Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov was a Russian nobleman and statesman who promoted the project of Russian colonisation of Alaska and California. One of the ten barons of Russia, he was the first Russian ambassador to Japan (1804), and instigated the first attempt of Russia to circumnavigate the globe (1803), commanding the expedition himself as far as Kamchatka. He was also the author of a lexicon of the Japanese language and of several other works, … Wikipedia
On board the Nadezhda (under command of Ivan Kruzenshtem) was a diplomatic mission headed by Nikolay Rezanov, the plenipotentiary of the Russian-American Company to the colonies. www.sakhalin.ru/Engl/Region/book/early_19th.htm
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Nikolai Rezanov. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rezanov