Russian Colonization Research Articles

Russian Colonization of Alaska: From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867. By Andrei Val’terovich Grinëv

This third and final entry in Andrei Grinëv’s Russian Colonization of Alaska series takes the history of the Russian colonies in North America From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867. The text, if billed as a monograph, is foremost a synthesis—a collation not only of other scholars’ findings, but of Grinëv’s own considerable scholarship as well. Anyone acquainted with the series thus far will find no surprises as regards Grinëv’s central thesis. As in previous volumes, the author reserves his most critical attention for arguing Russia’s imperial project in North America as an example of “colonial politarism,” with “politarism” here being Karl Marx’s “Asiatic mode of production” (p. 2). Its significance notwithstanding, the argument makes infrequent an appearance in what is otherwise an exceptionally thorough history of Russian America’s final decades. Beginning with the departure of the merchant Aleksandr Baranov as the colonies’ executive in 1818, Grinëv organizes his survey with similar keystones in Russian America’s political history, namely, the five-year terms of Baranov’s successors, nearly all of which serve as headings in one of five chapters. The first of these addresses the challenges of replacing the long-serving Baranov, and the importance of his successors being chosen exclusively from among the Navy’s officer-gentry. The second, bound 1825 to 1840, examines the relation between imperial foreign policy and the ruling Russian-American Company’s efforts to consolidate ties with the Alaska Natives on whose labor, land and waters the Company depended for profit. Readers familiar with the literature will recognize both topics as staples of the historiography, but Grinëv’s intention here is to probe and tweak, not overhaul.

Using pipes from various materials for water supply pipe line network

Presents the analysis of data on Russian settlements water supply pipe line networks as of 2016-2022. All the settlements are divided into seven groups depending on the population size. For each group, the distribution of water supply line depending on the material of the pipes is established. The most widespread pipes are steel and cast-iron pipes, which have been widely used in the last 100 years. Schedules for the commissioning of water supply line from various materials by years have been constructed. Over the past 25 years, plastic pipes have become the most widely used. After 2010, they accounted for 86.5% of newly built water supply line, excluding data for Moscow and St. Petersburg. Information was collected on the timing of commissioning of individual sections of water supply line. The largest number of operating water supply pipe line networks were built in the period from 1980 to 1989. In general, in all settlements, the standard service life was exceeded for 40.8% of networks. The authors believe that there will be a significant increase in the number of plastic pipes in the total length of water supply pipe line networks in the next few years.

Global earthquakes in the 2022 second half according to the GS RAS

Information is provided on the seismicity of the Earth at the level of mb≥6.0 in the 2022 second half, as well as on 66 earthquakes felt on the territory of the Russian Federation according to the to the Alert Service of the Geophysical Survey RAS. For the 15 most severe earthquakes, information messages were published within one or two days after their implementation, the parameters of the mechanisms of foci were calculated and given. During the period under review, the strongest earthquake on the globe with MS=7.8 (Mw=7.7) occurred on September 19 in the state of Michoacan, Mexico. The greatest human casualties and material damage were caused by a catastrophic earthquake with MS=5.3 (Mw=5.6), which occurred on November 21 on the island of Java, Indonesia. Because of the earthquake, 318 people were killing and more than 7,700 people were injured. On the territory of Russia, the strongest earthquake was on September 20 with MS=6.0 (Mw=6.1) in the area of the Commander Islands. The earthquake of December 8 with mb=5.6 (Mw=5.5), which occurred on the territory of the Republic of Dagestan, was felt with the greatest intensity of concussions (6 points) in the settlements of Russia. The seismic energy released on the globe for the 2022 second half (9.1⋅1016 J) increased after its minimum over the past 13 years (2010–2022), observed in the 2022 first half (2.76⋅1016 J), however, remained below the average value for 2010–2022 (2.31⋅1017 J).

