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List of Russian explorers

The history of exploration by citizens or subjects of the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire, the Tsardom of Russia and other Russian predecessor states forms a significant part of the history of Russia as well as the history of the world. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,850 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of Earth's landmass. In the times of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, the country's share in the world's landmass reached 1/6. Most of these territories were first discovered by Russian explorers (if indigenous peoples of inhabited territories are not counted). Contiguous exploration in Eurasia and the building of overseas colonies in Russian America were some of the primary factors in Russian territorial expansion.

Apart from their discoveries in Alaska, Central Asia, Siberia, and the northern areas surrounding the North Pole, Russian explorers have made significant contributions to the exploration of the Antarctic, Arctic, and the Pacific islands, as well as deep-sea and space explorations.

Alphabetical list edit

Areas primarily explored
* Siberia/the Far East ^ Alaska/North Pacific ~ Europe  Tropics
 Arctic/the Far North § Antarctic/South Pacific ! Central Asia $ Space

A edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Valerian Albanov
(1881–1919)
Russian Navy lieutenant
Albanov was one of the only two survivors of the ill-fated 1912–14 Brusilov expedition, the other being Alexander Konrad. They left the ice-bound ship St. Anna and by ski, sledge, and kayak crossed the Kara Sea, reached Franz Josef Land and were finally rescued by Georgy Sedov's Saint Phocas. The data about ice drift of St. Anna, provided by Albanov, helped Vladimir Vize to calculate the coordinates of previously unknown Vize Island.[1]

Either Albanov or Konrad is a prototype for a hero in the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin.
 
St. Anna
  Pyotr Anjou
(1796–1869)
Russian admiral, hero of the Battle of Navarino
In 1820, as a lieutenant, Anjou described the coastline and the islands of Eastern Siberia between the Olenek and Indigirka rivers and mapped the New Siberian Islands. In 1825–26 he participated in describing the northeastern coast of the Caspian Sea and the western coast of the Aral Sea.[2]

Named in honor: Anjou Islands.
 
New Siberian Islands
Danila Antsiferov*
(?–1712)
Siberian Cossack ataman
Danila Antsiferov was elected Cossack ataman on Kamchatka after the death of Vladimir Atlasov. He was one of the first Russians to visit the Kuril Islands and describe them in writing, including Shumshu and Paramushir Island.[3]

Named in honor: Antsiferov Island.
 
Paramushir, Atlasov and Shumshu Islands
  Dmitry Anuchin
(1843–1923)
geographer, anthropologist, ethnographer, archaeologist
In 1880 Anuchin researched Valday Hills and Lake Seliger. In 1894–95, joining the expedition of Alexei Tillo, he again studied Valday. Anuchin finally determined the location of the source of the Volga River, the largest European river. He published a major work about the relief of European Russia and founded the Geography Museum at Moscow State University.[4]

Named in honor: Anuchin crater (Moon), Anuchin Island.
 
The source of the Volga River
  Vladimir Arsenyev*
(1872–1930)
military topographer, writer
Arsenyev wrote a number of popular books about his journeys to the Ussuri basin in 1902–07, where he was accompanied by Dersu Uzala, a native Nanai hunter. Arsenyev was the first to describe numerous species of Siberian flora; he produced some 60 works on the geography, wildlife and ethnography of the regions he traveled to. In 1975, the joint Japanese-Soviet movie Dersu Uzala by Akira Kurosawa won an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film.[5]

Named in honor: Arsenyev (town).
 
Dersu Uzala, photo by Arsenyev
  Vladimir Atlasov*
(1661/64–1711)
Siberian Cossack ataman
Atlasov established the first permanent Russian settlements on Kamchatka Peninsula and led its colonisation. He was the first to present a detailed description of the region's nature and people, and also accounted on the lands near Kamchatka – Chukotka and Japan. Atlasov brought Dembei, a shipwrecked Japanese merchant, to Moscow, where he conducted the first Japanese language education in Russia.[6]

Named in honor: Atlasov Island, Atlasov volcano.
 
Topography of Kamchatka

B edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Mikhail Babushkin
(1893–1938)
military and polar aviator, Hero of the Soviet Union
Babushkin took part in an expedition to rescue Umberto Nobile in 1928, and in the rescue of the SS Chelyuskin crew in 1933. He performed the flights to the first drifting ice station North Pole-1 in 1937. In 1937–38 he participated in a search for Sigizmund Levanevsky.[3]

Named in honor: Babushkinsky District (Moscow), Babushkinskaya (Moscow Metro).
 
SS Chelyuskin sinking
  Konstantin Badygin
(1910–1984)
Soviet Navy captain, writer, scientist, Hero of the USSR

(Badygin left, Sedov's mechanic D.G. Trofimov right)
In 1938 Badygin became the captain of the ice-captured icebreaker Sedov, turned into a kind of drifting ice station. Most of the crew was evacuated, but 15 sailors and scientists, including Vladimir Vize, stayed aboard and carried out valuable scientific research in the course of 812 days. After drifting from New Siberian Islands across the North Pole, they were finally freed between Greenland and Svalbard by icebreaker Joseph Stalin in 1940.[7]
 
Icebreaker Sedov
  Karl Ernst von Baer*
(1792–1876)
naturalist, a founder of embryology
In 1830–40 Baer researched Arctic meteorology. He was interested in the northern part of Russia and explored Novaya Zemlya in 1837 collecting specimens. Other travels led him to the Caspian Sea, Lapland, and North Cape, Norway. After his explorations of the Volga River he formulated the geological Baer's law, stating that in the Northern Hemisphere erosion occurs mostly on the right banks of rivers, and in the Southern Hemisphere on the left banks. Baer was one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society in 1845, and also a co-founder and the first President of the Russian Entomological Society.[4]
 
Library of the Russian Geographical Society in 1916
  Georgiy Baidukov
(1904–1994)
military and test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union

(Baidukov, Chkalov and Belyakov in 1937)
Baidukov was involved in a number of Soviet ultralong flights. In 1936 Valery Chkalov, Baidukov and A.V.Belyakov on ANT-25 flew 9,374 km from Moscow through the North Pole to follow-up Chkalov Island in Okhotsk Sea, which took 56 h 20 min. In 1937, also on ANT-25, the same crew flew 8,504 km from Moscow through the North Pole to Vancouver, Washington, which was the first transpolar flight between Europe and North America by airplane, rather than dirigible.[8]

Named in honor: Baydukov Island.
 
