Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, a Russian nobleman and statesman, promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Emperors of All Russia—Catherine the Great, Paul, and Aleksander I. Aleksander I commissioned Rezanov as Russian ambassador to Japan (1804) with the aim of concluding a commercial treaty. In order to get to his post he was appointed co-commander of the First Russian circumnavigation (1803-1806), led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. Rezanov left the expedition in 1805 when it returned to Kamchatka after visiting Japan (1804-1805).
Rezanov's portrait from the State Historical Museum
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.
The Ryazanov Monument in Krasnoyarsk
María de la Concepción Marcela Argüello y Moraga 1791-1857
First Russian circumnavigation
The first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth took place from August 1803 to August 1806 and was carried out on two ships, the Nadezhda and the Neva, under the commands of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Yuri Lisyansky, respectively. The expedition had complementary economic, diplomatic, and exploratory goals.
Harbour of St Paul on the Island of Cadiack, Russian sloop-of-war Neva
Nikolay Rumyantsev, Russian statesman who sponsored the expedition
Krusenstern's portrait by Johann Friedrich Weitsch, 1808
Unknown painter. The portrait of the admiral Nikolay Mordvinov, stored in Hermitage
