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Alaska
Аляска
Alyaska (transliteration)
Timeline: Cromwell the Great

OTL equivalent: US state of Alaska
Governorate-General of Russia
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of Alaska
Alaska and Russian claims in America (light green)
Capital
(and largest city)
Novo-Archangelsk
Other Cities Slavorossiya, Pavlovskaya, Nikolaevskaya and Unalaska
Language
  Official
 
Russian
  Others Native American languages (Aleut, Sugpiaq, Yupik, Inupiaq, Tlingit, Eyak, Athabaskan, Haida and Tsimshian) and several creole languages (Eskimo Kriol[1] and others)
Religion
  Main
 
Russian Orthodox Church (official)
  Others Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Alaskan animism and shamanism
Ethnic Groups
  Main
 
Russians
  Others Native Americans
Demonym Alaskan or Alyaskan
Government Colony administered by the Russian–American Company (1772-1820), District of the Siberian Governorate (1820-1837), Alyaska Governorate-General (1837 to date)
Emperor of Russia Nicholas I
Governor-General Aleksandr Rudakov
Area 1,717,854 km²
Established 1772
Currency Russian ruble, RAK coupons and barter
Time Zone GMT-9:30

Alaska or Alyaska (Russian: Генерал-губернаторство Аляска, Governorate-General of Alaska) is a Russian territory in North America.

Alyaska has several boundary disputes with Borealia (Commonwealth and Hudson Bay Company) and California due to the claims of Russia of the Pacific Northwest (Cascadia).

The Sacramento Treaty settle the southern boundaries of Cascadia between Russia, California and the British Commonwealth in behalf of Borealia. Previsions of the treaty lead to the future creation of New Albion and Oregon.

From 1743 small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of the Russian Pacific coast to the Aleutian Islands. As the runs from Asiatic Russia to America became longer expeditions (lasting two to four years or more), the crews established hunting and trade posts. By the late 1760s some of these had become permanent settlements. Approximately half of the fur traders were from the various European parts of the Russian Empire, while the others were Siberian or of mixed origins.

Formal incorporation of the possessions by Russia did not take place until the Ukase of 1772 which established a monopoly for the Russian–Alyaskan Company (RAK) and also granted the Russian Orthodox Church certain rights in the new possessions.

The Ukase of 1837 took away from the RAK the civil and military administration of Alaska and placed it under the Governor-General named by the Emperor. Alaska was divided in districts (krais) and major cities given local administration. Law courts and prosecutors were implemented across all krais and cities. Native Alaskans were to be organized in communities supervised by administrators named by the Governor-General. The Orthodox Church kept its missionary missions and were allowed to set up monasteries. Colonization was promoted at least in coastal areas, along russification of native Alaskans.

The Russians never fully colonized the territory of Alaska. For the most part they clung to the coast and shunned the interior. The coast has the majority of the population and main urban centers and ports. The interior was left to Orthodox missionaries, fur traders and political administrators of the native tribes.

Alaska, along Siberia and Russian Far East, had a tarnish reputation because they were the main places for establishing penal colonies of forced labor for common prisoners and places to exile of the participants of the losing side of the Civil War of 1825, the Russian Republican Revolution, participants of the uprisings within the Russian Empire and in general political dissidents.

The fisheries in the Bering Sea and the North Pacific are under the administration of the RAK that gives out fishing rights and concessions, being after fur trade, its second most important source of income.

The Klondike Gold Rush had the RAK negotiate mining rights and concessions with the Imperial bureaucracy. The sudden boom and migration of non Russians cleared the way for the RAK to have a prominent position and generous profits in mining and trade rights. However, later regulations would limit the migration of foreigners and establish quotas for the settlement non-Russians and limited to the five largest urban settlements with prohibitions to settle outside of them nor engage in fur trade.

Krais and Cities

Krais

  • Aleutian Islands
  • Bering Strait
  • Artic
  • North
  • Kodiak (excluding Pavlovskaya)
  • Yakutat
  • Kenai
  • Sitka (excluding Novo-Archangelsk)
  • Yukon

Cities

  • Novo-Archangelsk
  • Slavorossiya
  • Pavlovskaya
  • Nikolaevskaya
  • Unalaska


Russian–Alyaskan Company (RAK)[]

Российская-Аляскинская компания
Rossiyskaya-Alyaskinskaya Kompaniya (transliteration)
Russian–Alyaskan Company
Type Chartered joint-stock company
Traded as RAK
Industry Trade
Founded 1770
Headquarters Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Number of Locations Irkust (Russia), Novo-Archangelsk, Slavorossiya, Pavlovskaya, Nikolaevskaya and Unalaska
Area served Alaska
Products Fur trade, fisheries, salt, gold, oil, natural gas, coal, zinc and whale products
Production Output Textiles, foodstuff, retail, metal tools and wood
Services Trade and colonization

The Russian–Alyaskan Company (RAK) is a Russian fur trading venture, founded by Irkutsk entrepreneurs in 1770. Formed in Eastern Siberia during the 1770s along with several competing companies, the RAK had operations in the Kuril Islands and areas that later became Alaska.

The Ukase of 1772 gave it the trade monopoly of Alaska. Like its competitor, the Hudson Bay Company (HBC), it was responsible for the administration of its territorial concession. The Ukase mandated that its mission was to establish new settlements in Russian America, conduct trade with natives, and carry out an expanded colonization program.

The Ukase of 1837, under the consideration that the "poorly chosen and inadequately skilled staff" of Alaskan administration of the RAK was floundering in part from "the lack of experience of the executives handling an organization which overreached itself through its expansion across the Pacific and along the American coast" set up a series of reforms.

The most important was the separation of the political and military administration from the commercial activities. The Russian Empire incorporated Alaska as Governorate-General, separating it from the Siberian Governorate (1820-1837). The RAK kept its commercial rights, however, its exclusive trade within Alaska and the rest of Russia was abrogated and opened to private interests and entrepreneurs. Relations with native Alaskans were to be handled by the Governor-General.

From its initial activities pf fur, whaling and trade the RAK has diversified after losing its monopoly in trade and at present its main sources of income are fur (its only monopoly), fisheries and mining taken by its subsidiaries or concessions. Like its rival the HBC, the RAK has a network of trade posts and stores for its fur trade with natives and commerce, selling all kinds of goods with them.

Alaska, like Siberia, is one of the destinations for sending internal exiles.

Flags of the Russian–Alyaskan Company

  1. A Russian-Aleut creole
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