Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America

Glorious Misadventures is a biography of Nikolai Rezanov. He was born into a changing world as Russia was striving to move into the main current of European culture. The coin to finance this was furs, rich dense sea otter furs from far eastern Siberia. Resanov was drawn to the idea of making the Pacific coast of present Alaska, Washington, and California a Russian province and spent his life trying to bring this to pass. He married the daughter of a robber baron of Siberia, which gave him backing and access to the Pacific. He became a secretary to the last of Catherine the Great’s favorites which gave him access to the royal court. He made several voyages, trying to establish permanent Russian towns in Japan, Hawaii, Alaska and California. His history is the history of the conquest, plunder and loss of the dream of an American Russia. The book has historical depth, detailing the culture and major persons of the time. Resanov is a product of his time culturally, and too much ahead of his time in his expansion of the Russian American Company. It is a fascinating book of Russian involvement in US settlement and history of our far west coast. I recommend it.