DOCSLIB.ORG

The Russian American Company and Its Trading Relations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Russian American Company and Its Trading Relations THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY AND ITS TRADING RELATIONS WITH FOREIGNERS IN ALASKA UNTIL 1839 by John Duncan Lawrence Mcintosh B.A., University of British Columbia, 1962 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In the Department of Slavonic Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard The University of British Columbia January, 1969 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his represen• tatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is two-fold - to trace the development of Russian American Company relations with for• eigners in Alaska and to assess the effects of foreign trade there on the competitive position of the company. The closing year for this study, 1839» is the year in which the Russian American Company made definite arrangements to receive much of its provisions from the Hudson's Bay Company in order to resolve its long-standing problem of supply. As to the first aspect of this theme, this account of Russian American Company foreign relations follows in broad outline the existing works dealing with the history of the company. However, some corrections and new material based on a careful study of unpublished sources in America and the Soviet Union have been added concerning the details of foreign visits to Alaska. Various subject relevant to the development of foreign trade are considered: its beginnings, the evolu• tion of company and government attitudes to relations with foreigners, and the development-'o'f Hudson's Bay Company trade in the area. The financial, prosperity of the Russian American Company is reassessed and revised downwards on the basis of some relatively unexploited archival material, with the in• flationary decrease in the value of the paper ruble being taken into account. Particular attention is paid to the events leading up to the lease of the Alaska panhandle (lisi^re) in 1839 in order to determine the essential significance of the agreement in terms of the foreign trade and further development of the Russian American Company. The main conclusions of the thesis can be stated brief• ly as follows. Although small in comparison with the total income and expenditure in the colony, foreign trade was abso• lutely necessary to the survival of the company in Alaska unless and until some reliable alternative source of vital provisions and supplies could be devised. The final decision to regularize and perpetuate the Russian American Company's dependence on foreign trade signified a final acceptance of the view that there was no feasible alternative. Whether this view was completely valid cannot be answered definitely on the basis of the available evidence. It seems clear that the decision was not made on the basis of economic feasibility or political considerations alone. In any case the principal result of the lease agreement was that the Russian American Company's prospects for economic progress or even for holding its own financially practically disappeared. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author expresses his gratitude to Professor Cyril Bryner of the Slavonic Studies Department at the University of British Columbia for his patient encouragement and assistance, and to Professor Georgii Andreievich Novitskii of the History Faculty, Moscow State University, for valuable advice on source material. Special apprecia• tion is due to the University of British Columbia Committee of World University Service for providing the opportunity, through their exchange programme, to carry out study and research in the U.S.S.R. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction i I The Historical Background to Foreign Trade in Novo Arkhangelsk 1 II Foreign Trade in Novo Arkhangelsk and the Russian American Company, 1803 - 1817 17 III Foreign Trade in the Colony in the Light of Russian American Company Income During the First Charter Period 43 IV Foreign Trade in the Colony 1818 - 1825 and the Tsar's Decree of 1821 53 V The Russian American Company Crisis of the Mid-1820»s: External and Internal Aspects 59 VI The Hudson's Bay Company Undermines American Trade in Sitka, 1821 - 1837 70 VII The Lease of the Lisiere. 1839 100 Conclusion 111 Notes on the Source Material 114 Bibliography 117 INTRODUCTION The following study is based on an examination of virtually all of the published and unpublished sources in English and Russian dealing with the history of the Russian American Company. The exchange programme arranged by the University of British Columbia Committee of World University Service provided the opportunity for me to do study and re• search in Soviet libraries and archives. However, unexploited or new material on Russian America turned out to be limited in quantity and value. For a description of the documents and works consulted the readerssis referred to the notes on source material on page 114 of this paper. There may be a few rele• vant documents in the archives of the Soviet Foreign Ministry; however access to that archive is especially difficult for a foreign student to obtain. The purpose of this work is not to write a general company history, although the choice of subject matter has favoured the inclusion of a considerable amount of background narrative. Instead it is my intention to trace the develop• ment of Russian American Company trading relations with Ameri• can and British visitors to Alaska and to assess the signifi• cance of the trade in relation to the