# Promyshlenniki

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The ***promyshlenniki*** (Russian: промышленники, промышленник, *promyshlennik*)[a] were [Russian](/source/Russians) and [Indigenous Siberian](/source/Indigenous_peoples_of_Siberia) [artel](/source/Artel) members, or self-employed workers drawn largely from the state [serf](/source/Serfdom) and [townsman](/source/Municipal_council) class who engaged in the [Siberian](/source/Siberian_fur_trade), [maritime](/source/Maritime_fur_trade), and later [fur trades](/source/Fur_trade).[1]

Initially, the Russians in [Russian America](/source/Russian_America) were [Siberian](/source/Siberians) fur-hunters, river-merchants, and mercenaries, although many later worked as [sailors](/source/Sailor), [carpenters](/source/Carpenter), [artisans](/source/Artisan), and craftsmen. The *promyshlenniki* formed the backbone of Russian trading-operations in Russian [Alaska](/source/Alaska). Some of them worked on preliminary request contracts, including for the [Russian-American Company](/source/Russian-American_Company), and their duties and activities became less involved in the company's fur-gathering activities.

## Siberia

See also: [Siberian fur trade](/source/Siberian_fur_trade)

Initially, the phenomenon arose in the [Novgorod Republic](/source/Novgorod_Republic). In the [Novgorod dialect](/source/Birch_bark_manuscript), they are called *povolnik* (Russian: повольник), a person who is not bound by constant obligations with any guild, principality, city, monastery, diocese or boyar. Their region of activity was Perm, the Irtysh River, and Northwestern Siberia.

Following the Russian conquest of Siberia, as a part of the [regional fur trade](/source/Siberian_fur_trade), the opportunities offered by this newly available [luxury product](/source/Luxury_product) drew many Russians eager to make a profit in newly conquered territories. [Service-men](/source/Service_class_people) that arrived, rarely able to receive a stable salary from the state. Merchants began to visit the Russian settlements, interested in selling the gathered furs at various markets.[1] The *promyshlenniki* were free men who made their living any way they could. When petitioning the tsar, a service-man would call himself 'your [Kholop](/source/Kholop)' and a promyshlennik 'your orphan'. These people were often called Cossacks, because they did not pay any personal taxes to the state. They paid only the trading tariff, and were required to participate in wars with their weapons and ammunition, food and fodder, similarly to American rangers.

As the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire) expanded its bureaucratic network into Siberia, Russian colonists were able to be placed under Imperial regulations. Fur operations ran by *promyshlenniki* were altered with the oversight by the officials, as they now had to "bring all his catch or his purchase to the town in proper season, submit his furs to the tsar's agents for sorting, appraisal, and taxation (usually, as we noted, 10 per cent). He must not trade with natives except in the town and then only in certain seasons; he must not ply natives with liquor; he must return his remaining furs to [European Russia](/source/European_Russia) along approved routes and submit them to continual inspection."[2] The fierce competition between *promyshlenniki* led to the overexploitation of sable populations, continually forcing them to go further east. With the decline of European demand for sable furs at the end of the 17th century, so did its price; making many promyshlenniki partake in caravans headed to the [Qing Empire](/source/Qing_Empire), or selling their furs the border town of [Kyakhta](/source/Kyakhta).[2] Promyshlovik began to gather sable pelts located in the [Amur basin](/source/Amur_River) during the early 17th century.[3] Trappers based out of [Nerchinsk](/source/Nerchinsk) regularly crossed the Qing border into what became Russian Manchuria, or [Outer Manchuria](/source/Outer_Manchuria), by the 1730s to pursue sable populations residing there. Russian officials were aware of these operations, but "tolerated any breach of the Russian-Chinese treaties which might occur."[3]

