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CHAPTER 1
Prehistory of the Russian Colonization of the New World
Colonization as a Complex Historical Process
The word colonization has its origin in the Latin word colonia — colony. In the broad sense this term means the settlement and economic development of empty or marginal lands of a country ("internal colonization") as well as the founding of settlements beyond its boundaries ("external colonization"). In postwar Russian historiography, when the anticolonial struggle of the peoples of Asia and Africa became pressing, the word colonization had primarily negative connotations. In this case the term expansion often emerged as its synonym ("colonial expansion"), under which the seizure of foreign territories was implied. If one sets aside political and ideological conditions, it can be noted that colonization is a very complex, contradictory, multifaceted process. It can have a spontaneous or organized character when it is carried out with a preliminary plan and under the control of a state or state-authorized organization.
There are several other types of colonization. For example, in accordance with chronological principles it is possible to distinguish ancient colonization from modern colonization. Very often an "ethnic marker" is also used for designating a particular colonization process. We speak of Phoenician, Greek, Arabic, and Spanish colonization and so on. However, this criterion is faulty, since in the conquest, development, and settlement of new lands it is possible for not just ethnically "pure" Greeks or Spaniards to take part but also representatives of other peoples. Perhaps in many cases a more precise criterion would be a state linking of colonization; indeed, it is frequently the state that appears as the organizing and directing force. And therefore it is more appropriate, in my view, to speak of colonization of Siberia and Alaska not by the Russian people but by the Russian state, since not only Russians took part in it but also representatives of many other peoples: Itel'men (Kamchadal), Evenk (Tungus), Germans, Swedes, Yakut, Finns, and others.
In Russian historiography during the 1990s–2000s a certain interest was observed in both general problems of colonization and Russian colonization in particular. In significant measure this is connected with the fall of the ideological dictatorship that prevailed in Soviet society for decades. An important role was played by the collapse of the USSR, which resulted in the emergence of more than fifteen new states, in which questions of their "colonial past" are openly debated. Similar problems also emerge in some autonomous republics in the Russian Federation. The actual transformation of Russia itself into an economic semi-colony of the most developed countries of the modern world also possibly contributes to this. The latter process, remarkably, is combined with debates about the formation of a new Russian "empire" on the post-Soviet landscape. These contradictory perspectives result in repeated attempts to reinterpret the different aspects of Russia's own colonial history.
Thus some researchers propose refining the terminological apparatus being used and recommend clearly separating such ideas as "development" and actual "colonization," which in many works are used as synonyms. With this, under "development of territories" is understood the vital activity of the population, not directed at over-expenditure of available resources; if part of these resources also enters into external exchange, it is conducted on an equivalent basis. In distinction from development, "colonization of a territory" is that process with which the incoming population uses the resources of the land being colonized not so much for self-supply as for supplying its own original territory — the mother country. With this, it does not matter whether Natives are included in the colonial system or not, whether robbery of the land being colonized is carried out directly or indirectly — through "quasi-equivalent" exchange of products from these territories with products of the mother country. Colonization is in essence oriented toward overrunning the resources without replenishing them on an equivalent basis.
The point of view just cited undoubtedly deserves attention. Of course, if it is accepted, then in all history we apply the term development chiefly to a period of primitive society or to some land uninhabited by people. Other variants reveal with greater or lesser frankness the "colonial character" of the penetration and fortification by foreign groups of new territories, most often territories of other peoples. It is difficult to expect otherwise from societies dominated by private property, which causes economic, social, political, and spiritual inequality directly based on the exploitation of natural resources and people.
Another important aspect appears connected with analysis of the complex process of colonization. It is especially desirable to separate the stages of colonization, since it can substantially change its parameters over time. For example, during the period of conquest of a region the relationship of new arrivals to the Native population can be one policy (up to and including genocide), but in the following period, when the territory is finally assimilated and the Natives have been subjected or at least neutralized, the relationship with them can change substantially, as occurred in Spanish America from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.
In the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, incoming settlers were usually not ceremonious with the Indians; however, this does not mean that they were systematically occupied with exterminating Indians, as popular literature suggests. Severe clashes and massacres indeed took place; and after the Indians' resistance was quelled by military means, signed agreements with the United States government restricted them to reservation lands, where government provision of certain forms of aid largely failed to offset poverty, illness, and hunger.
