Russians made Christians out of savages, from the ignorant - educated
Sitka city government (Alaska) obeyed the demand of local activists, demanded in the wake of anti-racial unrest in the United States to remove from the city center installed in 1989 monument to the first governor of Russian Alaska Alexander Baranov (1747-1819). Violent activists branded the monument to the Chief Ruler of Russian settlements in North America as a symbol of white colonialism and the humiliation of the Tlingit Indians of Alaska (the Tlingits).
The Coordinating Council of Organizations of Russian Compatriots in the United States collected six thousand signatures in defense of the monument, but it did not help. The only thing, what have been achieved, – the monument will not be demolished under the hooting of the crowd, and transferred to the city museum, Sitka Mayor Gary Pitken promised.
The inscription on the monument to Baranov reads: "Let us live in eternal peace and friendship on this earth" (That we may dwell in anmity and peace forever in this region). "Eternal Peace" did not work. For the first time, the Americans desecrated a monument in 1989 city, then again in 2013 g.
Meanwhile, thanks to Baranov, which 1790-1818 gg. served as chief executive officer of the Russian-American Company, first shipyards appeared in Alaska, markets, hospital, library, craft workshops, brick and iron foundries, Orthodox churches, seminary, agricultural technologies were introduced ... Civilization came to Alaska with the Russians.
At first, the attitude of the Tlingit Indians towards the Russians was hostile. First attack on a group of Russians and Aleuts, in which Baranov was, Indians committed to 1793 city, despite the fact that peaceful contact had already taken place earlier, when the Indians were presented with a copper cross and an image of the Russian monarch.
The Tlingits were the most warlike people of Alaska. ("worse than the wildest beasts", Russians spoke), kept the surrounding tribes in subjection and did not tolerate competitors. They weren't satisfied, that the peaceful Aleuts, despised by them, began to seek protection from the Russians. As a warning, the Tlingits caught the Aleuts and cut off their heads.. The Tlingits regarded the smallest quarrel as a wound to tribal pride and responded by killing settlers., not involved in the quarrel. Even the refusal of the Russians to fulfill some household request of the Tlingit leaders could serve as a reason for the murder..
By the time the Russians arrived, the Tlingits were already trading with American businessmen.. The Americans threatened the Indians with a complete cessation of economic relations, if they don't drive the Russians out. All this led to, that 1802 by 1805 Alaska was engulfed by a series of major Russian-Tlingit conflicts, during which the Indians stormed the Mikhailovskaya fortress on about. Sitka and killed two parties of Russian fishermen in the forest.
AT 1804 g. Russians recapture Sitka and free captive Aleut women from the hands of the Tlingits. In this battle, Baranov is wounded.. Later, on his orders, Mr.. Novoarkhangelsk - the capital of Russian Alaska.
The enmity of the Indians towards the Russians was spurred on by the predatory actions of some Russian merchants.. The messenger of the Russian-American company, scientist-ethnographer Kirill Timofeevich Khlebnikov, called them "people without honor and good morals". To put things in order, the Russian administration instructs priest John Veniaminov sent to Alaska (future Saint Innocent of Moscow) make a report card fishing seals, so that their livestock does not decrease and provides food for local residents. The rampant merchants were reined in, the number of cats has increased. Then about. John was entrusted with the spiritual care of the Tlingits.
Saint Innocent of Moscow
On Fr. Sitka he arrived in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. The killings of Russians began again, the Indians considered them the culprits of the epidemic. In the market, the Indians tried to sell smallpox-infected food to the Russians.. Being vaccinated against smallpox, Russians didn't get sick, and the Tlingits were dying by the hundreds. This is how it is described in the life of St.. Innokenty of Moscow: «[Tlingit] finally turned to Russian doctors ... with a request to protect them from the disease. clear, that Russian doctors immediately came to the rescue ... With the help of Russian doctors, smallpox was defeated ".
After that, the attitude of the Tlingits towards the Russians changed.. Soon oh. John proceeded to baptize the Indians. In each case, he first asked for permission from the leader of the tribe and the mother of the person being baptized.. This respect for elders touched the Indians more than any sermon., and Fr.. John didn't get rejected. Learning the Tlingit language, about. John opens a school for Indian and Aleut children. For centuries, the warring Tlingits and Aleuts sat on the same bench, studying literacy and the Law of God. In the Tlingits for their determination and fortitude about. John saw future preachers of Orthodoxy in America.
“Russian missionaries were not like that [like European]. With them we spoke in our native language, danced folk dances ... in the church we have a Bible in local languages", says a Tlingit named Cyril, forthcoming, like his father, become a priest
“They made Christians out of savages, from the ignorant - educated. They built churches, founded schools, and still the rays of Christian light do not reach Alaska from Washington, but to our shame, from St. Petersburg and Moscow", - quoted in the life of St.. Innokenty of Moscow words of one of the American congressmen after the purchase of Alaska by the Americans in 1868 year.
Ideologically aggressive preaching, which is distributed now in America (since all the white colonists destroyed the Indians, so the Russians in Alaska are racists and murderers!) is a blatant misrepresentation of facts.
The Russians sought to incorporate the Tlingits into the state body of the Russian Empire, teach literacy, I'm tinkering. They didn't give the Indians smallpox-infected blankets., like the British, and treated for smallpox. Did not destroy the food stocks of the Indians, and made a normalized schedule for the production of fur seals, to meet the needs of the Russian-American company, and local population.
Didn't use slave labor, but they wanted to redeem the slaves from the Alaskan Indians for their free settlement in Kamchatka and the Kuriles along with Russian subjects. Baptized not with fire and sword, like the Portuguese and Spaniards, but with a kind word and with the consent of local leaders. Didn't drive the natives away, but they were invited to work and married local women. Even the wife of Alexander Baranov was an Indian - a fact, impossible for a European governor! None of the European colonial powers (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain) did not behave with the natives so carefully and with such care, like Russian colonists.
Vladislav GULEVICH
