The most impressive natural wealth of Alaska. Population of Alaska: number, density, nationalities. Industry and economy of Alaska

History of Alaska

The first inhabitants of Alaska came to the territory of the modern US state about 15 or 20,000 years ago - they moved from Eurasia to North America through the isthmus that then connected the two continents in the place where the Bering Strait is today.

By the time the Europeans arrived in Alaska, several peoples inhabited it, including the Tsimshians, Haida and Tlingit, Aleuts and Athabaskans, as well as the Eskimos, Inupiat and Yupik. But all modern natives of Alaska and Siberia have common ancestors - their genetic relationship has already been proven.

Discovery of Alaska by Russian explorers

History has not preserved the name of the first European who set foot on the land of Alaska. But at the same time, it is very likely that it was a member of the Russian expedition. Perhaps it was the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev in 1648. It is possible that in 1732 members of the crew of the small ship "Saint Gabriel", who explored Chukotka, landed on the coast of the North American continent.

However, the official discovery of Alaska is July 15, 1741 - on this day, from one of the ships of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, the famous explorer Vitus Bering saw the land. It was Prince of Wales Island, which is located in the southeast of Alaska.

Subsequently, the island, the sea and the strait between Chukotka and Alaska were named after Vitus Bering. Assessing the scientific and political results of the second expedition of V. Bering, the Soviet historian A.V. Efimov recognized them as huge, because during the Second Kamchatka expedition, the American coast for the first time in history was reliably mapped as “part of North America”. However, the Russian Empress Elizabeth did not show any noticeable interest in the lands of North America. She issued a decree obliging the local population to pay a fee for trade, but did not take any further steps towards developing relations with Alaska.

However, the attention of Russian industrialists came to the sea otters living in coastal waters - sea otters. Their fur was considered one of the most valuable in the world, so sea otters were extremely profitable. So by 1743, Russian traders and fur hunters had established close contact with the Aleuts.

Development of Russian Alaska: North-Eastern Company

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in subsequent years, Russian travelers repeatedly landed on the islands of Alaska, fished for sea otters and traded with local residents, and even entered into skirmishes with them.

In 1762, Empress Catherine the Great ascended the Russian throne. Her government turned its attention back to Alaska. In 1769, the duty on trade with the Aleuts was abolished. The development of Alaska went by leaps and bounds. In 1772, the first Russian trading settlement was founded on the large island of Unalaska. Another 12 years later, in 1784, an expedition under the command of Grigory Shelikhov landed on the Aleutian Islands, which founded the Russian settlement of Kodiak in the Bay of Three Saints.

The Irkutsk merchant Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian explorer, navigator and industrialist, glorified his name in history by the fact that since 1775 he was engaged in the arrangement of commercial merchant shipping between the Kuril and Aleutian island ridges as the founder of the North-East Company.

His associates arrived in Alaska on three galliots, "Three Saints", "St. Simeon" and "St. Michael". "Shelikhovtsy" begin to intensively develop the island. They subdue the local Eskimos (Konyags), try to develop agriculture by planting turnips and potatoes, and also conduct spiritual activities, converting the indigenous people to their faith. Orthodox missionaries made a tangible contribution to the development of Russian America.

The colony on Kodiak functioned relatively successfully until the early 90s of the XVIII century. In 1792, the city, which was named Pavlovsk Harbor, was moved to a new location - this was the result of a powerful tsunami that damaged the Russian settlement.

Russian-American company

With the merger of the companies of merchants G.I. Shelikhova, I.I. and M.S. Golikovs and N.P. Mylnikov in 1798-99, a single "Russian-American Company" was created. From Paul I, who ruled Russia at that time, she received monopoly rights to fur trade, trade and the discovery of new lands in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The company was called upon to represent and defend with its own means the interests of Russia in the Pacific Ocean, and was under the "highest patronage." Since 1801, Alexander I and the Grand Dukes, major statesmen have become shareholders of the company. The main board of the company was located in St. Petersburg, but in fact the management of all affairs was carried out from Irkutsk, where Shelikhov lived.

Alexander Baranov became the first governor of Alaska under the control of the RAC. During the years of his reign, the boundaries of Russian possessions in Alaska expanded significantly, new Russian settlements arose. Redoubts appeared in the Kenai and Chugatsky bays. The construction of Novorossiysk in Yakutat Bay began. In 1796, moving south along the coast of America, the Russians reached the island of Sitka.

The basis of the economy of Russian America was still the fishing of sea animals: sea otters, sea lions, which was carried out with the support of the Aleuts.

Russian Indian War

However, the indigenous people did not always meet the Russian settlers with open arms. Having reached the island of Sitka, the Russians ran into fierce resistance from the Tlingit Indians, and in 1802 the Russo-Indian War broke out. Control of the island and fishing for sea otters in coastal waters became the cornerstone of the conflict.

The first skirmish on the mainland took place on May 23, 1802. In June, a detachment of 600 Indians, led by the leader Katlian, attacked the Mikhailovsky fortress on the island of Sitka. By June, during the ensuing series of attacks, the 165-member Sitka Party had been completely crushed. The English brig Unicorn, which sailed into the area a little later, helped the miraculously surviving Russians to escape. The loss of Sitka was a severe blow to the Russian colonies and personally to Governor Baranov. The total losses of the Russian-American Company amounted to 24 Russians and 200 Aleuts.

In 1804, Baranov moved from Yakutat to conquer Sitka. After a long siege and shelling of the fortress occupied by the Tlingits, on October 8, 1804, the Russian flag was raised over the native settlement. The construction of a fort and a new settlement began. Soon the city of Novo-Arkhangelsk grew up here.

However, on August 20, 1805, the Eyak warriors of the Tlahaik-Tekuedi clan and their Tlingit allies burned Yakutat and killed the Russians and Aleuts who remained there. In addition, at the same time, in a distant sea crossing, they got into a storm and about 250 more people died. The fall of Yakutat and the death of Demyanenkov's party became another heavy blow for the Russian colonies. An important economic and strategic base on the coast of America was lost.

Further confrontation continued until 1805, when a truce was concluded with the Indians and the RAC tried to fish in the waters of the Tlingit in large numbers under the cover of Russian warships. However, the Tlingits even then opened fire from guns, already at the beast, which made fishing almost impossible.

As a result of Indian attacks, 2 Russian fortresses and a village in Southeast Alaska were destroyed, about 45 Russians and more than 230 natives died. All this stopped the advance of the Russians in a southerly direction along the northwestern coast of America for several years. The Indian threat further fettered the RAC forces in the region of the Alexander Archipelago and did not allow the systematic colonization of Southeast Alaska to begin. However, after the cessation of fishing in the lands of the Indians, relations improved somewhat, and the RAC resumed trade with the Tlingit and even allowed them to restore their ancestral village near Novoarkhangelsk.

It should be noted that the complete settlement of relations with the Tlingit took place two hundred years later - in October 2004, an official peace ceremony was held between the Kiksadi clan and Russia.

The Russo-Indian War secured Alaska for Russia, but limited the further advance of the Russians deep into America.

Under the control of Irkutsk

Grigory Shelikhov had already died by this time: he died in 1795. His place in the management of the RAC and Alaska was taken by the son-in-law and legal heir of the Russian-American Company, Count Nikolai Petrovich Ryazanov. In 1799, he received from the ruler of Russia, Emperor Paul I, the right to monopoly the American fur trade.

Nikolai Rezanov was born in 1764 in St. Petersburg, but after some time his father was appointed chairman of the civil chamber of the provincial court in Irkutsk. Rezanov himself serves in the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, and is even personally responsible for the protection of Catherine II, but in 1791 he was also assigned to Irkutsk. Here he was supposed to inspect the activities of Shelikhov's company.

In Irkutsk, Rezanov met "Columbus Rossky": that was how contemporaries called Shelikhov, the founder of the first Russian settlements in America. In an effort to strengthen his position, Shelikhov marries his eldest daughter, Anna, for Rezanov. Thanks to this marriage, Nikolai Rezanov received the right to participate in the affairs of the family company and became a co-owner of huge capital, and the bride from a merchant family - the family coat of arms and all the privileges of the titled Russian nobility. From that moment on, the fate of Rezanov is closely connected with Russian America. And his young wife (Anna was 15 years old at the time of marriage) died a few years later.

The activity of the RAC was a unique phenomenon in the history of Russia at that time. It was the first such a large monopoly organization with fundamentally new forms of doing business that took into account the specifics of the Pacific fur trade. Today, this would be called a public-private partnership: merchants, resellers and fishermen closely interacted with the state authorities. Such a need was dictated by the moment: firstly, the distances between the areas of fishing and marketing were huge. Secondly, the practice of using equity capital was approved: financial flows from people who had no direct relation to it were involved in the fur trade. The government partly regulated these relations and supported them. The fortunes of merchants and the fate of people who went to the ocean for "soft gold" often depended on his position.