Russian Colonization of Alaska: From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867 by AndreiVal'terovich Grinev. Translated by Richard L.Bland. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. xi + 415 pp. $70.00. ISBN 978‐1‐4962‐2217‐6

The Russian ReviewEarly View BOOK REVIEW Russian Colonization of Alaska: From Heyday to Sale, 1818–1867 by Andrei Val'terovich Grinev. Translated by Richard L. Bland. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. xi + 415 pp. $70.00. ISBN 978-1-4962-2217-6 Katherine L. Arndt, Corresponding Author Katherine L. Arndt klarndt@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks Email: klarndt@alaska.eduSearch for more papers by this author Katherine L. Arndt, Corresponding Author Katherine L. Arndt klarndt@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks Email: klarndt@alaska.eduSearch for more papers by this author First published: 16 March 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/russ.12462Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Residential buildings of the Russian population in the Omsk Irtysh region in the 17th — beginning of the 20th c. in the archaeological and architectural-ethnographic dimension

Over the past thirty-five years, a series of archaeological sites of the period of the Russian colonization of Siberia have been investigated in the territory of the Siberian macroregion, which made it possible to identify re-gional features and to trace evolution of the socio-cultural identity of the Russian Siberian in the 17th–19th cc. A topical issue is the in-depth study of the processes of ethno-cultural adaptation in microregions. In this work, as one of the aspects of adaptation, changes in the house exterior in the Omsk Irtysh region are considered. This work is aimed to consider main types of the residential buildings of the Russian population in the Omsk Irtysh region in the 17th — early 20th c. in order to determine their specifics and development trends. The work is carried by a complex approach, involving the use of different types of sources, such as archaeological, written, and eth-nographic. To compare the buildings studied in the Omsk Irtysh region with houses in other regions, a compara-tive historical method was used. Analysis of the archaeological materials on the architecture and layout of urban dwellings of the 17th–18th cc. showed specifics of the housing in different parts of the town. The houses of the representatives of the tsarist administration, senior clergy, and military commanders with multi-chambered buildings were located in the territory of the kremlin — the central part of the town. In the walled part of Western Siberian towns, where representatives of other social groups lived, both single-chambered and multi-chambered houses were built, although so far only few of them have been identified archaeologically. Stoves with chimneys and mica windows, as socially significant structural elements of the house, were gradually becoming attributes of the dwel-lings not only of the representatives of the tsarist administration, but also of the middle strata of the townspeople. In the rural areas, Russian immigrants in the 17th — first half of the 18th c. were erecting multi-chambered buildings of a large area. The set of socially-marking structural elements was the same as in the town. The archaeological material obtained during the study of residential buildings of the rural sites of the Irtysh Basin is generally of the same type and is equally characteristic of village and town alike. Based on the results of the author’s own ethno-graphic observations, a characteristics of individual residential buildings of the 19th — beginning of the 20th c. is given. There has been noted the prevalence of two-chambered dwellings by the end of the 19th century in the Russian village, which required less building material, as compared with multi-chambered counterparts, and were easier to heat. Multi-chambered buildings and carved platbands constituted socially marking traits of dwellings of the wealthy strata of the rural population. The field observations warranted further archaeological and ethno-graphic studies of the rural and urban wooden architecture to gain a deeper insight on the evolution of the house-building that combined traditional elements of the 17th–18th cc. with innovations, simplification, and standardiza-tion of the 19th–20th cc.

Atomic Atlantis: Ethnography of Settled Villages

Abstract In 1957 there occurred a technological disaster in the Southern Urals in the form of a nuclear accident at the Mayak chemical plant in Ozersk, Soviet Union. The accident led to the resettlement of two historical centres of the first wave of the Russian colonization of the region, as the villages along the Techa river were declared restricted areas during the cleaning of the radiation trail, and their residents were resettled. As a result, the original culture of the villages was lost. The inspiration for our research is Alexey Mityunin, a local historian, enthusiast, and public activist, who collected a martyrology of the disappeared Ural villages. This paper presents the results of field expeditions to Brodokalmak carried out in 2014–2017 by students of the Miass Branch of Chelyabinsk State University, Russia. Brodokalmak is the village where the people resettled from contaminated lands Zamanikha, Boevka, and Muslyumovo live or lived.

