By Alexander Dolitsky
The most important aspect of the high north’s ethnohistory was the exploration and colonization of Siberia and Alaska by Russian empire officials. The process of exploration of the northern territories in the seventeenth century caused a significant transformation of population, strengthened conflicts between local ethnic groups, and changed modes of production and material culture of the aboriginal population, among other effects. Russian officials did not wish to exterminate the aboriginal northern population, but rather, in cooperation with local native leaders, to reform them into meticulous suppliers of valuable furs.
From the point of view of Russian officialdom, the process of exploring the North American territories presumably had the same rationale as in Siberia; the Russians viewed North America as a geographical continuation of their politics (Alekseev, [Explorations of the Far East and Russian America by the Russian People]. Moscow: Nauka, 1982, p. 86). The Russians used a socioeconomic and political strategy in North America like that used in Siberia, imposing the local head tax (yasak) and strengthening their influence.
The process of colonization of the eastern territories was quite elaborate. One of the peculiarities of Siberia’s aboriginal populations, the Far East, and northwestern North America was the absence of any State organization. Lacking an institutional defense against the sophisticated social organization and military superiority of Russia, the native population had to accept Russian dominion and consequently agreed to pay yasak. Another peculiarity in the Russian population of the eastern territories was the absence of serfdom. Oppressed Russian peasants who had escaped from their landlords in the European part of Russia often fled to Siberia, the Far East, or North America to attain freedom. The Russian authorities, instead of having them prosecuted, surprisingly promoted them to government jobs.
Thus, when the government had established its control over the northeastern territories, the commercial people (promyshlenniki and kuptsy) began organizing commercial companies (artels) and markets (yarmarkas and bazaars), and the Russian Orthodox Church began sending missionaries to the East. Thus, in contrast to peasant movements, which had a spontaneous character, the organized government expeditions to the East already had in place a colonial system, i.e. the imposition of regular yasak and the extension of State territories.
After discovery of the Aleutian Islands and southern Alaska, series of commercial expeditions to North America from Siberian and Far Eastern Pacific ports (Okhotsk and Nizhne-Kamchatsk) took place. Between 1743 and 1786, the Russian Government Treasury received from North America commercial products (primarily fur and sea mammals) worth 193,798 rubbles. In addition, they collected products worth 42,394 rubbles in yasak (Makarova, [Russians in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the eighteenth century]. Moscow: Nauka, 1968, pp. 55, 81). One effect of these enterprises was a significant increase in the Russian population in North America. In 1794, the Russian population in Alaska was over 800, compared to 500 in 1788 (Alekseev 1982: 38-39). In 1799, the population in Russian America controlled by Russians was about 8,000, which included only 225 Russians (Fedorova, [Russian Population of Alaska and California]. Moscow: Nauka, 1971, pp. 140-141).
Russians in North America hunted sea mammals, fished, built ships, and attempted to cultivate crops. Several Russian settlements were established on the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island, the Kenai Peninsula, and southeastern Alaska. By the end of the eighteenth century the Russian-American Company was founded in Alaska. The company monopolized all commercial enterprises in Russian North America and held almost all political power in the region. Until the U.S. government purchased Alaska in 1867, Siberian-North American contact was very close. The Russians’ management of Alaska always represented the interests of the tsarist government and was carried out in cooperation with their Siberian partners and supporters.
It is important to stress that many historic material and textbooks published prior to the 1990s describe the Russian period of Alaska’s history as a bloody and ruthless colonization of northern territories. Russia’s Eastward expansion into Siberia, the Far East, and Alaska was motivated by exploration of new hunting territories (James R. Gibson, Feeding the Russian Fur Trade. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969). Often, Russian explorers were ruthless toward aboriginal populations, but overall, this movement was much more humane than the colonization of Australia or the colonization of North American territories in the Lower 48. The aboriginal population in Siberia and Alaska had not been placed on reservations or dislocated from their homeland as they were in the Lower 48.
The writer was raised in the former Soviet Union before settling in the U.S. in 1978. He moved to Juneau in 1986 where he taught Russian studies and Archeology at the University of Alaska, Southeast, and Social Studies at the Alyeska Central School of the Alaska Department of Education and Children Development. From 1990 to 2022, he served as director and president of the Alaska-Siberian Research Center, publishing extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography.