, you can read and listen about the unique old dialect of the Russian language, stuck in the 19th century. Alas, it has been preserved only in studies, it is not spoken.

8 Church, cemetery and part of the village from above. Once it was bigger.

9 There are more houses on the other side. The temple stands on a hill, in a lowland, near the river, the center of Ninilchik is located.

10 We go down, and the similarity with Russia only increases. As before, no asphalt, the middle of the road is overgrown with grass, no one is mowing weeds. Let's be honest, if it wasn't for the American road sign, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

11 Even this house, built of timber, is scattered, not having a single architecture. And the fence, which is not even a fence ... but a toilet on the street?

12 Some of the houses are completely abandoned.

13 Just “Guess the country from the photo”.

14 There are many abandoned houses in Ninilchik, but even where there are people, they live not quite in the American way.

15 Topsy-turvy they live.

16 The only open business is a small shop with souvenirs and books. Americans come to Ninilchik, they are interested in Russian culture, they buy matryoshkas. The store owner does not speak Russian.

17 We continue our walk through the village. She left not too long ago. People who left Russia before the abolition of serfdom lived here.

18 The current Ninilchane were born in the USA, studied in American schools, and have probably never been to Russia. How do they know how to live?

19 Looks like an old movie set. But everything is real.

20 Ninilchik is a very strange place. The only place in the USA where I saw cow parsnip!

21 And nettles! Well, it does not grow there on its own: these are weeds, which they always get rid of, and do not allow to overgrow with weeds, like ours.

22 But the real kick in the balls is the local roads. Tell me HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE in America?

23 Today, Ninilchik is a city of 800 inhabitants, most of whom are Americans, and their neighborhoods are no different from typical rural America. The border of the settlement, where the descendants of Russian colonists, shown in the report, live, is visible to the naked eye.

24 You can take people out of Russia, but you can't take Russia out of people. It's just amazing.

Russian exploration of America and Alaska

1741 Expedition of V. Bering - A. Chirikov

The discoveries and exploits of these great pioneers are described in detail in the material of Fr. Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov on the ships "St. Peter" and "St. Paul" in 1741 approached the American shores. For V. Bering, the discovery of America was the last expedition. A. Chirikov and his ship safely returned to Kamchatka. After the return and official reports on the voyages of V. Bering and A. Chirikov, it became clear that it was absolutely possible to reach the American continent from the east, even by the open sea. And fishing and hunting people rushed to the cherished shores of America.

1742 - 1784 Private industrialists

Small groups of fur traders rushed in small ships, first to the Aleutian Islands. From the 1740s until the end of the 18th century, more than 40 Russian merchants and companies undertook trips to the Aleutian Islands and further to the shores of Alaska. The "Aleutian Ridge" was a kind of bridge over which the Russians reached from Kamchatka to America on relatively small ships.

In the summer of 1760, the industrialist Gavriil Pushkarev set foot on the land, which he mistook for an island. In his report, he called this land the Aleutian word Alaska. Overwintered on the southwestern coast, G. Pushkarev became the first Russian settler on the American mainland.

1784 the first Russian settlement. Expedition of G. Shelekhov

On August 3, 1784, a Russian expedition approached the southern shores of Alaska on three ships (galliots) -, “St. Simeon", "St. Michael" and "Three Saints". The expedition was led by the industrialist and founder of the "North-Eastern Company" Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov (1747-1795). The goal was serious - to settle on the American coast. Kodiak Island was chosen as an outpost on the American coast.

The island was chosen as a base for security reasons. Hostile Indians lived on the mainland. Having subjugated and partially exterminated the indigenous inhabitants of Kodiak, they began to settle. From here, Russian expansion to the mainland began to develop.

G. I. Shelekhov founded the Northeast Company in 1791, which in 1799 was transformed into the famous Russian-American Company. For more than half a century, the company has monopoly controlled all Russian affairs and represented the interests of Russia in the northwest of the American continent. The history of RAC in itself is very interesting and even action-packed, it represents a separate topic in the spirit of the works of D.N. Mamin-Siberian.

