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Research in the Russian
State Naval Archives
The Fort Ross Interpretive Association
is working with the Russian State Naval Archives (RSNA)
to research documents produced on early 19th century voyages to California.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has provided funding for
this project. Russian American scholars are working closely with the
Fort Ross Interpretive Association and Dr. Vladimir Sobolev, director
of the Russian State Naval Archives, to research and translate these
important records which will enhance the study of early California.
In
the early nineteenth century, the Russian Navy made numerous voyages
to the west coast of North America. Many of the naval ships carried
highly-trained scientists and naturalists who created the earliest
records of life in California. The records and documents relating to
these voyages became the property of the Russian government, and are
now stored in the Russian State Naval Archives (RSNA) in St. Petersburg,
Russia. Although members of this research team compare the wealth of
documentation in the RSNA to that found in the Museo Naval in Madrid,
very little historical data has been published in the English language
relating to the majority of these Russian voyages. This team of Russian
and American scholars is now searching the RSNA to identify and publish
journals, maps, scientific notes, and illustrations that were produced
during these voyages to early California. The images below illustrate
the wealth of material found in the RSNA.
This Chart is Section of the Coast of Northwest
America from Fortress Ross to Point Great Bodega 1817. The cartographer
of this chart was navigator on Captain Leontii Hagemeister's ship Kutuzov.
This detail is the earliest-known painting of Fort
Ross. It is from the Plan of Fortress Ross, 1817. The plan
was sent to Madrid when the Spanish government demanded informatin
from Saint Petersburg about the settlement.
Documents in the RSNA include a broad
range of materials that will interest both laymen and specialists
across a variety of disciplines. The maps and sketches of early Californian
topography are both visually delightful and highly informative to
geographers and cartographers studying the progress of early map
making. Translations of the observations recorded in scientific journals,
notes, and logbooks will give voice to those early explorers, and
from them we can recover their observations of Native Californians,
as well as information about the cultural contact between Europeans
and Native peoples. In particular, this material will have broad
interest among ethnohistorians and anthropologists. The observations
from Russian voyages often provide a different perspective of the
Spanish, Mexican, and Russian colonial programs in California. For
example, Russian visitors such as Kotzebue, Zavalishin, Litke , and
Golovnin (see bibliography) wrote about the Franciscan missions,
and their accounts provide a unique and often contradictory perspective
to those of the Padres, or those of the Spanish or Mexican colonial
administrators. (Specifically, the Russians tend to point out abuses
against Indian neophytes in the missions that may not be included
in official Spanish reports.) Adding the Russian perspective is critical
for presenting a broader and more balanced interpretation of California's
colonial history. To ensure that future academics may benefit from
the results of this research, copies of the original Russian documents,
transcriptions, and English translations will be stored in a variety
of institutions in the United States and Canada.
Once we have identified
and translated the appropriate documents, we will create a book
of first-hand accounts, arranged by voyage and accompanied by graphics
and maps, of between five and ten of the most informative Russian
voyages that explored early California. The book will be suitable
for a scholarly audience as well as the general reader; it will
bring to historians, anthropologists, and political analysts a
greater understanding of the formative years of early California
and the United States as a whole. In addition, this research
will be used to create an exhibit which will illuminate the
Russian contribution to Colonial California history.
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Research
Materials (limited access page)
Russian
State Naval Archive
Russian
State Naval Archive English Text
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