Glorious Misadventures

Starred review from August 26, 2013
Matthews, a Newsweek editor and Russia specialist, follows in the footsteps of the eccentric Rezanov, illuminating the story of the Russian American Company, whose early-19th-century land claims stretched from the Aleutians to Northern California and included a short-lived Hawaiian colony. Russia’s schemes for Pacific domination amounted to little more than a “string of lonely stockades and forts manned by a motley array of convicts, fur trappers and foreign desperadoes,” and Rezanov, the driving force behind Russia’s New World forays, grew increasingly erratic the longer he was away from St. Petersburg. The book’s most memorable episode occurs not in America, however, but during Rezanov’s disastrous mission to Japan. With his ship anchored off the coast during a weeks-long wait for the shogun’s permission to land, he amused himself by urinating from the deck, in full view of curious locals. Humiliated by his eventual failure to establish diplomatic relations, he would later declare war on the country against the express orders of the czar. Matthews’s humor, eye for detail, and voluminous knowledge of the historical context make this book a penetrating and enjoyable account of the exploration age and Russian society, from the imperial court to the wild frontier garrisons. Agent: Natasha Fairweather, A.P. Watt (U.K.).

October 1, 2013
In the early 1800s, the Russians came very close to colonizing North America. Newsweek contributing editor Matthews (Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival, 2008) introduces us to the visionary men who attempted to build a Russian Empire. The history of Russia and the picture of Catherine the Great's court show how men like Nikolai Rezanov (1764-1807) and Grigory Shelikhov (1747-1795) had to grovel for permission and funding for their expeditions. It was the fur trade, not patriotic zeal, that beckoned men to America. Shelikhov established Russia's first overseas colony at Kodiak in 1784. After three years, he returned to Russia as the largest fur trader in the country. Perhaps due to the lack of sources, Matthews does not devote nearly enough ink to this man nor to Alexander Baranov (1746-1819), whose work as the first governor of Russian Alaska ensured a strong foothold. As luck would have it, Shelikhov's daughter married Rezanov, a St. Petersburg aristocrat searching for riches. Rezanov's three-year journey to establish trade with Japan and advance the American colonies began badly with confusion over its leader, and his superior attitude destroyed any possibility of success. His constant arguments with the ship's captain and his descent into madness, chronicled in the multiple journals of co-passengers, make for entertaining reading. Rezanov's plans for a great trade route in the Pacific could have made Russia a great empire; alas, it was not to be. They failed to take advantage when the Spanish empire collapsed, and they sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, before the Klondike Gold Rush. Matthews opens a new window into the first settlements of America's Pacific coast, the men who led it and the reasons for its failure.

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