The initiator of the creation of the Russian-American company proper and its supreme ruler was Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov (1764 - 1807) - a crafty freemason, ex-official of the St. Petersburg Treasury, the Military Collegium, the Admiralty College, the Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty, the court chamberlain, the chief prosecutor of the Senate , a real state adviser, and part-time father of his wife G.I. Shelekhov.

1791 Russians landed in southern Alaska, in Cook Inlet

In 1791, the galliot "St. George" approached Cook Bay, in the south of Alaska, with an expedition equipped and organized by the industrialist P. Lebedev-Lastochkin. On the shore of the bay, the Nikolaevsky redoubt was founded - now the city of Kenai. It got its name from the Kenai Bay - that's how the Russians called the Cook Bay and the Kenai Peninsula, after the name of the local Kenai Indian tribe. In the following year, 1792, the "Lebedevites" founded a settlement already far from the coast, on the largest lake in Alaska - Lake Iliamna. They also equipped a reconnaissance expedition led by Vasily Ivanov to the Yukon River.

The company of Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin ceased to exist in 1798 due to the organization by the heirs of G. Shelekhov of the "Russian-American Company", from participation in which Lebedev-Lastochkin abstained and curtailed all his American undertakings. The main reason for his “defeat” was that, unlike G. Shelekhov, he himself did not go on expeditions, but only organized and sponsored them. His "leaders" - the leaders of the detachments and courts quarreled among themselves, and he could not effectively control them.

But G. Shelekhov was lucky with the manager. Back in 1790, he invited Alexander Baranov to serve, who for 28 years brilliantly managed all the affairs of his company in Russian America and became a real legend of those places.

1799 base St. Michael's Fortress / Sitca

A. Baranov in 1799 founded on the island (now bearing his name) the Mikhailovsky fortress or the fort of the Archangel Michael. The village was repeatedly attacked by the Indians, was burned to the ground, but was restored again.

1799 creation of the Russian-American Company

The Russian-American company was created on the basis of "North-Eastern Company" Grigory Shelikhov. Despite the presence of the word "American" in the title, there were no Americans in it. The name reflected the geography of interests. The company was essentially a public-private partnership. The largest shareholders of the company were "persons close to the emperor", and later even Tsar Alexander I was personally among the shareholders.

CANCER was not at all unique in the world. The Dutch and English East India Companies were built on the same principle. Pay attention - correct Russian-American, not Russian-American. That's how it was originally planned.

1808 Novoarkhangelsk becomes the capital of Russian America

Since 1808, the city of Novoarkhangelsk, the former Mikhailovskaya Fortress, has become the capital of Russian America. The founder of the city and the permanent leader of all Russian America for more than a quarter of a century was Alexander Andreevich Baranov.

Novoarkhangelsk

In Alaska, his name is one of the most revered. From the Russian state he was granted a nominal gold medal - the first representative of the non-noble class.

1812 Fort Ross

On September 29, 1808, two ships left the bay of Novoarkhangelsk (Alaska), "Kodiak" under the command of navigator Petrov and "Nikolai" under the command of navigator Bulygin, belonging to the Russian-American Company.

Led the expedition Ivan Kuskov(1765-1823), located on the Kodiak. The task was set - to find a suitable place on the Californian coast for the construction of a fort-fortress. If such a place is found, land and start construction. In 1809, a convenient bay was discovered sixty miles north of San Francisco. To the north of the bay flowed a river without a name, which I. Kuskov called Slavyanka. Now it is Russian River. The outpost in the south was badly needed by the Russians as a potential source of food. Cereals simply did not grow in the Novoarkhangelsk region, that is, bread had to be imported from Russia, which was extremely burdensome.

400 hectares of land - for a bag of beads...

Kuskov bought a place for a future settlement of 1000 acres (~ 400 hectares) of land from local Indians for a bag of glass beads, several pairs of trousers, 2 axes and 3 blankets! A copper plate was buried in the ground indicating that this was Russian territory. At the end of 1809, Kuskov returned to Novoarkhangelsk. Thoroughly prepared, he returned to Fort Ross in 1812, bringing with him carpenters, shipbuilders, blacksmiths and other specialists. The first walls of the fort were erected on March 15, 1812. The grand opening of the settlement took place on September 11, 1812.

