Background
Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuskov was born in 1765 in Totma, Vologda, Russia.
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Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuskov
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In 1787, at the age of twenty-two, Kuskov left for Siberia, to "find happiness. " There, in 1790, he met A. A. Baranov, who had just agreed to become resident director of the Alaskan fur-trading establishments of the Golikov and Shelekhov company. Baranov persuaded Kuskov to go with him as an assistant. They reached "Russian America" in 1791.
During his thirty-two years of service Kuskov was often obliged to take the place of Baranov in the latter's absence. He was obliged to travel a great deal, organizing the work of building the new Russian settlements and promoting the building of ships.
In 1806 he directed all the structural work in Novo-Arkhangel'sk (later Sitka, founded in 1804), having been appointed by Baranov as commander in chief of the fortress there.
From 1812 to 1821 he managed the Fort Ross; he built a shipyard and constructed three merchant ships and many smaller vessels. Near by he started cattle breeding, gardening, and farming.
During the course of his career in spite of his exceptional good nature and upright character, many attempts were made on his life by the Alaskans and Californians.
He left Russian America in 1822, and returned to his native city, Totma, where in October of the following year he died.
Achievements
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Kuskov is chiefly noted for his establishment of a Russian settlement in California. He had several times visited that region for purposes of trade and to find a site for a settlement, and in 1812, quietly and peacefully, he built "Fort Ross, " some fifty miles from the port of San Francisco, in a land inhabited for years by Spanish colonists.
Connections
All Kuskov's dangers were shared by his wife Ekaterina Prokhorovna, who was popular with the natives. She learned their language and customs easily and understood how to handle them. She was the daughter of a burgess of the city of Ustug, near Totma, in the Vologda Government, and after the death of her parents, in India, she went to Alaska, where she married Kuskov.
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