It is evident that the character of each specific colonizing process is determined primarily by the totality of several fundamental factors such as the socioeconomic state of the mother country, the specifics of the natural environment of the territory being colonized, the features of the Native population, and finally the orientation of economic development of the colonies themselves. Thusthe English colonization of North America, which was carried out from a single mother country, yielded two basic types of development of the new lands, which can be tentatively called "agricultural" and "hunting-trading." The first predominated in the regions of the North American mainland favorable for farming, while the second prevailed in the Canadian north and in frontier regions of unfixed borders (frontier) and preceded more thorough agricultural colonization in the south. Correspondingly, relations with the Natives in the two cases were also quite different. With agricultural colonization the Indians were pushed to the west, exterminated, driven onto reservations, or assimilated, whereas with hunting-trading development of the new lands the English were interested in Indians as suppliers of furs and trade middlemen. Therefore in the northern territories, controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, its agents tried to maintain exceptionally peaceful relations with the Indians and Eskimos, even vaccinating several tribes of the coastal Northwest against smallpox in the late 1830s and early 1840s.
However, the character of any type of colonization depends not so much on the specifics of the contacts with the Natives or the climatic features of the territories (though these are quite important factors) as on the level and features of the socioeconomic systems that arise in the colonies or that the state strives (at least, at first) to render on the lands being colonized.
The four most important aspects of colonization have already been noted: socioeconomic state of mother country, natural environment of colony, features of Native population, and development orientation of colony. In addition several more factors should be pointed out that directly influence the actual process of colonization. To these belong the international situation and activities of representatives of other powers. It is also impossible to discount the subjective factor — the impact of personal qualities (will, determination, competence, and so on) of a specific historical personality who occupied a prominent place in the managing structure of society. Especially great is the role of the subjective factor in societies with a nondemocratic system of authority; where the life of literally all society depends upon the will and whim of the ruling entity. It is also known that the role of personality in critical, decisive moments of history is especially clearly manifested. An excellent illustration of this thesis is the activities of G. I. Shelikhov or A. A. Baranov in the Russian colonies. Let us begin, nevertheless, with the fundamental objective factors that rendered definite influence on the establishment and fate of Russian America.
Features of the Natural Environment and Native Population of the Territories Being Colonized
Alaska today is the largest and most northern state of the United States. Its total area amounts to 1.5307 million km (about 590,007 square miles), or one-sixth of the territory of the United States. The chain of 111 volcanic Aleutian Islands extends more than 1,500 kilometers from the mainland coast of Alaska into the ocean. In the north of Alaska, parallel to the shore of the Arctic Ocean, runs the rather high Brooks Range (2,761 m/9,058 feet), which protects its interior regions from cold Arctic winds. To the south run broad valleys of the largest rivers of Alaska — the Yukon and Kuskokwim — cutting through the elevated interior plateau (1,200 to 600 m/3,937 to 1,969 feet). Here rises Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest peak in North America (6,193 m/20,318 feet). And farther to the south and east along the Pacific coast rise high mountains, among which is Mount St. Elias (5,488 m/18,005 feet). In the Pacific Ocean along the southern and southeastern shores of Alaska lie islands that are also mountainous: Kodiak, the Shumagin Islands, the islands in Prince William Sound, and the Alexander Archipelago. The latter, adjoining the coast of the mainland cut with deep fjords, is the so-called Panhandle — the long narrow projection of Alaskan territory separating the interior regions of northwestern Canada from the Pacific Ocean.
Though a cold northern climate is characteristic for all Alaska, the regional differences are quite substantial. Thus, in the north in Fairbanks the average temperature in January is -24.8° C (-12.6° F), while in the Panhandle region of the southeast extremity of Alaska the average temperature in winter is as a rule higher than 0° C (32° F). This is caused by the warm Alaska Current, which has its beginning along the shores of Japan, where it is known by the name Kuroshio. Therefore the climate of the Panhandle differs by mildness and extreme humidity: annual precipitation is 2,000–4,000 mm, up to 6,000 mm (79–157 inches, up to 236 inches). In the Yukon valley, embraced by mountains on the north and south, there is very little precipitation. On the other hand, rain and snow are common in the Aleutian Islands, which are aptly named "Birthplace of the Winds"11because of the clash of cold Arctic and warm Subarctic currents, where very often there are storms and hurricanes, and frequently thick fogs. A voyage in these waters is far from safe even with the modern development of technology and navigation.
