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Despite the existence of a big grape growing valley called Russian River and the San Franciscan neighborhood Russian Hill, visitors are still surprised when we explain that there once was a large Russian presence along the northern California coast. The flag of Imperial Russia was one of the seven flags that have flown over Alta California, not including the flag of Imperial China, but that’s a different story.
Russia first made forays into the northern Pacific in the 1740’s, claiming Alaska, which was purchased from Russia. However, keeping their bases there supplied was hard, so all around the Russian Fort (Fort Ross, a poetic form of Russia) on the Sonoma coast was farm land. Even today with jet planes and huge freighters Alaska still has a population smaller than the city of San Francisco.
The Fort also served as a base for their fishing boats. Of course, while fishing was a good business, it didn’t compare with the trade in sea otter pelts. These were hunted using Native Alaskans (Kodiak) brought south by the Russian American trading company, and in many cases using American sailing ships. The dense furs were traded in China where they were called soft gold. A single pelt sold for a year's pay for the average worker.
Although Ross was built like a fort, complete with an impressive array of canons, it didn’t have any soldiers. Instead it had traders, hunters and farmers and they liked to drink. Once they got feeling good they would fire off the canons. They fired them so often that the fort’s bookkeeper complained about the cost of the gun powder. If you visit Fort Ross today they still fire it almost daily.
There were a collection of Russian settlements stretching south along the coast to Bodega Bay and inland to Graton along the Russian River Valley. They also had a sealing station on the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco. Russian Hill in that city was named for a cemetery of sailors established there. That neighborhood became a refuge years later, with the fall of the Czar, for White Russians fleeing their home via Siberia and the ports of China. The Russian settlements along the river were California's first real western outposts, complete with technology, scientists and historians. They were also the source of the diseases that wiped out most of the Native People from Sonoma and Napa.
Two of the most glamorous residents of the Fort were the Princess Helena de Gagarin and her husband Count Alexander G. Rotchev, who was the commanding officer of Fort Ross. Please note that she married below her station for the sake of love. They were the royalty of this region and when a Russian surveying team reached the peak of Mount Mayacamas, at the northern part of the Napa Valley, they left behind a plaque with her name on it. That is supposed to be the source of the name Mount St. Helena. The winery Chateau Montelena, made famous by the 1976 Judgment of Paris takes its name from that peak. However, according to the archeologists at Fort Ross the name St. Helena was first bestowed by the Franciscans, in honor of the patron Saint in the valley where they were trained. In wine country there are often two versions of any story.
While the Russians were having their way in Northern Sonoma, the Spanish were sitting worried in San Francisco harbor. They were not supposed to trade with the Russians, but it was inevitable that they would. What was more worrying to them was the weakness of their forces in Alta California. They didn't want the Russians coming into the harbor for fear they would see how easily defeated they could be.
The Mission San Francisco was not very successful, between the fogs and the hills it was not a great place to grow things. The Mission San Rafael was established as a hospital for the Indians who got sick while working in San Francisco, probably from malaria brought by the fur traders and missionaries. Missions were as much farms and trading posts as religious outreach. Together these two didn't represent much of a bulwark against further Russian expansion into the very fertile and appealing Sonoma valley. It was proposed that the two be consolidated and moved north to Sonoma to prevent the Russians from expanding south, although later the original missions were maintained.
Initially it was founded in the Los Carneros district fairly close to the bay. This makes sense since father Altimira, who's brainstorm this was, came from Barcelona, and this area looks very similar to the Catalan hills. Later, after an uprising that saw the buildings burned it was moved north to the Sonoma Plaza. Eventually, under another leader it became a thriving mission, although not a long lived one. The Mexican government disbanded the missions and handed them over to the local governors.
It did accomplish its goal, in tandem with an onslaught of Americans arriving in the area before and during the gold rush. The Russian presence faded over time, although it left its mark, the names of the Russian River, Russian Hill, Bohemian Highway, the winery Korbel, founded by two brothers from Bohemia and wonderful Fort Ross, now a state park where you can visit, take the tour and fire the canon if you are feeling adventurous enough.
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