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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.
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.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 19, 2025
Really good academic monograph about the topic. Gets a bit repetitive at times.
November 5, 2014
A very comprehensive, if at times repetitive, history of a fascinating and overlooked imperial project.
The author takes great pains to illustrate how Alaska's colonization was not a straightforward top-down project emanating from St. Petersburg, but a complex, multilayered enterprise in which the Tsarist state, the Russian-American Company, private Siberian fur-traders, the Orthodox Church, and the Alaska Natives all participated and left their mark on the colonial system, just as often competing as collaborating. He also does a good job of laying out which systems of rule emerged as localized, improvised solutions to uniquely Alaskan problems, and which drew inspiration from Spanish and British colonialism, the creation of the "Creole" social category being the clearest example. Lastly, the Alaska Purchase is explained as a logical, but not inevitable, consequence of the colony's vulnerable position, a warming relationship with the United States, a desire to counter Britain, and perhaps most importantly, an increasingly demanding contest for influence in Northeast Asia.
One particularly fascinating consequence, I found, of Russia's only overseas colony was the acceptance by some (but certainly not all) Natives of Orthodox Christianity as "their" religion in opposition to Protestantism after the territory's sale to the United States. This and other interesting legacies make the book a good inspiration for further reading on colonialism in general and Russia's Pacific policies in particular.
The author takes great pains to illustrate how Alaska's colonization was not a straightforward top-down project emanating from St. Petersburg, but a complex, multilayered enterprise in which the Tsarist state, the Russian-American Company, private Siberian fur-traders, the Orthodox Church, and the Alaska Natives all participated and left their mark on the colonial system, just as often competing as collaborating. He also does a good job of laying out which systems of rule emerged as localized, improvised solutions to uniquely Alaskan problems, and which drew inspiration from Spanish and British colonialism, the creation of the "Creole" social category being the clearest example. Lastly, the Alaska Purchase is explained as a logical, but not inevitable, consequence of the colony's vulnerable position, a warming relationship with the United States, a desire to counter Britain, and perhaps most importantly, an increasingly demanding contest for influence in Northeast Asia.
One particularly fascinating consequence, I found, of Russia's only overseas colony was the acceptance by some (but certainly not all) Natives of Orthodox Christianity as "their" religion in opposition to Protestantism after the territory's sale to the United States. This and other interesting legacies make the book a good inspiration for further reading on colonialism in general and Russia's Pacific policies in particular.
November 19, 2019
Ilya Vinkovetsky illustrates how the Russian Empire expanded its territorial holdings across the Bering Sea into Alaska and California in the early nineteenth-century, and how that effort eventually failed. Russian America: An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire begins in 1804, the same year that Russia successfully circumnavigated the globe and ends in 1867 with the sale of Alaska to the United States (4). Vinkovetsky explores how the Russian-American Company (RAC), a private enterprise, became the agent of governmental oversight to a region that was mostly outside the reach of the Tzarian powers in Moscow. The Russian-American Company operated through contracts issued by the Russian government, and in return, the company provided money from furs extracted from sea creatures through the forced labor of indigenous peoples (52).
Russian America is structured both thematically and chronologically, which promotes a cogent argument by the author. As the title suggests, the story begins in 1804 and ends in 1867; however, there are portions of the book that reach outside of that purview, mainly the topic of the creation of the RAC in 1799 and early contact between Russians and indigenous inhabitants of the Kodiak and Aleutian Islands in the eighteenth-century. In the first four chapters, Vinkovetsky lays the foundation for his book by exploring the "construction and functioning of Russia's overseas colonial system" (4). The second half of the book develops the narrative that Russians attempted to acculturate the indigenous people with whom they came in contact. Russian acculturation was nothing new to the Alaskan Natives; however, as early as 1780, the Kodiak Islands were invaded and colonized by Russians from the Golikov-Shelikhov Company, a predecessor to the RAC (19). Russian men bred with and married Native women who took the Russian Orthodox Church as their religion (40). By structuring the book into two parts focused on different aspects of Russia's overseas colonization efforts, it helps the book to flow naturally. Vinkovetsky does a flawless job of writing about the progression of Russian circumnavigation of the globe, acquiring an overseas territory, creating a joint venture company to oversee said territory, and finally selling the land to the United States.
