Grigor Ivanich Shelekhov: Encyclopedia Arctica 15: Biographies

Grigor Ivanich Shelekhov (1747 - 1795), Siberian merchant, founder of Russian colonies in Alaska. A decisive personality in North Pacific history, Shelekhov is nevertheless a shadowy figure, the principal out– lines of his life being traceable only with some ingenuity of inference, and even the accounts of his better known exploits suffering from his own misstatements and the detractions of his enemies. He was born in Rylsk, in the government of Kursk, in the Ukraine. At what age he decided to seek the virgin trade-field of Siberia is not known, but he would seem to have been in his mid-twenties.

Shelekhov's earliest employment appears to have been as a customs official at Fortress Mai-Mai-Cheng, on the Chinese side of the Siberian border. By the old trade treaty of 1669 between the Russian and Chinese empires, trade between them could be carried on at only two points, of which Mai-Mai-Cheng eventually became the only important one. Here, the Siberian commercial houses sent furs and at a yearly fair met the Chinese merchants who had brought tea, nankeens, medicines, and other products across the trade route over the Gobi Desert. In Irkutsk, the Chicago of Siberia in those days and gateway to the trade with China, Shelekhov made friendships and business alliances which in future years were to form the cornerstone of his wealth and authority.

Tea had come to be a necessary commodity to the Russian people. The Russian economy afforded little hard money with which to buy it and anyway the Chinese preferred furs, which the wealthy used in great quantities as articles of clothing. To pay for Muscovy's huge purchases of tea, the promyshlenniki, the Russian backwoodsmen, had hunted the Russian sable so effectively that the animal, along with many other species bearing furs marketable to the Chinese, had become almost extinct. In a desperate effort to keep up the trade, furs were being bought in London of the Hudson's Bay Company, and resold in Mai-Mai-Cheng to the Chinese. Then the return of the men of Bering's expedition from the North Pacific with a fortune in sea-otter skins opened the way to a new solution, which the proximity of the Aleutians to the Siberian coast made feasible. To outfit the expeditions setting out in all kinds of strange and unwieldy craft in search of furs on the Aleutian Islands, Irkutsk changed into a shipping-insurance center. Merchants of the first class belonged to guilds which were autonomous in each Russian city. The Irkutsk guild became a sort of Siberian Lloyd's.

Shelekhov's first experience in the new sea trade were on a scale some– what smaller than that required for expeditions to the Aleutians. In the 1770's, the record shows, he was busily building and despatching vessels to trade among the Kurils, the northern Japanese islands. He seems to have contem– plated the project of persuading Japan itself to open her ports to Russian trade. He never quite forgot this intention of trying something at which many important European diplomatic missions had failed, and we trace the continuity of his d ^ r ^ eam on through to Commodore Perry almost a century later. For, thirty years after these events, Shelekhov's son-in-law, Nikolai Rezanov, approached Japan with the panoply of imperial Russian might, but failed in the attempt, and Perry, as he laid the strategy of his own approach on behalf

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of the United States, studied in detail the reasons for Rezanov's failure in order to profit from them.

About 1780 Shelekhov contracted a marriage that allied his talents with money and political influence. This would seem to have been his second marriage. Ivan Golikov was a fellow Ukrainian, from Kursk, who had come to Siberia as an exile. Golikov had been a tax collector in Russia, was a man of mature years and great business ability and, in Irkutsk, had established himself anew. The status of Siberian exiles has been much misunderstood and much romanticized. Unless banishment were meted out as a punishment for serious crimes, an exile on coming to Siberia functioned as a free citizen in everything but the matter of returning to Russia. Perhaps it was Shele– khov who interested Golikov in the American fur trade. At any rate, the two formed a partnership for the financing of expeditions to the Aleutians. The alliance was cemented in Shelekhov's marriage with Natalya Alexyevna who was, as the record has it, "a kinswoman" of Golikov. One is tempted to think the gifted Natalya was Golikov's daughter. Golikov had other interesting relatives. The name of one Lavrentii Zoubov shows up on the articles of partnership of the first corporation. There was another Zoubov in St. Petersburg, Plato, the last lover of Catherine the Great, whom her Majesty took from the ranks of the army when he was ^ a ^ twenty-three-year-old corporal and made Prince of the Crimea and even Chancellor of the empire. However, the advantage to Shelekhov of these new relationships did not end here. Natalya Shelekhova was an unusual woman for her day. She was bold, ambitious, and gifted with no little business ability.