Chkalov and Baydukov Islands
  Alexander Baranov^
(1746–1819)
merchant, colonial administrator
Baranov was hired to head the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, which in 1799 was transformed into the Russian-American Company. Thus Baranov became the first governor of Russian America and held this post in 1799–1818. He explored the coast areas of northwestern North America, helped Russian Orthodox missionaries and improved relations with Alaska natives. He established trade with China, Hawaii and also with California, where he founded Fort Ross.[9]

Named in honor: Baranof Island.
 
Fort Ross in California
  Nikifor Begichev
(1874–1927)
Russian Navy officer

(forensic facial reconstruction)
Begichev was the bosun of the ship Zarya, carrying Eduard Toll's expedition in 1900–03. In 1922, at the request of Norway, Begichev led a Soviet expedition in search of the lost crew members of Roald Amundsen's 1918 expedition on the ship Maud, Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen, but was unsuccessful (remains were later found by Georgy Rybin). In 1923–24 Begichev explored the Taymyr Peninsula with Nikolay Urvantsev.[10][11]

Named in honor: Bolshoy Begichev Island, Maliy Begichev Island.
 
Begichev Islands location
  Pyotr Beketov*
(c. 1600–c. 1661)
Siberian Cossack voevoda

(a monument in Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai)
Beketov, initially a strelets, was appointed Enisei voevoda in Siberia after 1627. He successfully carried out the voyage to collect taxes from Zabaykalye Buryats, becoming the first Russian to set foot in Buryatia. He founded the first Russian settlement there, Rybinsky ostrog. Beketov was sent to the Lena River in 1631, where in 1632 he founded Yakutsk, a startpoint of further Russian expeditions eastward, southward and northward. He sent his Cossacks to explore the Aldan and Kolyma rivers, to found new fortresses, and to collect taxes. In 1652 he launched another voyage to Buryatia, and in 1653 Beketov's Cossacks founded follow-up Chita and then future Nerchinsk in 1654.[12]
 
A tower of Yakutsky ostrog.
  Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky!
(?–1717)
Russian Army officer
Bekovich-Cherkassky, a Circassian Muslim converted to Christianity, was made by Tsar Peter the Great the leader of the first Russian military expeditions into Central Asia in 1714–17, with the aim of conquering the Khanate of Khiva and the golden sands of the Oxus River. Bekovich received these orders in Astrakhan, where he was engaged in preparing the first Russian map of the Caspian Sea. He commanded a preliminary expedition to Turkmenistan and set up the forts in Krasnovodsk and Alexandrovsk. In 1717 he won the battle against Khivan Khan, but was tricked into separating his men, betrayed by the Khan, defeated and killed.[13]
 
The Caucasus, Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan
  Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen§
(1778–1852)
Russian admiral, circumnavigator, cartographer
Bellingshausen took part in the first Russian circumnavigation under Ivan Krusenstern on Nadezhda in 1803–06. He himself led another Russian circumnavigation in 1819–21 on the sloop Vostok, together with Mikhail Lazarev on Mirny – this expedition was the first to discover the continent of Antarctica on January 28, 1820 (New Style). They also discovered and named Peter I Island, Zavodovski, Leskov and Visokoi Islands, Antarctic peninsula mainland and Alexander Island (Alexander Coast), and made discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific, including Vostok Island.[14][15]

Named in honor: Bellingshausen Island (Atlantic), Bellingshausen Sea, Bellingshausen Station, Bellinshausen Island (Pacific), Faddey Islands, Bellingshausen Plate, Bellinsgauzen crater (Moon), 3659 Bellingshausen (minor planet).
 
Vostok and Mirny in Antarctica
  Lev Berg!
(1876–1950)
geographer, biologist
Berg studied and determined the depth of the lakes of Central Asia, including Balkhash Lake and Issyk Kul. He researched the ichthyology of Central Asia and European Russia. He developed Dokuchaev's doctrine of biomes and climatology and was one of the founders of the Geographical Institute, now the Faculty of Geography of the Saint Petersburg University. In 1940–50 Berg was the President of the Soviet Geographical Society.[16]
 
Balkhash Lake
  Vitus Bering^
(1681–1741)
Russian Navy captain-commander
Returning from the East Indies, Bering joined the Russian Navy in 1703. He became the main organiser of the Great Northern Expedition to explore northern Asia. In 1725, Bering went overland to Okhotsk, crossed to Kamchatka, and aboard Sv. Gavriil mapped some 3500 km of the Bering Sea coast and passed the Bering Strait in 1728–29. Later, Ivan Fyodorov and Mikhail Gvozdev aboard the same Sv. Gavriil sighted the Alaskan shore in 1732. Having organised a major Second Kamchatka expedition, Bering and Aleksei Chirikov sailed from Okhotsk in 1740 aboard Sv. Piotr and Sv. Pavel, founded Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and headed together to North America in 1741, until separated by storm. Bering discovered the southern coast of Alaska, landed near Kayak Island and discovered the Aleutian Islands. Chirikov discovered the shores of America near Aleksander Archipelago and safely returned to Asia. Bering, however, became very ill and his ship was driven to an uninhabited follow-up Bering Island of the Commander group. Bering died there, along with part of his crew. The rest built a vessel out of the wreckage of Sv. Piotr and escaped to Petropavlovsk.[17][18][19]

Named in honor: Bering Strait, Bering Sea, Bering Island, Bering Glacier, Bering Land Bridge, Beringia.
 
A plaque in Danish Vitus Bering Park with Bering's voyages etched
 
A postage stamp depicting the discovery of the Commander Islands and Alaska.
  Yuri Bilibin
(1901–1952)
geologist
Bilibin led the First Kolyma Expedition in 1928 and in 1931–1932 he organized the Second Kolyma Expedition. The result of the explorations was the discovery of gold deposits in Northeast Siberia. In 1934, together with mining engineer Evgeny Bobin (1897–1941), Bilibin surveyed and charted the last unmapped areas of the continental USSR, the Yudoma-Maya and the Aldan highlands, as well as the Sette-Daban, in the course of an expedition sent by the Soviet government.[20]

Named in honor: Bilibino Town, Bilibino District, Bilibinskite.
 