Personal and Political Biography of G. Valikhanov in the Imperial Context of the Russian Colonization of the ХIХth – early ХХth centuries

Personal and Political Biography of G. Valikhanov in the Imperial Context of the Russian Colonization of the ХIХth – early ХХth centuries

Русская речь в духовной жизни мусульманского общества Южного Кавказа: историко-социологический анализ

Purpose and objectives of the study. The article is devoted to the history of the spread of Russian speech in the nearby spaces of the Russian cultural and linguistic area, in particular in the South Caucasus, as well as its educational and communicative role in the creation of a universal information system and lexical base, in enriching the speech culture of peoples who speak non-Slavic languages. Research methods. As a research method, a monographic approach was chosen based on the analysis of historical materials on the settlement of Russian speakers in the South Caucasus. Factual materials are systematized and classified by social spheres; the main factors that influenced the nature and content of the language policy and practice of using the Russian language in the region are identified. Research results. Russian speech is considered as a means of unifying the verbal potential of different peoples of the South Caucasus, even in some way as a specific, local "lingua franca" in interethnic communication within the linguistic pluralism of the population of the South Caucasus. The extraordinary educational mission of Russian speech and its place in the transformation of European scientific, cultural and general educational values to the peoples of the South Caucasus in the 19th–20th centuries are the main motives of the article. The fact of modification of the language resources of the Russian language in the conditions of multilingualism of the peoples of the South Caucasus is noted. Morphological, syntactic and semantic changes in the vocabulary of the Russian language in the region under the influence of everyday language practice are revealed. The features of the mutual influence of Russian and local languages, the main factors and consequences of this influence are revealed. Another key point is the modern role and significance of Russian speech in the everyday, socio-economic and scientific-cultural life of the national states of the South Caucasus, in particular the Republic of Azerbaijan. Thus, the Russian language has acquired a certain political and cultural significance for the people of Azerbaijan, and the cultural and historical foundations that have been formed over a fairly long period of time provide an opportunity for the further, consistent development of former linguistic ties. An opportunity was obtained to establish ties with the Russian linguistic area, to develop spiritual relations. On the territory of Azerbaijan there were significant settlements of Russian settlers, with whom local residents established broad economic and cultural ties. Their dialects were very diverse. They influenced the vocabulary of the Russian language. The historical events that have taken place have determined the importance of Russian culture as a factor in interethnic interaction in the South Caucasus. It was the Russian language that became a means of interethnic communication, within the framework of which the development of education took place, and in general enlightenment. Thus, the Muslim population of the South Caucasus was involved in Russian political and cultural processes. There was a kind of linguo-ethno-cultural dialogue in a multi-ethnic environment. Thus, in the period under study, through the Russian language, the process of introducing the Muslim population of the South Caucasus to the global cultural processes took place

Introduction: Russian Colonialism, Women, and Politics in Central Asia

Introduction: Russian Colonialism, Women, and Politics in Central Asia

The Social Status of Muslim Women in Turkestan before and after Russian Colonization

Abstract The article provides a historical review of some facts to reveal, in general terms, the place of Muslim women in Turkestan, including their roles in family and society during the pre-colonial period. As a result of the conquest of Central Asia by the Russian Empire and the establishment of the Governorate-General of Turkestan, the Russian administration began to consider the issues of Muslim women as an important aspect of its colonial policy. The Russian colonial authorities were attentive to this issue in order to strengthen their position in the region and weaken the influence of Islam among the local (mostly sedentary) population. Representatives of the colonial administration tried to influence Muslim women through intermediaries in the form of educated Russian, Tatar, and Jewish women. By comparing two periods at the start and end of the Russian imperial era, it is possible to see the image of a Muslim woman at various stages of history.

Description of the Transbaikal and the Amur Region in 1681

The article contains the text of the source, described the Eastern Transbaikalia and the Amur River. It was compiled in 1681 in Moscow by the regional administrative office Sibirsky Prikaz, based on the testimony of Siberian Cossacks. Compared to other previously published documentary and narrative sources, this description provides more detailed information about the above-mentioned specific region, including its natural resources, the location of Russian settlements; the number, living conditions and armament of the Russian population; land and river routes, habitats, lifestyle and the degree of loyalty of the local people toward the Russian authorities, about the relationship between Russians and “Chinese people”. The source is stored in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (Moscow) in the collection of documents from Sibirsky Prikaz.