## Russian America

The [Great Northern Expedition](/source/Great_Northern_Expedition) expanded Russian geographical knowledge to many of the [Aleutian Islands](/source/Aleutian_Islands) and the mainland of [Alaska](/source/Alaska) from the [Alaska Peninsula](/source/Alaska_Peninsula) to near the later site of [New Archangel](/source/Sitka,_Alaska). News of the many [Sea otter](/source/Sea_otter) populations along these lands quickly drew the attention of many Siberia-based *promyshlenniki*. Few had naval experience, though many began to travel the [Bering Sea](/source/Bering_Sea) on [kochs](/source/Koch_(boat)) made from timber adjacent to the [Sea of Okhotsk](/source/Sea_of_Okhotsk).[4] The first Russian *promyshlennik* to travel east was Emelian Basov, who sailed to [Bering Island](/source/Bering_Island) in 1743.[5] *Promyshlenniki* based out of [Okhotsk](/source/Okhotsk) or [Petropavlovsk](/source/Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky), made provisions for their yearly operations in the Aleutians by killing [sea cows](/source/Steller's_sea_cow) of the [Commander Islands](/source/Commander_Islands) to extinction.[4] The Sea otters of the Aleutians were progressively exploited by Russians, until by 1759 the [Fox Islands](/source/Fox_Islands_(Alaska)) were visited by Russian trappers.[4] As these early trappers had "no knowledge of navigation", they consequently "took no observations, made no surveys..." and greatly limited geographical information for outsiders.[4]

The [Lebedev-Lastochkin Company](/source/Lebedev-Lastochkin_Company) sent the first Russian *promyshlennik* to investigate the resources of the lower [Yukon River](/source/Yukon_River) in 1790. The party, led by the hunter Ivanov, traveled from [Iliamna Lake](/source/Iliamna_Lake) to the [Kuskokwim](/source/Kuskokwim) and Yukon rivers. Ivanov reported on the extensive fish and game resources and the many people inhabiting the region.[6] At first the traders returned to [Kamchatka](/source/Kamchatka) after every season but eventually [trading posts](/source/Trading_posts) were established in the territory.[7] These posts began in the Aleutians and moved eastward toward the [Alaska Peninsula](/source/Alaska_Peninsula) rather than north to the Yukon delta and [Bering Strait](/source/Bering_Strait).[8]

Many *promyshlenniki* became employees of the Russian-American Company (RAC) after it was established in 1799. Under the RAC *promyshlenniki* performed tasks such as hunting, supervision of sea otter hunting parties, carpentry, shipbuilding, farming and ranching at [Fort Ross, California](/source/Fort_Ross,_California), guard duty, and a variety of other work.[9] An example of an important RAC employee who was born into [serfdom](/source/Serfdom_in_Russia) near [Kursk](/source/Kursk), sold to the RAC, called a *promyshlennik* by the RAC, and played a key role in RAC expansion into California, was [Timofei Nikitich Tarakanov](/source/Timofei_Nikitich_Tarakanov).

### Relations with Aleut and Alutiiq people

See also: [Alaskan Creole people](/source/Alaskan_Creole_people)

The *promyshlenniki* were adept at hunting on land but they lacked the skills to hunt on water, where [sea otters](/source/Sea_otter) lived. The *promyshlenniki* then turned to the native [Aleut](/source/Aleut) and [Alutiiq](/source/Alutiiq) men to do their hunting for them. These [Alaska Natives](/source/Alaska_Native) were trained at a young age to hunt sea otters. The Russians took the women and children hostage and forced the men to hunt for them to ensure the safety of their families.[10] The offspring of Russian men and Native women gave rise to a small but influential population of [Alaskan Creoles](/source/Alaskan_Creole_people).

### Lifestyle

As time passed many of the Russian *promyshlenniki* took Aleut partners, had children, and adopted a native lifestyle during their time in the [Aleutian Islands](/source/Aleutian_Islands).[10][11] In 1794, with direct authorization from Catherine II, the Siberian governor Ivan Pil sent instructions that managers of [Shelikhov-Golikov Company](/source/Shelikhov-Golikov_Company) at [Kodiak Island](/source/Kodiak_Island) should "encourage" single Russian men to marry native women.[10][12] While the [Vancouver Expedition](/source/Vancouver_Expedition) was exploring the northern Pacific, the explorers visited several Russian fur posts. [Joseph Whidbey](/source/Joseph_Whidbey) visited a [Lebedev-Lastochkin Company](/source/Lebedev-Lastochkin_Company) station at [Tyonek](/source/Tyonek,_Alaska), with Vancouver describing the *promyshlenniki* located there as:

[The Promyshlenniki appeared to be perfectly content to live after the manner of the Native indians of the country; partaking with equal relish and appetite their gros [sic] and nauseous food, adopting the same fashion, and using the same materials for their apparel, and differing from them in their exterior appearance only by the want of paint on their faces, and by their not wearing any of the Indian ornaments.