Monument located in Bilibino
Joseph Billings^
(c. 1758–1806)
Royal Navy and Russian Navy officer
In 1785–95 Billings, previously an English officer who had sailed with Captain Cook, led a Russian expedition in search of the Northeast Passage, with Gavril Sarychev as his deputy. They made accurate maps of the Chukchi Peninsula, the west coast of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands. They landed on Kodiak Island, examined the area of Prince William Sound and compiled a census of the native population of the Aleutians. Billings crossed Chukotka on reindeer and made the first elaborate description of the Chukchi people.[21]

Named in honor: Cape Billings, Billings (Chukotka).
 
Location of Cape Billings in Chukotka
  Georgy Brusilov^
(1884–1914?)
Russian Navy captain
In 1910–11, Brusilov took part in a hydrographic expedition on the icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach to the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas. In 1912–14 he led an expedition on the brig St.Anna, which aimed to travel by the Northern Sea Route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. St.Anna became icebound west of Yamal Peninsula and drifted to the North Pole in 1913. Brusilov became ill and many of the crew succumbed to scurvy. In 1914 a group led by lieutenant Valerian Albanov abandoned the ship and walked south over the drifting ice. Only Albanov and Alexander Konrad managed to reach Franz Joseph Land, where they were rescued by Georgy Sedov's St. Foka. The efforts to find the St. Anna were unsuccessful.[1]

Brusilov and his ship are among the prototypes for the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin, where the fictional St. Maria repeats the drift of St. Anna.
 
Kara Sea
  Alexander Bulatovich
(1870–1919)
Russian Army officer, writer, hieromonk (tonsured Father Antony), imiaslavie leader, hero of World War I
In 1897 Bulatovich was a member of the Russian mission of the Red Cross in Africa, where he became a confidant of Negus Menelek II of Ethiopia and his military aide in the war with Italy and the southern tribes. He became the first European to provide a description of the Kaffa province (conquered by Menelek II with Bulatovich's help) and among the first to reach the mouth of the Omo River. Among the places named by Bulatovich was the Nicholas II Mountain range.[22][23]

The prototype for grotesque Schema-Hussar Alexei Bulanovich in Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs; the hero of Valentin Pikul's The Hussar on a Camel and Richard Seltzer's The Name of Hero.
 
Ethiopia
  Fabian Bellingshausen
(1878–1852)
Russian officer of Baltic German descent in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer
The discoverer of the Antarctica.

In 1819 the authorities selected Bellingshausen to lead the First Russian Antarctic Expedition which was intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole. With two ships, sloop-of-war Vostok ("East") and support vessel Mirny ("Peaceful") were led by Mikhail Lazarev, the journey started from Kronstadt on 4 June 1819. Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to twice circumnavigate the continent. Thus they disproved Captain Cook's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice fields. The expedition also made discoveries and observations in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean.

 
First Russian Antarctic Expedition 1819-1821

C edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Semion Chelyuskin
(c. 1700–1764)
Russian Navy officer

(Malygin, D. Ovtsyn, Chelyuskin, Kh. Laptev and D. Laptev on a commemorative coin)
Chelyuskin participated in the Great Northern Expedition in 1733–43. He traveled in the groups led by Vasily Pronchischev and Khariton Laptev. In 1741 he led his own voyage from the Khatanga River to the Pyasina River by land. He explored and described the western coastline of Taimyr Peninsula and the mouths of Pyasina and Yenisei Rivers. In 1741–42, he traveled from Turukhansk to the mouth of the Khatanga and described the northern coastline of Taimyr from Cape Faddey in the east to the mouth of the Taimyra River in the west. Chelyuskin discovered the northern extremity of Asia, Cape Chelyuskin.[24]

Named in honor: Cape Chelyuskin, Chelyuskin Peninsula, Chelyuskin Island, Chelyuskin steamship.
 
Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of Eurasia
  Ivan Chersky*
(1845–1892)
paleontologist, geologist, geographer
Exiled to Transbaikalia for participation in the January Uprising and pardoned only in 1883, Chersky became a self-taught scientist in Siberia. He traveled to the Sayan Mountains, the Irkut River Valley and Lower Tunguska. During four expeditions in 1877–81 Chersky explored Selenga river. He explained the origin of Lake Baikal, made the first geological map of its coast and described the geological structure of East Siberia. He analysed the tectonics of Inner Asia and pioneered the geomorphological evolution theory. He collected over 2,500 ancient bones. In 1892 he explored the Kolyma, Yana and Indigirka Rivers and died from illness there.[25]

Named in honor: Chersky Range, Chersky (settlement).
 
Selenga watershed
  Vasili Chichagov
(1726–1809)
Russian admiral, victorious commander-in-chief of the Baltic Fleet in the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)
In 1764–66 Chichagov led two expeditions to find the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific along the northern coast of Siberia, a project of Mikhail Lomonosov. Although he sailed past Svalbard, reached 80°26'N in 1765 and 80°30'N in 1766, and conducted valuable research, both expeditions failed to find the route.[26]

Named in honor: Chichagof Island.
 
Barents and Baltic Seas, where Chichagov explored and fought
  Pyotr Chikhachyov!
(1808–1890)
naturalist, geologist
In 1842 Chikhachyov led an expedition to the unknown territories of the Altai and Sayan Mountains. He discovered Kuznetsk Coal Basin, reached the sources of the rivers Abakan, Chu and Chulyshman, and entered Tuva. In 1845 he published works on the geology of Altai Mountains and Xinjiang. In 1848–63 he led eight expeditions in Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan and East Thrace. In 1853–69 he conducted a major study of Asia Minor, while being the attaché of the Russian embassy in Constantinople. In 1878, at the age of 71, he visited Algeria and Tunis. He published many works in geography, natural history and the politics of the Eastern Question.[27]
 
Mountains of Central Asia
 
Asia Minor
  Artur Chilingarov
(born 1939)
polar scientist, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia, politician
In 1969 Chilingarov became the head of the research station "North Pole-19" and in 1971 the head of Bellingshausen Station during the 17-th Soviet Antarctic Expedition. In 1985 he successfully led the mission to rescue the research vessel Mikhail Somov, which had been ice-blocked in the Southern Ocean. During the Russian Arktika 2007 expedition, Chilingarov, accompanied by other explorers from different countries, descended to the seabed 13,980 feet below the North Pole in order to plant the Russian flag there and gather specimens of the bottom ground, using MIR submersibles. In 2008 he took part in the expedition which descended one mile to the bottom of Lake Baikal on MIRs.[28]
 