1842-1844 expedition of L. Zagoskin to the hinterland of Alaska

Lavrenty Alekseevich Zagoskin (1808-1890), explored the interior of Alaska, the Yukon River basin, mountain ranges, overcoming in general falsity over five thousand miles. The result of his research was the capital work "A pedestrian inventory of a part of Russian possessions in America, produced in 1842–44." This book has been the main work on the exploration of Alaska for more than a hundred years.

Yukon River, 3100 km long / marked in yellow /

1867 sale of Russian America to the USA

In 1867, Russian possessions in America were sold to the United States for $7,200,000, which equaled 11 million rubles. On October 18, the ceremony of transferring Alaska to the United States was held on the territory of the residence of Russian America in Novoarkhangelsk. Now Novoarkhangelsk is called Sitka.

For your information:

In the year Alaska was sold, an ounce of gold was worth $20.65 (this rate was maintained as the gold standard for many years). So Alaska was sold for 7200000/20.65 = 348668000 ounces = 10.500.000 grams = 10.5 tons of gold.

Back in the early 1800s, Russians exported on average over 60,000 fur skins from North America annually, totaling over 700,000 rubles in banknotes (~$133,000).

The Paradox of Selling Alaska

When one of the participants in the famous sale of Alaska from the American side, Secretary of State William Stewart "bought" Alaska for the United States, he was accused of abuse of power, suspected of selfish interest, and he was forced to resign. Newspapers called Alaska "Sewart's Freezer", "Icebergia" and so on. For 70 years (approximately the same period that the Russians mastered these territories), the new owners took out furs worth $ 300,000,000 from Alaska and California. W and during the entire period of gold mining in Alaska, more than 900 tons of gold, which, at pre-1934 prices, is about $600 million.

The second paradox of the sale of Russian possessions in America

The fact that there is no reliable information that the specified amount of $ 7,200,000 reached the Russian treasury. This money either did not exist at all and the deal was a fiction, or it was all taken away by a narrow circle of people who knew about the deal, both on our side and on the American side.

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again Travelers of the Age of Discovery

Russian America - Russia's possessions in America - included: the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, the Hawaiian Archipelago, the Alexander Archipelago and Russian settlements on the Pacific coast of Northern California.

G. I. Shelikhov (1747-1795) - in 1783-1786 he led an expedition to Russian America. Then the first Russian fortresses in North America were founded. Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (1799-1818) became the first governor of Russian America. Thus, Russian America ceased to be a colony of Russia, but became part of the Russian state. Under him, the most active settlement and development by the Russians of Alaska continued, and since 1812, the coast of Northern California at Fort Ros.

The Russian-American Company (Under the highest patronage of His Imperial Majesty the Russian-American Company) was actively operating on Russian territory - a state trading company founded by Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov and Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov and approved by Emperor Paul I (July 8 (19), 1799). The last governor of Russian America was Dmitry Petrovich Maksutov (December 2, 1863 - October 18, 1867).

The Russian navigator Gvozdev reached the shores of Alaska in 1732, showing that America was part of Russia's zone of interests.

In the same year, the Cossack Ivan Daurkin, according to the words of the Eskimos from the Diomede Islands, plotted a Russian fortress on the Yukon coast on the map of Russian America. In 1779, centurion Ivan Kobelev landed with his subordinates on the Diomede Islands and conducted a survey of the islanders about the crafts and inhabitants of America. The chief toion of the Igellin island, Kaigunya Momakhunin, told him that in the Yukon, in “a jail called Kymgovei, Russian people live, they speak Russian, they read books, write, worship icons, and other things are canceled from the Americans, because the Americans have beards rare, and even those are plucked, and the Russians living there have thick and large beards. The centurion tried to persuade the toyon to take him to the American coast “before those Russian people”, but the toyon and his people refused him, explaining the refusal by fear, “so that they, Kobelev, would not be killed on the American coast (“Russian people”? - author) or b they did not detain, and in this case they were afraid of a penalty, or they were subjected to innocent oppression and disaster.

