Economist, July 20, 2013 (V)

choi

(5) Russia’s American empire | How the East Was Lost; When the tsarist empire reached California.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... a-how-east-was-lost
(book Review on Owen Matthews, Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America. Bloomsbury, 2013)

Note:
(a) Nikolai Rezanov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rezanov
(1764-1807; section 1 Russian-American Company; section 2 Mission in California)

In 1806 he arrived at San Francisco and met Conchita, when he was 42 and she, 15.
(i) Russian-American Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-American_Company
(Chartered by Tsar Paul I in 1799, it was Russia's first joint stock company, and came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia; headquarters in St Petersburg after 1801)
ended when Russia sold Alaska to US in 1867.
* “Saint Petersburg was founded by the Tsar Peter the Great [in] 1703. From 1713 to 1728 and from 1732 to 1918, Saint Petersburg was the Imperial capital of Russia.” Wiki
* In 1733 the Dane Vitus Bering and the Russian Alexei Chirikov, each commanding a ship, sighted Alaska--the first European to do so. Thus Russian America (1733-1867).
* New Archangel (first built in 1804) was capital of Russian America, which is now Sitka, Alaska.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitka,_Alaska
(the last paragraph of introduction for name origin of Sitka; New Archangel [was] named after Arkhangelsk, the largest city in the region where [governor of Russian America, Alexandr] Baranov was born)
(ii) Conchita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchita
(a diminutive for the Spanish given name Concepción)
(iii) Concepción
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepci%C3%B3n
(Spanish for "conception," in reference to the Immaculate Conception of Roman Catholic faith)
(iv) Concepción Argüello
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepci%C3%B3n_Arg%C3%BCello
(1781-1857; daughter of José Darío Argüello, the Spanish governor of Alta California [1804–1846, when Spanish American War broke out; capital was Monterey] and Presidio Commandante)

Spanish American dictionary:
* alto (adj masculine): "high; top, upper"
* presidio (noun masculine): "garrison, fortress"

(b) "Many know that Russia sold Alaska to America, rather cheaply, in 1867, fearing it had become indefensible. But few know how it became Russian in the first place. Had history gone a little differently—if gold had been found a little earlier, or if Russia had not been so extraordinarily unlucky in its rulers—California’s Russian River might be a geopolitical reality, rather than a toponymic echo."
(i) Alaska Purchase
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase
(section 1 Background)
(ii) Alaska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska
(the last paragraph of introduction, about name origin; Starting in the 1890s and stretching in some places to the early 1910s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska)
(iii) Not having read the book, I have no idea why Economist says Russian rulers were “extraordinarily unlucky.”
(iv) Russian River (California)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_River_(California)
(is the second largest river (after the Sacramento River); view map)

(c) “Glorious Misadventures” is in part this extraordinary man’s biography, starting from his [Rezanov's] days scratching a living in deathly dull Pskov, and plotting his rise to high favour, aided in part by a successful first marriage to the daughter of a rich merchant."
(i) Pskov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pskov
* The Wiki page for Rezanov ((a) above) does not mention Pskov. The (English-language) Web says he “joined the Pskov civil court.”
(ii) ニコライ・レザノフ  Nikolai Rezanov
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3 ... 6%E3%83%8E%E3%83%95
(“1778年、砲兵学校を出て近衛連隊に入隊。1782年には退役して地方裁判所の判事となり、1787年にはサンクトペテルブルク裁判所勤務、のち海軍省次官秘書などを務めた

translation: in 1778 left artillery school and entered imperial-guard regiment . In 1782 discharged from military and became a judge in a local court [at Pskov], then worked at a court in St Petersburg, later served as secretary to vice minister of the navy.

(d) “Japan (where Rezanov tried in vain to open trade, and later launched a private war)”

文化露寇 bunka rokō
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E9%9C%B2%E5%AF%87

translation:

"[introduction] In 1806 and 1807--文化3年 and 4年 of Japan, respectively, 文化 being 天皇's 元号--Nikolai Nezanov (who had been an envoy dispatched by Russian Empire to Japan) ordered subordinates to attack Japan's northern position.

"[summary, paragraph 2] In 1804, Rezanov received the direction, bore the Shinpai and landed Nagasaki by ship. Having submitted a request to negotiate with shogunate, he waited half a year when his condition was akin to an house arrest, but shogunate ended up refusing trade. So he reached the conclusion: there is no way to open up Japan for trade, except by force. In his plan to avenge, In his plan to avenge, Rezanov ordered subordinates (such as [naval sublieutenant 海軍中尉] Nikolai Khvostov, according to Russian Wikipedia) to assault Japan's northern positions: Sakhalin 樺太 and Iturup 択捉島 [part of Kurile islands 千島列島]. Shogunate assembled ~3,000 samurais to protect Hokkaido. In 1808, the tsar was displeased by the [wild-cat] military action on Japan and ordered withdrawal. In response, shogunate started recalling the Samurais stationed at Hokkaido.

(i) 露 (pronounced "ro") = Russia
(ii) 信牌
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/信牌

translation of introduction: Chinese (Ching/Qing) ships to Japan were required to carry a Shinpai, as an entry permit to Nagasaki [Due to 鎖国, Japan traded with China and the Netherlands only. So 30 Chinese ships and 2 Dutch ships. For the latter, the practice was discontinued after Dutch East India Company monopolized the trade between Japan and the Netherlands.]
(iii) Sakhalin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin
(section 1 Name: Chinese 库页, Japanese 樺太)

(e) “Among only a handful of truly attractive characters is the ship’s doctor, Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, who talked his way on board in Copenhagen. An accomplished naturalist, he survived many privations (including when Rezanov casually threw his most prized specimens overboard) and ended up as Russia’s consul-general in Brazil.”
(i) Grigory Langsdorff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Langsdorff
(1774-1852; Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, better known by his Russian first name, Grigori (Gregory) Ivanovitch;  a respected physician, graduated in medicine and natural history at the University of Göttingen, Germany)
(ii) In the quotation, “he” and “his” refers to Langsdorff.

(f) “Years later, long after Rezanov was gone and just as his business plans were finally beginning to flourish, the company fell into disfavour at court. Its modern-minded chiefs were seen as threatening by the ultra-reactionary Nicholas I. Incompetent and corrupt administration finally doomed Russia’s American adventure—just as it did, ultimately, the tsarist regime.”

Nicholas I of Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_I_of_Russia
(1796-1855; reign 1825-1855; On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers (7.7 million square miles))

Distinguish him from Nicholas II of Russia (1868-1918; reign 1894-1917; the last tsar of Russia).
(g) This is a difficult article for me. I spent the better part of Saturday (July 20) through Monday (July 22) on it, because I was unfamiliar with Russian America and because there is few English-language content on Rezanov.