Fort Nikolaevskaia

Fort Nikolaevskaia or Fort St. Nicholas, also called Nikolaevskii Redoubt,[2] was a fur trading post founded by the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company (LLC) in Alaska, the first European settlement on the Alaskan mainland.[3] It is located on the site of modern Kenai. It was one of several posts maintained by the company on Cook Inlet. With the creation of a monopoly in Russian America around the Russian-American Company in 1799, the station continued operations until the Alaska Purchase.

Foundation

A LLC galiot under the command of Pytor Zaikov, the ''Sv. Pavel'', sailed to Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island in 1786. The trade post was then center of Shelikhov-Golikov Company (SGC) operations, a competing Russian fur company. The crew wintered at the station despite orders given to NEC managers by Grigory Shelikhov to remove, "by force if necessary", competing Russian merchants located near company posts.[4] Zaikov conferred with Evstratii Delarov about locating a suitable area to establish a trade post. Delarov recommended that the LLC employees make their station on Cook Inlet, where his own company had previously "pacified the inhabitants."[4] ''Sv. Pavel'' entered Cook Inlet on 1 June 1787 and sailed 15 miles past the NEC Fort Alexander to the entrance of the Kenai River where Fort Nikolaevskaia was established.[5] Above the stockade "a crude wooden carving of the imperial arms" was posted.[4]

Operations

Fort Nikoleavskaia quickly became the center of LLC trapping operations on Cook Inlet. After overseeing activities for two years, Zaikov and a crew set sail for Okhotsk on 15 July 1789. The furs carried by ''Sv. Pavel'' were valued at over ₽100,000. Fort Nikolaevskaia then had a staff of 38 Russians, Dena'inas and Itelmens, with Pytor Kolomin overseeing operations.[7] Provisions dwindled as the staff waited two years for a supply ship to arrive. Coastal Alaskan Natives in general "were outstanding hunters of marine mammals", and used as laborers by the various Russian fur trading companies. The LLC staff were the most notorious in dealings with the Aleutian and Dena'ina peoples, as the Russians "exploited them, underpaying them for furs and for labor as hunters and servants and even enslaving them."[7] While waiting for supplies, relations with neighboring Dena'ina soured with skirmishes and raids killing seven LLC employees.[7]

Reinforcements and provisions arrived on the ''Sv. Georgii'' in August 1791, commanded by Grigorii Konovlov. Konovlov and his 63 LLC employees some forced Kolomin and his complement from the company post. Acting as an "unprincipled bully" who "robbed his rival, plundered and outraged the natives, and, eventually, threatened the trading-posts and shipyard of the Shelikof Company".