The relief and climate have predetermined the specifics of the flora and fauna of Alaska. Its vast territories in the north and west, as well as the Aleutian Islands, are covered with treeless tundra. Taiga forests occupy a substantial territory of the valley of the middle and lower Yukon and its tributaries and huge areas of the middle and upper course of the Kuskokwim, with some presence of birch, pine, alder, and willow. Coniferous forests cover the mountains of southern and southeastern Alaska to the borders of the mountain tundras and permanent snows. But in the coastal forests of the Panhandle broad-leafed trees are rather widely represented: alder, willow, and crabapple. On the whole the climate of Alaska is not favorable for carrying out agriculture: only in the southern regions is horticulture possible in limited quantities, while there is cultivation of grain in the valley of the Matanuska River near the largest city in the state of Alaska — Anchorage — in the eastern part of Cook Inlet.
The animal world of Alaska is rather varied: here the largest moose and bears in the world are encountered (polar bears in the polar region and brown bears on Kodiak Island — to 1,000 kg/2,205 lb.). On a substantial part of the mainland caribou and wolf are found, and in the forests are beaver, marten, otter, and porcupines. Foxes (including silver foxes) are common in a large part of the territory of Alaska, including much of the Aleutian chain, while in the Arctic they are replaced by the Arctic fox. In the mountains live mountain goats and deer. Numerous schools of salmon annually rush into Alaskan rivers and streams from the ocean to spawn. The sea is rich in fish and sea mammals: various species of whales and seals. Along the chain of the Aleutian Islands and the Pacific coast from the Alaska Peninsula to California lives an animal that is among the most valuable of fur-bearers — the sea otter, or morskoi bobr (sea beaver), as it was called in Russian America.
The natural conditions of Alaska were a determining influence on the economic specifics of the local Native population before arrival of Europeans in the eighteenth century. On the basis of linguistic and economic-cultural classification the Native population can be divided into three large groups. To the first belong the numerous communities of Inuit or Eskimos who lived on the sea coast of northern, western, and parts of southern Alaska. Their relatives the Aleuts settled the Aleutian chain of islands, part of the Alaska Peninsula, and the Shumagin Islands. The primary vital activities of both were marine mammal hunting and fishing (some mainland Eskimo also actively hunted caribou). The chief hunting tools were the harpoon, atlatl and darts, and bow and arrows, with which they took seals, walruses, whales, and other animals. The means of transport were one- and two-hole hide baidarki (kayaks, among the Eskimos) and large open hide boats called baidary (umiaks), which held up to forty people. Dwellings were earthen or semisubterranean houses of various sizes and configurations, which the Russians called by the Kamchadal word barabora (or sometimes by the Turkic [Yakut] word yurta). The universal dress among the Eskimos and Aleuts was a long closed-up fur shirt — a parka (with a hood among the Eskimos). During sea hunting the hunters put a waterproof cover sewn from sea mammal gut — a kamleika — over it. In addition, the Eskimos wore fur pants made with the footwear as part of them, while their southern groups and the Aleuts wore painted wooden hats or visors with bone figurines and sea lion whiskers. Characteristic decorations of the Eskimos were bone (more rarely stone or wood) plugs, which they wore in slits of the cheek and under the lower lip. Their usual food was meat of sea mammal and dried or fermented fish — yukola — which they ate by dipping it in whale or seal oil.
The second large group of the Native population of Alaska was the nomadic and semi-nomadic taiga tribes of Athapaskan Indians who lived dispersed in the depths of the mainland. Only one Athapaskan tribe — the Tanaina (Dana'ina, Kenai people) — lived on the sea coast in the region of Cook Inlet, borrowing some elements of the hunting culture of their coastal neighbors. The majority of the Athapaskans occupied themselves with seasonal hunting of caribou and forest game and birds with bows and arrows, spears, and traps as well as fishing along the banks of rivers and lakes. The Indians moved along the waters in light canoes covered with hide or bark. Bark and animal skins went into the construction of light temporary shelters or tents, though sometimes the Indians also constructed permanent wooden huts, which they abandoned in the hunting season. The clothing of the Athapaskans consisted of a long shirt of soft leather with a hood and broad gussets in the front and back, and leather pants and moccasins. The hemline of the shirt and its front panel, like the seams on the pants, were often decorated with a fringe and ornamented with painted porcupine quills. The Indians primarily ate meat of caribou, moose, ptarmigan, and rabbits.
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Excerpted from "Russian Colonization of Alaska"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Andrei Val'terovich Grinëv.
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