# Are there any Russians descendants living in Alaska from the original transfer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539 "2016-07-10T08:53:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/21 "2016-07-11T14:04:26Z")
I do not know any numbers, but there are definitely native Alaskans with Russian surnames. The ones I met belong to the Russian Orthodox Church near Eagle River Alaska. Perhaps they (their ancestors) were given Russian names upon converting, or perhaps they intermarried Russians. I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/22 "2016-07-11T14:05:52Z")
Just a footnote, really, but anyone interested in the Russian history in North America who can’t make it up to Alaska can visit Fort Ross, on the Northern California coast. (On the **ahem** Russian River, in fact.) It was founded by Russian seal and otter hunters and was a thriving outpost of Mother Russia until the hunting was pretty much depleted, at which point the installation was sold to John Sutter. Many of the Russian army uniforms that came with the deal ended up on Sutter’s private army of (mostly) Native Americans, who were commanded by a Prussian. Most people are as surprised to learn the Russians had a well-established colony in the mainland US as they are to learn the US invaded Russia in the 1920s. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/23 "2016-07-11T14:11:47Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Was there ever a practice of Native Alaskans taking on Russian surnames without having interbred with Russians? If not, it would seem that most Alaskans with Russian surnames would fit the OP. I can’t imagine there was a lot of Russian emigration to Alaska after the purchase… Unless, maybe during the Alaskan God Rush? I know this is completely a nitpick, but indigenous Alaskans refer to themselves as Alaska Natives, not Native Alaskans. A native Alaskan is just somebody who is born there. I’d also question your earlier comment about the Native population crossing the Bering Strait as recently as the 1940s. Can you provide a cite of some sort for that? That’s one rough patch of water and ice, and I’ve never heard that claim before. While there may have been people traveling between [Little Diomede Island and Big Diomede Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diomede_Islands), I don’t see it happening between the mainlands with any frequency after the land bridge was submerged. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/24 "2016-07-11T14:22:23Z")
Not only are there descendants of Russian colonists in Alaska, but they go down as far as Southern Oregon and Northern California, hence towns like Sebastopol among the Spanish names in the Russian River Valley. The valley itself (named after the river originally called Slavyanka by the explorers from the Russian American Company led by Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuskov) was thoroughly explored and several emplacements established including what would become known as Fort Ross. As for Sarah Palin, she wouldn’t know a pierogi from ravioli and would probably start an i ternational incident by confusing the Pope with Putin. That a comedic impression cannot be sufficiently exaggerated to distinguish from the perception of what Palin might have said is itself evidence of her ineptitude. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/25 "2016-07-11T14:25:49Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” > > from [snopes](http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/russia.asp) Which is, in fact, actually true. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/26 "2016-07-11T14:28:31Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > If, for example, a Russian man fathered a child with an Eskimo woman… > > As such, it’s **inconceivable** … I caught that. Nicely put. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/27 "2016-07-11T15:27:27Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Not only are there descendants of Russian colonists in Alaska, but they go down as far as Southern Oregon and Northern California, hence towns like Sebastopol among the Spanish names in the Russian River Valley. The valley itself (named after the river originally called Slavyanka by the explorers from the Russian American Company led by Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuskov) was thoroughly explored and several emplacements established including what would become known as Fort Ross. > > As for Sarah Palin, she wouldn’t know a pierogi from ravioli and would probably start an i ternational incident by confusing the Pope with Putin. That a comedic impression cannot be sufficiently exaggerated to distinguish from the perception of what Palin might have said is itself evidence of her ineptitude. > > Stranger When most people think of Alaska, they think of the Eskimo people, but in fact, as you have obliquely pointed out, the intermingling of Russians with indigenous people was most likely with Aleut, Tlinget, Tshimshian, and other Indian tribes of Southeast Alaska and the western states. That doesn’t mean there was zero interaction with the Eskimos by Russians, as whalers and sealers routinely went to the more northern parts of the territory. On an anecdotal level, my father, who was a bartender in Juneau in the 40s (and possibly earlier), related stories to me of Russians that he dealt with. I have no idea if they were more recent arrivals or not. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/28 "2016-07-11T15:41:01Z")
Did all the citizens of Alaska become US citizens when it was purchased? There may have been US citizens there at the time, but the majority of people whatever their background weren’t US citizens initially. Were the Alaskan natives all Russian citizens? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/29 "2016-07-11T15:51:44Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Did all the citizens of Alaska become US citizens when it was purchased? There may have been US citizens there at the time, but the majority of people whatever their background weren’t US citizens initially. Were the Alaskan natives all Russian citizens? As a US Territory, it’s logical that they would all have become instant US citizens. Prior to the sale, I would suspect that Russia considered them all to be subjects of Tsar Alexander. Not that the Natives cared one way or the other what the white man called them. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/30 "2016-07-11T17:00:30Z")
Not necessarily, because Native peoples in the continental U.S. were explicitly excluded from citizenship by the 14th amendment (passed in 1968). They wouldn’t get it until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/31 "2016-07-11T17:23:26Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Not necessarily, because Native peoples in the continental U.S. were explicitly excluded from citizenship by the 14th amendment (passed in 1968). They wouldn’t get it until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. I’m sure you meant 1868, not 1968. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/32 "2016-07-11T17:27:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’d also question your earlier comment about the Native population crossing the Bering Strait as recently as the 1940s. Can you provide a cite of some sort for that? That’s one rough patch of water and ice, and I’ve never heard that claim before. While there may have been people traveling between [Little Diomede Island and Big Diomede Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diomede_Islands), I don’t see it happening between the mainlands with any frequency after the land bridge was submerged. [Here you go:](http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/north-america-russia-bering-strait-eskimos-population-weather-whale-territory-administration-indigenous-peoples-cold-war-tribes-russian-federal-park) > [@](#): > > The Bering Strait is only 82 kilometers wide, and for thousands of years the indigenous people moved back and forth between the two continents. With the onset of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR following World War II, the Bering Strait became a military zone and was closed. Families were cruelly separated. Today, still, the Eskimos compare what happened to them with the fate of the Berliners during the era of the Wall—except that their tragedy went largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/33 "2016-07-12T00:17:04Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [Here you go:](http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/north-america-russia-bering-strait-eskimos-population-weather-whale-territory-administration-indigenous-peoples-cold-war-tribes-russian-federal-park) I’m guessing that in the latter times, travel across the strait was by aircraft, or at least that’s what I’m gathering from the rest of the article. That’s probably in the top three of the harshest 82 miles on the planet, and I seriously doubt that kayaks and umiaks would be up to the task. In the winter, the pressure ice would prevent any meaningful surface travel. Interesting article, though. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539/34 "2016-07-12T00:28:01Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > You can’t swing a dead salmon on the Kenai Peninsula without hitting a Kvasnikoff or an Oskolkoff. It’s hilarious, I was going to post about my old boss who was a Russian from Alaska. His last name is Kvasnikoff! He also had a great deal of Native Alaskan blood in his ancestry as well. This jives with what others have said in this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-russians-descendants-living-in-alaska-from-the-original-transfer/759539.md?page=1)