Tsarism was strong
150 anniversary of the sale of Russian possessions in North-West America - a joyless anniversary. But the topic itself is moving not so much to the scattering of ashes on the head, but on deep reflections and topical conclusions.
Anglo-Saxon literature on the Russian "Pacific" topic is voluminous and interest in it, especially in the USA, does not disappear, which in itself is indicative. It seems that some people in America are afraid that Alaska could somehow become Russian again. In any case, the American conservative Patrick Buchanan, who is considered semi-marginal in the United States, but having a rather sober look at the situation, published a work with the telling title “Disintegration of a superpower”, meaning not the past of the Soviet Union, but the future of the United States.
Crime and awareness
It has long been said that the anniversary is a good reason to focus on unresolved issues. In this case, one of them is the establishment of an objective scientific view of such an outstanding phenomenon of ours. storiesas Russian America, as well as a balanced assessment of the fact of sale.
A purely scientific bibliography on the topic is extensive, but ambiguous in quality and stated approaches. The most detailed coverage of the history of Russian America was undertaken in the Stalin era. For example, the materials of the Bering expeditions were published in 1941 on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. Documents on the topic were published in 40 – 50-ies. At the same time, the most important sources were republished, for example, notes by Gavriil Sarychev, Lavrentiy Zagoskin. However, in the 80, valuable collections of documents appeared for Russians to study the northern part of the Pacific Ocean in the 18th century.
The modern scientific literature most often cannot be called a historically adequate problem, because the main thing is not emphasized - that the sale of Russian America was the greatest and unprecedented in the history of the country - at least before 1991 - a state and civilizational crime. But often manifestations of ideological compradorism. But the US has resisted Russia and has been hostile to it since the adoption of the 1776 Plan of Contracts of the year. The civilizational principles of the “founding fathers” of the North American States, their political practice were antagonistic to the Russian civilizational principle and the basic postulates of Russian foreign policy. Hidden and open provocations and sabotage against our country have long been characteristic of both Great Britain and the later Anglo-Saxon generation, the United States. One such sabotage was the gradual systematic rejection from Russia of its most important territorial and geopolitical acquisition of the late 18th — early 19th century — the vast and richest lands on the other side of the Bering Sea. Moreover, Russian rooting was not accompanied by the cold-blooded genocide that was characteristic of the development of the Atlantic coast of the Americas by the Anglo-Saxons.
“Signing an Alaska 30 Sale Agreement in March 1867 of the Year. From left to right: Robert S. Chu, William G. Seward, William Hunter, Vladimir Bodisko, Edward Stekl, Charles Sumner, Frederick Seward. Reproduction of the painting by E. Leutze
The appearance of the Russians in the Aleuts, Kodiak, Alaska, Kenai was a natural step in the great movement of our ancestors to the east, towards the Sun. It began much earlier than the Rylya merchant Grigory Shelikhov founded the first permanent settlement on Kodiak Island in 1784. In 1937, the survey party of the United States Department of the Interior's Main Land Administration Service opened remnants of a settlement some three hundred years old on the Kenai Peninsula. Its exact identity has not been established so far, but even in 1944, an American researcher, T. S. Farelli, suggested that it was founded by ... Novgorodians, who fled here around 1571 of the year.
More convincing, however, is the version that the Russian sailors of the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev settled here: his two cochs were carried away by the storm and disappeared. Based on this, a number of authors tend to postpone the date of the Russian discovery of North-West America by almost a hundred years - from 16 July 1741-th (when Vitus Bering approached her shores on the ship "Saint Apostle Peter") to September-October 1648-th. Or rather, from 21 August 1732, when the surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev stepped onto the northwestern edge of the continent. One way or another, the appearance of Russians on the northwestern tip of America — the first of Europeans — was determined geographically, historically, and civilizationally. That is why the natural border of Russia in the east should not even be Primorye, the Kuriles and the Commanders, but those lands that at one time were called Russian America and naturally became part of the state. By abandoning it, Russia lost its great Pacific prospects.
Knowledge and understanding of the past can help in developing the correct line of behavior of peoples in the present and future. Modern - fragmented and dismembered - Russia is obliged to overcome the crisis generated by both the two-century subversive activities of external evil forces against it, and our own foolishness.
From heyday to decadence
The legend of Russian America and the Russian-American Company (CANCER) is its first Chief Ruler, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (1746 – 1819). A man of Petrovsky's scope, a worthy associate of Shelikhov. In 1790, on the three seers of St. Peter's rant, Baranov passed from Okhotsk to Unalaska on the Aleuts. I crashed along the coast, but people were saved. In 1791, after wintering on Unalashka on canoes, it reaches the island of Kodiak, where the main Russian settlement was then, still shelikhovsky. In 1796, the expedition reaches Yakutat Bay, where Baranov raises the Russian flag. The settlement of Novorossiysk appears on the 60-th degree of northern latitude. And in the 1799 year, Baranov landed on the island of Sitka (Sitkha) in the archipelago of Alexander and founded a fortified prison there. In 1803, Kadiak sent the first Russian fishing party to California, where Fort-Ross colony was founded in 1812. Her fate is a separate page in Russian American history. Finally, in 1804, on Sitka Island, the archangel of Baranov built the Novo-Arkhangelsk fortress, which became the official administrative center of the Russian American possessions since 1809.