company's potential for prosperous growth. For several reasons this account is not taken beyond the lease of the Alaska panhandle (or lisiere) to the Hudson's Bay-Company in February, 1839. Although trade between the ii companies continued until the sale of Alaska in 1867> it had entered a new phase after the lease - that of a regularized, settled business arrangement. The post-lease period has been covered quite well by D. C. Davidson's article1 which concen• trates its attention on the commercial features of inter• company relations after 1839. The lease served to resolve the supply problem of the Russian American Company by commit• ting the Russian fur enterprise to a reliance on the Hudson's Bay Company for food supplies and land furs. Davidson11 and J. S. Galbraith111 have considered the arrangement to have been to the advantage of both parties. Two facts led me to question this interpretation. Firstly, the total amount of of peltry received declined substantially after 1839.1V. Secondly, there is some evidence that monetary returns from fur sales also deereased.V Consequently I have reexamined the role of foreign trade in the history of the Russian Ameri• can Company and particularly the lease agreement to find out whether the lease was really in the company's long term 1D. C. Davidson, "Relations of the Hudson's Bay Com• pany with the Russian American Company on the Northwest Coast, 1829-1867," The British Columbia Historical Quarterly 5, No. 1, 1941, PP. 33 - 48. X10p. cit. 111J. S. Galbraith, The Hudson's Bay Company as an Imperial Factor. lvP. Tikhmenev, Istoricheskoe obozrenie ... Rossisko- amerikanskoi kompanii 1, p. 327, vol. 2, p. 221. vNational Archives of the U.S.A., Microfilm Publications, o iii interest. To answer this question, one must consider the cevelopment of each company and of the inter-company rela• tions which led up to the settlement so as to determine the context in which each side had to bargain. Graphs are used where possible to show trends in com• pany income. The effect of the inflationary loss in value of the paper ruble is illustrated so as to correct the impression of prosperity which uncritical use of some company statistics would suggest. Since this is both an account of the development of foreign trade in Alaska and an examination of its basic sig• nificance, it was convenient to arrange the paper chrono• logically. Records of the Russian American Company. Board of directors to governor, I848, p. 595. The table referred to covers only the years 1844 - 1847. CHAPTER I THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO FOREIGN TRADE IN NOVO ARKHANGELSK For a period of over a century, Imperial Russia ruled over the huge territory now known as the State of Alaska. During the latter sixty-eight years of Russian dominion, the Russian American Company exercised monopoly rule over the area in the name of the Tsar. Before examining the trading relations of the company we should recall briefly the early history of Alaska's dis• covery and exploration in order to understand the conditions under which the Russian American Company developed. By the latter half of the seventeenth century, the Russians had completed their rapid expansion eastward across Siberia and had established settlements on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. When they first reached the extreme eastern part of Asia, they found the Chukchi, whom Tompkins describes as having "vague ideas about their own neighbour• hood and extremely meager information on what lay beyond it." The Soviet historian M. Chernenko puts the situation somewhat more positively, stating that by the beginning of the eigh• teenth century Russians had already obtained "a certain R. Tompkins, Alaska, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1945, p. 19. 2 amount" of evidence as to the position of the North American continent, its conditions and tribes owing to the ancient o trading ties of the Chukchi with the inhabitants of Alaska.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Fort Ross 1812 Bicentennial 2012 State Historic Park
    Fort Ross 1812 BICENTENNIAL 2012 State Historic Park The mission of Fort Ross 2012 is to commemorate the 200 years of natural, cultural and human history of Fort Ross (known today as Fort Ross State Historic Park), increase public interest and preserve the rich and vital legacy for future generations through a series of special events featuring the diverse influences of many people, including Kashaya and Coast Miwok Indians, Russians, Native Alaskans, Spaniards, Mexicans and Americans. Задача программы «Форт Росс - 2012» – отметить 200-летие со дня основания Форта Росс (исторического парка штата Калифорния), привлечь более широкое внимание к его богатому наследию, отражающему влияние культур и традиций разных народов, в том числе индейцев кашайя и береговых мивок, русских, алеутов, испанцев, мексиканцев, американцев и сохранить его для будущих поколений. (707) 847-3286 A WALKING TOUR OF THE COMPOUND AT www.parks.ca.gov Fort Ross Fort Ross 2012 is a joint project of California State STATE HISTORIC PARK Parks, the Renova Fort Ross Foundation and the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Fort Ross Conservancy, who together promote the historical and educational benefits of Fort Ross and the surrounding areas. Крепость Росс путеводитель he history of Fort Ross—a national Historic landmark—features a unique blend of diverse cultural groups. These groups include Russians, Kashaya Pomo, Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians, Aleutian and Kodiak Islanders, and Creoles—the children of Russian men and native north American women. Settlement Ross, derived from the word for Russia (Rossiia), was established by the Russian- American Company. This commercial hunting and trading company had been chartered by Emperor Paul I in 1799.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Version Charity and Sponsorship
