Russian America : An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire, 1804-1867

From 1741 until Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, the Russian empire claimed territory and peoples in North America. In this book, Ilya Vinkovetsky examines how Russia governed its only overseas colony, illustrating how the colony fit into and diverged from the structures developed in the otherwise contiguous Russian empire. Russian America was effectively transformed from a remote extension of Russia's Siberian frontier penetrated mainly by Siberianized Russians into an ostensibly modern overseas colony operated by Europeanized Russians. Under the rule of the Russian-American Company, the colony was governed on different terms than the rest of the empire, a hybrid of elements carried over from Siberia and imported from rival colonial systems. Its economic, labor, and social organization reflected Russian hopes for Alaska, as well as the numerous limitations, such as its vast territory and pressures from its multiethnic residents, it imposed. This approach was particularly evident in Russian strategies to convert the indigenous peoples of Russian America into loyal subjects of the Russian Empire. Vinkovetsky looks closely at Russian efforts to acculturate the native peoples, including attempts to predispose them to be more open to the Russian political and cultural influence through trade and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Bringing together the history of Russia, the history of colonialism, and the history of contact between native peoples and Europeans on the American frontier, this work highlights how the overseas colony revealed the Russian Empire's adaptability to models of colonialism. This is a book about Russian colonial practice in Alaska, aka Russian America, from the time that it was visited by Russia's first round-the-world voyage to the time that it was sold to the United States. The setting of Russian America elicited unprecedented strategies and practices from the designers and implementers of the Russian Empire's colonial policies. As the one and only overseas colony of an empire situated on a huge contiguous landmass, Russian America presented them with a different challenge. In order to address it, St. Petersburg treated the overseas colony as a kind of an experiment, trying out approaches to governance there that were not pursued elsewhere in Russia's far-flung emporium. No other part of the Russian Empire was ever ruled on a contractual basis by an ostensibly commercial company, as Russian America was by the Russian-American Company between 1799 and 1867. Arguing that round-the-world voyages fundamentally reshaped the relationship between St. Petersburg and Russian America, this book examines Russia's overseas colonial system as it was implemented by the Russian-American Company after 1804. It examines how the decision to move the colonial capital from Kodiak to Novo-Arkhangel'sk (Sitka) that same year reshaped the Russian relationship with the indigenous people of Alaska. It analyzes how the Russians used indigenous laborers, and looks at how they attempted to transform indigenous cultures through trade, co-optation, social and cultural assimilation, and Christianization, and examines how the decision to sell the colony has obscured its place within the Russian Empire From 1741 until Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, the Russian empire claimed territory and peoples in North America. In this book, Ilya Vinkovetsky examines how Russia governed its only overseas colony, illustrating how the colony fit into and diverged from the structures developed in the otherwise contiguous Russian empire. Russian America was effectively transformed from a remote extension of Russia's Siberian frontier penetrated mainly by Siberianized Russians into an ostensibly modern overseas colony operated by Europeanized Russians. Under the rule of the Russian-American Company, the colony was governed on different terms than the rest of the empire, a hybrid of elements carried over from Siberia and imported from rival colonial systems. Vinkovetsky looks closely at Russian efforts to acculturate the native peoples, including attempts to predispose them to be more open to the Russian political and cultural influence through trade and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Bringing together the history of Russia, the history of colonialism, and the history of contact between native peoples and Europeans on the American frontier, this work highlights how the overseas colony revealed the Russian Empire's adaptability to models of colonialism. -- From product description From 1741 until Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, the Russian empire claimed territory and peoples in North America. This book examines how Russia governed its only overseas colony, showing how the colony fit into and diverged from the structures developed in the otherwise contiguous Russian empire. Russian America was effectively transformed from a remote extension of Russia's Siberian frontier penetrated mainly by Siberianized Russians into an ostensibly modern overseas colony operated by Europeanized Russians. Under the rule of the Russian-American Company, the colony was governed on different terms than the rest of the empire. Its economic, labor, and social organization reflected Russian hopes for Alaska, as well as the numerous limitations, such as its vast territory and pressures from its multiethnic residents, it imposed. This approach was particularly evident in Russian strategies to convert the indigenous peoples of Russian America into loyal subjects of the Russian Empire. The author looks closely at Russian efforts to acculturate the native peoples, including attempts to predispose them to be more open to the Russian political and cultural influence through trade and Russian Orthodox Christianity The paradox of overseas colonialism for a continental empire pt. 1. Building a colonial system From Siberia's frontier to Russia's colony Contractor of empire Indigenous labor and colonial insecurities pt. 2. Making Natives Russian Colonial trade and co-optation in a Russian key Dependence, family, and Russianization Building a colonial diocese Conclusion: The meaning of 1867.