Promyshlenniki

The promyshlenniki (compare the Russian промышленность (promyshlennost'), literally "a trade" or "business" or "industry") were Russian and indigenous Siberian contract workers drawn largely from the state serf and townsman class who engaged in the Siberian, maritime and later the Russian American fur trade. Initially the Russians in Russian America were Siberian fur hunters, although many later worked as sailors, carpenters, artisans and craftsmen. Promyshlenniki formed the backbone of Russian trading operations in Alaska. By the early 1820s, when the share system was abandoned and replaced by salaries, their status remained in name only; they became employees of the Russian-American Company and their duties and activities became increasingly less involved in the fur-gathering activities of the Company.

After the Russian Conquest of Siberia, as a part of the regional fur trade, colonists began to exploit the vast populations of sables. The opportunities offered by this newly available luxury product drew many Russians eager to make a profit in the newly conquered Siberia. Service-men that arrived, rarely able to receive a stable salary from the state, nonetheless had certain legal rights and duties while nominally a servant to Tsar. Merchants began to visit the Russian settlements, interested in selling the gathered furs at various markets. Promyshlenniki were free men who made their living any way they could. A minor group were sworn-men ('tseloval'niki', literally [cross or bible] 'kissers'), agreeing to an oath in order to gain certain rights and duties. In practice the groups blended into each other and the distinction was most important when dealing with the government. When petitioning the tsar, a service-man would call himself 'your slave' and a promishlenik 'your orphan'. These people were often called cossacks, but only in the loose sense of being neither land-owners nor peasants.

...
Wikipedia