Vinkovetsky tackles a considerable portion of time in this book, sixty-three years, which inadvertently leads to some oversights in certain areas. However, the point of Russian America is not to deep-dive into any one topic, but to look at the big picture of how and why Russia acquired and then sold their only overseas colony. This book is, most importantly, a political history that tells a tale of imperialism and how the decisions of a non-governmental organization affected the colonial policies of the Russian government. The research that went into making this book is impressive, Vinkiovetsky consulted ninety-four primary sources and over 450 books and articles; he meticulously tracked each Russian voyage from European Russia to Russian America and the Russian Far-East from 1803-1864, and that chart is on pages 41 to 45. Other sources consulted are letters from Imperial Russian Naval Officers, and Russian-American Company reports. This level of scrupulous research adds an elevated level of validity to an already honored scholar of Russian-American history.
One area of the book that receives mention but is woefully overlooked is Russia’s colony in California. Fort Ross was established in 1812 and became an essential part of the Russian-American Company's trade with Spain and American miners who flocked to California for the 1849 gold rush. However, Vinkiovetsky's primary focus is on Alaskan colonization, the Russian-American Company, and the indigenous people of the territory. This oversight is understandable however given that the complexity of Russia's overseas ventures are difficult to detail in such a succinct book. Being one of the few modern scholars to tackle the subject of Russian America, it may be that Vinkiovetsky is holding back on Fort Ross in this work in order to publish a future work on the topic.
Russian America hits all the right notes and tells a compelling story of imperialism, conquest, victory, and failure. The topic is intriguing, and the subject interesting to anyone attracted to this area of study. The scope of this work is almost perfect, except for perhaps giving a bit more detail on Russia's California colony. The detail of Vinkiovetsky’s writing paints a beautiful picture of life in nineteenth-century Alaska, and how the Russian's and Natives interacted and the ripple effect it had on both cultures. This book argues that Russia was successful at gaining new territory in North America, but failed to colonize and maintain it properly. The failure of the Russians became a considerable gain for the United States when Russia decided not to sell the territory to Great Britain. The English were viewed as a rival by both the United States and Russia; for Russia, they were a geopolitical rival in Eurasia, and for the United States, they were a rival on the North American continent (182). Russia also saw Alaska as indefensible and unprofitable, which led them to conclude it was better to part with it peacefully and make a profit instead of losing it by force later, which was an almost certainty given the political climate of the time (182).
Russian America is insightful and a welcome addition to the discussion of Russia’s nineteenth-century American colonies. There is an astute level of detail on Russian interaction with the Alaskan Native population, colonization efforts, and the Russian-American Company’s part in overseeing and governing this vast territory. This book would be great for anyone interested in nineteenth-century American and Russian histories, and it is also adequate reading for graduate and undergraduate history courses. Russian America covers a time-span of just over sixty years, starting in the last decade of the eighteenth-century to the middle of the nineteenth- century, it concludes with Russia’s decision to sell Alaska and the territorial acquisition by the United States. The Author, Ilya Vinkiovetsky, makes the compelling argument that Russia could no longer profit from or control their only overseas colony and had no choice but to sell it. The United States purchased the Alaskan territory for $7.2 million on March 18, 1867, ending a long and tumultuous chapter for Russia’s in North America.
Russian America is structured both thematically and chronologically, which promotes a cogent argument by the author. As the title suggests, the story begins in 1804 and ends in 1867; however, there are portions of the book that reach outside of that purview, mainly the topic of the creation of the RAC in 1799 and early contact between Russians and indigenous inhabitants of the Kodiak and Aleutian Islands in the eighteenth-century. In the first four chapters, Vinkovetsky lays the foundation for his book by exploring the "construction and functioning of Russia's overseas colonial system" (4). The second half of the book develops the narrative that Russians attempted to acculturate the indigenous people with whom they came in contact. Russian acculturation was nothing new to the Alaskan Natives; however, as early as 1780, the Kodiak Islands were invaded and colonized by Russians from the Golikov-Shelikhov Company, a predecessor to the RAC (19). Russian men bred with and married Native women who took the Russian Orthodox Church as their religion (40). By structuring the book into two parts focused on different aspects of Russia's overseas colonization efforts, it helps the book to flow naturally. Vinkovetsky does a flawless job of writing about the progression of Russian circumnavigation of the globe, acquiring an overseas territory, creating a joint venture company to oversee said territory, and finally selling the land to the United States.
