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Reviews
Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867
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By Lydia T. Black
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University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, 2004. Illustrations, photographs, maps, bibliography, index. 344 pages. $29.95 paper.
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Reviewed by Timothy Rawson
Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage
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| There are few defenders of imperialism in academe these days, and if asked about Russian Alaska, most people acquainted with North Pacific history would think of the enslavement of Aleut peoples, the rapacity of the sea otter trade, and the folly of both trying to maintain the colony and selling the territory so cheaply. This conventional wisdom is precisely Lydia Black's target and, while not defending imperialism per se, she asks us to consider the evidence indicating that our perspective needs revision. Two themes structure the narrative: Russian colonization differed from that of other European powers in the Americas, and the nature of Russian rule changed over time, reflecting political and economic changes in a modernizing western Russia. |
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With a lifetime of scholarship on Alaska Natives and Russian Alaska behind her, Black has the credentials and ability to support her reinterpretation, using archival sources in the United States and Russia. Translations are her own. Starting with medieval trading patterns and the Russian expansion eastward, the book follows basic chronology to the regime change in 1867. Endnotes, well worth reading, follow each chapter, and the ample bibliography will make monolinguists feel inadequate. Interspersed maps, illustrations, and photographs enhance the text considerably. Its relatively short length — one can imagine the struggle to achieve brevity in the face of such complexity — and style make it a suitable advanced undergraduate text. |
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The Big Names are present and accounted for: Vitus Bering, Catherine the Great, Grigory Shelikhov, Aleksandr Baranov, Ioann Veniaminov, and Nikolai Rezanov. Yet, a host of lesser-known actors populate the pages, as do the Alaska Natives. The Aleuts did not take their subjugation peaceably and in the 1760s undertook a "war of annihilation" against the interlopers (p. 89). Black characterizes the Russian method of forcibly acquiring their labor as "impressment," similar to what they used on their own sailors or serfs (p. 133). The Tlingits, numerous and well organized, wielded agency and forced the Russians to accommodate in rough-edged trading cooperation. |
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Yet what eventually emerged was a unique form of colonialism. Acquiring lands and settling peoples was never the aim of imperial Russia; Alaska was strictly about trading profits. No more than six hundred Russians were in Alaska at any one time, and only those who had married Native women were granted permission to stay. Their progeny, the creole class, sustained the ambitions of the Russian American Company and serve as the topic of an interesting chapter on cultural syncretism. |
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The mature colony enjoyed relatively peaceful relations with the indigenous peoples and, under government control and monopoly, implemented lessons in fur resource conservation. The final chapter concentrates more on the Russians' motives for deciding to divest themselves of Alaska than on Americans' motives in acquiring it. Of particular interest are the critiques of government monopoly by Russian proponents of laissez-faire economics. |
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While the most obvious and important legacy of the Russian period is the Orthodox Church, still vital in many Alaska Native communities and the subject of a full chapter, Black also notes the persistence of such things as Russian crafts and games, a delightfully inobvious touch. Many similar examples could be cited, as Black's depth of familiarity with her topic allows her to intimately describe and work in the colony, which will be new to many readers. This depth, along with her reinterpretation arguments, means that Russians in Alaska must be considered mandatory reading for scholars in northwestern history. |
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