Nikolai Rezanov

A replica of Russian Block House #1 (one of three watchtowers that guarded the stockade walls at Novo-Arkhangelsk) as constructed by the National Park Service in 1962.

Rezanov had just succeeded in persuading Catherine II to sign his charter when she died (1796), forcing him to begin again to obtain a charter from the unbalanced and intractable Emperor Paul I. For a time the outlook appeared hopeless, but Rezanov's skill, subtlety and address prevailed, and he obtained the Emperor's signature to the Ukase of 1799 shortly before the Emperor was assassinated. The Russian-American Company (RAC) was granted a monopoly over the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, from latitude 55 degrees northward, roughly the southern border of Alaska today; and over the chain of islands extending from Kamchatka northward to Alaska and southward to Japan for a period of twenty years. As a civil servant, Rezanov couldn't be directly named a director of the company, so he was officially designated the RAC's "High Representative in the Capital".[9] The majority of the shares were owned by the Shelikhov family, although Rezanov, Emperor Paul, the future Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich were also shareholders. Initially the company turned a favorable profit until the first years of the 19th century, after which mismanagement and scarcity of nourishing food threatened it with serious losses, if not ultimate ruin.

In order to get a fleet to the area, the First Russian circumnavigation was undertaken, with Rezanov on board, taking the route from Sankt Petersburg to Brazil to the Kingdom of Hawaii to Kamchatka. The ships would not only supply the colonies in America but also begin a Russian fur trade between Alaska, Japan and China, and collect scientific data.[10] Rezanov was appointed as minister plenipotentiary and given the special assignment of opening diplomatic relations with the isolationist Tokugawa Shogunate. Before reaching Japan, the Russians visited Hawaii where they learned of the destruction of the Russian colony of Redoubt Saint Michael in America.[11] The Neva, one of the two ships in the expedition, was dispatched north on 31 May 1804 and was critical in taking back Saint Michael in the Battle of Sitka later that year. Rezanov was impressed with the agricultural potential of the Hawaiian Islands, exclaiming that "All of Siberia might be supplied by sugar from Owhyhee".[11] On board the Nadezhda, Rezanov and the remaining crew under Adam Johann von Krusenstern sailed for Petropavlovsk.

Finally departing for Japan in the autumn of 1804, the Nadezhda entered Nagasaki Bay in September. Rezanov didn't endear himself with his hosts, a Japanese translator telling him that "All of Japan is talking of you and saying that you are different from the Dutch, prouder, more heated and that you look down on the Japanese".[12] After many months of waiting for the Shogun's decision about opening trade relations with Russia, first isolated on board ship, then confined in a small compound on shore, the Russians left Nagasaki on 5 April 1805, their efforts at opening trade an embarrassing failure.[12]

Nadezhda returned to Petropavlovsk on 24 May 1805, where Rezanov found orders directing him to remain in the Russian colonies as Imperial inspector and plenipotentiary of the company, and to correct the abuses that were ruining the great enterprise. He departed on the Maria on 28 July for Novo-Arkhangelsk by way of the Aleutian islands. While touring the colonies, Rezanov established measures to protect the fur-bearing animals from reckless slaughter, especially on the Pribilof Islands, along with punishing or banishing the worst offenders against the company's laws. Additionally he established several schools and libraries, donating some of his own books, and he established cooking schools that flourished briefly.

Conditions in the colonies were harsh; housing was primitive, and food was scarce, with many supply ships being lost at sea. In 1806 the colonists at Sitka were dying of scurvy and starvation. The American maritime fur trader John DeWolf was at Sitka when Rezanov arrived. DeWolf, noting the food crisis and the difficulty the RAC had in acquiring decent ships, offered to sell his ship Juno to the RAC. Rezanov readily agreed. In desperation, on 26 Feb. 1806 Rezanov put together a small crew and left Sitka sailing south on the Juno on a life-or-death expedition to California to buy food and supplies from Russia's chief competitor in colonizing the Pacific coast, the Spanish.[13] Sick with hunger and scurvy, they arrived under the guns of the Spanish overlooking San Francisco Bay on 27 March, meeting with the comandante of San Francisco, Don José Darío Argüello. During a stay of six weeks, Rezanov was successful in bartering and buying wheat, barley, peas, beans, flour, tallow, salt and other items. Departing on 10 May, he reached Sitka on 8 June.[14]^{: 51–55, 59}

The Ryazanov Monument in Krasnoyarsk

María de la Concepción Marcela Argüello y Moraga 1791-1857

Rezanov had begun a love affair with the 15-year-old daughter of the comandante Concepción Argüello ("Conchita"). The couple became engaged, causing a sensation in the tight-knit California society, especially because of their differences in religion and nationality, but Rezanov's diplomatic skill won over the clergy. Rezanov had the promise of the perplexed governor to forward a copy of the treaty to Spain at once. He proceeded to Petropavlovsk, where he dispatched his ships, without the consent of the Emperor of All Russia—in effect declaring war on his own—to attack the Japanese island Sakhalin of the lower Kuril group.[15] Rezanov then began the overland trip to Saint Petersburg, hoping to obtain the Emperor's approval for the treaty. He wrote personal letters to the Pope and to the King of Spain asking dispensation and royal consent for his marriage.