And in the interests of the state was the speedy development of economic relations with China and the establishment of a further path to the East. The new Minister of Commerce N.P. Rumyantsev presented two notes to Alexander I, where he described the advantages of this direction: “The British and Americans, delivering their junk from Notki-Sund and Charlotte Islands directly to Canton, will always prevail in this trade, and this until the Russians themselves pave the way to Canton.” Rumyantsev foresaw the benefits of opening trade with Japan "not only for American villages, but for the entire northern region of Siberia" and proposed using a round-the-world expedition to send "an embassy to the Japanese court" led by a person "with abilities and knowledge of political and commercial affairs" . Historians believe that even then he meant Nikolai Rezanov as such a person, since it was assumed that upon completion of the Japanese mission, he would go to survey Russian possessions in America.

Around the world Rezanov

Rezanov knew about the planned expedition already in the spring of 1803. “Now I am preparing for a campaign,” she wrote in a private letter. - Two merchant ships, bought in London, are given to my superiors. They are equipped with a decent crew, guard officers are assigned to the mission with me, and in general an expedition has been set up for the journey. My journey from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, from there to Tenerife, then to Brazil and, bypassing Cape Horn, to Valpareso, from there to the Sandwich Islands, finally to Japan, and in 1805 wintering in Kamchatka. From there I will go to Unalaska, to Kodiak, to Prince William Sound and go down to Nootka, from which I will return to Kodiak and, loaded with goods, I will go to Canton, to the Philippine Islands ... I will return around the Cape of Good Hope.

In the meantime, the RAC took on the service of Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern and entrusted two ships, called Nadezhda and Neva, to his "bosses". In a special supplement, the board announced the appointment of N.P. Rezanov as the head of the embassy to Japan and authorized "his full master's face not only during the voyage, but also in America."

“The Russian-American company,” reported the Hamburg Vedomosti (No. 137, 1802), “is zealous about the expansion of its trade, which in time will be very useful for Russia, and is now engaged in a great enterprise, important not only for commerce, but also for the honor of the Russian people, namely, she equips two ships that will be loaded in Petersburg with food, anchors, ropes, sails, etc., and should sail to the northwestern shores of America in order to supply the Russian colonies on the Aleutian Islands with these needs, load there with furs, exchange them in China for its goods, establish a colony on Urup, one of the Kuril Islands, for the most convenient trade with Japan, go from there to the Cape of Good Hope, and return to Europe. Only Russians will be on these ships. The emperor approved the plan, ordered to select the best naval officers and sailors for the success of this expedition, which will be the first Russian trip around the world.

The historian Karamzin wrote the following about the expedition and the attitude of various circles of Russian society towards it: “Anglomans and Gallomaniacs, who wish to be called cosmopolitans, think that the Russians should trade locally. Peter thought differently - he was Russian at heart and a patriot. We stand on the ground and on Russian land, we look at the world not through the glasses of taxonomists, but with our natural eyes, we also need the development of the fleet and industry, enterprise and daring. In Vestnik Evropy, Karamzin printed letters from officers who had gone on a voyage, and all of Russia awaited this news with trepidation.

On August 7, 1803, exactly 100 years after the founding of St. Petersburg and Kronstadt by Peter, the Nadezhda and the Neva weighed anchor. The circumnavigation has begun. Through Copenhagen, Falmouth, Tenerife to the coast of Brazil, and then around Cape Horn, the expedition reached the Marquesas and by June 1804 - the Hawaiian Islands. Here the ships separated: "Nadezhda" went to Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka, and "Neva" went to Kodiak Island. When Nadezhda arrived in Kamchatka, preparations began for an embassy to Japan.

Reza new in Japan

Leaving Petropavlovsk on August 27, 1804, Nadezhda headed southwest. A month later, the shores of northern Japan appeared in the distance. A great celebration took place on the ship, the participants of the expedition were awarded silver medals. However, the joy turned out to be premature: due to the abundance of errors in the charts, the ship embarked on the wrong course. In addition, a severe storm began, in which the Nadezhda was badly damaged, but, fortunately, she managed to stay afloat, despite serious damage. And on September 28, the ship entered the port of Nagasaki.

However, here again difficulties arose: a Japanese official who met the expedition stated that the entrance to the Nagasaki harbor was open only to Dutch ships, and for others it was impossible without a special order from the Japanese emperor. Fortunately, Rezanov had such permission. And despite the fact that Alexander I secured the consent of the Japanese "colleague" 12 years ago, access to the harbor for the Russian ship, albeit with some bewilderment, was open. True, "Nadezhda" was obliged to issue gunpowder, cannons and all firearms, sabers and swords, of which only one can be provided to the ambassador. Rezanov knew about such Japanese laws for foreign ships and agreed to hand over all weapons, except for the swords of officers and the guns of his personal guard.

However, several more months of sophisticated diplomatic treaties passed before the ship was allowed to come close to the Japanese coast, and the envoy Rezanov himself was allowed to move to land. The team, all this time, until the end of December, continued to live on board. An exception was provided only for astronomers who made their observations - they were allowed to land on the ground. At the same time, the Japanese vigilantly watched the sailors and the embassy. They were even forbidden to send letters to their homeland with a Dutch ship leaving for Batavia. Only the envoy was allowed to write a brief report to Alexander I about a safe voyage.

The envoy and the persons of his retinue had to live in honorable imprisonment for four months, until the very departure from Japan. Only occasionally Rezanov could see our sailors and the director of the Dutch trading post. Rezanov, however, did not waste time: he diligently continued his studies in Japanese, simultaneously compiling two manuscripts (“A Concise Russian-Japanese Manual” and a dictionary containing more than five thousand words), which Rezanov later wanted to transfer to the Navigation School in Irkutsk. Subsequently, they were published by the Academy of Sciences.

Only on April 4, Rezanov's first audience with one of the high-ranking local dignitaries took place, who brought the Japanese Emperor's response to the message of Alexander I. The answer read: “The ruler of Japan is extremely surprised by the arrival of the Russian embassy; the emperor cannot accept the embassy, ​​and does not want correspondence and trade with the Russians and asks the ambassador to leave Japan.

Rezanov, in turn, noted that, although it is not for him to judge which of the emperors is more powerful, he considers the response of the Japanese ruler to be bold and emphasized that the offer of trade relations between countries from Russia was, rather, a favor "out of common philanthropy." The dignitaries, embarrassed by such pressure, proposed to postpone the audience until another day, when the envoy would not be so excited.

The second audience was quieter. The dignitaries denied in general any possibility of cooperation with other countries, including trade, as forbidden by the fundamental law, and, moreover, explained it by their inability to undertake a reciprocal embassy. Then a third audience took place, during which the parties undertook to provide each other with written answers. But this time, the position of the Japanese government remained unchanged: referring to formal reasons and tradition, Japan firmly decided to maintain its former isolation. Rezanov drew up a memorandum to the Japanese government in connection with the refusal to establish trade relations and returned to Nadezhda.

Some historians see the reasons for the failure of the diplomatic mission in the ardor of the count himself, others suspect that the intrigues of the Dutch side, who wanted to maintain their priority in relations with Japan, were to blame for everything, however, after almost seven months in Nagasaki on April 18, 1805, the Nadezhda weighed anchor and went out to the open sea.

The Russian ship was forbidden to continue to approach the Japanese shores. However, Kruzenshtern nevertheless devoted another three months to the study of those places that La Perouse had not previously studied enough. He was going to clarify the geographical position of all the Japanese islands, most of the coast of Korea, the western coast of the island of Iessoy and the coast of Sakhalin, describe the coast of the Aniva and Patience bays and conduct a study of the Kuril Islands. A significant part of this huge plan was carried out.

Having completed the description of Aniva Bay, Kruzenshtern continued his work on marine surveys of the eastern coast of Sakhalin to Cape Patience, but would soon have to turn them off, since the ship encountered large accumulations of ice. Nadezhda with great difficulty entered the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and a few days later, overcoming bad weather, returned to the Peter and Paul harbor.

The envoy Rezanov transferred to the vessel of the Russian-American company "Maria", on which he went to the main base of the company on the island of Kodiak, near Alaska, where he had to streamline the organization of local management of colonies and fisheries.

Rezanov in Alaska

As the "owner" of the Russian-American company, Nikolai Rezanov delved into all the subtleties of management. He was struck by the fighting spirit of the Baranovites, the tirelessness, efficiency of Baranov himself. But there were more than enough difficulties: there was not enough food - famine was approaching, the land was infertile, there were not enough bricks for construction, there was no mica for windows, copper, without which it was impossible to equip the ship, was considered a terrible rarity.

Rezanov himself wrote in a letter from Sitka: “We all live very closely; but our purchaser of these places lives the worst of all, in some kind of plank yurt, filled with dampness to the point that every day the mold is wiped off and, in the local heavy rains, it flows like a sieve from all sides. Wonderful person! He cares only about the quiet room of others, but about himself he is careless to the point that one day I found his bed floating and asked if the wind had torn off the side board of the temple somewhere? No, he answered calmly, apparently it had flowed towards me from the square, and continued his orders.

The population of Russian America, as Alaska was called, grew very slowly. In 1805, the number of Russian colonists was about 470 people, in addition, a significant number of Indians depended on the company (according to Rezanov's census, there were 5,200 of them on Kodiak Island). The people who served in the company's institutions were mostly violent people, for which Nikolai Petrovich aptly called the Russian settlements a "drunken republic."