The profits from the trading ventures into the North Pacific were tremendous. Sea otter, then as now, was the world's most prized fur and a good skin brought tea to the value of three hundred gold rubles. But each year the voyages cost

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more and were attended with greater dangers, for as the yearly wave of fur hunters advanced along the Aleutian chain they left the islands barren of animals, necessitating further penetration eastward toward the American mainland. There seemed little point in establishing permanent bases. Despite the discoveries and claims of Bering, the imperial court had never been friendly to the idea of including the American islands in a Russian political orbit. Indeed, Empress Catherine made it clear that she desired no part of the world beyond her borders when, in 1769, she dictated to Panin, her minis– ter, that "I renounce forever all possessions in America." Repeated attempts to get her to change her mind failed. Promyshlennikis were sent to the court, with imperial ransoms in furs as gifts, to tell the stories of their exploits on the unknown islands and voice their pleas that she extend her sway. She always refused. On hearing of England's troubles with her American colonies, she mad a tart remark to the effect that it was Britain's own fault for having been so ambitious colonially. Catherine felt that her empire was as yet too unsettled, too uncolonized, to talk of overseas ventures. But she was not unwilling that her merchants should profit if they had the courage to penetrate to remote places. Catherine was a dilettante student of the theories of the French liberals. She adopted, deliberately, the policy of laissez faire for Russian business. She released merchants from the former prohibitive taxation that had hampered their efforts to expand beyond Musco– vite borders, and gave permission for trade away from home. In the same decree of 1769 in which she renounced foreign possessions she said, "It is for traders to traffic wherever they will. . ."

Despite Catherine's attitude, however, the Siberian merchants persisted in looking on the Aleutians and what lay beyond as Russian soil by right of Bering's and their own discoveries. Accordingly, when, in 1778, they heard from their traders and hunters of the exploratory voyage of Captain James Cook

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in Alaska waters, and understood that he was making charts and inquiring as to the extent of Russian penetration, they were profoundly disturbed. They were familiar with British maritime history and knew that it would only be a question of time until they lost their footholds on the rich islands, unless the hand of St. Petrsburg were in some way forced to their aid.

The chancellories of Europe had been as disturbed by the activities of the Russian merchants as were the merchants by theirs now. The world had settled down to rest after the tremendous exploratory ventures of the pre– vious century. The discoveries of Bering had aroused no notable jealousies for the reason that, Peter the Great being dead at their conclusion, the Russian court itself paid them little heed. For fifteen years after 1745 the encroachment of the traders on the American mainland seemingly remained unknown in Europe until the English clergyman, Coxe, dug up the evidence and published it. It seemed to the European chancellories incredible that St. Petersburg was not harboring some dark scheme. As a consequence a rash of exploratory voyages broke out in the Pacific — Spanish, French, and British, of which Cook's voyage was one — all having, as part of their object, examination of the Russian operation. The Russian merchants were correct in their estimates of foreign intentions. Cook, despite the obvious– ness of the Russian occupation as evidenced by the numerous outposts he saw, charted the coast line and gave bays, inlets, rivers, and mountains, English names which they still bear and which, in many cases, the Russians themselves adopted.

Shelekhov saw the need for vigorous and independent action. He would found a permanent settlement in America, and thus perhaps force the hand of St. Petersburg. The only source for much of the story of the success of this

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undertaking is Shelekhov's own two-volume work, Rossiiskavo kuptsa imenintavo Rylskavo grazhdannina Grigoya Shelekova pervoe stranstvovanye s 1783 po 1787, published in St. Petersburg in 1793. It is, in many respects, an untrust– worthy account, but the main outlines seem accurate. Shelekhov was inclined to claim credit for much that he did not do and to overemphasize the importance of some things he did so. However, he also slights phases of his work that, on the face of the record, must have presented appalling difficulties and which were, by the mere virtue of the fact that he undertook them all, remarkable.

