Оуэн Мэтьюз - Glorious Misadventures - Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America

The Nadezhda moored in Avacha Bay by the settlement of Petropavlovsk on Kamchatka, the remotest port in continental Russia.

The Nadezhda in Nagasaki Bay, disarmed of all her gunpowder, is towed to a safer anchorage by Japanese oared barges as her sailors salute from the yardarms.

‘Rezanov shows himself to the people of Japan’ – Löwenstern’s sarcastic caption to his cartoon of the Ambassador urinating into Nagasaki harbour in full view of Japanese gawkers. Rezanov ‘loses a great deal in the eyes of the Japanese who observe etiquette so strictly,’ he wrote.

Clockwise from top left : Rezanov at Megasaki, loafing among the Tsar’s presents for the Japanese Emperor in his dressing gown; drinking brandy with his cronies; ordering his Marine guard to arrest a drunken Fyodor Shmelin.

Dr Wilhelm Gottfried Tilesius’s sketches of Japanese skiffs and official translators – known as tolks – whose impenetrable politeness Rezanov found so exasperating.

Rezanov as the Japanese saw him, resplendent in his Chamberlain’s uniform and decorations. His visit to Nagasaki spurred fierce debate at the highest levels of Japanese society over contact with the outside world. Eventually advocates of sakoku – the philosophy of isolation – prevailed and the Russians were sent home empty-handed.

San Francisco was the northernmost outpost of Spain’s American Empire, founded in 1776 in direct response to Russian Imperial ambitions in California. Rezanov arrived there in April 1806, scurvy-stricken and starving in his finery. The Russians found the settlement ‘small and mean’, but Rezanov fell in love with the Spanish governor’s daughter.

Rezanov dreamed of turning the Russian American Company’s precarious and slovenly Alaskan settlements into a well-ordered empire stretching far into California. But ships, men, food and even iron was in short supply – there was not enough spare metal to mint real coins, so the Company printed its own rubles on squares of seal hide ( above ). Alexander Baranov ( left ) was the Company’s general manager for nineteen years and founded the colony in blood.

Russian America on a US map printed in Washington in 1860. In the aftermath of the Crimean War it became clear that Russia’s navy could no longer defend her American possessions. The Tsar offered the vast territory to the British but Lord Palmerston refused; in 1867 Alaska was sold for $7.2 million – or about 2 cents per acre – to the United States.

The Russian American Company’s colony at Fort Ross, in modern-day Sonoma County in California, was the southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire between 1812 and 1842. Today it is preserved as a state park.

A Note on the Author

Owen Matthews read modern history at Oxford before becoming a journalist. He covered conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, and was Moscow Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine.

His first book, Stalin’s Children , was published to critical acclaim in 2008, shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Orwell Prize for political writing, and selected as one of the Books of the Year by the Sunday Times , Sunday Telegraph and the Spectator . It has been translated into twenty-eight languages and the French version was shortlisted for the Prix Medicis 2009.

Owen Matthews lives in Istanbul and Moscow.

By the Same Author

Stalin’s Children

Copyright © 2013 by Owen Matthews

Maps by John Gilkes

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. For information, write to Bloomsbury USA, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York, 10018.

Images are from the author’s personal collection except where credited otherwise.

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Matthews, Owen.

Glorious misadventures : Nikolai Rezanov and the dream of a Russian America / Owen Matthews.

page cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN: 978–1–62040–241–2

1. Rezanov, Nikolai Petrovich, 1764–1807. 2. Diplomats—Russia—Biography. 3. Statesmen—Russia—Biography. 4. Russia—Colonies—North America. 5. Russia—Territorial expansion—History. 6. Russians—North America—History. I. Title.

DK190.6.R4M38 2013

979.8’02092—dc23

[B]

2013031042

First U.S. Edition 2013

This electronic edition published in November 2013

Visit www.bloomsbury.com to find out more about our authors and their books.

You will find extracts, author interviews, author events, and you can sign up for newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.