Alexander Andreyevich Baranov

Who was Alexander Andreyevich Baranov?

Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was born in 1746 in Kargopol, in St. Petersburg Governorate of the Russian Empire.

Alexander ran away from home at the age of fifteen. He became a successful merchant in Irkutsk, Siberia. He was lured to Russian America, by the growing Maritime Fur Trade there. He became a successful trader there and established and managed trading posts in the Kodiak Island region.

From 1799 to 1818, through Nikolai Rezanov's intervention, he became chief manager for the influential Russian-American Company. He managed all of the company's interests in Russian America, including the Aleutian and Kuril Islands. Activity in the region flourished as trading in sea otters and seals boomed. Baranov convinced native hunters to expand their range to include the coasts of California. Baranov also advocated more educational opportunities for the Alaska Native Americans. Under his leadership, schools were created and frontier communities became less isolated. During Baranov's rule, Russian Orthodox missionaries operated in Russian America.