He did a lot to improve the life of the population: he resumed the work of the school for boys, and sent some of them to study in Irkutsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. A school for girls for one hundred pupils was also established. He founded a hospital, which could be used by both Russian employees and natives, and a court was established. Rezanov insisted that all Russians living in the colonies should learn the language of the natives, and he himself compiled dictionaries of the Russian-Kodiak and Russian-Unalash languages.

Having familiarized himself with the state of affairs in Russian America, Rezanov quite correctly decided that the way out and salvation from hunger was in organizing trade with California, in the foundation of a Russian settlement there, which would supply Russian America with bread and dairy products. By that time, the population of Russian America, according to the Rezanov census, carried out in the Unalashkinsky and Kodiaksky departments, was 5234 people.

"Juno and Avos"

It was decided to sail to California immediately. For this, one of the two ships that arrived in Sitka was purchased from the Englishman Wolfe for 68 thousand piastres. The ship "Juno" was purchased along with a cargo of provisions on board, the products were transferred to the settlers. And the ship itself under the Russian flag sailed for California on February 26, 1806.

Upon arrival in California, Rezanov subdued the commandant of the fortress Jose Dario Arguello with court manners and charmed his daughter, fifteen-year-old Concepción. It is not known whether the mysterious and beautiful 42-year-old foreigner confessed to her that he had already been married once and would become a widow, but the girl was smitten.

Of course, Conchita, like many young girls of all times and peoples, dreamed of meeting a handsome prince. It is not surprising that Commander Rezanov, a chamberlain of His Imperial Majesty, a stately, powerful, handsome man easily won her heart. In addition, he was the only one from the Russian delegation who spoke Spanish and talked a lot with the girl, clouding her mind with stories about the brilliant St. Petersburg, Europe, the court of Catherine the Great ...

Was there a tender feeling on the part of Nikolai Rezanov himself? Despite the fact that the story of his love for Conchita became one of the most beautiful romantic legends, contemporaries doubted it. Rezanov himself, in a letter to his patron and friend Count Nikolai Rumyantsev, admitted that the reason that prompted him to propose a hand and heart to a young Spaniard was more good for the Fatherland than a warm feeling. The same opinion was shared by the ship's doctor, who wrote in his reports: “One would think that he fell in love with this beauty. However, in view of the prudence inherent in this cold man, it would be more cautious to admit that he simply had some diplomatic views on her.

One way or another, a marriage proposal was made and accepted. Here is how Rezanov himself writes about this:

“My proposal struck down her (Conchita’s) parents, raised in fanaticism. The difference of religions and ahead of separation from their daughter were a thunderous blow for them. They resorted to the missionaries, they did not know what to decide on. They took poor Concepsia to church, confessed her, persuaded her to refuse, but her determination finally calmed everyone.

The holy fathers left the permission of the See of Rome, and if I could not finish my marriage, I made a conditional act and forced us to be engaged ... how my favors also demanded it, and the governor was extremely surprised and amazed when he saw that it was not at the right time he assured me of the sincere dispositions of this house and that he himself, so to speak, found himself visiting me ... "

In addition, Rezanov got a cargo of “2156 pounds” very cheaply. wheat, 351 pounds. barley, 560 pounds. legumes. Fat and oils for 470 pounds. and all sorts of things for 100 pounds, so much so that the ship could not set off at first.

Conchita promised to wait for her fiancé, who was supposed to deliver a cargo of supplies to Alaska, and then was going to St. Petersburg. He intended to secure the Emperor's petition to the Pope in order to obtain official permission from the Catholic Church for their marriage. This could take about two years.

A month later, full provisions and other cargo "Juno" and "Avos" arrived in Novo-Arkhangelsk. Despite diplomatic calculations, Count Rezanov had no intention of deceiving the young Spaniard. He immediately goes to St. Petersburg in order to ask permission to conclude a family union, despite the mudslide and the weather that is not suitable for such a trip.

Crossing the rivers on horseback, on thin ice, he fell into the water several times, caught a cold and lay unconscious for 12 days. He was taken to Krasnoyarsk, where he died on March 1, 1807.

Concepson never married. She did charity work, taught the Indians. In the early 1840s, Donna Concepción entered the third Order of the White Clergy, and in 1851, in the city of Benicia, the monastery of St. Dominica became its first nun under the name Maria Dominga. She died at the age of 67 on December 23, 1857.

Alaska after le Rezanov

Since 1808, Novo-Arkhangelsk has become the center of Russian America. All this time, the management of the American territories has been carried out from Irkutsk, where the main headquarters of the Russian-American Company is still located. Officially, Russian America is included first in the Siberian Governor General, and after its division in 1822 into Western and Eastern, - in the East Siberian Governor General.

In 1812, Baranov, the director of the Russian-American Company, established a southern representative office of the company on the shores of California's Bodidge Bay. This representative office was named Russian Village, now known as Fort Ross.

Baranov retired from the post of director of the Russian-American Company in 1818. He dreamed of returning home - to Russia, but died on the way.

Naval officers came to the management of the company, who contributed to the development of the company, however, unlike Baranov, the naval leadership was very little interested in the trading business itself, and was extremely nervous about the settlement of Alaska by the British and Americans. The management of the company, in the name of the Russian Emperor, banned the invasion of all foreign ships for 160 km into the water area near the Russian colonies in Alaska. Of course, such an order was immediately protested by Great Britain and the United States government.

The dispute with the United States was settled by an 1824 convention that determined the exact northern and southern boundaries of Russian territory in Alaska. In 1825, Russia also came to an agreement with Britain, also defining the exact eastern and western borders. The Russian Empire gave both sides (Britain and the USA) the right to trade in Alaska for 10 years, after which Alaska completely passed into the possession of Russia.

Sale of Alaska

However, if at the beginning of the 19th century Alaska generated income through the fur trade, by the middle of the 19th century it began to appear that the costs of maintaining and protecting this remote and vulnerable, from a geopolitical point of view, territory outweighed the potential profit. The area of ​​the territory subsequently sold was 1,518,800 km² and was practically uninhabited - according to the RAC itself, at the time of the sale, the population of all Russian Alaska and the Aleutian Islands numbered about 2,500 Russians and up to about 60,000 Indians and Eskimos.

Historians assess the sale of Alaska ambiguously. Some are of the opinion that this measure was forced because of Russia's conduct of the Crimean campaign (1853-1856) and the difficult situation on the fronts. Others insist that the deal was purely commercial. One way or another, the first question about the sale of Alaska to the United States before the Russian government was raised by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Count N. N. Muravyov-Amursky in 1853. In his opinion, this was inevitable, and at the same time would allow Russia to strengthen its position on the Asian coast of the Pacific in the face of the growing penetration of the British Empire. At that time, her Canadian possessions extended directly to the east of Alaska.

Relations between Russia and Britain were sometimes openly hostile. During the Crimean War, when the British fleet tried to land troops in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the possibility of a direct confrontation in America became real.

In turn, the American government also wanted to prevent the occupation of Alaska by the British Empire. In the spring of 1854, he received a proposal for a fictitious (temporarily, for a period of three years) sale by the Russian-American Company of all its possessions and property for 7,600 thousand dollars. The RAC entered into such an agreement with the American-Russian Trading Company in San Francisco, controlled by the US government, but it did not enter into force, since the RAC managed to negotiate with the British Hudson's Bay Company.

Subsequent negotiations on this issue took another ten years. Finally, in March 1867, a draft agreement was agreed upon in general terms for the purchase of Russian possessions in America for $7.2 million. It is curious that this is how much the building cost, in which the contract for the sale of such a vast territory was signed.

The signing of the treaty took place on March 30, 1867 in Washington. And already on October 18, Alaska was officially transferred to the United States. Since 1917, this day has been celebrated in the United States as Alaska Day.

The entire Alaska Peninsula (along the line running along meridian 141° west of Greenwich), a coastal strip 10 miles south of Alaska along the western coast of British Columbia passed to the USA; Alexandra archipelago; Aleutian Islands with Attu Island; the islands of the Middle, Krys'i, Lis'i, Andreyanovsk, Shumagin, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikov, Afognak and other smaller islands; islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribylov Islands - St. George and St. Paul. Together with the territory, all real estate, all colonial archives, official and historical documents related to the transferred territories were transferred to the United States.

Alaska today

Despite the fact that Russia sold these lands as unpromising, the United States did not lose out on the deal. Already 30 years later, the famous gold rush began in Alaska - the word Klondike became a household word. According to some reports, more than 1,000 tons of gold have been exported from Alaska over the past century and a half. At the beginning of the 20th century, oil was also discovered there (today, the region's reserves are estimated at 4.5 billion barrels). Coal and non-ferrous metal ores are mined in Alaska. Thanks to the huge number of rivers and lakes, the fishing and seafood industries flourish there as large private enterprises. Tourism is also developed.

Today Alaska is the largest and one of the richest states in the United States.

Sources

• Commander Rezanov. Website dedicated to Russian explorers of new lands
• Abstract "History of Russian Alaska: from discovery to sale", St. Petersburg State University, 2007, the author is not specified

For almost 147 years, Alaska has belonged to the Americans. And we are still arguing, indignant and lamenting about this. The Great Alaska Controversy is a calculator battle. We consider how much we sold and for how much we could, we calculate losses and potential profits. Briefly speaking, we divide the skin of an unkilled bear. More precisely, we killed the bear, but we didn’t get the skin.