Three ships were built at Okhotsk large enough to transport a colony of 192 men and crews and with supplies enough, including domestic animals, for a permenent post in the New World. All three of these vessels remained in Pacific services for a decade. The record of the difficulties of building two vessels of comparable size by Bering in this region indicates that the scope of the project. Even the iron for the anchors had to be transported up the Lena from Irkutsk and across the Stanovoi Mountains by horse. Never– the less the three vessels we ^ r ^ e built. Two were galiots, the third a sloop. The flagship was named Three Saints , the second galiot, St. Michael Archangel. The sloop was named God's Friend Simeon and Anna his Prophetess , variously rendered St. Simeon , Simeon and Anna, and simply, the Simeon. Taking his wife with him, Shelekhov and his men set sail on August seventeenth, 1783. (All dates in this article are New Style.)

Shelekhov had ample opportunity to see for himself the hazards of North Pacific seamanship. Early in the voyage the St. Michael was separated from the fleet in a storm and, after a fruitless search for her which advanced the season to the danger point, it was decided to winter on Bering Island. From here, after a season of the best discipline ever maintained over a crew so far seen in these parts, Shelekhov set sail in June of 1784 with his two vessels.

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In a fog off Unalaska, the God's Friend disappeared, but by now Shelekhov knew better than to waste time in useless searchings, and kept on, being rewarded by seeing the missing sloop reappear on his course.

Stepan Izmailov, the most experienced skipper in the trade, was master of the Three Saints . On August fourth a pleasing stretch of grassy coast was sighted and here, in a convenient bay, it was decided to land and found the colony. The place was named Three Saints Bay, and it was the first per– menent white settlement north of the California Spanish missions.

If Izmailov thought he had guided his employer to a place on the mainland, however, he was mistaken, for this was the southern coast of huge Kodiak Island. Shelekhov remained there two years. There is little doubt that he was an excellent organizer and a strong driving force. He constructed a village consisting of several houses in the Russian style, a counting house, a small foundry, a ropewalk. On the mainland, in Kachemak Bay on the Kenai side of Cook's Inlet, he planted an outpost, naming it Fort Alexander in honor of the Empress's grandson, and giving it a semblance of style with a carved wooden coat-of-arms over the gates which he flanked by two small cannon. It is difficul ^ t ^ to estimate the real degree of his success with the Aleut natives, however, for it is in this department that he is guilty of both exaggeration and misrepresentation. Wishing to represent himself as the savior and protector of the Aleuts at the imperial court, he claimed to have Christianized them in droves and to have set up schools for their education. His secret correspondence comes closer to giving the real picture; he saw them as a source of forced labor.

In the spring of 1786 the St. Michael providentially reappeared, after an improbable series of wanderings through the islands, much battered but serviceable. Shelekhov rightly interpreted this as another sign of his good

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luck and prepared to leave. He put the old trader, Constantine Samoilov in charge, giving him written instructions which were models of the kind. They called for enforcing sanitation, preventing scurvy, treating the natives with humanity, pushing exploration as far as latitude 40° N., and for ex– cluding rival traders from the occupied territory "by peaceful means, if possible."

Back in Irkutsk the Shelekhovs found important changes after almost four years in the uttermost reaches of the world. Plato Zoubov was now Prince Zoubov, apparently secure in the aging Empress's affections and certainly high in power. Old Golikov, perhaps as a favor from this branch of the family, had been pardoned and allowed to return home to the Ukraine. Shelekhov hastened to send him copies of his charts and narratives in the hope he would find means of presenting them in high places. Golikov, for– tuitously, managed to bring them to the attention of Her Majesty in person. She was returning through the Ukraine from a triumphal tour of the Crimea, and on stopping at Kursk, received Golikov in audience. She heard the story of Shslkhov's achievements, received Golikov's petition [: ] to reconsider her stand about extending Russian sway into America and his request for ex ^ c ^ lusive trade privileges in the territory as a reward for these deeds. Her answer was a request for Shelekhov to come to St. Petersburg to present his case in person.