Russian settlement on the island of Urup (1795–1805) and its influence on Japan’s policy towards Ainu from southern Kurils

Based on comparative study of published Russian and Japanese sources, the article describes the history of the Russian settlement on the island of Urup in 1795–1805. First, it clarifies the goals of the foundation of the settlement and the reasons for its liquidation. Founded at the initiative of the Siberian merchant Grigorii Shelekhov, the Russian settlement played an important role both in Russo-Japanese relations and in the policy of the Japanese government towards the Ainu and their lands, especially in the southern Kuril Islands, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Russians founded the settlement in the view of future trade opportunities with Japan, since, a few years earlier, the Russian envoy Adam Laxman had received a permission to enter the port of Nagasaki to continue negotiations. In the beginning, Russians managed to start exchange of Japanese goods and supplies with the Ainu. After Japanese governmental expedition reached Iturup in 1798, however, information about relations between the Russians and the Ainu led to the transfer of the northeast Hokkaido, Kunashir, and Iturup under the direct control of the bakufu, as well as influenced the nature of Japanese policy towards the local population, the Ainu. The desire to expel the Russians from Urup and thereby stop their relations with the Ainu of the southern Kuril Islands led to the decision of the Japanese government to turn Iturup into a natural fortress and forbid the locals to leave the island, and the Russians and Ainu of the northern and middle Kuril Islands to come there. At the same time, the long stay of Russian settlers on Urup prevented the spread of Japanese influence north of Iturup.

There is a Prussian spirit here, but it smells of Russia...

After the Great Patriotic War, the Russian settlers were going to build their own world on the ruins of Königsberg and other cities in East Prussia, from where the Germans were deported in 1947. Architects designed neoclassical ensembles, but those plans were not realised. The Soviet towns of East Prussia were built up in the 60s and 70s with five-storey panel blocks and faceless modernist public buildings. The Kaliningrad region did not receive the Soviet identity associated with constructivism and neoclassicism, nor did it ever have a Russian identity. Today people discuss a diffusion of German and Russian cultures, but in reality it comes down to a call to restore the remaining German pre-war buildings and to bring the new buildings in line with them, using explicit and implicit quotations. There are no bearers of German culture in the Kaliningrad region.

Norwegian and Russian settlements on Svalbard: An analysis of demographic and socio-economic trends

Abstract The Svalbard archipelago is a centre of global research on climate change and also an example of a rapidly changing Arctic area with tourism replacing the traditional mining industry. We compared the different development paths of the Norwegian (Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund) and Russian settlements (Barentsburg and Pyramida) on Spitsbergen as part of the Svalbard archipelago using demographic and socio-economic data until 2022 when available, but not focusing on the impacts of COVID-19 and changing geopolitics after 2022. We analysed strategy documents produced by Norway and Russia and by organisations connected to Svalbard. The analysis continued by scrutinising the statistical data available to ascertain if this supported the strategic goals outlined in the documents. Data collection was by direct enquiry to national statistical bureaus, agencies and institutions in Norway and Russia. Secondary data were collected from media publications and social media accounts. Statistics Norway provided very detailed data on demographics and industrial structure, turnover, investments and comprehensive statistics on employees by industry on Norwegian settlements on Svalbard. The results revealed disparities in socio-economic development, striking differences in data availability and in transparency between the Norwegian and Russian settlements. The population in the Norwegian settlements continued to grow during the period 1990–2022 with an increasing number of foreign nationals, and the population in the Russian settlements decreased by 85% at the same time period. The Norwegian settlements exemplify a diversified economy with a growing private sector, and the Russian settlements continued to rely on the town-forming Russian state unitary coal mining enterprise, Trust Arktikugol. While Svalbard presented a prime example of open data and transparency in the environmental sciences, the socio-economic and demographic statistics were lagging behind. Several practical proposals are presented for improved data collection on the Svalbard settlements.

“The Life of the Russian Settlers Here Turned Out to Be, However, a Difficult Ordeal for Them”: the First Attempts to Provide Medical Care to Russian Settlers in the Astrabad Province

The article is devoted to the initial stages of the organization of medical care for Russian settlers and the local population in the Astrabad province of Iran on the eve and during the First World War. Archival and published materials show the interaction of various levels and government structures of the Russian Empire on the organization of medical care for settlers, the complexity of this interaction, the activities of Red Cross detachments in Persia, and then the beginning of the activities of permanent medical and paramedic stations. It is shown that the organization of medical care to the population was due not only to practical considerations, but also to the influence of the ideas of the civilizing mission of Russia.

