Ivan Kuskov

Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, early 19th or late 18th century. Tot'ma Regional History Museum, Russia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Ivan Kuskov was the manager of Fort Ross and the Russian colony in California from 1812 to 1821. Kuskov wrote about the massacre of the Nicoleños by a Russian American Company hunting group in 1814. His 1818 letter to Chief Manager Leontii Hagemeister describes when the ship took the hunting group to San Nicolas Island, what triggered the massacre, and who was in charge of the party.

DATE OF BIRTH: 1765
PLACE OF BIRTH: Tot’ma, Vologda, Russia
DATE OF DEATH: October 1823
PLACE OF BURIAL: Tot’ma, Vologda, Russia


References
Gibson, James R. and Alexei A. Istomin with the assistance of Valery A. Tishkov. Russian California 1806–1860: A History in Documents, Vol. 1. London: Ashgate (2014): 336–38.

Istomin, Alexei A., James R. Gibson, and Valery A. Tishkov. Russia in California: Russian Documents on Fort Ross and Russian-Californian Relations in 1803–1850. Moscow: Nauka, 2005: 267–70.

Morris, Susan L., Glenn J. Farris, Steven J. Schwartz, Irina V. L. Wender, and Boris Dralyuk. “Murder, Massacre, and Mayhem on the California Coast, 1814–1815: Newly Translated Russian Documents Reveal Company Concern Over Violent Clashes.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 34, 1 (2014): 81–100.

Pierce, Richard A. Russian-America: A Biographical Dictionary. Kingston, Ontario: The Limestone Press, 1990: 282–85.