MIR submersible
  Aleksei Chirikov^
(1703–1748)
Russian Navy captain
In 1725–30 and in 1733–43, Chirikov was Vitus Bering's deputy during the 1st and the 2nd Kamchatka expeditions. On July 15, 1741, Chirikov, the captain of Sv. Pavel, became the first European to land on the northwestern coast of North America near Alexander Archipelago. Thereafter he discovered some of the Aleutian Islands. In 1742 Chirikov specified the location of the Attu Island during the search for Bering's lost ship. In 1746 Chirikov took part in creating the final map of the Russian discoveries in the northern Pacific Ocean.[29]

Named in honor: Chirikof Island.
 
Alexander Archipelago
  Valery Chkalov
(1904–1938)
military and test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union
Chkalov developed several new figures of aerobatics. He was involved in a number of Soviet ultralong flights. In 1936 Chkalov, Georgiy Baidukov and A.V.Belyakov on ANT-25 flew 9,374 km from Moscow through the North Pole to follow-up Chkalov Island in the Okhotsk Sea, which took 56 h 20 min. In 1937, also on ANT-25, the same crew flew 8,504 km from Moscow through the North Pole to Vancouver, Washington, which was the first transpolar flight between Europe and North America on airplane, rather than on dirigible.[30]

Named in honor: Chkalovsk; Chkalov Island, Chkalovskaya (Moscow Metro), Chkalovskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro).
 
ANT-25

D edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Semyon Dezhnyov^
(c. 1605–1672)
Siberian Cossack leader
In 1643 Dezhnyov and Mikhail Stadukhin discovered the Kolyma River and founded Srednekolymsk. Fedot Alekseyev Popov organized a further expedition eastward, and Dezhnyov became a captain of one koch. In 1648 they sailed from Srednekolymsk down to the Arctic and after some time they rounded a 'great rocky projection', thus becoming the first to pass through the Bering Strait and to discover Chukchi Peninsula and the Bering Sea. All their kochi and most of their men (including Popov himself) were lost in storms and clashes with the natives. A small group led by Dezhnyov reached the mouth of the Anadyr River and sailed up it in 1649, having built new boats out of the wreckage. They founded Anadyrsk and were stranded there, until Stadukhin found them, coming from Kolyma by land.[31]

Named in honor: Cape Dezhnyov (the easternmost cape of Eurasia).
 
Bering Strait and the Anadyr River
  Vasily Dokuchaev~
(1846–1903)
geographer, geologist, pedologist
Dokuchaev led numerous expeditions to study the soils and geology of European Russia. As a result of his long research of Russian soils, he founded modern soil science, developed the conception of biomes and proposed ways to improve soil productivity.[2]

Named in honor: Dokuchaevsk.
 
Global soil regions

E edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Arvid Adolf Etholén^
(1799–1876)
Russian Navy officer, colonial administrator
Etolin sailed to Alaska with Vasily Golovnin on Kamchatka and entered the service of the Russian-American Company. He was part of a group that surveyed the Aleutian Islands in 1822–24. In 1833 he explored the Gulf of Alaska. Etolin was the governor of Russian America in 1840–45, and continued to explore Alaska and the Bering Sea.[32]

Named in honor: Etolin Island, Etolin Strait.
 
Aleutian Islands
  Eduard Eversmann!
(1794–1860)
naturalist
In 1820 Eversmann traveled to Bukhara disguised as a merchant and in 1825 traveled with a military expedition to Khiva. In 1828 he became a professor of zoology and botany at the University of Kazan. He wrote numerous publications and pioneered the research of the flora and fauna of the southeast steppes of Russia between the Volga and the Urals.[33]

Named in honor: Eversmann's redstart, Eversmann's parnassian, Eversmann's rustic and other species.
 
Walls of Itchan Kala in Khiva

F edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Alexei Fedchenko!
(1844–1873)
naturalist
In 1868 Fedchenko traveled through Turkestan, including Samarkand, Panjkent and the upper Zarafshan River valley. In 1870 he explored the Fan Mountains south of the Zarafshan. In 1871 he reached the Alay Valley at Daroot-Korgan and explored the northern Pamir Mountains but was unable to penetrate southward. He perished on Mont Blanc while engaged in an exploring tour in France.[17][34]

Named in honor: Fedchenko Glacier, 3195 Fedchenko (asteroid).
 
Pamir Mountains in Central Asia
  Alexander Fersman~
(1883–1945)
geologist, geochemist
Fersman founded geochemistry, the science of the chemical composition of the Earth. He led numerous expeditions in Crimea, Kola Peninsula and the Urals. He discovered copper and nickel in Monchegorsk, apatite reserves in Khibiny and sulfur in Central Asia.[35]

Named in honor: Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Fersman crater (Moon).
 
Khibiny Mountains
Ivan Fyodorov^
(?–1733)
Russian Navy officer
Fyodorov, took part in the first Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering in 1725–30. In 1732 Fyodorov and geodesist Mikhail Gvozdev aboard the Sviatoi Gavriil (Bering's ship) sailed to Cape Dezhnyov, the easternmost point of Asia. From there they sailed east and soon discovered the Alaskan mainland near the Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of North America. They charted the north-western coast of Alaska. By doing this, Fyodorov and Gvozdev completed the discovery of the Bering Strait, started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Popov and continued by Bering. Their expedition also discovered three previously unknown islands.[36]
 
Seward Peninsula on Alaska, where the Cape Prince of Wales is located
  Johan Hampus Furuhjelm^
(1821–1909)
Russian admiral, governor of the Russian Far East, Taganrog and Russian America

(in photo with his wife Anna)
In 1850 Furuhjelm became a commander of Novoarkhangelsk port (now Sitka, Alaska) and in 1854 of Ayan port. In 1858–64 he was the governor of Russian America. He improved relations with natives, once using the Columbus-like trick of an eclipse of the moon to impress the Indians. In 1865–72 Furuhjelm served as military governor of Primorsky Krai and chief of Russian seaports on the Pacific, where he contributed significantly to the development and exploration of the whole region.[37]

Named in honor: Mount Furuhelm, Furugelm Island.
 