The archipelago of the name of the Russian emperor, which also includes the island of Baranova, a squadron of unsinkable aircraft carriers today is pulled out at the very edge of Canadian America, from which Russian America then grabbed a narrow strip a thousand kilometers long on the mainland! If these "aircraft carriers" still served the service of Russia, it is unlikely that its position at the beginning of the XXI century would be as it is. One missile base on the island of Baranova would change everything drastically.
The efforts of the ruler in the Russian colonies built shipyards. In 1794, a three-masted Phoenix was launched in Resurrection Bay, the first vessel of Russian America with dimensions: length - 24 meters, width - 7,6 meters, depth of the hold - 4,5 meters. The one-mast vessel built in Alaska, the Olga cutter, became the flagship of Baranov for ten years.
He marked the beginning of the exploration of the natural wealth of Alaska. In one of the reports, Shelikhov wrote: “Iron ores were found in a sufficient quantity, and iron is constrained for experience, and therefore the hope is open to start iron plants for the benefit of the fatherland.”
Copper-smelting production is being created at Kodiak, and the bells, cast from Baranovsky copper, hung in churches in California even in the 60 of the 19th century and later. Baranov began to develop coal on the coast of the Kenai Peninsula, and by 1850-m production exceeded 20 thousand pounds (320 tons) per month. In the Russian villages in Alaska there were brick factories and sawmills, tanning workshops, cloth shops, even hat and hosiery production. And of course, Baranov led the expanding fishery for the fur animal.
Sometimes it was necessary to rule with a firm and even hard hand, but there was a severe need for that. The bulk of the local population with the Russian Ladala, what George Vancouver admired. Moreover, the situation became more peaceful at the beginning of the 19th century — many Aleutians had already worked for the Cancer. The exception was the Tlingitian Indians, but they would hardly have been so dangerous if Anglo-Saxon predator-grabbers had not increasingly penetrated into these places.
Geopolitician Alexei Efimovich Vandam (Edrikhin) later wrote: “Novo-Arkhangelsk became the first port on the Pacific Ocean, leaving Spanish San Francisco far behind (talking about 1810's. - S. B.). All the ships sailing in the local waters converged to him. Welcoming all foreign guests, Baranov never lost sight of Russian interests ... worked tirelessly to consolidate our position ... In general, during his stay at the head of the Baranov company did for Russia what none of them could do mere mortal. He conquered and brought to her as a gift the entire northern half of the Pacific Ocean, which he actually turned into “Russian Lake”, and on the other side of this ocean - an entire empire equal to half of European Russia, which began to be populated by Russians and provided with fortifications, arsenals and workshops. Siberia is still not secured ... With the departure of this great man, the heroic period of Russian activity in the Pacific ended. ”
At the end of autumn 1818, the era of Baranov in the history of Russian America was over, and for the first time he was replaced by an experienced, well-educated sailor and 38 shipbuilder Leonty (Ludwig) Andreanovich von Gagemeister (1780 – 1834), who had served in the post of Chief Ruler of the PAC possessions incomplete 1818 year. In addition to him, his replacement lieutenant Semen Ivanovich Yanovsky, who ran the cancer colonies in 1819 and 1820, and even the captain of 2 rank Rudakov, almost all other rulers were appointed, as a rule, for a five-year term. Here is their complete list after Janowski.
Captain-Lieutenant Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev (1820 – 1825), Captain-Lieutenant Pyotr Yegorovich Chistyakov (1825 – 1830), Captain-Lieutenant Ferdinand Wrangel (1830 – 1835), Captain of the 1 Rank Ivan Antonry Aurora Symphony Prize-marry Aurora Vrangelsky XYUMX – 1835) 1840), captain of 2 rank Adolf Karlovich Etolin (1840 – 1845), captain of 2 rank Mikhail Dmitrievich Tebenkov (1845 – 1850), captain of 2 rank 2 Nikolai Yakovlevich Rosenberg (1850 – 1853) Alexey Ilyich Rudakov (2 – 1853), captain of the 1854 rank Stepan V. Voevodsky (1 – 1854), captain of the 1859 rank Johann (Juhan) Ham pus (Ivan Vasilyevich) Furugelm (1 – 1859) ... The last Chief Ruler, Captain 1864, Prince Dmitry Petrovich Maksutov, held his post for three years - from 1 to the 1864, in which Russian America ceased to exist.
As you can see, these are all combatants, in the civil service were the ranks ... One of the sections of the monograph of the expert on the question of N. N. Bolkhovitinov “Russia is discovering America. 1732 – 1799 ”is called“ Maritime officers manage Russian possessions in America. ” However, Bolkhovitinov stated that although they were knowledgeable, honest, and conscientious people, they tended to look at being in America as a temporary phenomenon. This is absolutely not true. Most of them were experienced administrators who had extensive experience in serving cancer. Wrangel stood out in particular. As the main ruler of the Russian colonies in America, he replaced Chistyakov.