Alaska has become, as it is now fashionable to say, a meme. It's a tangle of conflicting feelings. Injured national pride and resentment: cunning Americans cheated us! Regret for lost wealth. Indeed, in the public mind there is an idea that Alaska is a suitcase with treasures: gold, oil, fish, furs, forests, gas, fresh water. Alaska is commemorated if they want to once again scold the government. Like, Russia has always been ruled by bunglers, and all our troubles are from bad rulers. And so on and so forth. I do not seek to make a final verdict on this historical-mathematical dispute. I want to take a closer look at this story, because the story deserves it.

Historical part: Khodorkovsky would be jealous

There is a legend that Alaska was screwed over because of grammar. Catherine the Second was allegedly so illiterate that instead of “give away for a century” (lease for 100 years), she wrote “give forever” (forever). This instructive story should be told to modern sales managers: this is what happens when you don’t know the rules for writing prepositions and adverbs! You can lose territories of one and a half million thousand square kilometers. In fact, Alaska was sold by Alexander II. Did the tsar really irresponsibly squander the people's property, or was the sale of Alaska a deliberate and most correct step at that time?

(flag of Russian America)

There were many reasons for selling Alaska. I will name two of the most significant.

First: economic. Alaska really is a treasure chest. But this suitcase is tightly locked. To get treasures, master and earn income, you must first invest. At that time, the Russian state did not have money. The Crimean War devastated the treasury. Vast Siberia and the Far East also required development. There were catastrophically few Russians in Alaska - only 600-800 people who lived on the coastal territory. The Russian-American company that ran the colony (it was a semi-state, semi-private organization like Gazprom) traded in coal, fish, and even ice. Refrigerators had not yet been invented at that time. The main income came from the sale of furs. But valuable sea otters were immediately killed, seal skins were not highly valued, and foxes and beavers were bought from the Indians. All in all, The colony at that time was unprofitable.

(Baranov Alexander Andreevich, the first ruler of Russian America)

Second: political. It is not enough to grab a suitcase with treasures. It must be kept and protected. The native population of Alaska consists of Eskimos and Indians. The Eskimos didn't have much trouble. They were a peaceful people, they immediately submitted and were willingly baptized. Until now, about 10% of the Orthodox live in Alaska. That's more than any other US state. And now in modern Alaska there are places that will cause nostalgia for any Russophile:

But the Indians were belligerent and constantly, in modern terms, rallied. Moreover, they used weapons that were sold to them by cunning British and Americans. No less militant American whalers hung around. At the request of the Russian government to calm down their thugs, the Americans shrugged their shoulders. Like, we can’t do anything, figure it out yourself. But most importantly: America, which at that time was still called the United States of North America (USA), was actively expanding. As Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov put it, it "rounded off" in all directions. There were times - Khodorkovsky would be envious. In the course of the “rounding off”, the Americans inexpensively bought rich Louisiana from the French, and sunny California from the Mexicans. And when the Mexicans refused to sell Texas, the Americans took it by force. Sooner or later, Alaska would also be rounded up. And not even because it was a suitcase with treasures. Billions of barrels of oil were not yet known at that time. (About gold, as some sources say, the Russians guessed, but prudently kept silent. Because it would hardly have been possible to cope with the inevitable gold rush). The Americans did not like the prospect of having Russian territories at their side. The Russian government understood that we would not give up Alaska of our own free will, sooner or later they would take it away by force. Not the Americans, but the Japanese, who were already looking avidly at Sakhalin. Or the English. Russia would not have been able to protect such a remote and vast territory with such small forces.. In this way, the sale of Alaska in those conditions was a forced and most profitable step. And far from sudden: the Russian government thought for almost 10 years before deciding to sell.

(Signing of the Alaska Sale. Left to right: Robert C. Chu, William G. Seward, William Hunter, Vladimir Bodisko, Edouard Steckl, Charles Sumner, Frederick Seward)
At first, the Americans, as they say, did not understand their happiness and did not want to buy a colony. First, there was no money. The civil war had barely ended, which made sensitive holes in the budget. Secondly, the acquisition seemed doubtful. The Americans did not know about gold. American newspapers called Alaska "ice box" and "Walrus Russia". But I repeat: the potential threat to Alaska remained strong. Everything was decided by the almighty means - a bribe. The Russian ambassador to the USA, Eduard Stekl, paid US senators $144,000. Corruption was the engine of history even then.

Math part: suitcase with oil and gas

If the very decision to sell was thought out, then the implementation of the plan was limping on both legs. Alaska was sold for 7 million 200 thousand dollars. In terms of modern money - 3.19 dollars per hectare. For nothing, it's true. Gold subsequently mined in Alaska is worth 2,500 more. It's just plain gold. I am not talking about "black gold" and gas. And yes: the Americans did cheat us. The contract states that the USA had to pay in gold bars. In violation of the terms of the agreement, the Americans got off with a check for a smaller amount. Yes, and paper banknotes were then valued much lower than weighty gold bars. In addition, part of the money paid for Alaska did not reach St. Petersburg: 144 thousand for bribes, 10 thousand for an urgent telegram to the tsar (sorry, there was no Internet at that time), Stekl received 21 thousand as a reward. It was a loss-making, inglorious, but necessary deal under those conditions.

(Alaska sale check)

By buying Alaska, America acquired a very solid suitcase. The territory of the future economic power has grown significantly: in terms of area, Alaska is equal to a fifth of the entire continental part of the United States. The Alaska oil field is not inferior to the fields in Western Siberia and the Arabian Peninsula. Americans produce 20% of their oil in Alaska. Gas reserves are estimated at 53 trillion cubic meters. The state is in second place in the production of gold in the US and provides 8% of all US silver. The suitcase contains the richest reserves of zinc, coal, copper, iron, nickel and rare earth metals. In addition, it is full of fish, fur-bearing animals, forests and fresh water.

Resources and challenges

I came across a curious article from the Washington Post. The author proposes to sell Alaska to Russia.

Why? because owning an Alaskan treasure suitcase is still expensive and troublesome. Treasures, in particular black gold, are hidden in the northern part of the state. This is a subarctic climate zone. Summer is not there. The average January temperature is minus 30-40 degrees. And also permafrost. Oil production in such conditions is expensive and time-consuming. This time. Further. Alaska has very beautiful nature and many rare birds and animals. The existing environmental lobby in the United States does not allow business Americans to put their hands in this suitcase properly. About a billion barrels of oil and 53 trillion cubic kilometers of gas are located on the territory of the National Arctic Reserve. Mining is prohibited there. In 2003, in order to get America off the needle of oil imports, George W. Bush tried to get the ban lifted, but they gave him a hand. Other sources claim that Bush himself abandoned the idea and turned his eyes to Iraq. Which resulted in the infamous wars "for democracy". As the author of the article writes, selling Alaska would save Americans from eternal squabbles over endangered birds, reindeer and petrodollars.

The development of Alaska is still difficult and expensive. To this day, the state remains the most sparsely populated in America. Alaska is constantly in need of cash injections from the center. According to The Washington Post, for every dollar Alaska pays in taxes, the state receives nearly $2 in subsidies and subventions. Residents of Alaska do not pay income tax and sales tax. Property tax is the lowest in the US.

From generous subsidies and low taxes, Alaskans awakened self-consciousness, and at the same time separatism. The Alaska Popular Front is active in the state, demanding independence. Following the example of the same USA, which was once a colony of Great Britain. The Americans have turned Alaska into a raw materials appendage. Residents of the state are deprived of the opportunity to dispose of their own wealth. According to representatives of the Popular Front , politicians and business from Washington cashing in on the Alaskan briefcase.(A parallel with Moscow and the regions suggests itself, doesn't it?) Entrepreneurial and numerous Chinese, who have long been interested in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, have not bypassed Alaska with their attention. They slowly populate the Land of the Midnight Sun, and Chinese businessmen with American citizenship support the liberation struggle of the Popular Front. It is possible that, like Siberia, the Chinese are quietly going to seize rich Alaska.

I thought: is it worth it for Russia to buy Alaska, if suddenly, one fine and impossible day, America decides to sell it? Undoubtedly, several tens of billions of barrels of oil and cubic meters of gas will not be superfluous in our asset. And a certain number of missiles and military bases right under the soft side of the Americans.

But it is worth considering that along with black gold and reindeer, we also get problems: expensive and laborious development, coupled with environmental lobbies, separatist sentiments and secret Chinese claims. Do we have enough money, strength and skill to master this region rich in resources and problems? Look at Siberia and the Far East. After the collapse of the USSR, the population flees from there. For the development of Eastern Siberia and the East, we asked for help from the Chinese. Maybe, if Alaska had remained ours, the same fate would have awaited her.

By no means do I want to say that the Americans disposed of Alaska better than we would have done. I just want to remind those who loudly regret the criminally sold Alaska that, by garlic, the Land of the Midnight Sun does not belong to Russia. And not America. Alaska belongs to the Alaskans . And before you sell or return, you need to ask the Alaskans themselves. Do they want to remain Americans, become Russians, or live on their own?