It can be seen that the American Russians were not at all inclined to submit to the administration of the Republic of Ingushetia. However, the Toyon agreed to hand over Kobelev's letter to the American Russians. It can be seen from the letter: for some reason Kobelev decided that the descendants of sailors who went missing “in the old years” under Dezhnev live in the Yukon. It never occurred to him that the Russian Cossacks had mastered America long before the penetration of the tsarist administration of the Romanovs. In 1948, the original of Kobelev's report on correspondence with Russian settlers was found in the archives. It can be seen from the report that the Chukchi Ekhipka Opukhin (with a fluff on his chin? - ed.), during a confidential conversation with the centurion, gave him very valuable information that the inhabitants of Yukon "gather in one created large mansion (temple - ed.) and pray here , still, those people have such a place on the field and they put up wooden writing boards, stand opposite them right in front, the men are large, and behind them are others. Yekhipka Opukhin even showed Kobelev how American Russians make the sign of the cross on themselves, which greatly surprised the centurion ... The settlers wrote that they had everything, they only needed iron. Perhaps not only the Cossacks mastered America?

The news of "white and bearded people" attracted the attention of scientists as early as the beginning of the 18th century. In his work “News of the Northern Sea Route”, G.F. Miller wrote: “In the Anadyr prison, according to the legends of the local Chukchi, there is genuine news that on the eastern side of the Chukotsky Nose there are islands or hardened land beyond the sea ...; bearded people ... confirmed by this news; from them they receive wooden cups, which are in many ways similar to Russian work, and they hope that the people mentioned are truly descended from Russian people.

Thanks to the research work of A.V. Efimov, science can say for sure that Russian settlements were located on the territory of America, perhaps even more than 400 years ago, perhaps even long before the discovery of America by Columbus.

In the 10th century, our sailors went to the shores of the northern seas and began to carry out bold voyages deep into the "Cold" ocean in order to hunt sea animals and fish. Following along the edge of the ice to the west, they approached the eastern shores of Svalbard. The Russians knew about Svalbard long before the 1596 expedition led by Willem Barents, which is confirmed by a letter from the Danish king Frederick II to the merchant Ludwig Munch dated March 11, 1576. According to this letter, the Russian helmsman Pavel Nikitich sailed from the town of Malmus (northern Scandinavia, which belonged to the Russians) to "Greenland" (that's how both Svalbard and Greenland could then be called).

According to the statement of the Vologda peasant Anton Starostin, his ancestors sailed "to Grumant" long before the founding of the Solovetsky Monastery (before 1435), that is, in the X-XIV centuries.

The discovery of new lands by the Russians is also evidenced by a letter from Jerome Muntzer dated July 14, 1493 to the Portuguese King Juan II. In it, he writes that “the Germans, Italians, Ruthenians and Apollonian Scythians, those who live under the harsh star of the Arctic Pole, praise you as the Great Prince of Moscow (Ivan III the Terrible - Auth.) for the fact that a few years ago, under this harsh star, the large island of Greenland (Grulanda) was discovered, stretching along the coast for three hundred years, on which there is a huge settlement of people under the rule of the named Prince. What lands did Jerome Münzer write about the discovery of by the Russians? After all, all the letters of this scientist from Nuremberg to the Portuguese king were written in connection with the discovery of the New World. After all, he could also have in mind the lands of America, which, in this case, should have been colonized by the Russians long before the "discovery" of America by Columbus, because there should already have been "a huge settlement of people under the rule of the Prince." Pay attention to the fact of mentioning the size of the "big island" - "three hundred legs". We are talking about the coast of America, because one Portuguese leg is equal to 5 km. Müntzer was a prominent scientist, he wrote to the king, so he could not be mistaken.

Perhaps, 500. so, back in the 16th century, under Ivan the Terrible, America was inhabited by Russian people ...

During this winter, midshipman V. Berkh, an active Russian man who does not tolerate idleness, translated Mackenzie’s book published in 1801 about the expedition he led to the Arctic Ocean (Travels in North America to the Arctic Sea and the Pacific Ocean, committed by Mr. Hern and Mackenzie, translated from English by V. Berkh on Kodiak Island, St. Petersburg, 1808). The expedition led by Mackenzie was heading north in 1789 along the river named after this traveler. During the expedition, the Indians told Mackenzie about the river that flows southwest of the river along which the expedition was moving. According to the Indians, numerous bearded whites lived near the mouth of this river. The only river that flows southwest of the Mackenzie is the Yukon. Russian people have lived along its banks since ancient times.