At that, the Novo-Arkhangelsk shipyards launched two bots - “Sivuch” and “Beaver”. Wrangel continued the line - in 1832 the colonial flotilla replenished with a hooker-yacht “Sailor” and schooners “Kvihpak” and “Chilkat” of local construction.
Under Ferdinand Wrangel, the dilapidated Baranovsky buildings were replaced by new and beautiful ones. Under the "watching" of his assistant, Adolf Etolina, the future Chief Ruler, the school for RAK pupils was transformed. The consumption of alcohol was severely limited, the incomes of employees increased, and the position of the Aleuts improved. Under Wrangel, an indicative incident occurred with the English ship "Dryad", who attempted to illegally pass along the Russian waters of Stikin past the redoubt of St. Dionysius (Dionisievsky) into the upper reaches of the river. Russian guy Dionisy Zaremba - twice “round-the-world”, who commanded the social 14-gun brig “Chichagov”, had Dionisievsky “Dryad” arrested at the redoubt, and Wrangel approved these actions. Wrapped London demanded 22 150 pounds (135 thousand rubles) for the “disruption of the expedition to Stikin”. The evil genius of Russian diplomacy, Karl Nesselrode, recognized the “justice” of British claims for “freedom of action”, but “patriotically” challenged the amount of claims ... The Russian Foreign Ministry put up with this empty diplomatic badagus for several years.
Over the decades, the CANCER has become a powerful enterprise actually under state control. She competed with the Canadian Company of the Hudson Bay ... 15 permanent settlements, ports, shipyards, trading warehouses, arable land, farms, gardens, fishing for the beast, mining, marine exploration and hikes, experienced staff ... It was a whole world with a well-developed and developed infrastructure.
However, the 1850-e were the years of the unnatural destruction of Russian America, although even at the beginning of the decade, the Yankees were afraid, for example, of a possible Russian Oregon. And if Russia had extended its sovereign hand to Oregon thirty or forty years earlier - in the Alexander era? Or at least in the middle of the Nikolaev 1830-x? But even then, Nicholas I did not appreciate even that Russian America, which had long been a reality and which became Russia in great works.
But Secretary of State Seward (William Henry Seward) during the Crimean War made a very frank speech in St. Paul (Minnesota): “Standing here and looking to the North-West, I see a Russian who is concerned about the construction of harbors, settlements and fortifications on the extremities of this continent as the outposts of St. Petersburg, and I can say: “Go ahead and build your outposts along the entire coast as far as the Arctic Ocean — they will nevertheless become outposts of my own country — monuments of the United States civilization and the Northwest ... "
This quotation alone is enough to grin at assurances about the fact that the Yankees almost did Russia a favor by buying Alaska from them allegedly absolutely unnecessary for them in 1867, just in case ... unchanged friendliness to Russia. But Nicholas I did not heed this frank manifestation of US hostility. In the era of Alexander II, however, neglect was replaced by direct rejection of Russian America.
The fruits of labor - in the wrong hands
The idea of selling it threw Alexander II's brother into the dull head of Alexander II, clearly from someone else's suggestion - the Grand Duke Constantine no later than 1857 of the year. And in May, two auditors with wide powers are sent to 1860 for Russian America. From the Ministry of Finance — actual State Counselor S. A. Kostlivtsev, from the Maritime Ministry — Lieutenant Commander P. N. Golovin. Both sales ideas are not supported. In a report from 20 in October 1861, Golovin insightfully wrote: “... Russian public opinion is still indignant at the assignment of our former trading station in California (1841 in December. - S. B.), especially since Ross opened gold mines. And ... it can easily happen that enterprising people ... will discover in the colonies our wealth, the existence of which is now unaware. " It is especially useful to know the following statement by Golovin: “As for the strengthening of friendly relations between Russia and the United States, it can be said positively that Americans will sympathize with us as long as it does not oblige them to anything or until it is beneficial for them . But donating their own interests ... Americans will never. "
However, the administration of Alexander II took the course to sell, which was actively and provocatively promoted by the Russian envoy to the US Glass - a figure more than opaque. 16 December 1866 of the Year A special meeting with the participation of the emperor decided to sell Russian America. Upon learning of this, a young employee of the Asian department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fyodor Osten-Saken, prepared a note, to know about which is also useful for us. “The position of our American colonies in the world of political relations can be described as particularly advantageous ... It is unlikely to be fundamentally afraid of the seizure of our colonies by another power. Through the sale of our American colonies, the historically established distribution of the North American continent between the three great powers (Russia, Britain and the USA. - S. B.) will be disturbed ... Now the balance of benefits for us in the northwest corner of America ... will be destroyed forever " .
I pay special attention to the most current and for today's Russia the words of Osten-Sacken: "... the current generation has a holy duty to preserve for future generations every piece of land lying on the shores of the ocean of global importance."