Russian America

G edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Yury Gagarin
(1934–1968)
Soviet Air Force pilot, cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union
On 12 April 1961, Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, launching into orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1).[38]

Named in honor: Gagarin (Russia), Gagarin (Armenia), Gagarinsky (inhabited locality), Gagarinsky District, Gagarinskaya metro station, Gagarin crater (Moon), asteroid 1772 Gagarin, Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin (ship), Gagarin's Start, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Gagarin Air Force Academy, Gagarin Cup; Cosmonautics Day aka Yuri's Night is a yearly celebration of Gagarin's flight on 12 April.
Yakov Gakkel
(1901–1965)
oceanographer
Gakkel was a director of the geography department of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. He participated in numerous Arctic expeditions, including the ones on the icebreaker Sibiryakov in 1932 and on Chelyuskin in 1934. He was the first to create a bathymetric map of the Arctic Ocean.[3]

Named in honor: Gakkel Ridge.
 
Bathymetric map of the Arctic with Gakkel Ridge on it
Matvei Gedenschtrom
(1780–1845)
public servant, scientist
Gedenschtrom was sent to serve in Siberia for his connection with a smuggling affair at Tallinn customs. In 1809–10 together with Yakov Sannikov he led the cartographic expedition to the Arctic shores of Yakutia. They explored and named the New Siberian Islands (earlier discovered by Yakov Permyakov). This expedition established a theory about the existence of the legendary Sannikov Land somewhere northwest of Kotelny Island. Gedenschtrom discovered the presence of Siberian polynya (patches of open water at the edge of the drifting ice and continental fast ice). He charted the coastline between the Yana and Kolyma Rivers. He made numerous trips across Yakutia and the areas east of Lake Baikal.[2]
 
New Siberian Islands
  Johann Gottlieb Georgi*
(1729–1802)
geographer, naturalist, ethnographer, physician, chemist
Georgi accompanied both Johan Peter Falk and Peter Simon Pallas on their respective journeys through European Russia and Siberia. In 1772 he mapped Lake Baikal and was the first to describe omul fish, as well as other fauna and flora of the Baikal region. He amassed a large collection of minerals and in 1776–80 published the first comprehensive work on the ethnography of the indigenous peoples of Russia.[39]

Named in honor: Georgia flower.
 
Omul in an aquarium in the Baikal-Museum in Listvyanka
  Johann Georg Gmelin*
(1709–1755)
naturalist, botanist, geographer
In 1733–43 Gmelin participated in the Great Northern Expedition and made a number of journeys through Siberia, covering more than 34,000 km in total. He discovered that the Caspian Sea lies below sea level. He published two major works about his travels in Russia and the flora of Siberia, and described more than 500 previously unknown plants.[40]

Named in honor: Gmelina and Larix gmelinii plant genera.
 
Gmelina arborea
  Vasily Golovnin^
(1776–1831)
Russian admiral, circumnavigator
Golovnin made two circumnavigations on the sloop Diana (1807–09) and the frigate Kamchatka (1817–19). In 1811 he described and mapped part of the Kuril Islands. At that time he was taken prisoner for two years by the Japanese. He described his years in captivity, life in Japan, and his voyages around the world in books. Later he was the general quartermaster of the Russian Navy and supervised the building of the first Russian steamships. He tutored Fyodor Litke, Ferdinand Wrangel and other seafarers.[41]

Named in honor: Golovin, Alaska.
 
Golovnin's circumnavigations
  Bronislav Gromchevsky!
(1855–1926)
Russian Army officer
Gromchevsky participated in the Russian conquest of Central Asia and led reconnaissance expeditions in the surrounding regions. In 1885–86 he explored Kashgar and Tian Shan. In 1888–89 he explored the Pamirs, Kafiristan, Kashmir and northwestern Tibet and went as far as British India. He is regarded as the Russian counterpart to the British military-explorer Francis Younghusband. The two Great Game rivals famously met in 1889 when they were exploring the Hunza Valley. In 1900 Gromchevsky explored North Eastern China.[17][42]
 
Kashmir region
  Grigory Grum-Grshimailo!
(1860–1936)
zoologist, entomologist, ethnographer, geographer
In 1884 Grum-Grshimailo started his first Pamir expedition on which he explored the Alai Mountains and reached as far as Lake Karakul. In 1885–87 he traveled extensively through Central Asia, reaching the Silk Road, Lake Chatyr-Kul and Kashgar. In 1889–90 he discovered the Ayding Lake, the second lowest land point on Earth, at 130 m below sea level. He obtained two Przewalski's horses, over 1000 bird specimens and tens of thousands of insects during his 8600 km long travels. In 1903 he explored Mongolia and Tuva and later traveled in the Far East.[3][17]
 
Stele at the Ayding Lake
Mikhail Gvozdev^
(1700/04–after 1759)
military geodesist
Gvozdev took part in the 1st Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering. In 1732 together with Ivan Fedorov aboard Sviatoi Gavriil (Bering's ship) they reached Dezhnev Cape (the easternmost point of Asia), sailed east and soon discovered the Alaskan mainland near the Cape Prince of Wales (the westernmost point of North America). They charted that part of the Alaskan coast and discovered three new islands. Thus they completed the discovery of the Bering Strait, once started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Popov and continued by Bering. Subsequently, in 1741–42 Gvozdev participated in the Great Northern Expedition and mapped most of the western and southern shores of the Okhotsk Sea, and the eastern shore of Sakhalin.[43]
 
Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, Alaska in the North Pacific

H edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Ludwig von Hagemeister^
(1780–1833)
Russian Navy captain, colonial administrator, circumnavigator
After taking part in the Napoleonic Wars, in 1806–07 Hagemeister journeyed to Alaska as captain of the Neva (former ship of Lisyansky). In 1808–09, he explored the shores of Alaska and the waters of the North Pacific. In 1812–15 he supervised the building of the first tall ships to sail on Lake Baikal. In 1816–19 he made a circumnavigation on Kutuzov, with a stop in Alaska, where he was a governor of Russian America in 1818–19. In 1828–29, Hagemeister made his second circumnavigation aboard Krotky. Among other islands, he surveyed the Menshikov Atoll (Kwajalein) in the Marshall Islands group.[44]

Named in honor: Hagemeister Island.
 