What do you think about Alaska?

In the extreme northwest of North America, the Alaska Peninsula is located, which makes up most of the territory of the northernmost and largest state in the United States. The state of Alaska is separated from the rest of the United States by the territory of Canada. It also has a sea border with Russia, passing through a small segment of the Bering Strait. The area of ​​Alaska is 1,717,854 km 2, which means that no other state can compare with it in this indicator. Such expanses open up unprecedented opportunities for the development of the economy, because the geological structure of the territory is diverse, which means that the minerals that lie under it are also diverse.

Alaska population

Southeast Alaska

There is no official division of Alaska into regions, however, geographers and environmentalists tend to distinguish several large geographical regions, each of which has both climatic and geological features. However, the geography of Alaska can be seen in terms of several major geographic regions. Each of these regions deserves special mention. The area of ​​Alaska is so large that geographical and climatic conditions can vary significantly in different parts of it.

The southeastern geographic region of the state is characterized by the closest proximity to the mainland of the United States. In addition, southeastern Alaska is the northern end of the so-called Inner Passage, which is a water artery of a complex trajectory, consisting of numerous channels, lakes, and canals.

This path was actively used by the Indians to move through the territory of the region parallel to the coast in relative safety. Later, this passage was used by gold miners during the Gold Rush for the development of coastal areas. Today, this route is very popular among tourists who choose organized travel on cruise ships, and among independent travelers who prefer regular ferries carrying passengers, road transport and cargo.

Alaska North Slope

On the North Slope of Alaska is the second largest administrative unit in the United States - the borough of North Slope. This administrative unit is so large that it is larger than the state of Minnesota and thirty-eight other American states. The North Slope has access to the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea.

The population of the district barely exceeds seven thousand people, but since 2000 there has been a steady steady growth, due not only to natural growth, but also to migration from other US states.

The largest city in the North Slow is the settlement of Barrow, named after the famous English politician and founder of the Royal Geographical Society. This small town, with a population of just over 4,000 in 2005, is the northernmost city in the United States, located 515 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and 2,100 kilometers from the North Pole. The city is surrounded by dry tundra, and the soil freezes to a depth of four hundred meters.

Aleutian Islands

Absolutely special in all respects are the Aleutian Islands, which belong to the state of Alaska and serve as the natural southern boundary of the Bering Sea.

The archipelago, consisting of one hundred and ten islands and numerous rocks, stretches in an arc from the southwestern coast of Alaska to the shores of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Aleutian Islands are usually divided into five major groups:

• nearby islands.
• Rat Islands.
• Andreyanovsky Islands.
• Fox Islands.
• The four hill islands.

Since the islands are the product of volcanic activity, it is not surprising that they have twenty-five active volcanoes. The largest of them are the volcanoes Segula, Kanaga, Goreloy, Bolshoy Sitkin, Tanaga and Vsevidov. But the highest and most famous volcano is Shishaldin, located on the island of Unimak. It is generally accepted that the height of 2857 meters was first conquered by J. Petrson in 1932, however, given the peculiarities of the slope, it is possible that both Russians and indigenous people could climb to the top of the volcano.

Despite the fact that numerous eruptions were recorded on the volcano in the XX, it is nevertheless popular among lovers of extreme skiing. The length of the track is 1830 meters. The Alaska Natives call the volcano Haginak.

The islands are sparsely populated, and many of them are completely uninhabited. The total number of inhabitants is about eight thousand people, and the largest city is Unalaska with a population of 4283 inhabitants.

Inland Alaska

Most of the peninsula belongs to the region, which in the scientific literature is called Inner Alaska. The territory of the region is bounded by the Wrangel, Denali, Ray and Alaska Mountains.

The largest city in the geographic area is Fairbanks, which serves as the administrative center for the borough of Fairbanks-North Star. The population of the city exceeds 30 thousand people, which makes it the second largest city in Alaska.

The city has a special place on the map of the state also due to the fact that the University of Alaska is located there - the largest educational institution in the region, founded in 1917.

The city appeared on the US map at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Gold Rush was in full swing in the state. And the place of its construction was not chosen by chance. The city, which bears the name of US Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks, is located in central Alaska, in the fertile valley of the Tanaka River, in which, despite the harsh climate, there is an opportunity to engage in agriculture.

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

Special mention deserves such a natural phenomenon as the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, formed as a result of the eruption of the Katmai volcano. The eruption was so strong that the volcano itself was completely destroyed, and a new one appeared in its place, called Novarupta.

The eruption is considered to be the strongest in the 20th century, since on an eight-point scale it is estimated at six points. The entire valley, in which there were dense forests, a river and numerous springs, was covered with a thick layer of ash, reaching a thickness of two hundred meters in places.

The valley got its name due to the numerous sources of steam that escaped from under the hardened tuff crust. To this day, the ash has almost cooled down and the water below it has stopped evaporating, so steam sources, also called fumaroles, are almost impossible to meet. But despite this, every year thousands of tourists come by sightseeing buses to the valley to see with their own eyes the consequences of one of the greatest natural disasters of the twentieth century.

Economy of Alaska

Having discussed in detail the geographical features of the state, it is worth talking about its economic situation, which, of course, is closely related to the natural resources located on the territory of the peninsula.

The land of the state is extremely rich in various natural resources such as oil, gold and natural gas. In terms of the number of proven gold reserves, the state is second only to Nevada. In addition, up to eight percent of all American silver is mined in the state, and the Red Dog mine has the largest zinc reserves in all of the United States and supplies more than ten percent of this metal to the international market.

However, the foundation of the entire Alaskan economy is oil production, which forms the basis of the budget and the Future Generations Welfare Fund. About twenty percent of all oil in the United States is produced on the peninsula. Through oil pipelines built back in the 70s, oil from the fields is delivered to the large seaport of Valdiz, the population of which is involved not only in the transportation of oil, but also in fishing, which is carried out mainly by deep-sea trawling.

Alaska, which is considered to have a fairly high standard of living compared to many states, is considered one of the most socially oriented regions in the United States. As a result of a referendum held in 1976, it was decided to allocate 25% of the oil revenues received by the state government to a special fund from which all Alaskans receive an annual allowance. The maximum amount of such premium was $3269 in 2018, while the minimum payment was made in 2010 and was only $1281.

Anchorage. The largest city in the state

In 2014 the city celebrated its centenary. It was founded at a time when the Gold Rush was in full swing on the peninsula and the cities in the northernmost state of the country were growing and developing rapidly.

A hundred years later, Anchorage is home to 291,000 people, making it the northernmost city in the United States with a population of over 100,000. Special mention deserves the fact that more than forty percent of the state's population lives in the city.

The history of the city began with a small tent camp set up in the immediate vicinity of the mouth of the Ship Creek River. However, rather quickly, a small settlement turned into a strategically important city of great importance, both for the economy and for the security of the United States.

Since the Second World War, during which a large number of military installations appeared in the city, the population of the city has been steadily growing. The constant stable development of the city is connected not only with its strategic position, but also with the active development of minerals in the immediate vicinity of the city.

However, the history of the city also had its own catastrophes, which include, first of all, the strongest earthquake that happened in 1964 and destroyed a significant part of the city. The epicenter of the earthquake was located just a hundred and a few kilometers from the city center, which resulted in an amplitude of 9.2 points, which means that this earthquake was the strongest of all that were registered in the United States.

However, the tragedy was immediately followed by an unprecedented economic growth caused by the discovery of large oil deposits, which coincided with a rise in prices for this resource in the international commodity market. The city was rebuilt very quickly and its population increased. This period entered the history of the city and the entire state as an oil boom.

State capital

The state capital city of Juneau does not belong to the major cities of Alaska, since its population is only slightly more than thirty thousand people. The city got its name in honor of the gold digger, when several large gold deposits were discovered in Alaska. However, the city originally had a completely different name.

Like many other cities in Alaska, Juneau began as a campground in 1880. During the first year of its existence, the settlement was called Harrisburg, in honor of Richard Harris, but already in 1881 the miners themselves renamed it Juneau.

Talking about the geography of Alaska, it is impossible not to mention that the city of Juneau is located between the shores of the Gastineau Strait and the slopes of the Coast Range. The relative protection of the city from the harsh east winds makes its climate relatively comfortable for permanent residence, although the entire region has a pronounced continental climate. The temperature in July averages about eighteen degrees of heat, while in February, the coldest month, it can drop to thirty degrees below zero.

Like the rest of Alaska's industry, Juneau's industry is geared towards fishing, transportation, and resource processing. However, as is the case with other state capitals, the backbone of the city's economy is the public administration sector.

In addition to the raw material and public sector, the tourism sector is also important for the city's economy. Every year from May to September, numerous cruise ships call at the port of Juneau, bringing tourists from the mainland, and with them money to the city budget. But despite the rise in city tourism revenue, many city dwellers believe that the tourism boom of the past decade is more likely to harm the city, destroying the usual way of life. On the whole, however, Alaska's population, whose standard of living is rising thanks to tourism, looks favorably on the growing number of visitors from other American states and even foreign countries. But more travelers come from within the United States. As in all of Alaska, the nationalities of the population of Juneau are very diverse: here are Europeans, Hispanics, and indigenous people.