    2019 ANNUAL REPORT 6.3. CHARITY AND SPONSORSHIP Sovcomflot Group PAO Sovcomflot provides sponsorship and charity assistance in accordance adheres to the principles with the relevant regulations approved by the PAO Sovcomflot Board of socially responsible of Directors on 17 December 2008 (Minutes No. 94) with the amendments business practices. and additions approved by the PAO Sovcomflot Board of Directors on 12 The Company’s charity May 2010 (Minutes No. 104), 7 April 2015 (Minutes No. 143) and 31 July 2017 and sponsorship activities (Minutes No. 164). are aimed at supporting educational and social In accordance with these regulations, the Company annually allocates institutions, enhancing for these purposes 1 % of the budgeted annual net profit calculated the prestige according to international financial reporting standards in US Dollars. In 2019 of the maritime the Group’s sponsorship and charity expenses amounted to RUB 67.3 million profession, preserving (US$1.09 million1). the cultural and historical heritage and natural diversity of our country, Distribution of the Group’s sponsorship and charity expenses and taking care in 2019 (RUB million) of industry veterans. 5�6 4�0 Eucton 6�7 11�6 Sports nronment Reon proects Cuture 10�1 eth cre 13�5 ther support or eter- ns, to the svn- te, etc� 15�8 1. At the official exchange rate set by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation as of 31 December 2019. About Strategy Operating Corporate Share capital and profit Annexes Group results governance distribution Sustainable development Key areas of sponsorship and charity Charitable assistance to St. Olga’s Children’s Hospital (Saint Petersburg) 67�3 RUB MILLION Sovcomflot Group has been providing support to St.
    [Show full text]
  • 9781501756030 Revised Cover 3.30.21.Pdf
    , , Edited by Christine D. Worobec For a list of books in the series, visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. From Victory to Peace Russian Diplomacy aer Napoleon • Elise Kimerling Wirtschaer Copyright © by Cornell University e text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives . International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/./. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Cornell University Press, Sage House, East State Street, Ithaca, New York . Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published by Cornell University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wirtschaer, Elise Kimerling, author. Title: From victory to peace: Russian diplomacy aer Napoleon / by Elise Kimerling Wirtschaer. Description: Ithaca [New York]: Northern Illinois University Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, . | Series: NIU series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identiers: LCCN (print) | LCCN (ebook) | ISBN (paperback) | ISBN (pdf) | ISBN (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Russia—Foreign relations—–. | Russia—History— Alexander I, –. | Europe—Foreign relations—–. | Russia—Foreign relations—Europe. | Europe—Foreign relations—Russia. Classication: LCC DK.W (print) | LCC DK (ebook) | DDC ./—dc LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ Cover image adapted by Valerie Wirtschaer. is book is published as part of the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot. With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Pilot uses cutting-edge publishing technology to produce open access digital editions of high-quality, peer-reviewed monographs from leading university presses.
    [Show full text]
  • Sitka National Historical Park the Archeology of the Fort Unit: Volume I: Results of the 2005-2008 Inventory
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers National Park Service 2010 Sitka National Historical Park The Archeology Of The Fort Unit: Volume I: Results Of The 2005-2008 Inventory William J. Hunt Jr. National Park Service, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark Hunt, William J. Jr., "Sitka National Historical Park The Archeology Of The Fort Unit: Volume I: Results Of The 2005-2008 Inventory" (2010). U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers. 89. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/89 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the National Park Service at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SITKA NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE FORT UNIT VOLUME I: RESULTS OF THE 2005-2008 INVENTORY by William J. Hunt, Jr. Midwest Archeological Center Occasional Studies No. 35 Volume 1 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Midwest Archeological Center United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Midwest Archeological Center Lincoln, Nebraska 2010 This report has been reviewed against the criteria contained in 43CFR Part 7, Subpart A, Section 7.18 (a) (1) and, upon recommendation of the Midwest Regional Office and the Midwest Archeological Center, has been classified as Available Making the report available meets the criteria of 43CFR Part 7, Subpart A, Section 7.18 (a) (1). ABSTRACT In 2005, SITK invited the National Park Service’s (NPS) Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) to conduct a Systemwide Archeological Inventory Program (SAIP) parkwide inventory at the park’s Fort Site Unit.