P. Korsakovsky, on the orders of the governor of Russian America, Gagemeister, carried out an expedition to the center of the Alaska Peninsula at the beginning of the 19th century. A certain Kylymbak, a local old-timer with whom Korsakovsky had a chance to talk, told him that one day two men came to the Indians who were holding a religious meeting near the Yukon, and “they were wearing a camisole or triple-bladed trousers and trousers made of deer skins without hair and dyed black. Black leather boots. With beards. Their conversation is different, so that all the Indians who were on this toy could not understand it. They saw a copper barrel in them, one end wider, and the other narrower, like a blunderbuss gun, and the other had a copper barrel like a rifle, decorated with black sepi and white features. “Kylymbak compares their dress with ours, it is exactly the same as ours. On these dwellings that he passes through, there are iron axes, copper cauldrons, smoking pipes, different kinds of kings, and brass. All these things are obtained through trade. He compared axes, exactly the same as ours, ”wrote Korsakovsky.

A Russian settlement was discovered on Vaigach dating back to the 10th century - two centuries before the campaign of Gyuryata Rogovich. After all, the first, historically known expedition for the Ob by the Novgorodians, who “fought along the Ob River to the sea,” dates back to 1384. The events that N. Karamzin mentions in the “History of the Russian State” also give reason to doubt reports about the constant raids of nomads of unknown origin on Russian lands, which allegedly “did not allow the Russians to explore Siberia”, and even in the Mongol-Tatar yoke itself, after all, even before the Kulikovo victory, there were only permanent raids by Russian “ushkuiniki” on the settlements of the Volga region and Western Siberia: “in 1361, the ushkuiniks descend down the Volga to the very nest of the Tatars, to their capital Saraichik, and in 1364-65, under the leadership of a young drawing paper Alexander Obakumovich make their way over the Ural Range and walk along the Ob River to the sea.

In the 1640s, the beginning of a decrease in the activity of the Sun occurred, so much so that it even ceased to observe spots that were open and actively observed at the beginning of the 17th century [Eddy, 1978], and, accordingly, a decrease in the activity of the Gulf Stream and Pacific currents - that is, a sharp cooling and deterioration of the ice situation in the Arctic. Russians began to swim less frequently in the Arctic Ocean. But in Russia during the time of Peter the Great, the lands beyond the strait were well remembered. “In 1940, a group of Soviet sailors engaged in hydrographic work landed on a small and deserted island. Thaddeus, lying near the eastern shores of the Taimyr Peninsula. On about. Thaddeus found copper cauldrons, pieces of dyed cloth, knives in leather sheaths, beads, doors from folded icons, rings, silver and copper crosses, arrowheads, silk threads. It is determined that these finds belonged to the same group of Russian sailors and lay in the Arctic for more than 300 years.

Jewelry of the 15th-16th centuries was found. Household items, handicrafts (salt pans), goods for trade with northern foreigners, a monetary treasury, state acts were also found. Apparently, a ship from the postal caravan, which regularly sailed here, could winter here. In the 15th century there was a trade sea route from Arkhangelsk to Russian America.

In favor of the theory about the discovery and colonization of America by Russians back in the 15th century, moreover, much earlier than Columbus, the facts about the settlement at that time by immigrants from Russia of the mouth of the Indigirka in the North-East of Siberia also speak. The most interesting thing is that in the Soviet press since the 1960s publications about this - about the history of Russian America, about its flourishing state disappear. 3rd volume of the "Collection of existing treatises, conventions and agreements concluded by Russia with other states" (1902), where the text of the 1867 treaty concerning Russian America is published, according to the Diplomatic Dictionary (1985, vol. 2nd, p. 481 ), removed. What was the agreement about?

The dwellings of the Kenai settlement are now, for obvious reasons, declared to belong to the Eskimos ... But only aliens from other planets can imagine the Eskimos, who usually built housing in the form of dugouts from whale bone, as builders of chopped stove huts, identical to Russian huts of the 15th - 16th centuries.