Information about the upcoming sale quickly leaked into society, and Kraevsky’s newspaper Golos’s newspaper “Otechestvennye zapiski” publisher was indignant: “Today Russian American colonies are selling rumors, who can guarantee that tomorrow the same rumors will not be sold to Crimea, Transcaucasia, Ostsee provinces? For hunters it will not matter ... What a huge mistake and lack of consideration was the sale of our colony Ross on the shores of the gold bearing California. Is it permissible to repeat such a mistake now? And does the feeling of national pride really deserve so little attention that they can be sacrificed for any five to six million dollars? Do the works of Shelikhov, Baranov, Khlebnikov and other self-sacrificing people for Russia really have to be taken by foreigners and collected in their favor the fruits of them? ”
Alas, it was not a rumor. It was not a rumor after more than a hundred years that Russia, going in the wake of external and internal hostile forces, itself deprived itself of the Crimea, the Transcaucasus, and the Baltic Baltic territories. And Krayevsky could also remind about Lomonosov, confident that "Russian power will grow through Siberia and the Northern Ocean and reach the main European settlements in Asia and America."
Split nation
American Bernard Peyton, who traveled from San Francisco through Canton, Calcutta, Alexandria and London, wrote his wife about Russia in the summer of 1856, formally to Alexander II’s country, but in fact, still Nikolaev: “These Russians are slow! They have no idea about the value of time. ” But in the same years, the Frenchman Edmond de Ayi admired the skill and directives of the heroes of the now forgotten defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky during the Crimean War - General Vasily Stepanovich Zavoyko and commander of the frigate Aurora Lieutenant Commander Ivan Nikolaevich Izylmetyevo. De Ayie compared them with Admiral Nelson and exclaimed: "How delightful is their ability to use time."
Yes, although Russia was rarely rewarded by competent, responsible and devoted rulers of Russia, but it has always been rich in active patriots. Rich in them today. And they should have power in Russia — toilers and patriots.
The Russians are a great nation, and once again we have proved it with our Pacific epic. But it, this special period in our history, shows that for Russia, what constitutes its sovereignty and what it is guided by is especially significant ... If at the head are smart patriots, the country gains strength and perspective. If there are mediocrity in power, Ivana, not remembering kinship, the power weakens and weakens.
If you think about it, Russian America was born in the era of Ivan IV, when it was not just the expansion of the state to its natural borders to the east that began, but a movement consciously initiated at the highest level. As a true Russian patriot, the Terrible was slandered both during his lifetime and behind the grave. But it was he who moved the Russians to the east. However, it was not in Grozny alone that the matter was, but above all in the truly Russian spirit. Inquisitive, active, courageous, stubborn and unpretentious ...
Although the Russian people, and, moreover, in the thickest of its mass, and in the upper layers, there were always two that were fundamentally different from one another. The people of Ivan da Marya and Narodishko Vanek and Manek ... The first beat foreigners, the second - licked their heels. The first created melodious, soul-taking songs, the second - obsceous ditties. The first, in a hard time, frowned on his forehead, tightened his belt and rolled up his sleeves, the second - foolishly.
The second lived aby like, not very interested even in the fact that beyond the distant forest. I tried to lie down on the stove ... And the first was going to distant lands - not conquering them, but organically absorbing the Russian case. Ivan, the son of Ivan da Marya, went to new lands as an expression of the general Russian will because of the breadth of character. And even if he seemed to be following yasak and "soft junk", then in the end - the fate of the Russian land ...
In the 18th century, Russia began to master Russian America.
In the XIX century, she first developed it, and then stupidly handed over the Yankees.
In the 20th century, Russia unsuccessfully caught up with America and successfully opposed it. The current, lost its natural frontier, Russia of the 21st century is ineptly squandering and making senseless the past, present, and future of Russia eternal ...
Where to find strength for confrontation and victory?
The answer is obvious - in yourself. In the power of example and in the life of ancestors. In the great Russian history.
A series of my articles (“Stolen priority”, “Alaska, which we lost”) caused a number of comments. With bitterness, I am convinced that even today, blind speculations about the “icy desert” allegedly unnecessary for Russia, about the “lack of funds”, etc., have not been eradicated. The film “Russian America.” Farewell to the continent. Looking at it, I realized that along with anti-patriotism, an equally terrible phenomenon — apatriotism — is entering our lives. As the Russian Language Dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov informs us, apolitism is indifference to questions of politics ... Apatriotism is complete indifference to the history of the Fatherland, to our heroes and tasks. The NTV film is not anti-patriotic, it is just about nothing ... At the end of the report that the cancer from the 1850-s was the main income in the tea trade, the author and the presenter offers us tea-drinking to remember: cancer also contributed to the development of this tradition in Russia.
A cup of imported tea is all that fits into the narrow-mindedness of the current stateless people who are indifferent to the exploits and achievements of the ancestors who gave Russia its America. However, the author hopes that the sighted compatriots are more. For the sake of strengthening their confidence in the possibility of our great future, he writes about the past.