    [Show full text]
  • First Nations Perspectives on Sea Otter Conservation in British Columbia and Alaska: Insights Into Coupled Human Àocean Systems
    Chapter 11 First Nations Perspectives on Sea Otter Conservation in British Columbia and Alaska: Insights into Coupled Human ÀOcean Systems Anne K. Salomon 1, Kii’iljuus Barb J. Wilson 2, Xanius Elroy White 3, Nick Tanape Sr. 4 and Tom Mexsis Happynook 5 1School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, 2Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada, 3Bella Bella, BC, Canada, 4Nanwalek, AK, USA, 5Uu-a-thluk Council of Ha’wiih, Huu-ay-aht, BC, Canada Sea Otter Conservation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801402-8.00011-1 © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 301 302 Sea Otter Conservation INTRODUCTION: REGIME SHIFTS AND TRANSFORMATIONS ALONG NORTH AMERICA’S NORTHWEST COAST One of our legends explains that the sea otter was originally a man. While col- lecting chitons he was trapped by an incoming tide. To save himself, he wished to become an otter. His transformation created all otters. Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository (2005) Human interactions with sea otters and kelp forest ecosystems have spanned millennia ( Figure 11.1 ; Rick et al., 2011 ). In fact, archeological evidence suggests that the highly productive kelp forests of the Pacific Rim may have sustained the original coastal ocean migration route of maritime people to the Americas near the end of the Pleistocene ( Erlandson et al., 2007 ). Similarly, many coastal First Nations stories speak of ancestors who came from the sea (Boas, 1932; Brown and Brown, 2009; Guujaaw, 2005; Swanton, 1909). Yet this vast and aqueous “kelp highway,” providing food, tools, trade goods, and safe anchorage for sophisticated watercraft, would have been highly susceptible to overgrazing by sea urchins had it not been FIGURE 11.1 Sea otter pictographs from Kachemak Bay, Alaska.
    [Show full text]
  • A Million Pounds of Sandalwood: the History of Cleopatra's Barge in Hawaii
    A Million Pounds Of Sandalwood The History of CLEOPATRA’S BARGE in Hawaii by Paul Forsythe Johnston If you want to know how Religion stands at the in his father’s shipping firm in Salem, shipping out Islands I can tell you—All sects are tolerated as a captain by the age of twenty. However, he pre- but the King worships the Barge. ferred shore duty and gradually took over the con- struction, fitting out and maintenance of his fam- Charles B. Bullard to Bryant & Sturgis, ily’s considerable fleet of merchant ships, carefully 1 November expanded from successful privateering during the Re volution and subsequent international trade un- uilt at Salem, Massachusetts, in by Re t i re der the new American flag. In his leisure time, B Becket for George Crowninshield Jr., the her- George drove his custom yellow horse-drawn car- m a p h rodite brig C l e o p a t ra’s Ba r g e occupies a unique riage around Salem, embarked upon several life- spot in maritime history as America’s first ocean- saving missions at sea (for one of which he won a going yacht. Costing nearly , to build and medal), recovered the bodies of American military fit out, she was so unusual that up to , visitors heroes from the British after a famous naval loss in per day visited the vessel even before she was com- the War of , dressed in flashy clothing of his pleted.1 Her owner was no less a spectacle. own design, and generally behaved in a fashion Even to the Crowninshields, re n o w n e d quite at odds with his diminutive stature and port l y throughout the region for going their own way, proportions.
