Russian public organizations of California protest government’s decision to close down state parks

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget cuts could mean the closing of up to 220 state parks, among them the home of the world’s tallest tree and other attractions that draw millions of visitors. Schwarzenegger recommended eliminating USD 70 million in parks spending through June 30, 2010.

Among the parks that could be closed is the famous Fort Ross State Historic Park, the southernmost Russian settlement in North America. The Russian community in San Francisco was shocked by the news. The 19th century outpost of the Russian American Company still means a great deal to the Russian people.

Nostalgia is a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past. It is a condition of being homesick, a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time, a longing for the past often in idealized form.

All of these definitions of nostalgia describe what the Russian immigrants felt when they came to the Bay Area to settle and call California their new home. They built churches, started Russian schools, clubs, organizations to preserve the language, culture and heritage for their children. I was one of those children, and nostalgia meant the same to me. I grew up with this nostalgia as well. I longed to see the wide Russian fields filled with wild flowers, of which my mother spoke, the bluest waters in the world of the Black Sea that she sang about, the dark nights that my parents described with bullets buzzing in the air, and the stars glimmering in the sky when they were children playing in the streets with their neighbors, the birch trees or the willows swaying in the wind. All these things I only heard about in songs, but my heart was filled with love and a longing to go back in time and be able to see my parents’ memories of the beloved Russia and their sweet youth.

Some 30 miles from Jenner at the mouth of the Russian River you can see the beautiful Pacific Ocean spotted with large rocks and quiet waves. As you drive along the winding road of Highway 1, in the distance you begin to notice the outline of a fort, the southernmost Russian settlement of the Russian-American Company, which was chartered by the Russian government and controlled all Russian exploration, trade, and settlement in Alaska and the North Pacific. Russian River was then called Slavyanka.

Here is where the Russians from Alaska settled in 1812 in pursuit of agriculture and trade and built Fort Ross. Here is where they built blockhouses, stockades, the official quarters, the Rotchev house, warehouses, and a chapel. Here is where they lived, wed, and gave birth. Here at the cemetery is where they were buried. Here is where they hunted and built the first boats until the settlement was abandoned in 1842. Here stands Fort Ross, and this is where members of the Russian community go to get a piece of Russian history and get our feel for nostalgia.

Fort Ross was the site of California’s first windmills and shipbuilding. In 1816, work began on the first ship to be built at Fort Ross – it was called Rumiantsev. The vessel went down in history as the first ship built in California. Three other ships were built at Fort Ross too. The Russian managers were the first to introduce many European refinements, such as glass windows, stoves, and all-wood housing in Alta California. In 1817, an official treaty with Kashaya Indians released land to the Russian-American Company. This is known to be the only treaty in California history that was ever upheld.

The Russian-American Company built other forts in the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. The Company was expelled from Kauai, and Fort Elizabeth stands barren, overgrown, and in disrepair. The other fort disappeared completely without a trace.

When the native populations of the Sonoma and neighboring Napa County regions were afflicted by smallpox, measles, and other European diseases, the first vaccination in California history was carried out by the crew of the Kutuzov, a Russian-American Company vessel that brought vaccine from Peru to Monterey in 1818, sparing the capital from disease. Russian scientists associated with the colony were among the first to record California’s cultural and natural history. The first formal, extensive, and detailed weather records in California were made at Fort Ross by agronomist Igor Chernykh in the late 1830s.

Fort Ross and the surrounding settlement, was home to Russians (during the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian subjects included Poles, Finns, Ukrainians, Estonians, and numerous other nationalities and ethnic groups of the Russian Empire), as well as North Pacific natives, Aleuts, Kashaya (Pomo), and Creoles.

After the settlement’s agricultural needs declined, the Russian-American Company offered the settlement to various potential purchasers, and it was sold to John Sutter for USD 30 000 to be paid in installments. In 1848, the Mexican government ceded Alta California to the U.S., and in 1850, California became a state. In 1867, Alaska was sold to the U.S. for 7.2 million dollars, of which USD 200 000 went to the Russian American Company. The company liquidated its assets and returned to Irkutsk, Russia.

In 1903, the California Historical Landmarks Committee acquired Fort Ross and its surrounding two and a half acres and in 1906 it was deeded to the state of California. A few months later, during the 1906 earthquake, several buildings were destroyed. The only original building that remained was the Rotchev House, which is considered to be not only a Natural Historical Landmark, but also the oldest standing structure between San Francisco and Alaska.

The first annual Russian Orthodox services began July 4th, 1925, and still take place each year, in addition to services now held on Memorial Day each year. The original chapel was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and completely reconstructed, only to be entirely destroyed again in an accidental fire in 1970 that left nothing but a few charred timbers. The chapel was rebuilt in 1973 with funds obtained from local residents, Russian-American groups, and government agencies. The bell that hangs outside the reconstructed chapel was recast with the use of iron the original bell was made from.

Fort Ross, nestled in the rolling golden hills of California, still stands majestically overlooking the cliffs and coves near the Pacific Ocean. The fort has seen many visitors throughout its days. In addition to members of the Russian nobility, foreign ministers, dignitaries, clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and other faiths, historians, ordinary citizens from surrounding cities, counties, and from all over the nation and the world come to learn a piece of history and enjoy the tranquility of the fort and environs.

Such has been a piece of Russia that has satisfied the nostalgia of the Russian community, whose members often came to the fort for pilgrimages and picnics. The Russian people were alarmed and saddened when news came that Fort Ross was on the list of potential park closures as part of California’s Governor Schwartzenagger’s proposed budget cuts. Was it true, indeed, that the Terminator was going to close the beloved Fort and tear a page of history out of California’s books?

The Russian community sounded an alarm. The Russian people came together. Such organizations as the Congress of Russian Americans and the Russian American Cultural Foundation, as well as Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and the Western U.S. Diocese and numerous private individuals wrote letters, signed petitions, sent e-mails, and telephoned the governor’s office, the budget committee, their congressmen, senators, and assemblymen. The alarm was heard not only in the immediate Bay Area, but also throughout the entire United States and the world. Many Russian-American organizations in Washington, D.C., New York, Baltimore, Houston, Oklahoma, and other cities in the U.S. joined San Francisco Bay Area in a gentle protest against park closures. The Congress of Russian Americans issued a press release and gathered over 300 names on a petition against closure. The Russian Embassy and the Russian Consulate, as well as the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Moscow House of Russian Compatriots have voiced concerns. The community has been working closely with the Fort Ross Interpretive Association that keeps the park and the history alive to make certain that everything physically possible to ensure that Fort Ross remains open is done – so that the fort’s place in history remains intact, and the sentimental yearning for happiness of the Russian people can be fulfilled.