THE III ALL-RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE “PROBLEMS OF STUDYING AND PRESERVING THE PLANT WORLD OF EURASIA” DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF L. V. BARDUNOV (1932−2008) (IRKUTSK, LISTVYANKA, AUGUST 29−SEPTEMBER 3, 2022)

The III All-Russian Conference with the international participation “Problems of studying and preserving the plant world of Eurasia”, dedicated to the memory of Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation, Leonid Vladimirovich Bardunov (1932−2008) was held on August 29 − September 3, 2022. It was housed by the Irkutsk Scientific Center of the SB RAS (Irkutsk) and the Baikal Museum of the SB RAS (Listvyanka township). The Conference was attended by colleagues from 24 cities and other settlements of Russia and from 4 cities of 4 foreign countries, representing 48 scientific, scientific-research, educational, environment-oriented domestic organizations as well as 5 foreign ones. Six plenary lectures, 52 sectional ones and 4 poster sessions on various problems of modern botany were presented at the Conference.

The experience of calculating distances between different types of settlements in Russia to assess the range of population migration

The problem of measuring distances in migration is not trivial, but important, for example, for delimiting the concepts of population migration and housing mobility. In conditions of limited access to detailed spatial data, researchers solve this issue in different ways. Only a few countries, such as Sweden, have the ability to calculate migration distances between point locations using Euclidean distance (in a straight line). In this article, as applied to Russia, the measure of correspondence between Euclidean distances and real distances along transport routes is investigated. For this purpose, 3407 pairs of distances were calculated for randomly selected 23 municipal districts of Russia directly and along transport routes - roads. Also, 411 pairs of distances were calculated for settlements with no auto connection, using air traffic. These distances give an idea of the migrations of different distances in Russia. As a result, for hypothetical resettlements within the selected municipal districts, real road distances exceed Euclidean distances by 51%. For resettlements between the centers of districts and urban districts within the region, this indicator exceeds 40%, and for interregional resettlements, the differences are 33%. The air service used “straightens” the distances, but even taking it into account, the real distances (mainly long-range, interregional) exceed the Euclidean ones by 28.5%. The calculations performed to give an idea of the deviations of real, transport distances from the relatively easy-to-calculate Euclidean ones, which can be used in the analysis of migration distances in Russia.

ТЕМА КОЛОНИЗАЦИИ В РОМАНЕ КЕДРА МИТРЕЯ «ТЯЖКОЕ ИГО»

This article is devoted to the problem of internal colonization of the north of Udmurtia on the example of Kedra Mitrey’s anti-church novel “Heavy Yoke”. Kedra Mitrey (Dmitry Ivanovitch Korepanov, 1892–1949) depicts the process of Christianization as one of the main instruments in the colonization of the Udmurts in the 19th century. Local residents adopt the skills of land cultivation from Russian settlers. Udmurts and Russians form interethnic families. The Udmurt peasant Dangyr and the Russian priest Ilariy are key characters in the novel. Dangyr has a negative attitude towards the construction of a new second church, since Ilariy uses most of the resources for personal selfish purposes. At the same time, Dangyr is drawn to reading and writing, without renouncing the pagan faith, he is baptized and learns the Russian language at a church school. The author of the novel sympathizes with Dangyr, but the priest Ilariy, conceived as a negative character, begins to reveal himself as a complex and contradictory figure. To fulfill his Orthodox mission, Ilariy learns the Udmurt language, gets acquainted with the faith and customs of the local population, and temporarily exempts baptized peasants from paying taxes. According to Kedra Mitrey, integration into the Russian space is a great boon for the Udmurts, but the tsarist policy, aimed at forcible Christianization and justifying the arbitrariness of local officials, most often turns into evil and becomes a ‘heavy yoke’ for the people.

Methods and Algorithms for Detecting Urban Passenger Traffic

The main task of sensors in public transport is to collect information about the transportation of passengers. One of the features of passenger traffic in Russian settlements is the low level of their organization. This is due, among other things, to the lack of professional analysis of traffic flows when designing route networks. The relevance of the work lies in increasing the efficiency of detecting urban passenger traffic using modern methods and algorithms. The article analyzes the current state of passenger traffic in the settlement, describes the role of technical and programs for monitoring passenger traffic, classifies their types and areas of application.

Baptism Between Empires: A Coast Miwok Family in the Pacific World

Scholarship has documented in detail how Spanish colonists forced California Indians to convert to Catholicism, but some Indigenous converts managed to avoid confinement in the mission system, particularly those who resided in the borderlands between Spanish and Russian settlements. This contribution to the roundtable considers the travels of one Coast Miwok family who avoided confinement and preserved local control over tribal homelands by assiduously cultivating links with Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches while holding colonial newcomers at arm's length.