Hagemeister's circumnavigations

I edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
Kurbat Ivanov*
(?–1666)
Siberian Cossack voevoda
In 1642, on the basis of explorations made by Ivan Moskvitin, Ivanov made the earliest known map of the Russian Far East. In 1643 with a group of Cossacks he sailed up the Lena River from Verkholensky ostrog, having decided to check the rumors of a large body of water to the south. They crossed the Baikal Mountains by foot, descended down the Sarma River, discovered Lake Baikal and visited its Olkhon Island. Ivanov made the first chart and description of Baikal. In 1659–65 Ivanov was the next head of Anadyrsky ostrog after Semyon Dezhnyov. In 1660 he sailed from Anadyr Bay to Cape Dezhnyov. He is credited with the creation of the early map of Chukotka and the Bering Strait, which was the first to show on paper (schematically) the yet undiscovered Wrangel Island, both Diomede Islands and Alaska.[45][46]
 
Lena River and Lake Baikal
Gerasim Izmailov^
(c. 1745–after 1795)
Russian Navy officer
In 1771 Izmailov was caught up in the Benevsky mutiny while serving on Kamchatka. After an attempt to break away from the mutineers he was marooned on Simushir, an uninhabited isle in the Kurils. For a year he lived like Robinson Crusoe before being rescued, tried on charges of mutiny and cleared. From 1775 he created the first detailed map of the Aleutian Islands. In 1778 he met with Captain James Cook in Unalaska. In 1783–85 Izmaylov and Grigory Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in North America on Kodiak Island. In 1789 Izmaylov became the first to explore and map the Kenai Peninsula. Later he helped Alexander Andreyevich Baranov to fight off the Tlingit natives and saved the lost crew of a Russian ship from Saint Paul Island, Alaska.[47]
 
Aleutian Islands

J edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Wilhelm Junker
(1840–1892)
physician, ethnographer
Born into the rich family of a Moscow banker, Junker traveled a lot. He carried out a major exploration of Eastern and Equatorial Africa in 1875–86, with Khartoum and then Lado as bases for his expeditions. He researched African peoples, including the Zande people from Niam-Niam, and collected plant and animal specimens. He explored the Congo-Nile Divide, where he established the identity of the Uele and Ubangi rivers. The Mahdist uprising prevented his return to Europe through the Sudan, and in 1884–86 he went south, traveled through Uganda and Tabora, reached Zanzibar and finally returned to St. Petersburg.[17]
 
Congo River basin

K edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Otto Kalvitsa
(1888–1930)
aviator, polar explorer
Finnish-born aviator who is one of the pioneers of the Soviet Arctic aviation. He explored the waters of Matochkin Strait between the Severny and Yuzhny Islands of Novaya Zemlya in order to survey ship routes for the Northeast passage. Kalvitsa also participated Georgy Ushakov's expedition to the Wrangel Island.[48]

Named in honor: Kalvitsa.
 
Location of the Matochkin Strait
  Yerofey Khabarov*
(1603–after 1671)
Siberian Cossack leader
A manager for the merchants Stroganovs, Khabarov went to Siberia and in 1641 founded saltworks on the Lena River. In 1649–50 he became the second Russian to explore the Amur river (after Vassili Poyarkov). Through the Olyokma, Tungur and Shilka Rivers he reached Amur (Dauria), returned to Yakutsk and then back to Amur with a larger force, where he engaged in the Russian-Manchu border conflicts. He built winter quarters at Albazin, then sailed down the Amur and found Achansk, which preceded the present-day Khabarovsk, defeating or evading large armies of Daurian Manchu Chinese and Koreans on his way. He charted the Amur in his Draft of the Amur river.[49]

Named in honor: Khabarovsk.
 
Amur River basin
  Maria Klenova§
(1898–1976)
marine geologist
Klenova was one of the founders of marine geology. She began her career in 1925 aboard the Soviet research vessel Persey in the Barents Sea, visiting Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land. In 1933 Klenova made the first complete seabed map of the Barents Sea. Her later work included the research of seabed geology in the Atlantic and the Antarctic, and in the Caspian and White Seas. She was one of the earliest women explorers of the Antarctic.[50]
 
Barents Sea as seen from space
  Aleksandr Kolchak^
(1874–1920)
Russian admiral, hero of the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, Russian Civil War, one of the leaders of the White movement
Kolchak joined the expedition of Eduard Toll on the ship Zarya in 1900 as a hydrologist. He took part in two further Arctic expeditions and explored the shores of Taymyr Peninsula. He was nicknamed "Kolchak the Polar". He published a number of important works on Arctic ice.[51]

Named in honor: Kolchak Island.
 
Kolchak Island in the Kara Sea
  Nikolai Kolomeitsev^
(1867–1944)
Russian admiral, hero of the Russo-Japanese War
After several expeditions in the Arctic, Kolomeitsev became a commander of Eduard Toll's ship Zarya during the Russian Polar Expedition in 1900. They aimed to explore the area north of the New Siberian Islands and to find Sannikov Land. There was a disagreement between Kolomeitsev and Toll over the treatment of the crew, and finally Fyodor Matisen was made captain, while Kolomeitsev was sent with Stepan Rastorguyev to organize coal depots and carry the post to the mainland. They made a number of discoveries on the 800 km long sledge trip over Taymyr Peninsula.[52]

Named in honor: Kolomeitsev Islands.
 