PS Craig Fliner, Arctic Policy Advisor for the Government of Alaska, said: “Perhaps the Russians would develop Alaska in terms of national security. And this in turn would lead to the development of oil, gas and mineral resources. Therefore, it is quite possible that the region would be more developed in terms of ensuring the country's security. ”
Anglo-Saxon literature on the Russian "Pacific" topic is voluminous and interest in it, especially in the USA, does not disappear, which in itself is indicative. It seems that some people in America are afraid that Alaska could somehow become Russian again. In any case, the American conservative Patrick Buchanan, who is considered semi-marginal in the United States, but having a rather sober look at the situation, published a work with the telling title “Disintegration of a superpower”, meaning not the past of the Soviet Union, but the future of the United States.
Crime and awareness
It has long been said that the anniversary is a good reason to focus on unresolved issues. In this case, one of them is the establishment of an objective scientific view of such an outstanding phenomenon of ours. storiesas Russian America, as well as a balanced assessment of the fact of sale.
A purely scientific bibliography on the topic is extensive, but ambiguous in quality and stated approaches. The most detailed coverage of the history of Russian America was undertaken in the Stalin era. For example, the materials of the Bering expeditions were published in 1941 on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. Documents on the topic were published in 40 – 50-ies. At the same time, the most important sources were republished, for example, notes by Gavriil Sarychev, Lavrentiy Zagoskin. However, in the 80, valuable collections of documents appeared for Russians to study the northern part of the Pacific Ocean in the 18th century.
The modern scientific literature most often cannot be called a historically adequate problem, because the main thing is not emphasized - that the sale of Russian America was the greatest and unprecedented in the history of the country - at least before 1991 - a state and civilizational crime. But often manifestations of ideological compradorism. But the US has resisted Russia and has been hostile to it since the adoption of the 1776 Plan of Contracts of the year. The civilizational principles of the “founding fathers” of the North American States, their political practice were antagonistic to the Russian civilizational principle and the basic postulates of Russian foreign policy. Hidden and open provocations and sabotage against our country have long been characteristic of both Great Britain and the later Anglo-Saxon generation, the United States. One such sabotage was the gradual systematic rejection from Russia of its most important territorial and geopolitical acquisition of the late 18th — early 19th century — the vast and richest lands on the other side of the Bering Sea. Moreover, Russian rooting was not accompanied by the cold-blooded genocide that was characteristic of the development of the Atlantic coast of the Americas by the Anglo-Saxons.
“Signing an Alaska 30 Sale Agreement in March 1867 of the Year. From left to right: Robert S. Chu, William G. Seward, William Hunter, Vladimir Bodisko, Edward Stekl, Charles Sumner, Frederick Seward. Reproduction of the painting by E. Leutze
The appearance of the Russians in the Aleuts, Kodiak, Alaska, Kenai was a natural step in the great movement of our ancestors to the east, towards the Sun. It began much earlier than the Rylya merchant Grigory Shelikhov founded the first permanent settlement on Kodiak Island in 1784. In 1937, the survey party of the United States Department of the Interior's Main Land Administration Service opened remnants of a settlement some three hundred years old on the Kenai Peninsula. Its exact identity has not been established so far, but even in 1944, an American researcher, T. S. Farelli, suggested that it was founded by ... Novgorodians, who fled here around 1571 of the year.
More convincing, however, is the version that the Russian sailors of the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev settled here: his two cochs were carried away by the storm and disappeared. Based on this, a number of authors tend to postpone the date of the Russian discovery of North-West America by almost a hundred years - from 16 July 1741-th (when Vitus Bering approached her shores on the ship "Saint Apostle Peter") to September-October 1648-th. Or rather, from 21 August 1732, when the surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev stepped onto the northwestern edge of the continent. One way or another, the appearance of Russians on the northwestern tip of America — the first of Europeans — was determined geographically, historically, and civilizationally. That is why the natural border of Russia in the east should not even be Primorye, the Kuriles and the Commanders, but those lands that at one time were called Russian America and naturally became part of the state. By abandoning it, Russia lost its great Pacific prospects.
Knowledge and understanding of the past can help in developing the correct line of behavior of peoples in the present and future. Modern - fragmented and dismembered - Russia is obliged to overcome the crisis generated by both the two-century subversive activities of external evil forces against it, and our own foolishness.
From heyday to decadence
The legend of Russian America and the Russian-American Company (CANCER) is its first Chief Ruler, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (1746 – 1819). A man of Petrovsky's scope, a worthy associate of Shelikhov. In 1790, on the three seers of St. Peter's rant, Baranov passed from Okhotsk to Unalaska on the Aleuts. I crashed along the coast, but people were saved. In 1791, after wintering on Unalashka on canoes, it reaches the island of Kodiak, where the main Russian settlement was then, still shelikhovsky. In 1796, the expedition reaches Yakutat Bay, where Baranov raises the Russian flag. The settlement of Novorossiysk appears on the 60-th degree of northern latitude. And in the 1799 year, Baranov landed on the island of Sitka (Sitkha) in the archipelago of Alexander and founded a fortified prison there. In 1803, Kadiak sent the first Russian fishing party to California, where Fort-Ross colony was founded in 1812. Her fate is a separate page in Russian American history. Finally, in 1804, on Sitka Island, the archangel of Baranov built the Novo-Arkhangelsk fortress, which became the official administrative center of the Russian American possessions since 1809.
