Description

The book presented here recounts the work of the ten monks from the Valaam Monastery, in Russian Karelia, who went to Alaska to establish the Russian Orthodox mission. The group of monks was sent at the request of Grigorii Shelikhov (1747–95), co-founder of a predecessor of the Russian-American Company. Shelikhov had begun trading with indigenous peoples in Alaska and wanted to establish a greater Russian presence in the territory. The monks departed Saint Petersburg in December 1793 and arrived on Kodiak Island the following September. The book covers the ...