On March 15, 1812, the legendary Russian outpost on the North American coast of California - Fort Ross was founded
The legendary sale of Alaska to the United States - a deal that deprived the Russian Empire of one and a half million square kilometers of territory, albeit not the most convenient for life, but, as it turned out later, gold-bearing - became the last point in the history of Russian America. However, one must be well aware that this geographical concept until the middle of the 19th century was not limited to Alaskan land alone. Of course, it was there that the main Russian colonies on the North American continent were located, but these were far from the only Russian settlements. The southernmost point of advancement of Russians who were exploring North America was California, and in it - the settlement of Ross.
The first stone and the first trunks of the sequoia, from which the walls that protected the village were built, were laid there more than a century ago - on March 15, 1812. And on August 30 (September 11, new style), the flag was solemnly raised over the fortress. It was the flag of the Russian-American Company - a semi-state colonial trading company, the full name of which sounded much more magnificent: Under His Imperial Majesty's highest patronage, the Russian American Company. In the first years of the company's existence, Emperor Paul I acted under the title of patron, and during the founding of the Californian colony - Alexander I.
Fort Ross, which now bears the Americanized name of Fort Ross and is a national historical monument of the United States, owes its appearance to the incessant hardships experienced by Russian colonists in Alaska. The Russians began to develop the lands there much earlier, at the end of the 18th century. Thanks to the efforts of the merchant families of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Golikov, as well as their main competitor, Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin (who, however, rather quickly survived from this business), the first trading settlements and settlements of fur miners appeared on the Alaskan shores. It was Grigory Shelekhov, together with the legendary Nikolai Rezanov (thus sung in the romantic production of Juno and Avos), who founded the Russian-American Company, which was supplied for a long time through the Russian Far East. But the peculiarities of navigation in the Bering Strait and in general in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean turned each supply expedition into a lottery, the winnings in which often remained with the elements. And the cold land of Alaska, rich in furs, alas, could not provide the Russian settlers with bread and livestock products.
Grigory Shelekhov. Photo: topwar.ru
In search of new places in the West of the North American continent, where it would be possible to raise bread and livestock without crazy stress and colossal expenses, Lieutenant Ivan Kuskov, an employee of the Russian-American Company, set off to the south along the Pacific coast. In January 1809, he found a good place on the shore of the bay, which he named Rumyantsev Bay after Count Nikolai Rumyantsev, who was then the Minister of Commerce of the Russian Empire. Lieutenant Kuskov was attracted not only by the colossal colony of sea otters - sea otters, which were one of the main objects of the fur trade in Russian America, but also by a convenient plateau three dozen kilometers from the bay, which looked like a great place for a new settlement. Two years later, Kuskov returned to Rumyantsev Bay and carefully examined the plateau, making sure that it was really worth starting the construction of a fortress there, which would become a stronghold for furs, as well as farmers and pastoralists: the expedition found many convenient places for fields and pastures nearby.
Having studied the materials of these expeditions, the then head of the Russian-American company, Alexander Baranov, at the end of 1811 decided to support the researcher's proposal and to lay a settlement in Rumyantsev Bay, which would become the southern outpost of Russian America. At the end of February 1812, Ivan Kuskov returned to the selected site, along with 25 Russian colonists and nine dozen Aleuts, whom he was going to use for harvesting furs. It was this hundred daredevils who were the first builders and residents of the Ross fortress - such a name was given to her, drawing it by lot from several other proposals (alas, their history has not preserved). And the rivulet, flowing ten kilometers from the fortress and supplying water to the newly laid fields, was named Slavyanka - now it bears the name of the Russian River, that is, "Russian River".
The village of Ross was not just the first Russian colony in California - it became the first in many areas of agriculture in this part of North America. It was here that for the first time on this land they began to cultivate wheat and rye, set up windmills, laid out orchards and vineyards. And perhaps the most amazing construction of the colony was the first shipyard in California, a boat workshop and a boat shed. At first, Russian shipbuilders built only small kochi boats there for coastal navigation and sea otters, but over time they got their hands on larger sailing ships such as brigs, which were used to deliver Californian products to Alaska. It is noteworthy that almost all the metal parts for equipping the ships were made in the same place, in the Ross fortress.
From those very first Russian vineyards, Californian viticulture began, which is now so proud of this most populous state in the United States. And in those years, the few Europeans - mostly Spaniards - and slightly more numerous Indians looked at the Russians as aliens from another planet. After all, these people behaved quite differently from the "enlightened" colonialists from the Old World. They - and this requirement was rigidly enshrined in the charters of the Russian-American company! - did not humiliate or oppress the natives, but tried to maintain the most good-neighborly relations with them. If the Indians were involved in work, most often agricultural, then they were paid for it - a step unthinkable for the Spanish colonialists!
Fort Ross. Engraving from 1828. From the archives of the Fort Ross Historical Society
By the way, the Russian colony in California was distinguished by enviable tolerance and internationalism. Ethnic Russians in the Ross fortress were in the minority: in different years from 25 to 100 people, almost exclusively men, who worked for the Russian-American company. The majority of the population were Aleuts - the indigenous inhabitants of Alaska, whom the Russians called by a common name: from 50 to 125 people. In addition to them, the census lists of the Californian colony featured local Indians, mainly wives of Russians and Aleuts, as well as children from such mixed marriages, called by the common word "Creoles" (by the mid-1830s they accounted for a third of the total population). In addition to them, there were also very rare nationalities: Yakut cattle breeders, Finns, Swedes and even Polynesians. On the best days, the population of the Ross fortress and the villages-ranches around it was up to 260 people, who not only provided themselves with everything they needed, but also supplied food and goods to Alaska, and also engaged, again to the surprise of the "civilized colonizers", organized training Californian Indians in account, literacy and working professions.
Fortress Ross in California existed for less than three decades, never becoming, alas, the beginning of a large Russian colony on these lands. Affected by the remoteness from other Russian lands, primarily from the metropolis, and the difficulties in relations with the Spaniards, who refused to recognize the right of the Russians to the areas inhabited by them, and the climatic features of the area. Because of them, only cattle breeding was truly successful: coastal areas were not very suitable for grain growing, and the settlers had neither the strength nor the consent of the Spanish authorities to move inland. The sea otter fishery, which provided a significant profit in the early years of the Ross Fortress, began to decline as soon as the hunters exterminated most of the local population of these animals. As a result, from the mid-1820s, the Californian colony became unprofitable, its products did not meet all the needs of Russian America, which was expected at the beginning, and it was decided to sell the settlement. It was acquired in 1841 for 30 thousand dollars - 42 thousand rubles in silver - by businessman John Sutter, who ultimately did not fully pay the entire amount due, most of which was the supply of grain to Alaska.