In view of the well-known character of Catherine, this would seem to be a curious reversal of a former decision for her. She had, however, an audience of peculiar importance to her on her journey through the Ukraine. Her com– panion was the Comte de S e ^ é ^ gur, the French ambassador, who had witnessed her amazing tour of the Crimea and to whom she was most anxious to show off her method of government and of dealing with hrer ^ her ^ subjects. This fantastic Shelekhov tale and its exponent might well have been dramatically used by

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Catherine. We can only conjecture in the light of the facts, and we know that de S e ^ é ^ gur was a witness.

Shelekhov arrived in St. Petersburg armed with his records, the promise of backing from Siberian governor-general Jacobi, and a marriageable daughter Anna. Perhaps because there was now no Grench ambassador before whom to dis– play the prowess of her subjects, Shelekhov gained no audience directly with Her Majesty, but did receive the most careful attention of the College of Commerce, a body on which Her Majesty depended for advice in such matters. Shelekhov retold his achievements, dwelt on the importance of a permanent settlement in the New World, and asked for exclusive privileges of trade in the area for his company. Jacobi put in a strong plea, calling Shelekhov a human man who had proven his patriotism and adding that the old question of traders' cruelty toward the natives could only be answered by placing their welfare in the hands of such a man.

At first the College of Commerce found for Shelekhov. There was a recom– mendation of a subsidy for him of 200,000 rubles, without interest, and of giving Russian interests in the Pacific the protection of a portion of the naval fleet stationed in the Baltic. But Her Majesty approved none of these hings. The usual interpretation is that Shelekhov ruined his own case by his lies, in several of which he was discovered. His stupid claim to have dis– covered Kodiak Island was, of course, quickly shown to be false in view of the well-known record of previous explorations. His assertion that he had received the Aleut population of Kodiak into the Church was shown to be impossible. It is probable, however, that even had he seemed entirely plausible, Catherine would have been unmoved. Her attention was directed toward the affairs of Europe, toward Turkey and finding a way of opening a route for the Russians to the warm waters of the Mediterranean. She was German, not Russian,

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and such distances as the Shelekhov dream connoted she was unable to grasp. She granted Shelekhov and Golikov swords and gold medals and signed documents attesting to their noble deeds, and beyond that nothing more tangible toward a solution of the real questions involved than the right, which she did grant the Shelekhov-Golikov Company, of exclusive possession of such places as they might occupy. This was something, at least. It offered a means of excluding other traders from choice places.

Shelekhov could return to Irkutsk knowing also that strong forces were at work on his behalf. Zoubov was powerful and could grant them important secondary favors. Shelekhov's daughter, Anna, had become affianced to a rising young nobleman named Nikolai Rezanov, who was secretary to Gabriel Derzhavine, the celebrated poet, whom Catherine had made director of the Bureau of Petitions. But perhaps more important, Shelekhov had interested the Church on his behalf. On a visit to Valaam Monastery he told the Archi– mandrite Iosaph Bolotov of the benighted condition of the Aleuts and promised, if missionaries could be sent to their aid, to pay for their passage to America and support them in their work. In view of the unfitness of Shelekhov's colony to support even itself without difficulty, it is hard to believe that Shelekhov was sincere in this intrigue. Perhaps he did not really believe the priests would ever go. However this may be, it was a shrewd move and certain to be discussed in the highest quarters.

