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First edition. Large Octavo (ca. 23x15,5 cm). [2 ? t.p.], [2 ? table of contents], [2 - preface], 332; [2 ? t.p.], 349 pp. Two volumes bound together. Title page to vol. 1 with a period blue pencil note "Tom [Vol.] 1." Period gilt-tooled red quarter morocco with later black cloth boards and red cloth corners. Some minor age toning and water staining of text, but only at the top margin throughout the block, but overall a very good copy. An important lesser-known Russian work on the history and modern state of the Russian American Company, related to the time of public discussion about the Company's future in the early 1860s. This critical piece negatively characterizes RAC, concentrating on its suppression and abuse of the indigenous people from the Aleutian Islands, exploitation of Russian fur hunters (promyshlenniki), inefficient use of natural resources, unsuccessful trade in Alaska and California, &c., and follows the critical line started by famous Russian circumnavigator and explorer Vasily Golovnin in his "Notes of the current state of the Russian American Company, 1818" and "Notes about Kamchatka and Russian America in 1809, 1810 and 1811" (both first published in the "Materyaly dlya istorii Russkikh zaseleniy po beregam Vostochnogo Okeana," as four supplements to the "Morskoy Sbornik" magazine in 1861). At the same time, the article remarks on RAC's trade with California, fur hunting and export, relations with Aleuts and Tlingits, New Archangel and its facilities, government decrees in RAC's support, &c. The author was a noted oppositional Russian publicist and a supporter of the idea of Siberian separatism, Serafim Shashkov. Shashov graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy and the Eastern Faculty of Saint Petersburg University, in 1861-1862, and became a member of the so-called "Siberian group" in Saint Petersburg, led by Grigory Potanin and Nikolay Yadrintsev, who advocated for partial or complete independence of Siberia from the Russian state. Shashkov wrote over twenty articles on the topic, arguing that Siberia and the eastern frontiers of the Russian Empire were seen by Saint Petersburg authorities as colonies, and the natural and human resources of these lands were ruthlessly exploited. In Shashkov's opinion, the most striking example of such exploitation was the activities of the Russian American Company. In 1865, Shashkov was arrested on the criminal case of the "Siberian group" and, in 1868-1873, was sentenced to exile in Arkhangelsk province. He continued his journalism work and wrote over 200 articles, published in the leading Russian magazines of the time ("Delo," "Otechestvennye Zapiski," "Zhivopisnoye Obozreniye," "Sovremennoye Slovo," &c.). Shashkov's article about the Russian American Company was first published in a rare Saint Petersburg newspaper, "Ocherki" (1863, issues 58-61). Being of liberal orientation, "Ocherki" existed for four months only (11 January ? 8 April 1863) and closed after 94 issues. For the second time, the article was published in the "Istoricheskye etudy" in 1872 (vol. 2, pp. 295-330) with the edited ending. If the publication in the "Ocherki" dated back to 1863, when RAC's fate was not decided yet, the article in the "Istoricheskye etudy" was issued five years after the sale of Alaska to the United States. At the end of the edited version, Shashkov noted: "Thus, the history of the Company clearly testifies that this organization only harmed the people, their trade, industry and welfare. The Company ruined its subjects and almost annihilated the entire Aleut population, and from a formerly abundant tribe of the Kuriltsy in 1862, there were only 66 people left alive <?> [The administration system] was so insolvent that with all its misdeeds, it couldn't provide enough profits even for the Company's shareholders. And, despite that, the Company continued to exist until the government sold its lands to the United States. It became possible to talk about the harm inflicted b. Seller Inventory # RA21
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