Alaskans take pride in their state of the art natural resources. Three of them—gold, fish, and furs—are well known. These three resources were worth many times the amount the US paid Russia for this piece of land. However, in the future, Alaska is starting to look to other resources, especially oil and petroleum products.

Alaska is rich in vegetation resources. There are two types of forests in the state: interior forests and riparian forests. Interior forests are found around the river valley area of ​​the interior and as far north as the central and eastern Brooks Range. Most of the wood is harvested mainly by willows and aspens, but much of the growth of forests is delayed due to the short growing season and permafrost. Coastal forests on the other hand begin to beg and spread all along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska on Kodiak Island. These forests tend to be dense and made up of hemlock, cedar and spruce. Tundra vegetation is common to much of Alaska. Most of them consist of lichens, grasses, various mosses, cranberry vines and crowberries. When these plants die, they decay at a very slow rate, mainly due to the humidity and low temperature of the area. Year after year a pile of old plants and new plants struggle to grow through them. Tundra vegetation in other parts of Alaska may also include dwarf trees and a few shrubs. The only extensive grazing land is found in the Aleutian Islands. If you're looking for a true arctic tundra with absolutely no trees or shrubs, then you might want to check out the arctic slope and the Seward Peninsula.

There is also a wide range of animal life in an area the size of Alaska. Typically the animals will be deer, mountain goats, black bears and moose, all commonly found in Southeast Alaska. Further up north, grizzly bears begin to appear. As you walk into the hinterland, caribou begin to replace the deer in numbers. It is not uncommon to see caribou traveling in herds of thousands. Polar bears are found in the far north and spend most of their time waiting on ice packs hunting for food. Exotic animals that have been introduced to Alaska include deer in areas of the Arctic, elk on some islands, musk oxen and bison. To keep the animals alive on the peninsula, these animals are protected in the wildlife ranges under the federal government. Wolves and foxes are also found in many parts of the state. Animals hunted for fur include mink and beaver. A number of bird species also make Alaska their summer home or stay year-round. Some of them include ducks, geese and black grouse. Common game fish are grayling and rainbow trout. Commercial fish crops depend mainly on cod, halibut and salmon. In fact, King Salmon is the fish of the state. Shellfish is also plentiful and a large industry is built on harvesting shrimp, crayfish and shellfish.

There are deposits of gold and silver in almost every region of Alaska. So much has been said about gold that people are surprised to learn that Alaska also has other mineral wealth, like natural gas and oil. Geologists are still surveying the area for other oil sites. Panhandle is known to contain important minerals such as nickel, zinc and lead. The deposits of the Gulf of Alaska include mercury, platinum and copper. Alaska, with its many bodies of water, also generates power through hydroelectric power generation.

On March 18/30, 1867, Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were sold by Alexander II to the United States.

On October 18, 1867, in the capital of Russian America, in common parlance - Alaska, the city of Novoarkhangelsk, an official ceremony was held to transfer Russian possessions on the American continent to the possession of the United States of America. Thus ended the history of Russian discoveries and economic development of the northwestern part of America.Since then, Alaska has been a US state.

Geography

Country name translated from Aleutian "a-la-as-ka" means "Big Land".

Alaska Territory includes into yourself Aleutian Islands (110 islands and many rocks), alexandra archipelago (about 1100 islands and rocks, the total area of ​​​​which is 36.8 thousand km²), St. Lawrence Island (80 km from Chukotka), Pribilof Islands , Kodiak Island (the second largest US island after the island of Hawaii), and huge continental part . The islands of Alaska stretch for almost 1,740 kilometers. On the Aleutian Islands there are many volcanoes, both extinct and active. Alaska is washed by the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

The continental part of Alaska is a peninsula of the same name, about 700 km long. In general, Alaska is a mountainous country - there are more volcanoes in Alaska than in all other US states. The highest peak in North America Mount McKinley (6193m altitude) is also located in Alaska.

McKinley is the tallest mountain in the United States.

Another feature of Alaska is a huge number of lakes (their number exceeds 3 million!). Swamps and permafrost cover about 487,747 km² (more than Sweden). Glaciers occupy about 41,440 km² (which corresponds to the entire territory of Holland!).

Alaska is considered a country with a harsh climate. Indeed, in most parts of Alaska, the climate is arctic and subarctic continental, with severe winters, with frosts down to minus 50 degrees. But the climate of the island part and the Pacific coast of Alaska is incomparably better than, for example, in Chukotka. On the Pacific coast of Alaska, the climate is maritime, relatively mild and humid. A warm stream of the Alaska current turns here from the south and washes Alaska from the south. The mountains hold back the northern cold winds. As a result, winters in the coastal and insular part of Alaska are very mild. Minus temperatures in winter are very rare. The sea in southern Alaska does not freeze in winter.

Alaska has always been rich in fish: salmon, flounder, cod, herring, edible shellfish and marine mammals abounded in coastal waters. On the fertile soil of these lands, thousands of plant species suitable for food grew, and in the forests there were many animals, especially fur-bearing ones. This explains why Russian industrialists sought to Alaska with its favorable natural conditions and richer fauna than in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Discovery of Alaska by Russian explorers

The history of Alaska before it was sold to the United States in 1867 is one of the pages in the history of Russia.

The first people came to the territory of Alaska from Siberia about 15-20 thousand years ago. Then Eurasia and North America were connected by an isthmus located on the site of the Bering Strait. By the time the Russians arrived in the 18th century, the native inhabitants of Alaska were divided into Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians belonging to the Athabaskan group.

It is assumed that the first Europeans to see the shores of Alaska were members of the expedition of Semyon Dezhnev in 1648 , who were the first to sail along the Bering Strait from the Icy Sea to the Warm Sea.According to legend, Dezhnev's boats, which had gone astray, landed on the coast of Alaska.

In 1697, the conqueror of Kamchatka, Vladimir Atlasov, reported to Moscow that opposite the “Necessary Nose” (Cape Dezhnev) there was a large island in the sea, from where in winter the ice "foreigners come, speak their own language and bring sables ...". An experienced industrialist Atlasov immediately determined that these sables differ from the Yakut ones, and for the worse: “sables are thin, and those sables have striped tails about a quarter of an arshin.” It was, of course, not about the sable, but about the raccoon - a beast, at that time unknown in Russia.

However, at the end of the 17th century, Peter's transformations began in Russia, as a result of which the state was not up to the discovery of new lands. This explains a certain pause in the further advance of the Russians to the east.

Russian industrialists began to attract new lands only at the beginning of the 18th century, as fur stocks in eastern Siberia were depleted.Peter I immediately, as soon as circumstances allowed, began to organize scientific expeditions in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean.In 1725, shortly before his death, Peter the Great sent Captain Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator in the Russian service, to explore the sea coast of Siberia. Peter sent Bering on an expedition to study and describe the northeastern coast of Siberia . In 1728, Bering's expedition re-discovered the strait, which was first seen by Semyon Dezhnev. However, because of the fog, Bering was unable to see the outlines of the North American continent on the horizon.

It's believed that the first Europeans to land on the coast of Alaska were members of the crew of the ship "Saint Gabriel" under the command of surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev and navigator Ivan Fedorov. They were members Chukchi expedition 1729-1735 under the leadership of A. F. Shestakov and D. I. Pavlutsky.

Travelers landed on the coast of Alaska on August 21, 1732 . Fedorov was the first to mark both shores of the Bering Strait on the map. But, returning to his homeland, Fedorov soon dies, and Gvozdev finds himself in Biron's dungeons, and the great discovery of the Russian pioneers remains unknown for a long time.

The next step in the "discovery of Alaska" was Second Kamchatka expedition famous explorer Vitus Bering in 1740 - 1741 An island, a sea and a strait between Chukotka and Alaska were subsequently named after him - Vitus Bering.

The expedition of Vitus Bering, who by this time had been promoted to captain-commander, set off for the shores of America from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on June 8, 1741 on two ships: St. Peter (under the command of Bering) and St. Paul (under the command of Alexei Chirikov). Each ship had its own team of scientists and researchers on board. They crossed the Pacific Ocean and July 15, 1741 discovered the northwestern shores of America. The ship's doctor, Georg Wilhelm Steller, landed on the shore and collected samples of shells and herbs, discovered new species of birds and animals, from which the researchers concluded that their ship had reached a new continent.

Chirikov's ship "Saint Pavel" returned on October 8 to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. On the way back, the Umnak Islands were discovered, Unalaska and others. Bering's ship was carried by the current and wind to the east of the Kamchatka Peninsula - to the Commander Islands. At one of the islands, the ship was wrecked, and it was thrown ashore. Travelers were forced to spend the winter on the island, which now bears the name Bering Island . On this island, the captain-commander died without surviving the harsh winter. In the spring, the surviving crew members built a boat from the wreckage of the wrecked St. Peter and returned to Kamchatka only in September. Thus ended the second Russian expedition, which discovered the northwestern coast of the North American continent.

Russian America

The authorities in St. Petersburg reacted with indifference to the opening of Bering's expedition.The Russian Empress Elizabeth had no interest in the lands of North America. She issued a decree obliging the local population to pay a fee for trade, but did not take any further steps towards developing relations with Alaska.For the next 50 years, Russia showed very little interest in this land.

The initiative in the development of new lands beyond the Bering Strait was taken by the fishermen, who (unlike St. Petersburg) immediately appreciated the reports of the members of the Bering expedition about the extensive rookeries of the sea animal.

In 1743, Russian traders and fur hunters established very close contact with the Aleuts. In 1743-1755, 22 fishing expeditions took place, fishing on the Commander and Near Aleutian Islands. In 1756-1780. 48 expeditions were engaged in fishing throughout the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island and the southern coast of modern Alaska. Fishing expeditions were organized and financed by various private companies of Siberian merchants.

Merchant ships off the coast of Alaska

Until the 1770s, Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov, Pavel Sergeevich Lebedev-Lastochkin, as well as the brothers Grigory and Peter Panov were considered the richest and most famous among the merchants and fur buyers in Alaska.

Sloops with a displacement of 30-60 tons were sent from Okhotsk and Kamchatka to the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. The remoteness of the fishing areas led to the fact that the expeditions lasted up to 6-10 years. Shipwrecks, hunger, scurvy, skirmishes with natives, and sometimes with the crews of ships of a competing company - all this was the everyday life of the “Russian Columbuses”.

One of the first to establish a permanent Russian settlement on Unalashka (an island in the archipelago of the Aleutian Islands), discovered in 1741 during the Second Bering Expedition.

Unalaska on the map

Subsequently, Analashka became the main Russian port in the region, through which the fur trade was carried out. The main base of the future Russian-American Company was also located here. In 1825 was built Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension .

Church of the Ascension on Unalaska

The founder of the parish, Innokenty (Veniaminov) - Saint Innocent of Moscow , - created with the help of local residents the first Aleutian script and translated the Bible into the Aleutian language.

Unalaska today

In 1778 he arrived at Unalaska English explorer James Cook . According to him, the total number of Russian industrialists who were in the Aleuts and in the waters of Alaska was about 500 people.

After 1780, Russian industrialists penetrated far along the Pacific coast of North America. Sooner or later, the Russians would begin to penetrate deep into the mainland of the open lands of America.

The real discoverer and creator of Russian America was Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov. A merchant, a native of the city of Rylsk in the Kursk province, Shelekhov moved to Siberia, where he made a fortune in the fur trade. Starting in 1773, the 26-year-old Shelekhov began to independently send ships to sea fishing.

In August 1784, during his main expedition on 3 ships ("Three Hierarchs", "Saint Simeon the God-bearer and Anna the Prophetess" and "Archangel Michael"), he reached Kodiak Islands where he began to build a fortress and a settlement. From there it was easier to swim to the shores of Alaska. It was thanks to the energy and foresight of Shelekhov that the foundation of Russian possessions was laid in these new lands. In 1784-86. Shelekhov also began to build two more fortified settlements in America. His settlement plans included flat streets, schools, libraries, parks. Returning to European Russia, Shelekhov put forward a proposal to start a mass resettlement of Russians in new lands.

At the same time, Shelekhov was not in the public service. He remained a merchant, industrialist, entrepreneur, acting with the permission of the government. Shelekhov himself, however, was distinguished by a remarkable state mind, perfectly understanding the possibilities of Russia in this region. No less important was the fact that Shelekhov was well versed in people and gathered a team of like-minded people who created Russian America.

In 1791, Shelekhov took as his assistant, a 43-year-old who had just arrived in Alaska. Alexandra Baranova - a merchant from the ancient city of Kargopol, who at one time moved to Siberia for business purposes. Baranov was appointed chief manager of Kodiak island . He possessed an unselfishness surprising for an entrepreneur - managing Russian America for more than two decades, controlling multi-million sums, providing high profits to the shareholders of the Russian-American Company, which we will discuss below, he did not leave himself any fortune!

Baranov moved the company's representative office to the new city of Pavlovskaya Gavan, founded by him in the north of Kodiak Island. Now Pavlovsk is the main city of Kodiak Island.

In the meantime, Shelekhov's company forced out the rest of the competitors from the region. Myself Shelekhov died in 1795 , in the midst of their endeavors. True, his proposals for the further development of American territories with the help of a commercial company, thanks to his associates and associates, were further developed.

Russian-American Company

In 1799, the Russian-American Company (RAC) was created, which became the main owner of all Russian possessions in America (as well as in the Kuriles). She received from Paul I the monopoly rights to fur trade, trade and the discovery of new lands in the northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean, designed to represent and protect the interests of Russia in the Pacific Ocean with her own means. Since 1801, Alexander I and the Grand Dukes, major statesmen have become shareholders of the company.

Shelekhov's son-in-law became one of the founders of the RAC Nikolay Rezanov, whose name is known today to many as the name of the hero of the musical "Juno and Avos". The first head of the company was Alexander Baranov , which was officially named Chief Ruler .

The creation of the RAC was based on Shelekhov's proposals to create a commercial company of a special kind, capable of carrying out, along with commercial activities, also engaged in the colonization of lands, the construction of forts and cities.

Until the 1820s, the profits of the company allowed them to develop the territories themselves, so, according to Baranov, in 1811 the profit from the sale of sea otter skins amounted to 4.5 million rubles, a huge amount of money at that time. The profitability of the Russian-American Company was 700-1100% per year. This was facilitated by the great demand for the skins of sea otters, their cost from the end of the 18th century to the 20s of the 19th century increased from 100 rubles per skin to 300 (sable cost about 20 times less).

In the early 1800s, Baranov established trade with Hawaii. Baranov was a real Russian statesman, and under other circumstances (for example, another emperor on the throne) The Hawaiian Islands could become a Russian naval base and resort . From Hawaii, Russian ships carried salt, sandalwood, tropical fruits, coffee, and sugar. They planned to populate the islands with Pomor Old Believers from the Arkhangelsk province. Since the local princelings were constantly at war with each other, Baranov offered patronage to one of them. In May 1816, one of the leaders - Tomari (Kaumualiya) - officially transferred to Russian citizenship. By 1821, several Russian outposts had been built in Hawaii. The Russians could also control the Marshall Islands. By 1825, Russian power was becoming stronger, Tomari became king, the children of the leaders studied in the capital of the Russian Empire, and the first Russian-Hawaiian dictionary was created. But in the end, St. Petersburg abandoned the idea of ​​making the Hawaiian and Marshall Islands Russian . Although their strategic position is obvious, their development was also economically beneficial.

Thanks to Baranov, a number of Russian settlements were founded in Alaska, in particular Novoarkhangelsk (today - Sitka ).

Novoarkhangelsk

Novoarkhangelsk in the 50-60s. XIX century looked like an average provincial town in the outskirts of Russia. It had a ruler's palace, a theater, a club, a cathedral, a bishop's house, a seminary, a Lutheran prayer house, an observatory, a music school, a museum and a library, a nautical school, two hospitals and a pharmacy, several schools, a spiritual consistory, a drawing office, an admiralty, port buildings, an arsenal, several industrial enterprises, shops, stores and warehouses. Houses in Novoarkhangelsk were built on stone foundations, the roofs were made of iron.

Under the leadership of Baranov, the Russian-American Company expanded its scope of interests: in California, just 80 kilometers north of San Francisco, the southernmost settlement of Russia in North America was built - Fort Ross. Russian settlers in California were engaged in fishing for sea otters, agriculture and cattle breeding. Trade links were established with New York, Boston, California and Hawaii. The California colony was to become the main supplier of food to Alaska, which at that time belonged to Russia.

Fort Ross in 1828. Russian fortress in California

But the hopes were not justified. In general, Fort Ross turned out to be unprofitable for the Russian-American Company. Russia was forced to abandon it. In 1841 Fort Ross was sold for 42,857 rubles to Mexican citizen John Sutter, a German industrialist who got into the history of California thanks to his sawmill in Coloma, on the territory of which a gold mine was found in 1848, which started the famous California Gold Rush. As payment, Sutter supplied wheat to Alaska, but, according to P. Golovin, he did not pay almost 37.5 thousand rubles in addition.

Russians in Alaska founded settlements, built churches, created schools, a library, a museum, shipyards and hospitals for local residents, launched Russian ships.

A number of manufacturing industries have been established in Alaska. Especially noteworthy is the development of shipbuilding. Shipbuilders have been building ships in Alaska since 1793. For 1799-1821. 15 ships were built in Novoarkhangelsk. In 1853, the first steam ship in the Pacific Ocean was launched in Novoarkhangelsk, and not a single part was imported: absolutely everything, including the steam engine, was manufactured locally. Russian Novoarkhangelsk was the first point of steam shipbuilding on the entire western coast of America.

Novoarkhangelsk

The city of Sitka (former Novoarkhangelsk) today

At the same time, formally, the Russian-American Company was not a fully state institution.

In 1824, Russia signs an agreement with the governments of the USA and England. The boundaries of Russian possessions in North America were determined at the state level.

1830 world map

It is impossible not to admire the fact that only about 400-800 Russian people managed to master such vast territories and water areas, making their way to California and Hawaii. In 1839, the Russian population of Alaska was 823 people, which was the maximum in the history of Russian America. Usually there were a few less Russians.

