Alaska was sold. This piece of news arrived in St.Petersburg 136 years
ago. It arrived as a piece of wireless information that-era technical
wonder. The sales agreement was signed on March 30th, 1867. The document
was then singed by the Russian Tsar Alexander II in May. In June the
sides exchanged ratification certificates, and the Russian flag was
officially lowered in Alaska in November. There was no rush back in
those days. Documents would travel for months, news would arrive weeks
late.
When the news about selling Alaska became known in Russia, people refused
to believe it. Newspapers would write that it was nothing but a mean,
disgusting joke upon the Russian society. The reaction was rather indignant
and emotional, until the government made its point of view public. Needless
to mention that people continued talking about Alaska even after the
government announced its sale officially. As a matter of fact, the dispute
is not over even today. So many tragic things have happened in the Russian
history, although Alaska is still an issue for professors, students,
taxi drivers, and the like. A lot of Russian people often say the following
sentence: What if Alaska remained a part of Russia? Everyone
has a personal attitude to this problem, as if Alaska was a chance that
was taken away from Russian people.
The roots of Russians attitude to the Russian America (this is
what Alaska used to be called) can be found not in geography or economy,
but in the science of culture. Alaska became a symbol of the Russian
national mindset. It is the symbol of the Russian extremity, it is also
an expression of Russian ideas that opposed each other both in the past
and in present.
There was a need to reach Alaska before selling it. This is an amazing
phenomenon that we have to face here Russian peoples uncontrollable
desire to move eastwards. It is not possible to explain such a wish.
Russian Cossacks, merchants, runaway peasants acted on their personal
initiative. History books say that all of them escaped to another continent
because of the Russian serfdom, doing their best to find new riches
furs, basically. It is worth mentioning that one-fourth of the
Russian income was obtained with the help of fur sales that-era
analogue to petrodollar. If it was really so, what was the point of
going so very far away? It was possible to settle somewhere in the Ural
region of Russia, where there was no oppression. It seems that it was
not possible for Russians to stop from learning something new. Even
the Pacific Ocean did not stop them.
Russian people founded their settlements in Alaska, in California and
on Aleutian Islands. Such a grand leap to the East resulted in the establishment
of the transcontinental empire, which united Europe, Asia, America,
and even a part of Oceania. Such a vast territory is simply breathtaking.
This is an indication of the energy, of the spirit that Russian people
are known for in the world.
However, there was a downside to that too. This side can be seen almost
in everything that touches upon the Russian eastward expansion. On the
one hand, there was the courage and devotion to Russias interests.
On the other hand, there was the oppression of aborigines, destructive
fur business, robbery, and so on. Russian America is the extreme expression
of the Russian policy too. Even after Russia became one of the richest
base of raw materials in the world, officials kept on talking about
huge potential opportunities that the country was unable to realize.
When the news about the sale of Alaska became public, newspaper complained
of the loss of the future wealth, which should have justified all previous
losses.
Russian America has wonderful history, which is full of bright personas
and breathtaking events. Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov, for example,
set up a fur business company on the islands of the Pacific Ocean and
in Alaska. When Shelikhov died, the company was transformed into the
Russian-American organization, which became the virtual owner of the
land across the ocean. Grigory Shelikhovs son-in-law, Nikolay
Rezanov became the companys director after Shelikhovs death.
Nikolays tragic love to San Francisco governors daughter
became the plot of Juno and Avos rock opera.
Nikolay Rezanov was the leader of the round-the-world expedition in
the very beginning of the 19th century. The major goal of the expedition
was to provide links between the mother country and its colonies, as
well as to provide food supplies to the latter. It was necessary to
establish trading relations with Japan for that, Although Rezanovs
negotiations with the Japan emperor did not lead to any success. Russian
America suffered from hunger back in those days. Rezanov had to go to
San Francisco with a hope to set up some contacts with Spanish settlers.
At the same time, Rezanov issued a secret order to lieutenant Nikolay
Khvostov to board the Juno ship and to retrieve the Russian sovereignty
over the island of Sakhalin. This was a way to make Japan cooperate
with Russia.
The history of the Russian America is beautiful, although so much blood
was shed in the clashes with Indians, so many vessels sank in the Pacific
Ocean. In the middle of the 19th century Russia was not able to restrain
the expansion of the American and English capital to the north of America.
The Russian army was incapable of doing that.
The new direction of Russias development appeared after the defeat
in the Crimean War (1853-1856). As Alexander Gorchakov, that-time Foreign
Minister, said: Russia concentrates. The country turned
its foreign political ambition down. Selling Alaska was inevitable within
the framework of that political course. The Russian-American company
returned no profit, so there was a need to save it. The company owed
725 thousand rubles to the Russian finance ministry by the year 1866.
As the Russian government believed, they were supposed to pay major
attention to the development of the Primorye region of the country (the
Far East). Alaska was sold soon after that.
Russia received seven million two hundred thousand dollars for the
deal. One hundred thousand of that money was paid to American senators
and newspaper editors as bribes. Even after Alaska was sold, the American
press kept on criticizing the government for acquiring the polar
bear zoo. The criticism lasted until the world-famous gold fever
in Alaska. The fever had nothing in common with Russia anymore.
The settlement of Fort-Ross in California was the farthest point that
Russians reached in their Western development. The settlement was sold
in 1841. A part of its residents moved over to Alaska, while another
part stayed in San Francisco. Some others moved further to the east,
on the Indian territory, the would-be state of Oklahoma. As American
historians believe, a lot of Americans can be their descendants, especially
those American people, who have Indian blood running in their veins
.