RAC as a state enterprise

Hagemeister was the first of many non-ethnically Russian Chief Managers who were to follow. He was a Baltic German noble, with origins in Livonia (modern Latvia)¹⁶². Hagemeister’s term lasted less than a year. On October 24^th, 1818, he was replaced by Semyon Ivanovich Yanovsky, another navy officer with the rank of lieutenant. His tenure did not last long either. After almost two years, on September 15^th, 1820, another lieutenant from the navy, Matvey Ivanovich Muravyev took the office. Both Hagemeister and Yanovsky intended to explore Alaska’s interior further. Russian settlements were located either on the islands or at the shore of the Pacific Ocean. Already in 1818, Hagemeister sent an expedition into the continent under the command of Petr Korsakovskii¹⁶³. The latter believed that certain people of Russian origin had been living somewhere in the inland of Alaska. They were said to be the descendants of Russian fugitives who had fled mainland Russia and somehow managed to have themselves transported to America. Russia has been struggling with the problem of fugitives and deserters throughout its history, and this occurred in Russian America as well¹⁶⁴. Korsakovskii secured funding from count Rumiantsev and after receiving the green light from Hagemeister started his exploration. Yanovsky continued to support Korsakovskii’s endeavor. However, the expeditions failed to locate those legendary Russian settlers.

Despite the lack of success, the Korsakovskii voyages were not entirely useless. New territories were discovered and charted by his crewmembers for the first time.

Korsakovskii’s party encountered also some indigenous tribes previously unknown to Russians. Aglegmiut Eskimos were among them. Korsakovskii provided a first ever description of these people. In his journal he wrote:

Every man has three lines etched from the edge of his eyebrows to the middle of his ear;

also into the lower lip is inserted a white roundish stone. I also saw some which resembled marble. The women's clothing is exactly like the men's. They love Russian trinkets and

162 Ibidem, p. 262.

163 S. Fedorova, op. cit., p. 34.

164 On fugitives in Russian America see especially a recent study: A. V. Grinev, R. L. Bland, Deserters and Fugitives in Russian America, [in:] Arctic Anthropology, Volume 55, No. 2, 2018, pp. 134-151.

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decorate themselves with seed beads, small copper rings, and large beads. The young ones insert into their noses dentalium, two on each side, and decorate these with seed beads.

They are gentle, kind, generous, hospitable, and merry and are very much attached to their children. When a young man marries, he does not go to live with the relatives of his wife immediately, but only after the first child is born. From that time he is considered a kinsman. Man's occupation is war! This is now disappearing little by little. Supervision of nets, fishing, household [work], berries, roots, [making] oil, all except animal hunting, is the province of women. Their labor is eased somewhat by the rivers, on which they use baydarkas and baydaras. In winter when all the waters freeze, they make small excursions on sleds which they pull themselves. At the same time, they [the women] carry out all domestic work: clean the skins, make clothing, weave nets, gather wood, carry water.

Their whole life is a ceaseless progression of work and suffering. Funerals, like all other festivals, begin with smoking and end with a feast. The body of the deceased, in his best clothing or in [that of] relatives, is placed in a coffin surrounded by earth. They place several domestic instruments on it. During the ceremony, there is wailing and, if the deceased is much grieved, his nearest relatives cut off their hair and paint their faces black with charcoal. All the deceased's belongings are given away. Many and varied reasons move the savages to war: to show personal bravery, to avenge the death of relatives or countrymen through killing of an enemy. If the whole nation is setting out for war, the leaders assemble the entire [folk] to ascertain the general will. If it is for war, the [war]

leader announces that he will hold a smoke at such and such a time at a sacred place if anyone needs to make up his mind. When the assembled folk has been consecrated through the rite of smoking, the leader enumerates the various reasons why he has assembled the people. Then he proposes the course of action. When he finishes saying all that he had to say, he gives gifts to those who want to follow him, which is considered like an oath¹⁶⁵. Even though Korsakovskii’s reports provided a lot of insight on Alaska interior, the territorial expansion was never a serious goal for Russians. The Chief Managers were rather supposed to focus on proper development of those territories they already had under

165 P. Korsakovskiy, Russian Exploration in Southwest Alaska: The Travel Journals of Petr Korsakovskiy (1818) and Ivan Ya. Vasilev (1829), ed. D. H. Kraus, J. W. Vanstone, Fairbanks 1988, pp. 30-31.

