Russkaia amerika : zaokeanskaia koloniia kontinental'noi imperii 1804-1867 - Vin'kovetskii I.

The monograph of Canadian professor Ilya Vinkovetsky, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, born in Russia and raised in the United States, is a fundamental study of the history of the only overseas colony of the Russian Empire. On the basis of an extensive source of base, the author reveals the political, economic and social aspects of the functioning of the Russian-American colonial system, sums up the century-old ownership of Alaska for the Russian Empire, for the indigenous population and for the environment, and explains why the government of Alexander II in 1867 unexpectedly decided to sell Russian America to the United States. According to the author, Russian imperialism demonstrated amazing flexibility and adaptability in Russian America, which until the moment of sale was a vulnerable, but still viable colony.