Biography:

Doctor nauk,

Senior research fellow 

at the Center of North American Studies of the Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences.

An expert on the history of Russian America, the Russian-American Company, Alaska, California, the western United States, and the Russian-American frontier.

Field of research is Russian–American relations, Russian cultural heritage in the United States, and the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Academic background

Upon graduating with honors from MSU in 1992, Alexander Petrov followed the steps of his mentor and professor Nikolai N. Bolhovitinov, a well-known Soviet historian and academician at the Soviet and Russian Academy of Sciences, and became an honored member of his academic school, specializing in Russian-American history. In 1996 he received his candidate's degree with a thesis on the Shelikhovs and their role in the establishment of the Russian-American Company. In 2006 he defended his thesis for the doctor's degree.

Major achievements

Petrov has more than 100 publications, including a textbook for students and five monographs, two of which have been published in English at major American publishing houses. He is also an editor and compiler of archival materials and documents on the history and sale of Alaska and Fort Ross to the United States and is the author of a number of publications on Russian heritage in the United States.  He is often invited as a guest expert to radio and television programs to discuss a wide range of issues and debate on the history of the United States, Russia, and modern international relations. Professor Petrov collaborates with Sitka Historical Society in Alaska. In 2018 he became an expert member of the Russian Higher Assessment Committee

Examples of publications

Books:

• Petrov A.Yu., Black D. L. Natalia Shelekhova. Russian Oligarch of Alaska Commerce. Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60223-073-7. (375 р.)
• Owens K., Petrov A. Yu. Empire Maker (Aleksandr Baranov and Russian colonial expansion into Alaska and Northern California), University of Washington Press, 2015. ISBN 078-0-295-99459-8. 341 p

Articles

• Petrov Alexander Yu. Education and Science in New Archangelsk, 1817—1867 // Over the Near Horizon. Proceedings of the 2010 International conference on Russian America. Sitka Historical Society. Sitka, 2013. P. 167—169.
• Petrov Alexander Yu. Contemporary Russian Research-education Centers’s Perspectives and Studies of Russian America. // Over the Near Horizon. Proceedings of the 2010 International conference on Russian America. Sitka Historical Society. Sitka, 2013. P. 285—291.
• Petrov Alexander Yu. Commercial relations of the Russian American company with China in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century // China’s development from a Global perspective. Cambridge Scholars publishing, 2017

Publications on site:

• Петровская эпоха и освоение северной части Тихого океана, 2022