The Russian Navy and the Development of Alaska: The Military Dimension1

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Russian Navy played a decisive role in the opening of Alaska, though later relatively few of its ships appeared in the region, passing the baton to ships of private merchant companies and then to the Russian-American Company, which governed Alaska until its sale to the United States in 1867. Most of the company’s ships had rather limited military capabilities. Although the navy played a significant role in the development of Alaska, the military dimension to this process manifested itself relatively weakly. The ships under the Russian flag primarily carried out transport and convoy functions, shielding flotillas of company hunting baidarki [skin boats] from the attacks of hostile Indians, and later conducted formal patrols for watching foreign whaling ships. Almost the only episodes in which Russian ships were used in battle were the participation of the sloop Neva in a fight with the Tlingit Indians in 1804 and the raids of two Russian-American Company ships in 1806–1807 on Japanese villages on Sakhalin Island and the southern Kurile Islands.