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the age of 16 he was reunited with his mother in
the town of Magadan, where she was now living
in internal exile. Aksenov later entered the
Leningrad Medical Institute, from which he grad-
uated in 1956, after which he worked as a doctor
in the Soviet Union until 1960. His first two nov-
els,
Kollegi
(Colleagues, 1960) and
Zvesdny bilet
(Ticket to the stars, 1961), became instant best-
sellers and established his reputation as a bold
young writer. Other works such as
Apelsiny iz
Marokko
(Oranges from Morocco) (1963) and
Na
poputi k lune
(Halfway to the Moon) (1966) fol-
lowed in the same vein. His early works appealed
to an increasingly restless and assertive young
generation, interested in the West, by making
their concerns central and recording their slang.
The latter, in particular, brought the unwelcome
attention of cultural authorities, who saw in it
only foul language. Aksenov tried to promote
young writers by publishing a literary almanac,
Metropol
(1979), despite official prohibition. In
trouble with the Soviet authorities and unable to
publish his work, he emigrated to the United
States in 1980, where he has taught at various
universities. He continued to write prolifically
and two important works,
The Burn
(1980) and
The Island of Crimea
(1981), belong to this period.
The Burn
paints a negative portrait of Soviet soci-
ety through the adventures of five men with the
same name.
The Island of Crimea
is a historical fan-
tasy based on the fiction that Crimea is an island
and not a peninsula, where, like Taiwan, the
Whites have established over the decades a capi-
talist society, only a stone throw from the Com-
munist mainland. Although he still lives in the
United States, Aksenov revisited the Soviet
Union in 1989, and his work was republished
there from 1990.
Siberia, although precise knowledge of its geog-
raphy was sketchy; in a 1701 map, it appears as
an island. Beginning with the first expeditions of
Vitus
BERING
and A. Chirikov in 1728-29, Rus-
sian explorers began to chart the Alaskan coast-
line, although it is customary to date the Russian
discovery of Alaska from the expedition of 1741.
For the next half-century, more than 80
exploratory and commercial expeditions sailed
to America, most notably those led by the mer-
chant G. I. Shelikov, who founded the first Rus-
sian settlement on Kodiak Island in 1784.
Excessive competition among small trading
companies, the rapid exhaustion of fur stocks in
the area, and the threat of English penetration,
especially after Cook's 1778 expedition, con-
vinced Shelikov of the need to create permanent
Russian settlements and an exclusive trading
company in Alaska. The latter aim was realized
with the foundation of the
RUSSIAN AMERICAN
COMPANY
in 1799, which was given a monopoly
on all trade and minerals located on the north-
western coast of America from 55 degrees north
latitude to the Bering Strait and on the Aleu-
tians, Kuriles, and other islands. The company
also received the right to claim lands not occu-
pied by other powers. The center of the Russian
settlement was transferred from Kodiak Island to
the town of Novo-Arkhangelsk.
Under its first and most able governor, Alek-
sandr
BARANOV
(1746-1819), Russian Alaska
made important strides as a colony with settlers,
schools, a library, shops, a shipbuilding yard, and
active barter with the native populations. But
the basic wealth of the colony was based on the
rapacious exploitation of natural riches, most
notably furs, and the use of Native Americans as
forced labor for these enterprises. For several
decades the Russian American Company acted
with vigor, sponsoring 12 round-the-world
expeditions between 1804 and 1840, maintain-
ing regular communications between Alaska
and Russia, and making port calls in California,
Hawaii, and China. Russian explorers also
expanded scientific knowledge of the region
through expeditions like that of A. Kasherarov
Alaska
Russia's main North American colony, Alaska
belonged to Russia from the mid-18th century
until 1867, when it was purchased by the United
States. Russian interest in Alaska dates back to
the late 17th century following the conquest of
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