<P> The Russian colonization of the Americas covers the period from 1732 to 1867, when the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas . Russian colonial possessions in the Americas are collectively known as Russian America . Russian expansion eastward began in 1552, and in 1639 Russian explorers reached the Pacific Ocean . In 1725, Emperor Peter the Great ordered navigator Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific for potential colonization . The Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur - bearing mammals on Alaska's coast, as stocks had been depleted by overhunting in Siberia . Bering's first voyage was foiled by thick fog and ice, but in 1741 a second voyage by Bering and Aleksei Chirikov made sight of the North American mainland . </P> <P> Russian promyshlenniki (trappers and hunters) quickly developed the maritime fur trade, which instigated several conflicts between the Aleuts and Russians in the 1760s . The fur trade proved to be a lucrative enterprise, capturing the attention of other European nations . In response to potential competitors, the Russians extended their claims eastward from the Commander Islands to the shores of Alaska . In 1784, with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great, explorer Grigory Shelekhov founded Russia's first permanent settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay . Ten years later, the first group of Orthodox Christian missionaries began to arrive, evangelizing thousands of Indians, many of whose descendants continue to maintain the religion . By the late 1780s, trade relations had opened with the Tlingits, and in 1799 the Russian - American Company (RAC) was formed in order to monopolize the fur trade, also serving as an imperialist vehicle for the Russification of Alaska Natives . </P>

Where was the russian settlement of america located