Russian America and its Problems in Contemporary National Works of Economists

Abstract

The article critically examines the publications of modern Russian economists on the history of the former Russian colonies in the New World, sold in 1867 to the United States and subsequently forming the territory of the state of Alaska. Paradoxically, economists tend to mainly examine historical problems of Russian America, while some historians research economy, although everything should be just the opposite. The monitoring of scholarship conducted by the author reveals about a dozen works of professional economists — Candidates and Doctors of Sciences — who devoted their works (in whole or in part) to certain problems of Russian America: the earliest work is dated by 2011, and the most recent articles — by 2021. The depressingly low academic level of the vast majority of the analyzed works should be pointed out with regret. The fact is that Russian economists, for some unclear reason, almost completely ignore a wide range of published documentary sources, not to mention archival materials. The latter, if they are used, are not directly related to the history of Russian colonies in the New World. In the same way, national economists stubbornly avoid getting acquainted with the current Russian historiography about the past of Russian America and do not use more or less modern foreign scientific literature about it at all. Instead of academic works, economists often turn to non-scientific publications (including writings on alternative history) and Internet sites with highly questionable content. The natural result is a large number of errors, inaccuracies and incorrect conclusions, which are sometimes supplemented by negligently prepared bibliography and lack of elementary publication culture: almost all national economists economize on references/footnotes in their works: it is often completely impossible to understand where this or that information comes from. Thus, there is an imitation of scholarly activity and all sorts of dilettantism instead of real useful research on the history and economy of Russian America.