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their control. Since Baranov has been accused of a mismanagement, one of Hagemeister’s main goals was to conduct a full audit of entire possessions of RAC, including Fort Ross¹⁶⁶. As a result, numerous employees were sent away, including Baranov’s son-in-law, Sungurov. The character of agreements between RAC and its employees was changed too. Hagemeister hoped to turn Russian America into a more profitable province¹⁶⁷. The shareholders of RAC considered the colony as a business-oriented enterprise and expected tangible results.

Following the efforts of Hagemeister and Yanovsky, major changes in Russian America’s situation started under Muravyev. Since the initial charter of RAC was due to expire, the board of directors have been actively discussing the future of the company. In 1821 the new charter of RAC was issued as an ukase by tsar Alexander I¹⁶⁸. The most revolutionary aspect of the new charter was the new ownership status. In 1821, the RAC became a state-owned enterprise¹⁶⁹. Since then, the shareholders of the company, and thus its board members were also members of the imperial government. The charter also declared that the territories at the Pacific Northwest belonged to Russia and forbade foreign ships to explore them. Another important aspect was related to the trade. The new charter forbade the RAC to transact business with foreigners, which proved quite challenging for Muravyev and the Chief Managers who superseded him. Trading with England, Spain and the US was vital for the well-being of Russian America. Many local residents considered the new rule as a mistake. Nevertheless, they had to comply and adjust to the new situation.

The colony had to focus on its own provisions, supplies from the Californian settlement and on the trade with the indigenous peoples. The further territorial expansion of the Russian colonies in America became unlikely due to the strategy adopted by the US under the presidency of James Monroe. In 1823, the so-called Monroe Doctrine came into life

166 L. T. Black, op. cit., p. 192.

167 I. Vinkovetsky, op. cit., p. 70.

168 N. N. Bolkhovitinov, Russkaya Amerika na rubezhe 20-kh godov XIX v. (Prinyatye novykh pravil i privilegyi RAK), [in:] Istoriya Russkoy Ameriki 1732 – 1867, ed. N. N. Bolkhovitinov, v. II, Moscow 1997, p. 331.

169 The actual character of RAC has been an ongoing debate among scholars. Consider a condensed, although old, analysis of the issue by Mazour: A. G. Mazour, The Russian-American Company: Private or Government Enterprise?

[in:] Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 2, June 1944, pp. 168-173.

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and set standards of the future American foreign policy that outlived him many decades¹⁷⁰. The spiritus movens behind the tenet was then-Secretary of State and the future president John Quincy Adams¹⁷¹. Throughout his career as civil servant, Adams, among others, acted as an ambassador to Russia in 1809-1817¹⁷².

Muravyev focused also on the social development of the colony. Ever since Russian settlements in America were founded, its inhabitants suffered from disease. Russians brought with them measles and smallpox, which turned out to be deadly for the indigenous population. For their part, Russian sailors suffered from scurvy, malnutrition, and other illnesses. None of the towns had a doctor as a permanent settler, which was an ongoing problem without solution for Baranov. He kept sending letters to Petersburg, asking for a physician to be sent. So did his successors, Hagemeister and Yanovsky. Finally, Muravyev managed to convince the authorities and the first medicine practitioner arrived in New Archangel in 1820. Soon, the first hospital was constructed¹⁷³.

Muravyev’s tenure ended in October 1825, when he was replaced by Petr Iegorovich Chistiakov. Next month, tsar Alexander I died and was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I. The latter began his reign amid the Decembrist Revolt¹⁷⁴. This revolt of young, liberal statesmen, officers and noblemen had its own connection to the RAC. Several Decembrists had been contracted by the company in the past or served on the ships that traveled in the America. Dmitry Zavalishin, Mikhail von Kyukhelbeker, Vladimir Romanov, Kondraty Ryleyev were among them¹⁷⁵.

170 L. J. Sadosky, Antebellum Foreign Policy: The Monroe Doctrine, the Quest for Markets, and Manifest Destiny:

1815–45, [in:] The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, ed. Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards, Adam Rothman, Princeton 2011, pp. 245-246.

171 D. Critchlow, American Political History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2014, p. 36.

172 L. H. Parsons, John Quincy Adams, Lanham & Boulder & New York & Oxford 1999, p. 84.

173 L. T. Black, op. cit., p. 195.

174 T. Chapman, Imperial Russia 1805-1905, London and New York 2001, p. 46.

175 J. Gibson, The Decembrists, Fort Ross Conservancy Library, digital content courtesy of Fort Ross Conservancy, www.fortross.org; author maintains copyright of his or her written material, pp. 1-4.

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