Introduction
1. The Paradox of Overseas Colonialism for a Continental Empire
Part I: Building a Colonial System
2. From Siberia's Frontier to Russia's Colony
3. Contractor of Empire
4. Indigenous Labor and Colonial Insecurities
Part II: Making Natives Russian
5. Colonial Trade and Co-optation in a Russian Key
6. Dependence, Family, and Russianization
7. Building a Colonial Diocese
Conclusion: The Meaning of 1867
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Ilya Vinkovetsky is Associate Professor of History at Simon Fraser University.
"A valuable and thought-provoking contribution to the increasingly
sophisticated body of literature on Russian America."--Alaska
History
"[W]ill likely serve as the standard work on the subject for many
years...[T]he book is now the most reliable source on the [Russian]
colony."--Journal of World History
"Placing his book within the larger framework of the new imperial
history, Vinkovetsky offers an impressive overview of the thoughts
and actions of naval officers, the administrators of the Russian
American Company, and state actors. Vinkovetsky's narrative deftly
shows how practices in Russian America were variations on
time-tested ways of administering the Russian Empire."--Kritika
"Written in an engaging style, meticulously researched, tastefully
illustrated, and scrupulously documented, Russian America is an
authoritative work that makes valuable contributions to the
histories of Russia, imperialism, and colonialism. Covers the
historical and historiographical terrain with a commendable
concision and clarity."--Slavic Review
"An invaluable study for understanding how the possession of Alaska
fit into the larger context of the Russian Empire's continuous
expansion since the sixteenth century." --Pacific Historical
Review
"A well-written and engaging account of Russian interactions with a
landscape that would eventually become the forty-ninth state.
Although primarily an analysis of Russian strategy in the New
World, Russian America is broad enough in scope that it functions
as an excellent primer to the history of culture contact and
colonialism in Alaska more generally. The book will certainly
appearl to a wide spectrum of academics and students, from those
studying political
history to the historical anthropology of intercultural
relations."--Ethnohistory
"A very rich contribution Fills an important lacuna as the first
book-length study of Russian colonial presence in America from the
arrival of members of Russia's first round-the-world expedition in
1804 until the sale of Alaska to the United States."--Slavic and
East European Journal
"Extensively utilizes Russian archival sources, is well written,
and makes a valuable contribution to understanding Alaska's
colonial past."--Western Historical Quarterly
"The author's analysis shines when he compares developments in
Russian America with analogous situations. Readers will appreciate
the author's clear and graceful style."--The Russian Review
"[A} sweeping and meticulous analysis...Vinkovetsky s depiction of
the Russian encounter with native Alaskans and Californians through
economic, political, social, ethnic, religious, and historical
lenses provides a panoramic view of a dramatic slice of Russian
history."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"A thorough, comprehensive study of Russian America...A worthwhile
effort that extensively documents the story from the Russian
archival sources. Excellent notes and
bibliography...Recommended."--CHOICE
"Vinkovetsky successfully demonstrates Russian colonial innovations
in its American colonies. More important, his work reveals that
adopting European colonial ideas was not to the advantage of the
local population."--H-Net
"Drawing on an impressive command of both Russian and
English-language sources, Vinkovetsky provides intriguing insight
into the sustained Russian effort to 'Russify' the indigenous
people with whom they had constant contact."--BC Studies
"Rather than treating the colony as a failure, Vinkovetsky
considers it an indication of the flexibility and innovation of
Rusian Imperial practices."--Ab Imperio
"Ilya Vinkovetsky's book is a penetrating and moving study of the
Russian's Empire attempt to establish an overseas colonial empire.
Vinkovetsky examines the complexities and contradictions in the
effort to subdue and acculturate the populations of a remote and
forbidding territory. He accomplishes this with an impressive
mastery of the literature on empire and an anthropological
sophistication that makes the dilemmas of the Russian American
Company, the vision
of the naval officers, and the lives of the indigenous subjects
vivid and meaningful. He shows how the Russian American Company
accomplished much in establishing a Russian presence in the Far
East,
even if the hope to integrate Alaska into the administrative system
of a continental empire ultimately failed."--Richard Wortman,
Columbia University
"Alaska was Russia's only experience with overseas expansion and
the only part of the Russian empire to be explicitly called a
colony. In this important book, Ilya Vinkovetsky brings the
historical study of Russian rule in Alaska to a new level by
engaging exhaustively with Russian imperial archives. He
successfully extends the horizons of Russian imperial history to
Alaska and allows us to better appreciate the full diversity of
Russia's means of imperial
governance. Of particular interest are the differences Vinkovetsky
shows that existed between 'Siberian' and 'European' Russian
approaches to Alaska and its inhabitants."--Adeeb Khalid, Carleton
College
"Wide-ranging, well researched, and analytically astute, this book
explores crucial issues in Russian imperial history through an
examination of the tsars' only overseas colony. In recounting
imperial adaptations to the unique situation in Russian America,
Vinkovetsky tells an engaging story that integrates commerce,
culture, geopolitics, and native experience. His book will be an
essential starting point for future scholarship on Russian Alaska
and a core
contribution to the study of Russian imperial rule."--Paul W.
Werth, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"The Russian quest for sea otter pelts in the 1700s and 1800s
changed the histories of all the peoples that it touched. Ilya
Vinkovetsky, with his remarkable command of both the Russian and
English-language sources, brings to light a scarcely known century
of Russian colonialism, trade, and missionizing among diverse
indigenous peoples who experienced this economic and cultural
invasion with widely differing consequences. This is an
illuminating study, not only
of Russians in North America, but of their relations with the
Tlingit, Aleut, and other peoples they confronted, and not least,
of the challenges facing the Creole populations that arose from
these
encounters."--Jennifer S.H. Brown, University of Winnipeg
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