    [Show full text]
  • Island of the Blue Dolphins the Golden Round
    Island of the Blue Dolphins The Golden Round Grade Level Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade Subject Social Studies Common Core Standards 6–8.RH.1, 6–8.RH.2, 6–8.RH.4, 6–8.RH.7, 6–8.RH.9; 9–10.RH.1, 9–10.RH.2, 9– 10.RH.4, 9–10.RH.7, 9–10.RH.9; 11–12.RH.1, 11–12.RH.2, 11–12.RH.4, 11–12.RH.7, 11–12.RH.9 Background Information The goal of this lesson is to help students learn about the lasting human, environmental, and financial impact of the nineteenth-century Pacific trade, which involved the exchange of goods and the spread of disease between and among the people of the Northwest Coast, California, Hawaii, Canton (Guangzhou), and numerous Pacific islands and urban centers (e.g., Boston, Philadelphia, New York) on the east coast of the United States. Students will trace nineteenth-century maritime trade routes, gaining familiarity with Pacific geography and understanding of how the sea otter trade that is featured in Island of the Blue Dolphins figured as part of a much larger network of exchange. Most students of American history have learned about the Triangle Trade, the name given to the movement of ships, raw materials, processed goods, and people (enslaved Africans) between Africa, the Caribbean, and New England (one triangle) and between Western Europe, the Americas, and Africa (a second triangle) before the importation of enslaved people was outlawed in the early nineteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Aleuts: an Outline of the Ethnic History
    i Aleuts: An Outline of the Ethnic History Roza G. Lyapunova Translated by Richard L. Bland ii As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has re- sponsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and providing for enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Shared Beringian Heritage Program at the National Park Service is an international program that rec- ognizes and celebrates the natural resources and cultural heritage shared by the United States and Russia on both sides of the Bering Strait. The program seeks local, national, and international participation in the preservation and understanding of natural resources and protected lands and works to sustain and protect the cultural traditions and subsistence lifestyle of the Native peoples of the Beringia region. Aleuts: An Outline of the Ethnic History Author: Roza G. Lyapunova English translation by Richard L. Bland 2017 ISBN-13: 978-0-9965837-1-8 This book’s publication and translations were funded by the National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program. The book is provided without charge by the National Park Service. To order additional copies, please contact the Shared Beringian Heritage Program ([email protected]). National Park Service Shared Beringian Heritage Program © The Russian text of Aleuts: An Outline of the Ethnic History by Roza G. Lyapunova (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka” leningradskoe otdelenie, 1987), was translated into English by Richard L.
    [Show full text]
  • A. F. Kashevarov, the Russian -American Company and Alaska
    A. F. KASHEVAROV, THE RUSSIAN-AMERICAN COMPANY, AND ALASKA CONSERVATION Ryan Tucker Jones Idaho State University, 935 W. Clark St., Pocatello, ID 83204; [email protected] ABSTRACT As Russia debated selling Alaska in the 1860s, A. F. Kashevarov, an Alaska Creole, published his thoughts about reforming the Russian-American Company (RAC). In several articles for the Russian naval journal Morskoi Sbornik, he described the RAC’s hunting policies and conservation measures. Kashevarov’s articles represent some of the few sources providing information on Russian-era tradi- tional ecological knowledge (TEK), even if his depth of knowledge concerning Aleut (Unangan) and Alutiiq environmental practices and conceptions is uncertain. Despite company claims of conserva- tion successes, in Kashevarov’s view the RAC had misunderstood the Alaska environment and mis- managed its fur resources. Claiming that marine mammals behaved unpredictably and were entwined in a complex ecology, Kashevarov insisted that company attempts to create zapusks (closed seasons) did not work. Instead, he proposed that only Alaska Natives understood the animals well enough to manage them and thus should be ceded control over Alaska’s environment. Though these radical claims were met with company derision, Kashevarov’s pleas for ecological sophistication and ecologi- cal justice provide some glimpse into the desires of Alaska Natives shortly before the colony’s demise. INTRODUCTION In the 1860s, as the Russian empire debated selling Alaska see Dmytryshyn et al. 1989:518–524), shed valuable light to the United States, some new, unexpected voices arose to on Alaska’s environmental history, the RAC’s conserva- challenge Russian-American Company (RAC) adminis- tion policies, and the history of Alaska Natives and hint trators and imperial officials and put forth their own plans at alternate paths not taken but that still seemed possi- for the colony.