It is difficult, in appr ia ^ ai ^ sing such a man as Shelekhov, to separate the entirely selfish from purer motives; his motives were far from clear even to himself, as his letters reveal. There were easier ways to wealth, open even to a merchant such as Shelekhov in his time and country, than these which he now pursued. As with the character of John Jacob Astor in America, whom Shelekhov in many ways closely resembles, a better understanding is arrived

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at if we do not insist on regarding him as either all black or all white, but if instead we impute to him together with his obviously selfish motives, a genuine concern for what he felt to be the interests of the Russian Empire. He certainly saw the advantage that was being lost to Muscovy in the Pacific far more clearly than official St. Petersburg. Within the nationalistic bias of his thinking there was more genuine statesmanship in his view than in Catherine's. He saw that if the front doors to Russia were closely guarded by her enemies, no one at all stood at the back, or Pacific, door; that, indeed, it was wide open, but might some day be closed. The episode of the colony of serfs is illustrative of the ambivalence of his thinking.

Through the machinations of Zoubov, he succeeded in acquiring some thirty-five serfs and their families from a bankrupt estate. His company had had much trouble finding men of good calibre to go to the colony. It was almost impossible to find any who would agree to stay permanently. Shelekhov knew the importance of permanent residents. By the nature of his orders to his Kodiak overseer about the serfs we know he intended them to be dispersed about the colony at various tasks. But he ran a grave danger. Catherine, who was interested in the fashionable French liberalism of the time, was sensitive about the institution of the serfs. She protected them, and guarded the laws that forbade their sale to anyone outside the Russian Empire or their use for any purpose other than agriculture. To get them out of the country, Shelekhov had to promise faithfully to use them only for agriculture, and it was his official intention to use them in founding a new colony in Yakutat.

The hollowness of this pretense is evident to anyone who knows the dis– advantages of Yakutat as a farm colony. Too, the place was in the midst of the most truculent natives of the Northwest coast. The overseer, on receiving the

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serfs, refused to be a party to the extremely dangerous deception which might have involved them all in penal servitude if the Empress had discovered it, and sent them as agreed to Yakutat, insisting they attempt agriculture there. The sad finis to this episode is that in the Tlingit uprising of 1804 the serfs all met violent death.

The Church fared slightly better, after years, as a consequence of Shelekhov's intrigues. The Holy Synod accepted Shelekhov's offer of support for a body of monks, and sent them in command of the Archimandrite Iosaph himself. Their hardships, at first, were extreme, for Shelekhov kept none of his promises to them, but the wry fact is that the Orthodox Church, in this first of its missionary fields, was the last Russian institution to have power or influence in what had once been Russian America.

These things, together with the normal operationg cost of the colony, proved an enormous drain on the company. New ships were needed to replace the old fleet. It was plain that, in America, expansion ceased the moment Shelekhov's back was turned. He deposed Samoilov, replaced him with a Greek skipper named Delarov, who proved too easygoing; he finally selected, in 1790, the famed Aleksandr Baranov to be his colonial manager. Baranov proved trustworthy, clever and hard-driving, but blunt to the p i ^ o ^ int of painfulness and intolerant of Shelekhov's political intrigues. There was trouble with fellow-merchants. The Irkutsk guild, justifiably disturbed by all these attempts to secure a monopoly, united against Shelek ^ h ^ ov, A rival merchant, Pavel Lebedev-Lastotchkin, to take the bloom off the Shelekhov achievements and pretensions, also established a permanent post on the main– land and within a few miles of Fort Alexander on Cook's Inlet. The Lebedev men attacked the Shelekhov men, and sowed dissension among the Indians.

In 1795, on the eve of the death of the Empress Catherine and only four years before his son-in-law, Rezanov, succeeded in creating the Russian-American Company and getting for it all the power of which Shelekhov had dreamed, he died. He was forty-eight years old.

Shelekhov lies buried in the courtyard of the girls' convent in Irkutsk. His monument is a huge slab of white marble, graven in bas-relief with representations of his ships, and maps of the lands he won for Russia. Also, circling the tomb, is a long declamatory poem extolling his deeds, written by the poet Gabriel Derzhavine.

Most of the important Russian encyclopedic works contain articles on Shelekhov.

English primary sources are nonexistent, the most important secondary sources being:

Important data exists in the manuscripts taken from Sitka in 1867 and now at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Hector Chevigny