Social Protest in Russian America

This article analyzes social protest in the Russian colonies in Alaska and Northern California. The main reasons for protests were the actions of the colonial administration or abuse by its representatives, along with dissatisfaction with the financial situation, rules, conditions, and remuneration for labor, as well as shortages of commodities and food for a considerable part of the population of the Russian colonies. Protest activity in Russian America was relatively insignificant, and its primary forms were complaints, minor economic sabotage, and desertion. Most protest acts took place during the 1790s–1800s, when the colonial system was formed, and exploitation of dependent natives and Russian promyshlenniki (hired hunters of fur-bearing animals) reached its peak. The representatives of the Russian-American Company who managed Alaska from 1799 on tried to block protest activity and not allow open displays of dissatisfaction, since the result could hinder trade, business, and finally, profits and its image in the eyes of the tsar’s authorities.

Solving or Not Solving Problems

The three articles featured in this issue may not appear to be related, but within their varying contexts, I found myself teasing out several chords that resonate throughout them, and one, in particular, struck me as notable. Directly or indirectly, these articles (as well as the report) all address the notion of problem-solving in some shape or form. Whether a historical account of protest as an attempt to solve issues of discontent among fur trade workers in Russian America, approaches to discussing climate change in northeastern Siberia, coping with failing infrastructure and the negotiation of corporate versus state responsibility—or dealing with COVID lockdowns and scholarly knowledge exchange at present—the articles in this issue all explore the confrontation of problems and how they might be solved.

Russian America and the USSR: Striking Parallels

This 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. Politarism (from the Greek ????????—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.

HOSPITALITY OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AS A FACTOR OF SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAR EAST

The article examines the hospitality of the peoples living in the Russian North as a way of their life. Based on the study of the descriptions of the travels of the explorers of Siberia, the Far East and Russian America, it was revealed that hospitality was characteristic of almost all peoples, large and small, peaceful and militant, nomadic and sedentary. Hospitality was a means of survival in the wild and harsh conditions of the North. This allowed not only local peoples, but also travelers and explorers of Siberia and the Far East in any conditions to find shelter and food, which made it possible to travel long distances without having with them large supplies of food and necessary clothing.

Archive Fund of the Bibliographer M.Z. Vinokouroff in the Alaska State Library (USA)

This paper presents the study of the information potential of documents from the personal fund of Michael Z. Vinokouroff, stored in the Alaska Histori-cal Library (USA). Their source analysis will deter-mine the directions of their further scientific use. Numerous documents, diaries, letters, books, pho-tographs of the archive fund are the objects of spe-cial attention of researchers of the Russian Ortho-dox Church, “Russian America”, historians, bibliog-raphers, linguists, literary scholars. The main direc-tions of the effective scientific use of the documents from the personal archive of Michael Z. Vinokouroff. In addition to the unpublished diaries and notes of the bibliophile, the collection contains letters from St. Innokenty (Veniaminov), as well as documents reflecting the political and literary life of Yakutia in the first third of the 20th century.