In the first half of the 19th century, Russian America was a prosperous Russian region, in which steam ships were even built. All of Russia knew that a significant part of North America had always been part of the Russian Empire. During the entire Crimean War, no enemy soldier set foot on the lands of Russian America: the British knew about the military power of Russian America.

In the 1860s, the American-Russian Telegraph Company laid an electric telegraph route across Alaska and the Bering Strait, connecting the Old and New Worlds with a communication line.

At that time, Prince D. Maksutov, the last Governor of Russian America, received a dispatch in Novo-Arkhangelsk: Ilya's gold in such a huge amount that there are even nuggets worth 4-5 thousand dollars ... Now we have no way to judge the extent to which these rumors are reliable, but we will assume that they must have a basis, the Main Board draws your attention to them attention and most humbly asks you to investigate them and, if necessary, take all measures in your power to protect the mines and extract possible benefits from this discovery for the Russian-American company ... "

The “sale” of a state institution, which was the Russian-American Company, to foreigners is an enemy project, carried out practically in secret from their own government, from the Tsar. He was informed only when the deed was done, however, as always. This was followed by a series of terrorist attacks aimed at eliminating the Tsar. But what is the content of the "treaty of 1867"? The newspaper Golos, the mouthpiece of the Gorchakov Foreign Ministry, indignantly wrote before the sale: “Today there are rumors: they are selling the Nikolaev railway, tomorrow the Russian American colonies. Is it possible that the labors of Shelekhov, Baranov, Khlebnikov and other selfless people for Russia should be used by foreigners and collect their fruits for their own benefit! (03/25/1867). Somewhat later, it was Golos who pointed out that the sale was being made when "very promising signs of gold were discovered" in the bowels of Alaska. thus, Gorchakov was against the capture of Russian America! The State Council also knew nothing about the collusion.

In 1959, Alaska became the 49th US state. In January February 1977, an exchange of notes took place between the governments of the USSR and the USA, confirming that the “western border of the ceded territories” provided for by the 1867 treaty, passing in the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi and Bering Seas, is used to delimit the areas of jurisdiction of the USSR and the USA in the field of fishing in these sea areas, although in 1867 there could be no question of delimiting fishing areas. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Russian remained the spoken language in Alaska ... The administration of the "district" was on the naval squadron, afraid to set foot on the Russian coast. After the February Revolution, they began to forget about Russian America, and after the assassination of Stalin, this topic became taboo ...

Modern America is a multinational country that positions itself as a state loyal to all peoples. How Russians appeared in America is a separate story that goes back to the past, and the appearance of the Russian diaspora, which currently makes up a significant part of the population of some cities, is by no means due to random migration in the 20th century. Since America was discovered, several centuries have passed before the Russians set foot on the land of this mainland in order to develop new lands. The first serious attempts to explore Alaska from Siberia were made by the Russian traveler Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev, when he landed on the shores of American lands together with his comrades in 1648. After that, settlements of Russian settlers began to appear on the west coast of America.
Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev, 1605 - 1673

Waves of Russian expansion in America

Several centuries ago, the concept of “Russian American” existed, and it meant something completely different from what is now customarily endowed with similar epithets. As you know, Alaska, at one time, belonged to Russia, and became American only as a result of a banal miscalculation and a desire to quickly get rid of a piece of land that was unprofitable, according to the authorities. Until that time, when the Russians appeared in America as owners, there was nothing extraordinary in the words "Russian part of America".
In Alaska, there is still a village of Russian Old Believers called Nikolaevsk For many years, the Russian people settled along the coast of the mainland, trying to gain a foothold and establish life in the new land. It was incredibly difficult to do this without the support of the native country in foreign places. Moscow could not afford endless funding for settlers, and yet the Russians managed to settle places in California, parts of Alaska, and Oregon. Until now, the remains of Russian architecture in the form of churches and characteristic residential buildings have been preserved in these places. Some settlements have retained Russian names. However, when Alaska was sold for nothing to America, a massive outflow of settlers began back to their native lands.

