Patriot Games: Alaska in Russian Patriot Games: Alaska in Russian Nationalist Geopolitical RhetoricNationalist Geopolitical Rhetoric

Andrei ZnamenskiAndrei ZnamenskiUniversity of MemphisUniversity of Memphis

New Archangel (Sitka), the capital of Russian America

Russian America (Alaska) within the empire, 1799-1867

Russian presence in AlaskaThe source of fur resources (mostly sea otters)Controlled by Russian-American company, a semi-governmental monopolyWeak Russian presence

In the 1860s 70% of Alaska remained unexplored, Russian control extended only to coastal areasSparse “Russian” population (550 persons) and 896 mixed bloods (creoles)Polyglot nature of the 550 “Russians” (Finns, Baltic Germans, Russians, and Poles)

Hardships of supplying the colony: round-the-world expeditions (Kruzenstern-Lisyansky, Lutke, Wrangell)

Fort Yukon: an unreported British trade stronghold within Russian America, since 1847

Sale of Alaska (1867)Decline of fur animals and profitsRussian-American Company subsidized by the empireExpensive to maintain and supplyFear of English annexation Russia begged US to buy this “ice box”US agreed to do this for $7 millions$7 millions were used to buy locomotives

Popular historical stereotypes about Alaska in current Russia

Alaska was not sold by leased to US for 99 yearsCatherine the Great sold Alaska to US The gold paid by US for Alaska did not reach Russia but disappeared on the way to St. Petersburg

The joke that was taken seriouslySteven Pearlstein,“Alaska Would Be More at Home in Russia,” Washington Post (2005)One of the Russian media replies: “We Need Everything” (2005) by Alexander Dugin, a nationalist ideologist:

“We need to take this joke seriously. This is a very important issue. We do need Alaska. We could place a military base that will threaten territorial and national security of the United States”

Goals of the Paper

• To show that “Russian America” rhetoric is part of cultural geography of current Russian nationalism

• Examine patriotic fictional and non-fictional literature that deals with Alaska

Why Alaska?

Convenient geographical “playground” for nationalism A piece of Russian Empire that was soldSold to the United States: the “den” of evil cosmopolitan forces

Resonates well with rising anti-Americanism in Russia

Symbolism of North/Siberia in Russian nationalism

1946 and beyond: Cold War, Geopolitical Ambitions, Russian-Soviet Nationalism

Alaska in a Soviet Army march song (1952)

From “Colonization” view to “Domestication” view (1940s-1950s)

Cold War, struggle with “cosmopolitans,” Western cultural influencesRussian “progressive colonization” of borderlands“progressive colonization” to “domestication” of borderlands West “colonized” borderlands, Russia “domesticated them

Sergei Markov, Russians in Alaska (1946-): 1,000,000 copies

Ivan Kratt, Baranov Island (1949-): 500,000 copies

Symbolic Geography of Russian Nationalism

Nationalist geography is usually wider than a nationality’s core territoryRussianness is not only Russia and Slavic people but also Siberia and Alaska and other areas populated by Russians“Domestication” of borderland areas by Russian nationalist imagination

Symbolic Geography of Russian nationalism as applied to Alaska

Aleksandr Bushkov, Alaska: Glory and Shame (2006)

Two Myths of Nationalist Historiography

Bad Western colonizers and Russia’s “progressive” colonizationRussian America was all explored populated and closely linked to the empire; it had prosperous economy and vibrant cultural life

Major characters in patriotic Alaskan fictional literature

Russian empire builders (Shelikhov, Rezanov, and Baranov) - carriers of high standards of morality and civilizationevil and unscrupulous Englishmen and Americans (Henry Barber, William Cunningham and their prototypes)Passive natives instigated by foreigners against Russians“fifth” column that undermines Russian interests from within (evil Poles)Good Germans and Baltic Germans: they appreciate soil and tradition, order and loyalty

From Adam Johann von Krusenstern to Ivan Federovich Krusenstern: “bad” to “good” German

Kratt, Baranov Island (1946): bad German

Bushkov, Russan America (2006): good German and

patriot of Russia

Russian cultural hero and liberator in Alaska wilderness

Russians fighting the assault of the Tlingit Indians in 1804: an illustration from novel The Keys to the Enchanted Castle by Alexander Badigin (2003)

“Evil” Indians instigated by Americans and the English kept disrupting the peaceful advance of Russians

• Ivan Mironov, The Fateful Deal: How Alaska was Sold (2007)

• Mironov - historian, former activist of ultranationalist “Motherland” party

“Liberal Treason and Corruption” thesis

“Liberal Treason and Corruption” thesis

The Alaska sale as an example of disastrous results of capitalism (Alexander II and his modernization reforms in the 1860s-1870s)

Grand Duke Constantine “bribed” by foreign interestsRussian railroadsSome railroads were sold in private hands

• The link to modern situation: Russian disastrous privatization campaign of the 1990s

Alaska sale – the first step toward partitioning of Russian territory that is going on today

Secret plot thesis

• Sergei Kremlev, Alaska Discovered and Sold (2005)

• The sale of Alaska as a secret plot against Russia by cosmopolitan Freemason interests of England and United States

• “Agents of influence”

Russians’ Alaska reading list today

Nationalist Alaskana in mass print dominates book market, internet, and librariesPopularity of growing nationalist Alaskana among reading public is a small window into the current “rising from the knees” cultural and political trend