— [George Vancouver](/source/George_Vancouver) 1794[13]

## See also

- [Awa'uq Massacre](/source/Awa'uq_Massacre)
- [Mednyj Aleut language](/source/Mednyj_Aleut_language)
- [Zemleprokhodtsy](/source/Zemleprokhodtsy)

## Notes

1. The word промышленник in this meaning is dated in the modern Russian language: since [Karamzin](/source/Nikolay_Karamzin) introduced the neologism *promyshlennost* ([промышленность](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D1%8B%D1%88%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C)) as a purist equivalent of [industry](/source/Industry_(economics)), the word *promyshlennik* has been reinterpreted as '[industrialist](/source/Industrialist)', now chiefly used in the context of 19th and pre-revolutionary 20th century Russia. Nowadays hunter or fur trapper in Siberia would be called [промысловик](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikt%3A%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D1%8B%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BA) (*promyslovik*).

## References

1. Fisher, Raymound H. (1943). [*The Russian Fur Trade, 1550-1700*](https://books.google.com/books?id=Vn86VZEdwc4C&pg=PA29). Berkeley: [University of California Press](/source/University_of_California_Press). pp. 29–30.

1. Foust, C. M. (1961). "Russian Expansion to the East Through the Eighteenth Century". *The Journal of Economic History*. **21** (4): 469–482. [doi:10.1017/S002205070010899X](https://doi.org/10.1017/S002205070010899X). [S2CID 154462103](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:154462103)

1. Maier, Lother (1981). "Gerhard Friedrich Müller's Memoranda on Russian Relations with China and the Reconquest of the Amur". *The Slavonic and Eastern European Review*. **59** (2): 219–240.

1. Andrews, C. L. (1942). *The story of Alaska*. 5th ed. Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Printers. pp. 31–34.

1. Haycox, Stephen W.; Barnett, James K.; Liburd, Caedmon A. (1997). [*Enlightenment and exploration in the North Pacific, 1741-1805*](https://books.google.com/books?id=78WzZlqwFCcC&pg=PA6). Seattle: [University of Washington Press](/source/University_of_Washington_Press). p. 6. ISBN 9780295975832.

1. ["Alaska History and Cultural Studies: 1800-1869 The Russians and English Meet"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120208014526/http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=57). Archived from [the original](http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=57) on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2007-11-18.

1. Gross, Nancy (1994-11-03). *From Promyshlenniki to Pollock and Beyond*. Trade and commerce in Alaska's past: papers presented at the annual meeting of the Alaska Historical Society. pp. 6–19.

1. ["Alaska Regional Profiles : Yukon Region : The People"](http://www.alaskool.org/resources/regional/yukon_reg_profile/people.html). Retrieved 2008-01-07.

1. Khlebnikov, Kiril Timofeevich (1990). *The Khlebnikov Archive: Unpublished Journal (1800-1837) and Travel Notes (1820, 1822, and 1824)*. Volume 5 of Rasmuson Library Historical Translation Series. Translated by Bisk, John. Shut, Leonid (ed.). University of Alaska Press. p. 203. ISBN 9780912006420.

1. Miller, Gwenn A. (2005). ["Russian Routes"](https://web.archive.org/web/20071006081512/http://www.common-place.org/vol-05/no-02/miller/). *Common-Place*. **05** (2). Archived from [the original](http://www.common-place.org/vol-05/no-02/miller/) on 2007-10-06. Retrieved 2007-11-18.

1. ["Alaska History and Cultural Studies: 1743-1867 Era of Russian Violence"](https://web.archive.org/web/20070928123436/http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=94). Archived from [the original](http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=94) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-11-18.

1. Wheeler, Mary E. (1966). "The Origins of the Russian-American Company". *Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas*. **14** (4): 485–494. Neue Folge.

1. Vancouver, George (1798). [*A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific Ocean...*](https://books.google.com/books?id=6SXg61wa3UUC&pg=PA122). Vol. 3. London: J. Edwards Pall Mall and G. Robinson Paternoster Row. p. 122.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Promyshlenniki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promyshlenniki) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promyshlenniki?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.