The archipelago of the name of the Russian emperor, which also includes the island of Baranova, a squadron of unsinkable aircraft carriers today is pulled out at the very edge of Canadian America, from which Russian America then grabbed a narrow strip a thousand kilometers long on the mainland! If these "aircraft carriers" still served the service of Russia, it is unlikely that its position at the beginning of the XXI century would be as it is. One missile base on the island of Baranova would change everything drastically.
The efforts of the ruler in the Russian colonies built shipyards. In 1794, a three-masted Phoenix was launched in Resurrection Bay, the first vessel of Russian America with dimensions: length - 24 meters, width - 7,6 meters, depth of the hold - 4,5 meters. The one-mast vessel built in Alaska, the Olga cutter, became the flagship of Baranov for ten years.
He marked the beginning of the exploration of the natural wealth of Alaska. In one of the reports, Shelikhov wrote: “Iron ores were found in a sufficient quantity, and iron is constrained for experience, and therefore the hope is open to start iron plants for the benefit of the fatherland.”
Copper-smelting production is being created at Kodiak, and the bells, cast from Baranovsky copper, hung in churches in California even in the 60 of the 19th century and later. Baranov began to develop coal on the coast of the Kenai Peninsula, and by 1850-m production exceeded 20 thousand pounds (320 tons) per month. In the Russian villages in Alaska there were brick factories and sawmills, tanning workshops, cloth shops, even hat and hosiery production. And of course, Baranov led the expanding fishery for the fur animal.
Sometimes it was necessary to rule with a firm and even hard hand, but there was a severe need for that. The bulk of the local population with the Russian Ladala, what George Vancouver admired. Moreover, the situation became more peaceful at the beginning of the 19th century — many Aleutians had already worked for the Cancer. The exception was the Tlingitian Indians, but they would hardly have been so dangerous if Anglo-Saxon predator-grabbers had not increasingly penetrated into these places.
Geopolitician Alexei Efimovich Vandam (Edrikhin) later wrote: “Novo-Arkhangelsk became the first port on the Pacific Ocean, leaving Spanish San Francisco far behind (talking about 1810's. - S. B.). All the ships sailing in the local waters converged to him. Welcoming all foreign guests, Baranov never lost sight of Russian interests ... worked tirelessly to consolidate our position ... In general, during his stay at the head of the Baranov company did for Russia what none of them could do mere mortal. He conquered and brought to her as a gift the entire northern half of the Pacific Ocean, which he actually turned into “Russian Lake”, and on the other side of this ocean - an entire empire equal to half of European Russia, which began to be populated by Russians and provided with fortifications, arsenals and workshops. Siberia is still not secured ... With the departure of this great man, the heroic period of Russian activity in the Pacific ended. ”
At the end of autumn 1818, the era of Baranov in the history of Russian America was over, and for the first time he was replaced by an experienced, well-educated sailor and 38 shipbuilder Leonty (Ludwig) Andreanovich von Gagemeister (1780 – 1834), who had served in the post of Chief Ruler of the PAC possessions incomplete 1818 year. In addition to him, his replacement lieutenant Semen Ivanovich Yanovsky, who ran the cancer colonies in 1819 and 1820, and even the captain of 2 rank Rudakov, almost all other rulers were appointed, as a rule, for a five-year term. Here is their complete list after Janowski.
Captain-Lieutenant Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev (1820 – 1825), Captain-Lieutenant Pyotr Yegorovich Chistyakov (1825 – 1830), Captain-Lieutenant Ferdinand Wrangel (1830 – 1835), Captain of the 1 Rank Ivan Antonry Aurora Symphony Prize-marry Aurora Vrangelsky XYUMX – 1835) 1840), captain of 2 rank Adolf Karlovich Etolin (1840 – 1845), captain of 2 rank Mikhail Dmitrievich Tebenkov (1845 – 1850), captain of 2 rank 2 Nikolai Yakovlevich Rosenberg (1850 – 1853) Alexey Ilyich Rudakov (2 – 1853), captain of the 1854 rank Stepan V. Voevodsky (1 – 1854), captain of the 1859 rank Johann (Juhan) Ham pus (Ivan Vasilyevich) Furugelm (1 – 1859) ... The last Chief Ruler, Captain 1864, Prince Dmitry Petrovich Maksutov, held his post for three years - from 1 to the 1864, in which Russian America ceased to exist.
As you can see, these are all combatants, in the civil service were the ranks ... One of the sections of the monograph of the expert on the question of N. N. Bolkhovitinov “Russia is discovering America. 1732 – 1799 ”is called“ Maritime officers manage Russian possessions in America. ” However, Bolkhovitinov stated that although they were knowledgeable, honest, and conscientious people, they tended to look at being in America as a temporary phenomenon. This is absolutely not true. Most of them were experienced administrators who had extensive experience in serving cancer. Wrangel stood out in particular. As the main ruler of the Russian colonies in America, he replaced Chistyakov.
