28 April] 1819), sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was a Russian trader and merchant, who worked for some time in Siberia.

He was recruited by the Shelikhov-Golikov Company for trading in Russian America, beginning in 1790 with a five-year contract as manager of the outpost.

In 1799 Baranov was promoted, appointed by the recently chartered Russian-American Company as Chief Manager, effectively the first governor of Russian America.

He founded Pavlovskaya (Kodiak) and later New Archangel (Sitka), Russian colonies that were bases of the company in present-day Alaska.

[1][better source needed] He continued to support his Russian wife and children, who had moved from Siberia back to live near St. Petersburg.

In 1817 Irina, his oldest daughter born in Alaska, married Semyon Yanovsky, a Russian naval officer.

In 1792, Baranov moved the Russian settlement from Three Saints Bay, which had too constrained an area to succeed, to what they called Pavlovskaya (later renamed as Kodiak).

In 1794, under the direction of a British sea captain working for the Russian-American Company (RAC) a sea-going sailing ship was built at Resurrection Bay.

However, due to the one-year travel time each way between St. Petersburg and Alaska, it was late 1800 before Baranov learned of his promotion and expanded responsibilities.

In 1799, Baranov had decided that perceived British encroachment on Russia's holdings in southeastern Alaska required him to build a defensive fort in that area.

In 1802, after Baranov had returned to Kodiak to tend to matters there, the Tlingit tribe on Sitka Island decided to expel the Russians.

Led by war chief Katlian (spelled Kot-le-an in Michener's Alaska), the Tlingit attacked and massacred nearly everyone at the Sitka settlement.

Baranov responded by gathering naval forces and an army of about 700 Aleut warriors to attack Katlian's new fort on Sitka at Indian River.

It was hit by Russian gunfire while being moved by Tlingit warriors in a war canoe to their main fort from storage on a small island.

Baranov immediately began construction of a new fort on top of a rock outcropping at the eastern edge of Sitka Sound.

Baranov sent a 50-foot sailboat, under the command of his deputy Ivan Kuskov, the 2800 miles to Hawaii to get urgently needed food supplies from King Kamehameha, a long-time trading friend.

Late that year, Nikolai Rezanov, the Tsar's Chamberlain and Chairman of the RAC, arrived in Russian America for an inspection trip.

In the spring of 1806, Rezanov sailed the Juno from Sitka to San Francisco in Spanish-held California to obtain urgently needed food supplies in exchange for otter furs.

From there, he sailed to Siberia to begin the thousands of miles of overland travel to St. Petersburg to seek the necessary religious approvals from Russian Orthodox clergy for his marriage.

Despite his success in reestablishing a solid presence at present-day Sitka, to which Baranov had moved the capital of Russian America from Kodiak, there was local opposition to his rule.

Meanwhile, he learned that men who had been appointed by the RAC to relieve Baranov died en route to Alaska, to his great disappointment.

Schaffer got involved with Hawaiian politics to the displeasure of King Kamahameha; he was forced to depart for China and leave the Russian forts on Kauaʻi abandoned.

Lt. Ludwig von Hagemeister (also known as Leontij in Russian) to go to Alaska, investigate the charges against Baranov, and replace him as Chief Manager and governor.

[4] The audit showed that Baranov was personally almost insolvent because he had made it a practice to help others in financial distress with his own funds throughout his rule.

In late July 1818, a Russian Imperial Navy ship sailing around the world arrived in Sitka for a brief visit of less than a month.

He is shown with an "Allies of Russia" silver medal hanging on a light chain from his neck, and with Baranov's "Castle" fortress in the distance behind the chief.

The ship headed south on a route that would take it west around the Cape of Good Hope at the foot of the African continent, to sail northward to St. Petersburg.