Polar ship Zarya
  Fyodor Konyukhov§
(born 1951)
yacht captain, traveler, painter, writer, Orthodox priest
Konyukhov made more than 40 unique trips and climbs expressing his vision of the world in more than 3000 paintings and 9 books. He set a record for crossing the Atlantic on a single row-boat in 46 days. He also crossed 800 km in a record 15 days and 22 hours during a Trans-Greenland dog sleigh ride. He was the first Russian to complete the Three Poles Challenge and Explorers Grand Slam. He is the first and so far the only person in the world to have reached the five extreme Poles of the planet: North Pole (3 times), South Pole, the Pole of inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean, Mount Everest (Alpinists pole) and Cape Horn (Yachtsmen pole). He set a record for the solo yacht circumnavigation of Antarctica in 2008 (102 days).[53][54]
 
The Seven Summits on an elevation world map
  Nikolai Korzhenevskiy!
(1879–1958)
Russian Army officer, geographer, glaciologist
In 1903–28 Korzhenevskiy organized 11 expeditions to explore the Pamir Mountains. He discovered a number of glaciers and the highest peaks in the Pamirs, including Peak Korzhenevskaya which he named after his wife Evgeniya. He discovered and named Academy of Sciences Range (in honor of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR) and made a catalogue of all the glaciers in Central Asia, having discovered 70 of them himself.[3]
 
Peak Korzhenevskaya
  Otto von Kotzebue^
(1787–1846)
Russian Navy captain, circumnavigator
Kotzebue accompanied Ivan Krusenstern on the first Russian circumnavigation in 1803–06. On the brig Rurik he led another Russian circumnavigation in 1815–18. He discovered the Romanzov Islands, Rurik Islands and Krusenstern Islands in the Pacific, then moved towards Alaska and discovered and named Kotzebue Sound and Cape Krusenstern. Returning south he discovered the New Year Island. In 1823–26 he made another world cruise on the sloop "Enterprise" making more discoveries.[17]

Named in honor: Kotzebue Sound, Kotzebue, Alaska.
 
Kotzebue's circumnavigations
  Pyotr Kozlov!
(1863–1935)
Russian Army officer
Kozlov started traveling in Central Asia with Nikolai Przhevalsky, and after the death of his mentor he continued his work. From 1899 to 1901 he explored the upper reaches of the Yellow River, Yangtze, and Mekong rivers. He rivaled Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein as the foremost researcher of Xinjiang at the historical peak of the Great Game. In 1907 he visited the Dalai Lama in Urga. In 1907–09, Kozlov explored the Gobi Desert and discovered the remains of the ancient Tangut city of Khara-Khoto. He excavated the site and uncovered no less than 2,000 books in the Tangut language. In 1923–26 he explored Mongolia and Tibet and discovered an unprecedented number of Xiongnu royal burials at Noin-Ula.[55]
 
A silk painting from Khara-Khoto
  Stepan Krasheninnikov*
(1711–1755)
naturalist, geographer
Krashennikov was a classmate of Mikhail Lomonosov. Krashennikov traveled in Siberia in 1733–36 and then on Kamchatka Peninsula in 1737–41, during the Second Kamchatka Expedition. He gave the first full description of Kamchatka in his book An Account of the Land of Kamchatka, with detailed reports of the plants and animals of the region, and also the language and culture of the indigenous Itelmen and Koryaks.[56]

Named in honor: Krascheninnikovia and other species.
 
Fire-breathing mountain on Kamchatka from Krasheninnikov's book
Pyotr Krenitsyn^
(1728–1770)
Russian Navy captain
In 1766–70 Krenitsyn led the "secret" expedition to the North Pacific together with Mikhail Levashov, as ordered by Catherine the Great. They explored the Aleutian Islands and part of the Alaskan shore, discovering good haven in Unalaska and many features of the Alaskan coast. Krenitsyn died by drowning in the Kamchatka River. On the basis of his explorations the first general map of the Aleutian Islands was created.[2]

Named in honor: Krenitzin Islands.
 
Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
  Sergei Krikalyov$
(born 1958)
cosmonaut and mechanical engineer, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia
Krikalyov spent a record 803 days 9 hours and 39 minutes in space during his six spaceflights. As a Soviet cosmonaut he traveled into space and back aboard Soyuz TM-7 in 1988 and then launched aboard Soyuz TM-12 in 1991, both times working on the Soviet space station Mir. "The last Citizen of the USSR", Krikalev landed back on Earth aboard Soyuz TM-13 in 1992 to turn into a Russian cosmonaut. He became the first Russian to travel on an American Space Shuttle during the STS-60 mission to Mir in 1994, and then he made another Shuttle flight STS-88, which was the first Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. He again traveled to ISS on Soyuz TM-31 in 2000 and returned on STS-102 in 2001. Again he traveled to ISS and back on Soyuz TMA-6 in 2005.[57]
 
Mir space station.
  Pyotr Kropotkin*
(1842–1921)
Russian Army officer, geographer, zoologist, anarchist revolutionary
While serving in Siberia, in 1864 Kropotkin led a survey expedition crossing North Manchuria from Transbaikalia to the Amur River. Subsequently, he took part in the expedition which proceeded up the Sungari River into central Manchuria, yielding valuable geographic results. In 1871 he explored the glacial deposits of Finland and Sweden. He published several important works on the geography of Asia.[58]

Named in honor: Kropotkin, Krasnodar Krai, Kropotkinskaya (Moscow Metro).
 
Manchuria, 1892
  Adam Johann von Krusenstern^
(1770–1846)
Russian admiral, circumnavigator, geographer
In 1803–06, under the patronage of Alexander I of Russia and Nikolai Rumyantsev, Krusenstern led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world aboard the Nadezhda together with Yuri Lisianski on Neva. The purpose of the expedition was to establish trade with China and Japan, and examine California for a possible colony. They sailed from Kronshtadt, rounded Cape Horn, and reached the northern Pacific, making a number of discoveries. Krusenstern made an atlas of the Pacific, receiving an honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences for the work.[3]

Named in honor: Krusenstern Islands, Cape Krusenstern, Kruzenshtern (ship), Krusenstern (crater).
 