First wave of immigration

If until the 19th century, cases of migration to America were considered isolated, then in the second half of it, migration assumed enormous proportions. The industrial revolution forced craftsmen to go in search of a better life. Also, people who for some reason were persecuted in their native lands were also concerned about this. The resettlement of citizens of the Russian Empire was also facilitated by the fact that in America the confrontation between Southerners and Northerners was growing, so the government of the North passed a law according to which all residents of the country who did not take the side of the Southerners in the conflict can receive a land allotment by paying a meager fee. A few years later, a person who was engaged in the development and cultivation of land on this site could get it into his property. Historians claim that only in the last years of the 19th century, more than 500 thousand citizens of the Russian Empire went to conquer America. At the beginning of the 20th century, this figure had already increased several times and reached one and a half million. Also, mass migration was provoked by the events that developed before the First World War - almost a million people fled from the conflict in the United States. Another of the social groups that began to massively move to the United States was Russian Jews, who were persecuted. Since each settler sought to be among "their own", groups began to populate certain places in America. The distribution of "castes" and groups by cities and regions is still preserved, albeit on a smaller scale.

The second wave of Russian expansion into America

For a short time, the migration of Russians to America froze, but the Russian Revolution of 1917 provoked a new wave of refugees who did not want to put up with the establishment of a new government, or simply fled from it. As the Russians appeared in America during the first wave, so, a few years later, a new mass migration to the shores of the United States began. Most of the intelligentsia and creative people, who were deprived of their homes by the oppression of the Bolsheviks, had to go on the run. Among them you can meet such historical figures as Igor Sikorsky, Alexander Kerensky, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Vladimir Zworykin and many others. Writers, musicians and scientists tried to avoid the fate of their friends who were shot, and subsequently were able to realize themselves in American culture and science, influencing their development. Many of the emigrants did not plan to gain a permanent foothold in the United States, and when revolutionary passions subsided in Russia, they tried to return to their homeland. Such attempts were not always successful, since up to the Khrushchev thaw, refugees in the United States were considered traitors to the Motherland, and could be subjected to repression. World War II was another incentive for the resettlement of Russians in America. Ordinary peasants could not afford to run so far from the war, so they had to put up with war conditions. Toward the end of the war, when the Americans took part in the liberation of prisoners of concentration camps built by the Nazis, many citizens of the USSR did not want to return to their homeland, where the attitude towards prisoners was not always positive. There was a massive outflow of Russians to the West: first to European cities, and then to the USA. Moreover, in those years it was much easier to obtain citizenship in America than it is today.

Russian emigration to America in the post-war period

After the establishment of the Iron Curtain between the USSR and the USA, emigration to America became almost impossible. The second wave of Russian expansion stopped. However, around the beginning of the 70s, exceptions began to be made for Russian Jews, and they did not fail to take advantage of this. This moment can be called the “third wave” with some stretch, but in terms of its scale it was already inferior to the first two. Thousands of citizens of the Soviet Union were able to cross the ocean and build a new life in America. Many of them became famous people and contributed to the history of mankind. For example, Sergey Brin (founder of Google), whose family moved to the US in 1979. Brin's parents also became respected people in America: his mother became a specialist at NASA, and his father began to teach at the University of Maryland. When the Iron Curtain finally fell, moving to the United States became relatively easy for a man tormented by Soviet prohibitions. The number of those wishing to change their lives for the better, having heard enough stories about the land of opportunity, has greatly increased. Anyone who could afford to move to America did not hesitate a moment. The poverty of the plundered country left no choice to engineers, scientists and people who were simply not indifferent to their fate. It was during these years that a massive outflow of "brains" to the West took place, as a result of which tens of thousands of Russian scientists began to work at American enterprises and universities. Many global brands, which are valued at billions of dollars in the modern market, appeared thanks to the participation of Russian people in their development. Together with the intelligentsia, representatives of the criminal world, who felt freedom in the 90s, went to conquer the West. There were legends about the dominance of Russian mafiosi in America, and significant forces of law enforcement agencies were thrown into the fight against them. At one time, this fact became the cause of dissatisfaction with the Native Americans, who began to demand to limit the migration of Russians to the United States. The US government managed to reduce the degree of tension and practically eliminate the roots of the "Russian mafia", so the attitude towards Russian migrants again became loyal. At the moment, the largest number of representatives of the Russian diaspora in the United States is concentrated in New York. Almost a third of all Russian speakers in America live there. In other cases, Russian speech can be found in almost all major US cities.