It was the lack of people that played a fatal role in the history of Russian America. The desire to attract new settlers was a constant and almost impossible desire of all Russian administrators in Alaska.

The basis of the economic life of Russian America remained the extraction of marine mammals. On average for the 1840-60s. up to 18 thousand fur seals were mined per year. River beavers, otters, foxes, arctic foxes, bears, sables, as well as walrus tusks were also hunted.

The Russian Orthodox Church was active in Russian America. As early as 1794 he began missionary work Valaam monk Herman . By the middle of the 19th century, most Alaska natives had been baptized. The Aleuts and, to a lesser extent, the Indians of Alaska, are still Orthodox believers.

In 1841, an episcopal see was established in Alaska. By the time Alaska was sold, the Russian Orthodox Church had 13,000 flocks here. In terms of the number of Orthodox Christians, Alaska still ranks first in the United States. The ministers of the church have made a huge contribution to the spread of literacy among the Alaska natives. Literacy among the Aleuts was at a high level - on the island of St. Paul, the entire adult population could read in their native language.

Sale of Alaska

Oddly enough, but the fate of Alaska, according to a number of historians, was decided by the Crimea, or rather, the Crimean War (1853-1856). The Russian government began to see ideas about strengthening relations with the United States as opposed to Great Britain.

Despite the fact that the Russians founded settlements in Alaska, built churches, created schools and hospitals for local residents, there was no truly deep and thorough development of American lands. After the resignation of Alexander Baranov in 1818 from the post of ruler of the Russian-American Company, due to illness, there were no leaders of this magnitude in Russian America.

The interests of the Russian-American Company were mainly limited to the extraction of furs, and by the middle of the 19th century, the number of sea otters in Alaska had sharply decreased due to uncontrolled hunting.

The geopolitical situation did not contribute to the development of Alaska as a Russian colony. In 1856, Russia was defeated in the Crimean War, and relatively close to Alaska was the English colony of British Columbia (the westernmost province of modern Canada).

Contrary to popular belief, Russians were well aware of the presence of gold in Alaska . In 1848, a Russian explorer and mining engineer, lieutenant Pyotr Doroshin, found small placers of gold on the Kodiak and Sitkha islands, the shores of the Kenai Bay near the future city of Anchorage (the largest city in Alaska today). However, the amount of precious metal discovered was small. The Russian administration, which had before its eyes an example of the "gold rush" in California, fearing the invasion of thousands of American gold miners, preferred to classify this information. Subsequently, gold was found in other parts of Alaska. But it was no longer Russian Alaska.

Besides oil discovered in Alaska . It is this fact, however absurd it may sound, that has become one of the incentives to get rid of Alaska as soon as possible. The fact is that American prospectors began to actively arrive in Alaska, and the Russian government reasonably feared that American troops would come after them. Russia was not ready for the war, and it was completely imprudent to give Alaska penniless.Russia seriously feared that it would not be able to ensure the security of its colony in America in the event of an armed conflict. The United States of America was chosen as a potential buyer of Alaska to offset the growing British influence in the region.

In this way, Alaska could become the cause of a new war for Russia.

The initiative to sell Alaska to the United States of America belonged to the emperor's brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich Romanov, who served as head of the Russian Naval Staff. Back in 1857, he suggested that his elder brother, the emperor, sell "excess territory", because the discovery of gold deposits there will certainly attract the attention of England - a long-time sworn enemy of the Russian Empire, and Russia is not able to defend it, and there really is no military fleet in the northern seas . If England seizes Alaska, then Russia will receive absolutely nothing for it, and in this way it will be possible to gain at least some money, save face and strengthen friendly relations with the United States. It should be noted that in the 19th century, the Russian Empire and the United States developed extremely friendly relations - Russia refused to help the West regain control over North American territories, which infuriated the monarchs of Great Britain and inspired the colonists of America to continue the liberation struggle.

However, consultations with the US government about a possible sale, in fact, negotiations began only after the end of the American Civil War.

In December 1866, Emperor Alexander II made the final decision. The borders of the sold territory and the minimum price - five million dollars were determined.

In March, the Russian Ambassador to the United States of America Baron Eduard Stekl made a proposal to sell Alaska to US Secretary of State William Seward.

Signing of the Alaska Sale, March 30, 1867 Robert C. Chu, William G. Seward, William Hunter, Vladimir Bodisko, Edouard Steckl, Charles Sumner, Frederick Seward

Negotiations were successful and On March 30, 1867, an agreement was signed in Washington according to which Russia sold Alaska for $7,200,000 in gold.(at the rate of 2009 - approximately $108 million in gold). The United States ceded: the entire Alaska Peninsula (along the 141° meridian west of Greenwich), a coastal strip 10 miles south of Alaska along the western coast of British Columbia; the archipelago of Alexander; Aleutian Islands with Attu Island; the islands of the Middle, Krys'i, Lis'i, Andreyanovsk, Shumagin, Trinity, Umnak, Unimak, Kodiak, Chirikov, Afognak and other smaller islands; islands in the Bering Sea: St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribylov Islands - St. George and St. Paul. The total area of ​​the sold territories amounted to more than 1.5 million square meters. km. Russia sold Alaska for less than 5 cents per hectare.

On October 18, 1867, an official ceremony was held in Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka) for the transfer of Alaska to the United States. Russian and American soldiers marched in solemn march, the Russian flag was lowered and the US flag was raised.

Painting by N. Leitze "Signing the contract for the sale of Alaska" (1867)

Immediately after the transfer of Alaska to the United States, American troops entered Sitka and looted the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, private houses and shops, and General Jefferson Davis ordered all Russians to leave their homes to the Americans.

On August 1, 1868, Baron Stekl was presented with a US Treasury check with which the United States paid Russia for its new lands.

Check issued to the Russian Ambassador by the Americans when buying Alaska

notice, that Russia never received money for Alaska , since part of this money was appropriated by the Russian ambassador in Washington, Baron Steckl, part went to bribes to American senators. Baron Steckl then instructed Riggs Bank to transfer $7.035 million to London, to the Barings Bank. Both of these banks have now ceased to exist. The trace of this money has been lost in time, giving rise to a variety of theories. According to one of them, the check was cashed in London, and gold bars were purchased for it, which were planned to be transferred to Russia. However, the cargo was never delivered. The ship "Orkney" (Orkney), on board which was a precious cargo, sank on July 16, 1868 on the way to St. Petersburg. Whether there was gold on it at that time, or whether it did not leave the limits of Foggy Albion at all, is unknown. The insurance company that insured the ship and cargo declared itself bankrupt, and the damage was only partially reimbursed. (Now the site of the Orkney sinking is in the territorial waters of Finland. In 1975, a joint Soviet-Finnish expedition examined the area of ​​\u200b\u200bits flooding and found the wreckage of the ship. The study of these found that there was a powerful explosion and a strong fire on the ship. However, gold could not be found - most likely, it remained in England.). As a result, Russia never received anything from the abandonment of some of its possessions.

It should be noted that There is no official text of the agreement on the sale of Alaska in Russian. The deal was not approved by the Russian Senate and the State Council.

In 1868, the Russian-American Company was liquidated. During its elimination, part of the Russians were taken from Alaska to their homeland. The last group of Russians, numbering 309 people, left Novoarkhangelsk on November 30, 1868. The other part - about 200 people - was left in Novoarkhangelsk due to the lack of ships. They were simply FORGOTTEN by the St. Petersburg authorities. Most of the Creoles (descendants from mixed marriages of Russians with Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians) remained in Alaska.

Rise of Alaska

After 1867, the part of the North American continent ceded by Russia to the USA received Alaska Territory status.

For the United States, Alaska became the site of the "gold rush" in the 90s. XIX century, sung by Jack London, and then the "oil fever" in the 70s. XX century.

In 1880, the largest ore deposit in Alaska, Juneau, was discovered. At the beginning of the 20th century, the largest alluvial gold deposit, Fairbanks, was discovered. By the mid 80s. XX in Alaska in total produced almost a thousand tons of gold.

To dateAlaska ranks 2nd in the US (after Nevada) in terms of gold production . The state provides about 8% of silver mining in the United States of America. The Red Dog Mine in northern Alaska is the largest zinc mine in the world and provides about 10% of the world's production of this metal, as well as significant amounts of silver and lead.

Oil was found in Alaska 100 years after the conclusion of the agreement - in the early 70s. XX century. TodayAlaska ranks 2nd in the US in the production of "black gold", 20% of American oil is produced here. Huge reserves of oil and gas have been explored in the north of the state. The Prudhoe Bay field is the largest in the United States (8% of US oil production).

January 3, 1959 territoryAlaska was converted to49th state of the USA.

Alaska is the largest US state in terms of territory - 1,518 thousand km² (17% of the US territory). In general, today Alaska is one of the most promising regions of the world from the transport and energy point of view. For the United States, this is both a key point on the way to Asia and a springboard for more active development of resources and the presentation of territorial claims in the Arctic.

The history of Russian America serves as an example not only of the courage of explorers, the energy of Russian entrepreneurs, but also of the venality and betrayal of the upper spheres of Russia.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK