Russians In Alaska: 1732-1867

By: Lydia T. Black

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: In this book, the author presents a comprehensive story of the Russian presence in America from the point of view of social anthropology and ethnohistory. Drawing on extensive archival research and especially on documents only recently declassified in Russia, she shows how the expansion into lands beyond Russia's Pacific shore was the culmination of a centuries-old movement of peoples originally from the Russian north, a movement more mercantile than military. Black counters the stereotypical depiction of the Russian period in Alaska as a time of unbridled exploitation of the Native inhabitants and pillaging of the land's resources. Without glossing over the harsher aspects of the Russian period in Alaska, or the sometimes mutual incomprehension that clouded the interactions of Native Americans and Russians, she presents a far more complicated--and certainly more accurate--portrait of their interrelationship. Going beyond governmental policies, she focuses on the actions of ordinary Russian men and women in Alaska, and neither romanticizes nor chastises their actions. She clearly sets forth who they were, precisely what they did, their aims, the immediate and distant consequences of their actions, and how imperial governmental considerations, dictated by geopolitical struggles of the time, affected their destinies.