At that, the Novo-Arkhangelsk shipyards launched two bots - “Sivuch” and “Beaver”. Wrangel continued the line - in 1832 the colonial flotilla replenished with a hooker-yacht “Sailor” and schooners “Kvihpak” and “Chilkat” of local construction.
Under Ferdinand Wrangel, the dilapidated Baranovsky buildings were replaced by new and beautiful ones. Under the "watching" of his assistant, Adolf Etolina, the future Chief Ruler, the school for RAK pupils was transformed. The consumption of alcohol was severely limited, the incomes of employees increased, and the position of the Aleuts improved. Under Wrangel, an indicative incident occurred with the English ship "Dryad", who attempted to illegally pass along the Russian waters of Stikin past the redoubt of St. Dionysius (Dionisievsky) into the upper reaches of the river. Russian guy Dionisy Zaremba - twice “round-the-world”, who commanded the social 14-gun brig “Chichagov”, had Dionisievsky “Dryad” arrested at the redoubt, and Wrangel approved these actions. Wrapped London demanded 22 150 pounds (135 thousand rubles) for the “disruption of the expedition to Stikin”. The evil genius of Russian diplomacy, Karl Nesselrode, recognized the “justice” of British claims for “freedom of action”, but “patriotically” challenged the amount of claims ... The Russian Foreign Ministry put up with this empty diplomatic badagus for several years.
Over the decades, the CANCER has become a powerful enterprise actually under state control. She competed with the Canadian Company of the Hudson Bay ... 15 permanent settlements, ports, shipyards, trading warehouses, arable land, farms, gardens, fishing for the beast, mining, marine exploration and hikes, experienced staff ... It was a whole world with a well-developed and developed infrastructure.
However, the 1850-e were the years of the unnatural destruction of Russian America, although even at the beginning of the decade, the Yankees were afraid, for example, of a possible Russian Oregon. And if Russia had extended its sovereign hand to Oregon thirty or forty years earlier - in the Alexander era? Or at least in the middle of the Nikolaev 1830-x? But even then, Nicholas I did not appreciate even that Russian America, which had long been a reality and which became Russia in great works.
But Secretary of State Seward (William Henry Seward) during the Crimean War made a very frank speech in St. Paul (Minnesota): “Standing here and looking to the North-West, I see a Russian who is concerned about the construction of harbors, settlements and fortifications on the extremities of this continent as the outposts of St. Petersburg, and I can say: “Go ahead and build your outposts along the entire coast as far as the Arctic Ocean — they will nevertheless become outposts of my own country — monuments of the United States civilization and the Northwest ... "
This quotation alone is enough to grin at assurances about the fact that the Yankees almost did Russia a favor by buying Alaska from them allegedly absolutely unnecessary for them in 1867, just in case ... unchanged friendliness to Russia. But Nicholas I did not heed this frank manifestation of US hostility. In the era of Alexander II, however, neglect was replaced by direct rejection of Russian America.
The fruits of labor - in the wrong hands
The idea of selling it threw Alexander II's brother into the dull head of Alexander II, clearly from someone else's suggestion - the Grand Duke Constantine no later than 1857 of the year. And in May, two auditors with wide powers are sent to 1860 for Russian America. From the Ministry of Finance — actual State Counselor S. A. Kostlivtsev, from the Maritime Ministry — Lieutenant Commander P. N. Golovin. Both sales ideas are not supported. In a report from 20 in October 1861, Golovin insightfully wrote: “... Russian public opinion is still indignant at the assignment of our former trading station in California (1841 in December. - S. B.), especially since Ross opened gold mines. And ... it can easily happen that enterprising people ... will discover in the colonies our wealth, the existence of which is now unaware. " It is especially useful to know the following statement by Golovin: “As for the strengthening of friendly relations between Russia and the United States, it can be said positively that Americans will sympathize with us as long as it does not oblige them to anything or until it is beneficial for them . But donating their own interests ... Americans will never. "
However, the administration of Alexander II took the course to sell, which was actively and provocatively promoted by the Russian envoy to the US Glass - a figure more than opaque. 16 December 1866 of the Year A special meeting with the participation of the emperor decided to sell Russian America. Upon learning of this, a young employee of the Asian department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fyodor Osten-Saken, prepared a note, to know about which is also useful for us. “The position of our American colonies in the world of political relations can be described as particularly advantageous ... It is unlikely to be fundamentally afraid of the seizure of our colonies by another power. Through the sale of our American colonies, the historically established distribution of the North American continent between the three great powers (Russia, Britain and the USA. - S. B.) will be disturbed ... Now the balance of benefits for us in the northwest corner of America ... will be destroyed forever " .
I pay special attention to the most current and for today's Russia the words of Osten-Sacken: "... the current generation has a holy duty to preserve for future generations every piece of land lying on the shores of the ocean of global importance."
