Fort Ross, California’s Russian Legacy
Eighteen twelve was a busy year for the Tsarist Government in Russia. Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Borodino, commemorated the same year by Tchaikovsky in his 1812 Overture; Moscow was significantly destroyed in a fire; and the Russian-American Company, a mercantile firm chartered by the Tsar, established Fort Ross, the only Russian colony in the contiguous United States. Tucked away in the woods in Sonoma County, California, Fort Ross (the name is said to derive from the Russian…