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    SOCIAL POWER AND CULTURAL CHANGE IN PRE-COLONIAL BRITISH COLUMBIA1 COLE HARRIS rom the first White contacts along the Coast in the 1770s to the establishment of British colonies in the mid-nineteenth Fcentury, outside involvement in the territory that is now the province of British Columbia turned primarily on imperial geopolitical claims and the spatial momentum of commercial capital. Exogenous diseases accompanied — in some cases slightly preceded — these explicit interests. All such introductions reached into space that, along parts of the Coast and the major salmon rivers, probably supported as dense non-agricultural populations as anywhere in the world. The numerous peoples of the northern Cordillera responded to these introductions in ways that have been subject to renewed scrutiny in recent years, part of a worldwide interest in contact processes and in the strategies and tactics of colonialism and resistance. It seems useful, therefore, to review current under­ standings of the major new vectors of power in the northern Cordillera during these years and, in this light, to consider what generalizations can now be offered about social power and cultural change during the better part of a century between the first appearance of Europeans and the creation of colonies. The crew of brilliant anthropologists and ethnographers who first studied the Native cultures of the Northwest Coast in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries rarely raised questions about cultural change and social power during the early contact years. Franz Boas and others of his and the next generation gathered ethnographic information from elderly informants and sought to record traditional 1 I thank Daniel Clayton, Robert Galois, Richard Mackie, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on a draft of this essay.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian America and the USSR: Striking Parallels by Andrei V
    Russian America and the USSR: Striking Parallels by Andrei V. Grinëv Translated by Richard L. Bland Abstract. The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the socioeconomic systems that have formed in the Russian colonies in Alaska and in the USSR. The author shows how these systems evolved and names the main reason for their similarity: the nature of the predominant type of property. In both systems, supreme state property dominated and in this way they can be designated as politaristic. Politariasm (from the Greek πολιτεία—the power of the majority, that is, in a broad sense, the state, the political system) is formation founded on the state’s supreme ownership of the basic means of production and the work force. Economic relations of politarism generated the corresponding social structure, administrative management, ideological culture, and even similar psychological features in Russian America and the USSR. Key words: Russian America, USSR, Alaska, Russian-American Company, politarism, comparative historical research. The selected theme might seem at first glance paradoxical. And in fact, what is common between the few Russian colonies in Alaska, which existed from the end of the 18th century to 1867, and the huge USSR of the 20th century? Nevertheless, analysis of this topic demonstrates the indisputable similarity between the development of such, it would seem, different-scaled and diachronic socioeconomic systems. It might seem surprising that many phenomena of the economic and social sphere of Russian America subsequently had clear analogies in Soviet society. One can hardly speak of simple coincidences and accidents of history. Therefore, the selected topic is of undoubted scholarly interest.
    [Show full text]
  • 218 Response
    William H. Narwold (pro hac vice) [email protected] Mathew P. Jasinski (pro hac vice) [email protected] Michael J. Pendell (pro hac vice) [email protected] Laura W. Ray (pro hac vice) Sarah M. Frazier (pro hac vice) [email protected] [email protected] MOTLEY RICE LLC BERG & ANDROPHY 20 Church St., 17th Floor 3704 Travis St. Hartford, CT 06103 Houston, TX 77002 Tel.: (860) 882-1681 Tel: (713) 529-5622 Fax: (860) 882-1682 Fax: (713) 529-3785 John P. Cashion (Alaska Bar No. 9806025) Charles H. Rabon, Jr. (pro hac vice) [email protected] [email protected] CASHION GILMORE LLC RABON LAW FIRM, PLLC 1007 W. 3rd Ave., Suite 301 225 E. Worthington Ave., Ste. 100 Anchorage, AK 99501 Charlotte, NC 28203 Tel.: (907) 222-7936 Tel.: (704) 247-3247 Fax: (907) 222-7038 Fax: (704) 208-4645 [email protected] Attorneys for Relator Ben Ferris IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ALASKA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, § Case No. 3:15-cv-00150-HRH ex. rel. BEN FERRIS, § § Plaintiff, § RELATOR’S OPPOSITION § TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION v. § TO DISMISS THE SECOND § AMENDED COMPLAINT AFOGNAK NATIVE CORPORATION and § PURSUANT TO RULES 12(b)(6) ALUTIIQ, LLC, § AND 9(b) [212] § Defendants. § United States ex rel. Ben Ferris v. Afognak Native Corp, et al.; 3:15-cv-00150-HRH Case 3:15-cv-00150-HRH Document 218 Filed 01/03/17 Page 1 of 37 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 II. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 2 A. The Small Business Act’s 8(a) program is reserved exclusively for small business concerns, irrespective of their ownership.
    [Show full text]