Nikolai Rezanov

Rezanov was born in Saint Petersburg on 28 March 1764. He mastered five languages by the age of 14. He joined the Izmaylovsky Regiment at the same age and left five years later in 1784 as captain. Rezanov then spent five years as a court officer in Pskov. In 1791, he joined the staff of Gavrila Derzhavin in his capacity as the private secretary to the Empress Catherine II. Platon Zubov took interest in Rezanov, hiring him as an aide within a year of his employment with Derzhavin. Zubov became interested in the fur trade activities of Irkutsk merchant Grigory Shelikhov. His influence with Catherine was used to secure priests from the Valaam Monastery and colonists for Shelikov's settlements on Kodiak Islands.