Russian Colonization of Alaska

From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867

Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv, Richard L. Bland

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781496232816
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

In this third volume of Russian Colonization of Alaska, Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv examines the final period in the history of Russian America, from naval officers’ coming to power in the colonies (1818) to the sale of Alaska to the United States (1867). During this time, in addition to the extraction of furs, other kinds of modern production continued to develop in Alaska, including shipbuilding, cutting and mining of timber and coal, and harvesting fish and ice for export. Grinëv’s definitive volume explores how certain economic successes could not prevent the growth of crisis phenomena. Due to the low competitiveness of products and the distributive nature of the economy, the Russian colonial system could not compete with the dynamically developing Anglo-American capitalist colonization. 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. Grinëv’s study elaborates the social, political, spiritual, ideological, personal, and psychological aspects of Russian America, and 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 instead part of overarching Russian and global history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Maritime Officers at the Head of Russian America
• 2. The Hunting-Trading Activities of the rac in 1825–40
• 3. The Russian Colonies in the 1840s
• 4. Russian America in the 1850s
• 5. The Russian Colonies in the 1860s and the Sale of Alaska to the United States
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv
• About Richard L. Bland
• Illustrations