Vinkovetsky tackles a considerable portion of time in this book, sixty-three years, which inadvertently leads to some oversights in certain areas. However, the point of Russian America is not to deep-dive into any one topic, but to look at the big picture of how and why Russia acquired and then sold their only overseas colony. This book is, most importantly, a political history that tells a tale of imperialism and how the decisions of a non-governmental organization affected the colonial policies of the Russian government. The research that went into making this book is impressive, Vinkiovetsky consulted ninety-four primary sources and over 450 books and articles; he meticulously tracked each Russian voyage from European Russia to Russian America and the Russian Far-East from 1803-1864, and that chart is on pages 41 to 45. Other sources consulted are letters from Imperial Russian Naval Officers, and Russian-American Company reports. This level of scrupulous research adds an elevated level of validity to an already honored scholar of Russian-American history.
One area of the book that receives mention but is woefully overlooked is Russia’s colony in California. Fort Ross was established in 1812 and became an essential part of the Russian-American Company's trade with Spain and American miners who flocked to California for the 1849 gold rush. However, Vinkiovetsky's primary focus is on Alaskan colonization, the Russian-American Company, and the indigenous people of the territory. This oversight is understandable however given that the complexity of Russia's overseas ventures are difficult to detail in such a succinct book. Being one of the few modern scholars to tackle the subject of Russian America, it may be that Vinkiovetsky is holding back on Fort Ross in this work in order to publish a future work on the topic.
Russian America hits all the right notes and tells a compelling story of imperialism, conquest, victory, and failure. The topic is intriguing, and the subject interesting to anyone attracted to this area of study. The scope of this work is almost perfect, except for perhaps giving a bit more detail on Russia's California colony. The detail of Vinkiovetsky’s writing paints a beautiful picture of life in nineteenth-century Alaska, and how the Russian's and Natives interacted and the ripple effect it had on both cultures. This book argues that Russia was successful at gaining new territory in North America, but failed to colonize and maintain it properly. The failure of the Russians became a considerable gain for the United States when Russia decided not to sell the territory to Great Britain. The English were viewed as a rival by both the United States and Russia; for Russia, they were a geopolitical rival in Eurasia, and for the United States, they were a rival on the North American continent (182). Russia also saw Alaska as indefensible and unprofitable, which led them to conclude it was better to part with it peacefully and make a profit instead of losing it by force later, which was an almost certainty given the political climate of the time (182).
Russian America is insightful and a welcome addition to the discussion of Russia’s nineteenth-century American colonies. There is an astute level of detail on Russian interaction with the Alaskan Native population, colonization efforts, and the Russian-American Company’s part in overseeing and governing this vast territory. This book would be great for anyone interested in nineteenth-century American and Russian histories, and it is also adequate reading for graduate and undergraduate history courses. Russian America covers a time-span of just over sixty years, starting in the last decade of the eighteenth-century to the middle of the nineteenth- century, it concludes with Russia’s decision to sell Alaska and the territorial acquisition by the United States. The Author, Ilya Vinkiovetsky, makes the compelling argument that Russia could no longer profit from or control their only overseas colony and had no choice but to sell it. The United States purchased the Alaskan territory for $7.2 million on March 18, 1867, ending a long and tumultuous chapter for Russia’s in North America.
May 11, 2020
Indispensable to Russian American historiography, this account argues convincingly that Russian America was not a failed experiment but rather a successful laboratory for imperial strategies.
December 12, 2022
An interesting read about colonial policy in Russian Alaska.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews