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Nikolay Rezanov: a Real Patriot of Russia

Nikolay Rezanov (1764-1807) was one of Russia’s leading voyagers and statesmen. He helped to found the Russian-American Company.

He was born in a noble family in Smolensk district and did the military service as a lieutenant in the Life-Guards of the Izmailovsky regiment. Later he served as a chief secretary of civilian affairs and director of the Russian-American Company.

Rezanov wanted to devote his life to Russia. That is why he asked His Imperior Majesty Alexander I for permission to travel to Russian America.

When Rezanov got to Russian America he was impressed by many hardships of Russian settlers: they suffered from lack of food and were afraid of coming famine. The local soil was infertile. There were no building materials: bricks, mica for windows, and copper for the construction of vessels.

The Russian population was growing very slowly. In 1805 there were about 470 of Russian colonizers and a considerable number of Indians depending on the company, (by the census of Rezanov on Kadiak Island there were 5200 of them). People who served in establishment of the Company, were very violent, that’s why Nikolay Rezanov called Russian settlements a “drunken republic”.

Nikolay Rezanov did a lot of useful things for the improvement of people’s life.

At that time there was a serf system in Russia, and the dependence of peasantry from the landowners deprived Russian America of reliable working hands. Rezanov offered several alternatives to solute that problem. He suggested landowners to sell peasants to the Company for work in Russian America. However, that proposal didn’t get the support of the Russian government.

He renewed the work of the schools for boys. Pupils independently of their nationality and family status could study there. He ordered to send 10 boys to Irkutsk annually and after vaccination there, to send them either to Moscow or St-Petersburg to study different sciences, skills and crafts. In five years those boys had to return back to America.

There was also established a school for girls, known as “Maria’s Blessing Kindness Charitable House”. One hundred girls including sixteen creoles studied there. Four best girls were sent to Russia annually to study housekeeping and needlework.

Rezanov insisted on studying the language of the natives by the Russians. He made up the dictionaries of the Russian-Cadiak and Russian-Unalashka languages published by the Academy of Sciences, as well as the Russian-Japanese dictionary, composed earlier.

After N. Rezanov had established educational institutions in the settlements, he founded a hospital, which could be attended both by the Russians and the natives.

The court called “The Punishment of Russian Settlers and Americans” was also established by Rezanov. The court had to investigate all disputable lawsuits between Russian settlers, including the complaints for insults, oppressions, disobedience, deceit, debt claims and, at last, litigations between the natives and the Russians. In the structure of the court there were two Russians and two natives under the chairmanship of one of the superior officers serving in the company. The natives had to be present only when litigations concerned relations between them.

Having familiarized himself with a state of affairs in Russian America, Rezanov came to the only decision of the problem: to establish the trade with California and found there a Russian settlement to supply Russian America with bread and dairy products to save the Russian population from famine. It was necessary to promote the establishment of commercial ties between the Russian-American Company and Spanish colonists. So under the Russian flag the Juno and the Avos sailed to California on February 26, 1806.

In California Rezanov landed in a Spanish settlement near the monastery belonging to the order of St. Francis of Jose de Alssisi. The Russians were met by Jose de Arguello, the Governor of San Francisco, with hostility. At that time he planned a ball in honor of his sixteen-year-old daughter Conception de Arguello. At that ball Rezanov was introduced to Conchita. They loved each other. It was the end of the Russian-American Company’s commercial ties. Scandal and rumors caused by Rezanov’s dishonorable deed, made the Russians to return to their ships and leave San Francisco. After a secret engagement Rezanov started his trip home.

The tragic and romantic story of love between Nikolay Rezanov and a Spanish beauty Conchita is worthy of admiration. They could not get married because of their different faiths. So Rezanov decided to return to St. Petersburg to ask for permission from the higher clergy to the marriage between the Catholic and the Orthodox. On the way home he felt sick, and died on March 1^st, 1807. Conchita, however, refused to believe in his death, and faithfully waited for him more than 35 years.

The story of their love is depicted in the rock opera “Juno and Avos” written by Alexey Rybnikov in 1979. The “Lenkom” theatre still performs this opera on stage and it is very popular.

On June 9^th, 2007, during the celebration of the City Day, a memorial to a famous Russian diplomat and statesman, Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov, was opened in Krasnoyarsk.

The name of N. P. Rezanov is forever inscribed in the history of Russia. He played an important role in the development of Russian America, strengthened the position of the Russian Empire on its eastern borders and initiated inclusion of several Japanese islands, including Sakhalin, to Russia.

9. Answer the following questions:

•What did you learn about Nikolay Rezanov?

•What was his participation in the work of the Russian-American Company?

• Why did he sail to Russian America?

•What was he impressed there by?

• Why did Nikolay Rezanov call Russian settlements a “drunken republic”?

• In what way did he suggest to solve the problem of the serf system in Russia?

• Why was it important to establish court there?

• What kind of disputable lawsuits did the court have to investigate?

• What decision for the problem of famine did Rezanov come?

• What was the result of his trip to California?

10. Write if the statement is true (T) or false (F):

• Nikolay Rezanov had a military education.______

• He loved Russia. ______

• The number of Russian people prevailed over the local people in Russian America._____

• To develop Russian America he suggested sending young men to Russia every 5 years. ______

• Boys and girls were sent to Russia by tens._____

• Rezanov insisted that all natives, living in Russian America had to study the Russian language. _____

• He was the first to compose the Russian-Japanese dictionary._____

• The natives had to be present at court always. _____

• To supply Russian America Rezanov decided to buy bread and dairy products in California._____

• Commercial ties of the Russian-American Company with California were not successful. ____

• The higher clergy did not allow a Christian Rezanov to marry a Catholic Conchita Arguello. _____

•N. Rezanov played an important role in exploring of Russian America. _____