Customer Reviews (1)

How the Russians did or didn't supply Alaska
Alaska has always been peripheral, both to America, and to Russia before that. The Tsar's men stripped it of furs as fast as they could for 124 years---the first settlements began in 1743 and the US government bought Alaska in 1867 for $7.2 million, despite much opposition to such a "waste of money". Nevertheless, every place has a fascinating story to tell. I hoped to find such fascination in Gibson's book, but was only partially successful. If you read IMPERIAL RUSSIA IN FRONTIER AMERICA, you will no doubt gain a lot of knowledge about a little known episode in history, but will have to endure much academic trivia. I was impressed by the way Gibson divided the Russian colonization into four periods. The first, from 1793 to 1799, was about exploitation of fur resources, using mainly Aleut skills. During the second period, from 1799 to 1819, the Russian-American Company (on the same idea as the Hudson Bay or East India Company) expanded southwards to California and even made an attempt to gain control over Hawaii. The Indians often attacked Sitka and Russian nautical knowhow was so poor that 16 out of their 28 ships were wrecked. The third phase went from 1819 to 1840 and was perhaps the best of times for Russian America with more inland settlement, less conflict with Alaskan aborigines, and some modus vivendi with foreign competitors. The final phase, to 1867, saw the colonial enterprise weaken. The California fort was sold off to Sutter (of gold mining fame) and Russia's national attention turned more to Asia. What I was fascinated to learn was that at its height, at the very peak of population, Russian America contained exactly 823 Russians ! Not exactly a very determined effort. Russia HAD to sell Alaska because it could no longer supply its settlements there; it held a losing hand of cards. The main focus of this volume is the problem of supply---it is not a general history. Thus, most chapters concern the details of how Russia could or could not manage to supply its faroff colony. This is an interesting problem, but one which I fear does not loom large in the concerns of even potential readers of Gibson's work. The Russians tried sending food and materials overland through Siberia and then by sea. They tried sending stuff by sea around Africa or South America from St. Petersburg. They tried to grow food in Alaska. They tried to set up an agricultural base in California and they tried to send supplies from Hawaii. Finally, they attempted to secure their needs through trade with Americans, British, or Spanish/Mexicans. All these attempted solutions had their own consequences. Nothing worked very well. That's why they had to sell out. The minutiae of all this are laid out very painstakingly. Gibson did a very thorough job of research, but I found it more than a little trying to peruse lists of supplies purchased or sent, numbers of otter caught or amounts of grain grown. His use of Russian misspellings for Hawaiian names (`Voaga' for Oahu and `Tomi-Omi' for Kamehameha for example) is a little bizarre. Overall, this book would be extremely useful for anyone studying the history of Russian colonization in the far northeast. That's why I have given it four stars. It could be read in conjunction with J.J Stephan's book on the Kuril Islands or with the book on Russia's Hawaiian adventure by Richard Pierce. The comparison which was uppermost in my mind while reading this book was with Geoffrey Blainey's "Tyranny of Distance", about Australia. The topic is exactly the same, but Gibson chose to approach the subject in a more circumscribed manner. Unlike Blainey's work, IMPERIAL RUSSIA IN FRONTIER AMERICA is for a few specialists, not for general readers, but there are many nuggets of fascinating information to be had. ... Read more

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Journeys to a Graveyard examines the descriptions provided by eight Russian writers of journeys made to western European countries between 1697 and 1880. The descriptions reveal the mentality and preoccupations of the Russian social and intellectual elites during this period. The travellers' perceptions of western European countries are treated here as an ambivalent response to a civilization with which Russia was belatedly coming into close contact as a result of the imperial ambition of the Russian state and the westernization of the Russian elites. The travellers perceived the most advanced European countries as superior to Russia in terms of material achievement and the maturity and refinement of their cultures, but they also promoted a view of Russia as in other respects superior to the western nations. Heavily influenced from the late eighteenth century by Romanticism and by the rise of nationalism in the west, they tended to depict European civilization as moribund. By this means they managed to define their own emergent nation in a contrastive way as having youth and promising futurity.

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Chapters: Strait of Tartary, East Siberian Sea, Sikhote-Alin, Bureya River, Amgun River, Bolshoy Shantar Island, Susuman, Svobodny, Amur Oblast, Skovorodino, Anyuy River, Baydukov Island, Chastye Islands, Chkalov Island, Amursk, Shchastya Bay, Shimanovsk, Ussuri River, Zeya, Obluchye, Raychikhinsk, Vyazemsky, Spafaryev Islands, Svobodny Cosmodrome, Yam Islands, Stanovoy Range, Omolon River, Nedorazumeniya Island, Feklistova Island, Iony Island, Sinegorye, Gizhigin Bay, Magdagachi, Zeya Reservoir, Oremif, Susumansky District, Zavyalov Island, Lake Bolon, Birofeld, Uda River, Amur Cart Road, Shelikhov Gulf, Zavitinsk, Progress, Amur Oblast, Maya River, Macha Crater, Kondyor Massif, Okhota River, Suntar-Khayata Range, Sakhalin Island Arc, Smidovich, Lake Kizi, Chetyre Paltsa, Lake Chukchagirskoye, Sakhalin Gulf, Ust-Omchug, Lake Evoron, Selemdzha River, Lake Udyl, Ulchsky District, Lake Orel, Taui Bay, Dzhugdzhur Mountains, Dipkun, Tordoki Yani, Kutsuzov, Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt, Nizhneleninskoye, Bikin, Manchuria, Kadykchan, Uchur River, Berill Mountain, Ola, Russia, Tom River, Bikin River, Ko Mountain, Urmi River, Kamen-Mukdykyn, Ulya River, Debin, Khor River, Kur River, Gilyuy River, Sobolev Crater, Kekurniy Island, Aldoma, Ust-Srednekan, Dep River, Chumikan. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 196. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The East Siberian Sea (Russian: ) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape in the North, the coast of Siberia in the South, the New Siberian Islands in the West and Cape Billings, close to Gytkhelen, Chukotka, and Wrangel Island in the East. This sea is bordering on the Laptev Sea in the West and the Chukchi Sea in the East. Since it is open towards the Arctic Ocean in the north, the main gulfs of the East Siberian...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=625357 ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1689 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development, 2d ed.(Book Review)
Author: Jonathan Oldfield
Publication: The Geographical Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 171Issue: 2Page: 182(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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"The purpose of this report is to provide a general description of the economic geography and structure of the Russian parts of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, which comprises the Murmansk Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, and the Arkangelsk Oblast, the latter including the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In addition, the Republic of Komi is included in the scope of this report, as it has applied for membership of the Barents Regional Council. Together, these five regions are referred to as the Russian territories of the Barents Region, or the Barents territories in brief"--p. [13]. ... Read more

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Text in Russian. Illustrated with graphs and black-and-white photographs. ... Read more