Information about the upcoming sale quickly leaked into society, and Kraevsky’s newspaper Golos’s newspaper “Otechestvennye zapiski” publisher was indignant: “Today Russian American colonies are selling rumors, who can guarantee that tomorrow the same rumors will not be sold to Crimea, Transcaucasia, Ostsee provinces? For hunters it will not matter ... What a huge mistake and lack of consideration was the sale of our colony Ross on the shores of the gold bearing California. Is it permissible to repeat such a mistake now? And does the feeling of national pride really deserve so little attention that they can be sacrificed for any five to six million dollars? Do the works of Shelikhov, Baranov, Khlebnikov and other self-sacrificing people for Russia really have to be taken by foreigners and collected in their favor the fruits of them? ”
Alas, it was not a rumor. It was not a rumor after more than a hundred years that Russia, going in the wake of external and internal hostile forces, itself deprived itself of the Crimea, the Transcaucasus, and the Baltic Baltic territories. And Krayevsky could also remind about Lomonosov, confident that "Russian power will grow through Siberia and the Northern Ocean and reach the main European settlements in Asia and America."
Split nation
American Bernard Peyton, who traveled from San Francisco through Canton, Calcutta, Alexandria and London, wrote his wife about Russia in the summer of 1856, formally to Alexander II’s country, but in fact, still Nikolaev: “These Russians are slow! They have no idea about the value of time. ” But in the same years, the Frenchman Edmond de Ayi admired the skill and directives of the heroes of the now forgotten defense of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky during the Crimean War - General Vasily Stepanovich Zavoyko and commander of the frigate Aurora Lieutenant Commander Ivan Nikolaevich Izylmetyevo. De Ayie compared them with Admiral Nelson and exclaimed: "How delightful is their ability to use time."
Yes, although Russia was rarely rewarded by competent, responsible and devoted rulers of Russia, but it has always been rich in active patriots. Rich in them today. And they should have power in Russia — toilers and patriots.
The Russians are a great nation, and once again we have proved it with our Pacific epic. But it, this special period in our history, shows that for Russia, what constitutes its sovereignty and what it is guided by is especially significant ... If at the head are smart patriots, the country gains strength and perspective. If there are mediocrity in power, Ivana, not remembering kinship, the power weakens and weakens.
If you think about it, Russian America was born in the era of Ivan IV, when it was not just the expansion of the state to its natural borders to the east that began, but a movement consciously initiated at the highest level. As a true Russian patriot, the Terrible was slandered both during his lifetime and behind the grave. But it was he who moved the Russians to the east. However, it was not in Grozny alone that the matter was, but above all in the truly Russian spirit. Inquisitive, active, courageous, stubborn and unpretentious ...
Although the Russian people, and, moreover, in the thickest of its mass, and in the upper layers, there were always two that were fundamentally different from one another. The people of Ivan da Marya and Narodishko Vanek and Manek ... The first beat foreigners, the second - licked their heels. The first created melodious, soul-taking songs, the second - obsceous ditties. The first, in a hard time, frowned on his forehead, tightened his belt and rolled up his sleeves, the second - foolishly.
The second lived aby like, not very interested even in the fact that beyond the distant forest. I tried to lie down on the stove ... And the first was going to distant lands - not conquering them, but organically absorbing the Russian case. Ivan, the son of Ivan da Marya, went to new lands as an expression of the general Russian will because of the breadth of character. And even if he seemed to be following yasak and "soft junk", then in the end - the fate of the Russian land ...
In the 18th century, Russia began to master Russian America.
In the XIX century, she first developed it, and then stupidly handed over the Yankees.
In the 20th century, Russia unsuccessfully caught up with America and successfully opposed it. The current, lost its natural frontier, Russia of the 21st century is ineptly squandering and making senseless the past, present, and future of Russia eternal ...
Where to find strength for confrontation and victory?
The answer is obvious - in yourself. In the power of example and in the life of ancestors. In the great Russian history.
A series of my articles (“Stolen priority”, “Alaska, which we lost”) caused a number of comments. With bitterness, I am convinced that even today, blind speculations about the “icy desert” allegedly unnecessary for Russia, about the “lack of funds”, etc., have not been eradicated. The film “Russian America.” Farewell to the continent. Looking at it, I realized that along with anti-patriotism, an equally terrible phenomenon — apatriotism — is entering our lives. As the Russian Language Dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov informs us, apolitism is indifference to questions of politics ... Apatriotism is complete indifference to the history of the Fatherland, to our heroes and tasks. The NTV film is not anti-patriotic, it is just about nothing ... At the end of the report that the cancer from the 1850-s was the main income in the tea trade, the author and the presenter offers us tea-drinking to remember: cancer also contributed to the development of this tradition in Russia.
A cup of imported tea is all that fits into the narrow-mindedness of the current stateless people who are indifferent to the exploits and achievements of the ancestors who gave Russia its America. However, the author hopes that the sighted compatriots are more. For the sake of strengthening their confidence in the possibility of our great future, he writes about the past.
PS Craig Fliner, Arctic Policy Advisor for the Government of Alaska, said: “Perhaps the Russians would develop Alaska in terms of national security. And this in turn would lead to the development of oil, gas and mineral resources. Therefore, it is quite possible that the region would be more developed in terms of ensuring the country's security. ”
Information