Russian Colonization of Alaska

Preconditions, Discovery, and Initial Development, 1741-1799

Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv, Richard L. Bland

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781496210838
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

In Russian Colonization of Alaska, Andrei Val'terovich Grinëv examines the sociohistorical origins of the former Russian colonies in Alaska, or "Russian America, "between 1741 and 1799.Beginning withthe Second Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Ivanovich Bering and Aleksei IlyichChirikov's discovery of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and ending with the formation of the Russian-American Company's monopoly ofthe Russian colonial endeavor in the Americas, Russian Colonization of Alaska offers a definitive, revisionist examination of Tsarist Russia'sforay into the imperial contest in North America. Russian Colonization of Alaska is the first comprehensive study to analyze the origin and evolution of Russian colonization based on research into political economy, history, and ethnography. Grin?v's study elaborates thesocial, political, spiritual, ideological, personal, and psychological aspects of Russian America. He also accounts for the idiosyncrasies of the natural environment, competition from other North American empires, Alaska Natives, and individual colonial diplomats. The colonization of Alaska, rather than being simply a continuation of the colonization of Siberia by Russians, was insteadpart of overarching Russian and global history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Prehistory of the Russian Colonization of the New World
• 2. The First Information about Alaska and Its Discovery by Russian Mariners
• 3. Opening Up of the Aleutian Islands by Russian Promyshlenniki, 1743–83
• 4. Activities of G. I. Shelikhov and the Founding of the First Permanent Russian Settlements in America
• 5. Russian Promyshlenniki in Alaska at the End of the Eighteenth Century
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv
• About Richard L. Bland
• Illustrations