Nikolai Rezanov

Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov (Russian: Николай Петрович Резанов) (28 March [O.S. 8 April] 1764 – 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1807) was a Russian nobleman and statesman who promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Tsars—Catherine the Great, Paul, and Aleksander I. Aleksander I commissioned him as Russian ambassador to Japan (1804) to conclude a commercial treaty. In order to get there he was appointed co-commander of the First Russian circumnavigation (1803-1806), led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. Rezanov departed the expedition when it reached Kamchatka after visiting Japan where he was unsuccessful in his ambassadorial mission. He was also the author of a lexicon of the Japanese language and of several other works, which are preserved in the library of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, of which he was a member. Rezanov's biggest legacy was the Russian-American Company.

Rezanov was born in Saint Petersburg on March 28, 1764. He mastered five languages by the age of 14. He joined the Izmaylovsky Regiment at the same age and left five years later in 1784 as captain. Rezanov then spent five years as a court officer in Pskov. In 1791, he joined the staff of Gavrila Derzhavin in his capacity as the private secretary to the Empress Catherine. Platon Zubov took interest in Rezanov, hiring him as an aide within a year of his employment with Derzhavin. Zubov became interested in the fur trade activities of Irkutsk merchant Grigory Shelikhov. His influence with Catherine II was used to secure priests from the Valaam Monastery and colonists for Shelikov's settlements on Kodiak Islands.

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