Russian Colonization of Alaska by Andrei Val'terovich Grinëv

Author:Andrei Val'terovich Grinëv [Grinëv, Andrei Val'terovich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS032000 History / Europe / Russia & The Former Soviet Union, HIS036140 History / United States / State & Local / West (ak, Ca, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, Wy), HIS037060 History / Modern / 19th Century
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

The case of the Naplavkov-Popov conspiracy lasted for eight years. And as K. T. Khlebnikov feared, it received rather broad publicity, especially after the materials of the case were requested by Siberian governor Ivan B. Pestel’, an implacable enemy of the RAC, who evidently tried to use these materials to compromise the company and A. A. Baranov personally. His attacks on the latter for excessive cruelty in relation to the promyshlenniki led to the fact that when the question of the final verdict regarding the participants of the conspiracy was resolved, the Committee of Ministers asked the tsar to send to the colonies a special official to investigate all the abuses of the chief ruler.130 The emperor was personally aware of the whole investigated affair: based on his insistence the “rebels” were transferred to St. Petersburg. In 1817 the criminal court there sentenced Naplavkov and Popov to penal servitude in Siberia and their two comrades (one more died during the course of the multiyear investigation) to exile in a settlement in the same place.131 And though the chief “rebels” were convicted, this event strongly tarnished the image of the RAC in the eyes of the “top leadership” and served as one of the reasons that forced the directors of the company to search for a replacement for A. A. Baranov at the post of chief ruler of the colonies.

The evaluation of the “conspiracy of Naplavkov-Popov” in Russian historiography is ambiguous. Although the sympathy of some authors was entirely on the side of the “oppressed workers” who suffered from the “monster Baranov,” from the point of view of others, Naplavkov and Popov in 1809 had “prepared for the crime.”132 The truth evidently lies between these opposite opinions. Of course, Baranov was not distinguished for having an angelic character, and constant deprivation, danger, and difficulties—the very circumstances in the Russian colonies—and the difficult burden of the leadership in the distant and wild region hardened the chief ruler even more. At the same time, according to the testimony of German traveler G. H. von Langsdorff, it was not so much Baranov himself as his unscrupulous assistants who were in first order guilty of the abuses.133 Contributing to this also was the general system of organization of the RAC, which permitted arbitrariness and merciless exploitation of the promyshlenniki and Natives. On the other hand, the “oppressed workers” were en masse far from being the best representatives of Russian society: just think, for example, about the intentions of the conspirators to kill the innocent children of Baranov.

On the whole, the Naplavkov-Popov conspiracy was the largest attempt at protest against the authority of the RAC in the history of Russian America.134 Information about the failed “rebellion” reached the highest authorities of the empire. If the goals of the conspirators had been realized, the consequences for the colonies could have been very serious, especially for Novo-Arkhangel’sk, situated in the territory of the hostile Tlingit, who would hardly have missed a favorable opportunity to destroy the Russian fort, taking advantage of the anarchy and chaos reigning in it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.