Russian Colonization of Alaska: From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867 by Andrei Valterovich Grinev (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Russian Colonization of Alaska: From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867 by Andrei Valterovich Grinev Erik Hirschmann (bio) Keywords Alaska, Russia, Russian-American Company Russian Colonization of Alaska: From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867. By Andrei Valterovich Grinev. Trans. Richard L. Bland. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Pp. 415. Cloth, $70.00.) This important monograph is the third of a three-volume series on Russian America, and examines the era of Russian naval governors who presided over Russian–American Company (RAC) activities in the North Pacific until the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. Professor Grinev's work is a major contribution to the history of the post-1818 era, which is limited to a small number of monographs like Russian America: An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire, 1804–1867 by Ilya Vinkovetsky (New York, 2011) and Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867 by Lydia Black (Fairbanks, AK, 2004), the latter heavily focused on the pre-1818 era. Like Grinev's first two volumes, which centered on eighteenth-century Russian expansion into Alaska, the 1799 creation of the RAC monopoly, and 1790s–1818 era of colonial governor Alexander Baranov, this third book is grounded in extensive Russian archival research. Appendixes include lists of RAC directors and governors, statistical charts, and translated documents. A glossary of common Russian colonial terms also assists the reader. Missing is a modern map of Alaska's Russian settlements and Alaska Native territories, and the larger North Pacific region. Grinev's engaging narrative centers on several themes pertaining to the problematic long-term viability of Russia's overseas colonies. One is the RAC's paradoxical business relationships with foreigners. Competition with British and American maritime traders over the southeast Alaska fur trade led the tsarist government to ratify 1824–1825 treaties on Alaska's political borders with the U.S. and Britain, permanently halting further Russian territorial expansion in North America. Later, in the 1850s–1860s, American whalers and British smugglers inhibited the RAC's economic prospects in areas of Alaska. In contrast, the RAC profited by leasing the southeast Alaska mainland to the Hudson's Bay Company [End Page 347] (HBC), and conducting ice shipments to San Francisco and fur sales in New York. Another concern for the RAC's longevity was the perceived military vulnerability of Russian Alaska. One important revelation by Grinev is an 1845 document from the RAC Board of Directors to the tsarist minister of finances, where the directors complained about declining revenues and suggested the government might "ultimately abandon the colonies and give them to other nations thirsty for such acquisition for strengthening their dominion" (240). Despite this fear, the RAC's military position in Alaska remained stable during the next few years, including the Crimean War era (1853–1856), thanks to neutrality agreements between the Russian and British governments for the RAC and HBC colonies. Grinev also documents the tsarist government's worry that U.S. citizens on whaling and trading vessels in the 1850s might claim Sakhalin Island, north of Japan. Tsarist officials ordered the RAC to colonize the island, a move that stretched company resources thin. In addition to trade and international geopolitics, Grinev offers valuable insights on the RAC's burgeoning post-1818 administrative apparatus and changing relations with Alaska Natives. The RAC practice of kayurstvo (colonial slavery) toward certain Native orphans and slaves ended by 1822, and payments to Native and Creole (mixed-blood) workers generally improved, as did education and medical care for employees and their dependents. The RAC also explored large areas of the Alaskan interior and established a few modest fur-trading outposts. Perhaps more importantly, the RAC launched initiatives to economically diversify beyond the fur trade, such as coal-mining on the Kenai Peninsula and commercial lumber and fishing in the area around the RAC capital, New Archangel (present-day Sitka). Regarding many of the above developments, Grinev sees the early 1840s management by naval governor Adolf Etolin as "the most favorable period in the history of Russian America" (146). However, the problem of growing RAC expenses outpacing revenues worsened in later years, further compromising the viability of Russian Alaska. While each chapter contains revealing conclusions...