Herman of Alaska was a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska, which was then part of Russian America. His gentle approach and ascetic life earned him the love and respect of both the native Alaskans and the Russian colonists. He is considered by many Orthodox Christians to be the patron saint of North America.
From 1732 to 1867, the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas. Russian colonial possessions in the Americas were collectively known as Russian America. It consisted mostly of present-day Alaska in the United States, but also included the outpost of Fort Ross in California. Russian Creole settlements were concentrated in Alaska, including the capital, New Archangel, which is now Sitka.
Nanwalek, formerly Alexandrovsk and later English Bay, is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States, that contains a traditional Alutiiq village. The population was 254 at the 2010 census, up from 177 in 2000. There is one school located in the community, attended by 76 students.
The City of Kodiak is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island's communities and the outside world goes through this city via ferryboat or airline. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city is 5,581, down from 6,130 in 2010. It is the tenth-largest city in Alaska.
Old Harbor is a city in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 218, down from 237 in 2000.
The Alutiiq, also called by their ancestral name Sugpiaq, as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a Yupik peoples, one of eight groups of Alaska Natives that inhabit the southern-central coast of the region.
Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the United States and the 80th largest island in the world, with an area of 3,595.09 sq mi (9,311.2 km2), slightly larger than Cyprus. It is 160 km long and in width ranges from 16 to 97 kilometers. Kodiak Island is the namesake for Kodiak Seamount, which lies off the coast at the Aleutian Trench. The largest community on the island is the city of Kodiak, Alaska.
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov was a Russian seafarer, merchant, and fur trader who established a permanent settlement in Alaska.
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was a Russian trader and merchant, who worked for some time in Siberia. He was recruited by the Shelikhov-Golikov Company for trading in Russian America, beginning in 1790 with a five-year contract as manager of the outpost. He continued to serve past the end date of his contract.
The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the company in the Ukase of 1799. It had the mission of establishing new settlements in Russian America, conducting trade with natives, and carrying out an expanded colonization program.
Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, a Russian nobleman and statesman, promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Emperors of All Russia—Catherine the Great, Paul, and Aleksander I. Aleksander I commissioned Rezanov as Russian ambassador to Japan (1804) with the aim of concluding a commercial treaty. In order to get to his post he was appointed co-commander of the First Russian circumnavigation (1803-1806), led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. Rezanov left the expedition in 1805 when it returned to Kamchatka after visiting Japan (1804-1805).
Sitkalidak Island is an island in the western Gulf of Alaska in the Kodiak Island Borough of the state of Alaska, United States. It lies just off the southeast shore of Kodiak Island, across the Sitkalidak Strait from the city of Old Harbor. The island has a land area of 300 square kilometers (120 sq mi) and no resident population.
Phoenix was the first ship built in Russian America, for the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, a precursor of the Russian–American Company (RAC). James George Shields, a British mariner in the employ of the Russian Navy, directed her construction, using mainly local materials. The ship was launched at Voskresenskaia on Resurrection Bay in the summer of 1794.
The promyshlenniki were Russian and Indigenous Siberian artel members, or self-employed workers drawn largely from the state serf and townsman class who engaged in the Siberian, maritime, and later fur trades.
Evstratii Ivanovich Delarov was a Greek mariner who served with several Russian maritime fur trade companies in Russian America. He was born in Ottoman Macedonia. He was the first documented Greek explorer and merchant to arrive in Alaska. He is considered to be the first de facto Governor of Alaska.
The Awa'uq Massacre or Refuge Rock Massacre, or, more recently, as the Wounded Knee of Alaska, was an attack and massacre of Koniag Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) people in August 1784 at Refuge Rock near Kodiak Island by Russian fur trader Grigory Shelekhov and 130 armed Russian men and cannoneers of his Shelikhov-Golikov Company.
Fort Nikolaevskaia or Fort St. Nicholas, also called Nikolaevskii Redoubt, was a fur trading post founded by the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company (LLC) in Alaska, the first European settlement on the Alaskan mainland. It is located on the site of modern Kenai. It was one of several posts maintained by the company on Cook Inlet. With the creation of a monopoly in Russian America around the Russian-American Company in 1799, the station continued operations until the Alaska Purchase.
Henrik Johan Holmberg or Heinrich Johann Holmberg was a Finnish naturalist, geologist (mineralogist) and ethnographer. He was the first recorder of the Awa'uq Massacre in the Russian America of Shelikhov-Golikov Company. Henrik Holmberg followed in 1851 to document an evolved origin story and several other stories as told by Arsenti Aminak.
The Russian Empire began its interest of the Pacific Northwest in the 18th century, initially curious if there was a land connection between the Eurasian and North American Continents. Two expeditions were led by Vitus Bering, with the findings proving the separation of two continents through the Bering Sea. Being the first European nation to chart much of what comprises the modern American state of Alaska, many locations retain Russian place names. The discovery of sizable fur bearing populations by Bering drew the attention of promyshleniki previously engaged in the Siberian fur trade. Based out of the Siberian ports of Okhotsk or Petropavlovsk, fur trappers sailed and reported the location of land formations like the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island and portions of the Alaskan mainland. Relations with Native Alaskans was often terse due to the uncontrolled actions of particular promyshleniki who killed and raped Indigenous Alaskans on islands they trapped furs.
Natalia Alekseevna Shelikhova, was a Russian businessperson and the wife of Grigory Shelikhov, founder of Russian Alaska. She was one of the founders of the Russian-American Company and has been referred to as one of the first successful female entrepreneurs in Russia.