A coin dedicated to the first Russian circumnavigation
  Alexander Kuchin
(1888–1913?)
Russian Navy captain, oceanographer
Kuchin's life was bound with Norway: he started as a seaman on a Norwegian ship, created a Small Russian-Norwegian dictionary, studied oceanography from Bjorn Helland-Hansen, conducted oceanographic studies during Amundsen's South Pole Expedition on the Fram, when he became the first Russian to set foot on the land of Antarctica, and married Aslaug Poulson, a Norwegian. In 1912–13 he was the captain of Vladimir Rusanov's expedition to Svalbard on their ship Hercules. After the successful research of the coal reserves on Svalbard, without consultation with the Russian authorities they made an incredibly rash attempt to pass via the Northern Sea Route, and were lost in the Kara Sea. Relics of the Herkules were found near the Kolosovykh Islands.[59]
 
Svalbard

L edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Georg von Langsdorff
(1774–1852)
physician, naturalist, consul general of Russia in Rio de Janeiro
Langsdorf participated as a naturalist and physician in the first Russian circumnavigation in 1803–05. Independently, he explored the Aleutians, Sitka and Kodiak Islands in 1805–07. In 1813 he became consul general of Russia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There he explored the flora, fauna and geography of the province of Minas Gerais with French naturalist Augustin Saint-Hilaire in 1813–20. In 1821–22 he led an exploratory and scientific expedition from São Paulo to Pará in the Amazon Rainforest via a fluvial route, accompanied by an international team of scientists. In 1826–29 he led a 6000 km long expedition from Porto Feliz to the Amazon River and back emassing huge scientific collections now deposited in Kunstkamera.[60]
 
Minas Gerais province in Brazil
  Dmitry Laptev
(1701–1771)
Russian admiral

(Malygin, Ovtsyn, Chelyuskin, Kh.Laptev and D.Laptev on a commemorative coin)
A cousin of Khariton Laptev, Dmitry Laptev led one of the parties of the Great Northern Expedition in 1739–42. He described the sea coastline from the mouth of the Lena River to the Cape Bolshoy Baranov east of the mouth of the Kolyma River, the basin and the mouth of the Anadyr River, and the land route from the Anadyr fortress to the Penzhin Bay. In 1741–42, Laptev surveyed the Bolshoy Anyuy River.[61]

Named in honor: Laptev Sea.
 
Laptev Sea
  Khariton Laptev
(1700–1763)
Russian Navy officer

(Malygin, Ovtsyn, Chelyuskin, Kh.Laptev and D.Laptev on a commemorative coin)
A cousin of Dmitry Laptev, Khariton Laptev led one of the parties of the Great Northern Expedition in 1739–42. Together with Semion Chelyuskin, N. Chekin, and G. Medvedev, Laptev described the Taimyr Peninsula from the mouth of the Khatanga River to the mouth of the Pyasina river and discovered several islands. He participated in the creation of the "General Map of the Siberian and Kamchatka Coast".[61]

Named in honor: Laptev Sea.
 
Taimyr Peninsula
  Adam Laxman^
(1766–1806?)
Russian Army officer, diplomat
Son of Kirill Laxman, Adam Laxman led a diplomatic mission to Japan in 1791–92, with the aim to return Daikokuya Kōdayū and another Japanese castaway in exchange for trade concessions from Tokugawa shogunate. He made valuable observations, but returned to Russia essentially empty-handed, though he possibly obtained the first official Japanese documents granting very limited permission to trade, to a nation other than China or the Netherlands.[62]
 
Map of Japan by Daikokuya Kōdayū in Japanese and Russian
Kirill Laxman*
(1737–1796)
clergyman, naturalist
Kirill Laxman became a priest first in St. Petersburg and then in the Siberian town of Barnaul. In 1764–68 he explored Siberia, reaching Irkutsk, Baikal, Kiakhta and the border with China and researching the Siberian flora and fauna. In 1782 he founded the oldest museum in Siberia in Irkutsk, where he had settled earlier and was a business partner of Alexander Baranov (the future governor of Russian America). Laxman was engaged in attempts to establish relationships between Russia and Japan. He brought Daikokuya Kōdayū, a Japanese castaway, to the court of empress Catherine the Great.[3]
  Mikhail Lazarev§
(1788–1851)
admiral, circumnavigator, hero of the Battle of Navarino, commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, tutor of admirals and war heroes Nakhimov, V. Kornilov and V. Istomin
Lazarev thrice circumnavigated the globe. He led the 1813–16 circumnavigation aboard the vessel Suvorov and discovered Suvorov Atoll. He commanded Mirny, the second ship in the Russian circumnavigation of 1819–21 under the leadership of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen aboard Vostok – this expedition was the first to discover the continent of Antarctica on January 28, 1820 (New Style). They also discovered and named Peter I Island, Zavodovski, Leskov and Visokoi Islands, the Antarctic peninsula mainland and Alexander Island (Alexander Coast), and made some discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific. In 1822–25 Lazarev sailed around the globe for the third time on his frigate Kreyser.

Named in honor: Lazarev Bay, Lazarev atoll, Lazarevskoye (settlement), Novolazarevskaya Station, Lazarev Mountains, Lazarev Ice Shelf, Lazarev Trough, 3660 Lazarev (minor planet).
 
Lazarev's world cruise on Suvorov
 
Antarctica
  Alexei Leonov
(1934–2019)
cosmonaut and Soviet Air Force general, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, painter, writer
On March 18, 1965, connected to the spacecraft Voskhod 2 by a 5.35 meter tether, Leonov became the first person to make a spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity. He was in open space for 12 min 9 sec. At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum to the point where he could not reenter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off, and was barely able to get back inside the capsule, where his companion Pavel Belyayev assisted him. Subsequently, Leonov made a second spaceflight on the Soyuz 19, a part of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Thus Leonov participated in the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. He published several books and albums of paintings, some of which he created in space.[63]

Named in honor: a fictional spaceship in Arthur C. Clarke's book 2010: Odyssey Two, which was dedicated to Leonov.
Mikhail Levashov^
(c. 1738–1774/76)
Russian Navy officer
In 1766–70 Levashov was second-in-command in the "secret" expedition to the North Pacific led by Pyotr Krenitsyn, as ordered by Catherine the Great. They explored the Aleutian Islands and part of the Alaskan shore, discovering good haven in Unalaska and many features of the Alaskan coast. Levashov also explored and described the Commander Islands. On the basis of their explorations the first general map of the Aleutian Islands was created.[64]
 
Kamchatka and the Commander Islands
  Yuri Lisyansky^
(1773–1837)
Russian Navy officer, circumnavigator
In 1803–06 Lisyansky, aboard the Neva, together with Ivan Krusenstern on the Nadezhda, led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world. The purpose of the expedition was to establish trade with China and Japan and to examine California for a possible colony. The ships split near Hawaii and Lisyanski headed to Russian Alaska, where the Neva became essential in defeating the Tlingit in the Battle of Sitka. Lisyansky was the first to describe the Hawaiian monk seal on the island which now bears his name. He met Krusenstern again in Macau, but they soon separated. Eventually, Lisyansky was the first to return to Kronstadt.[65]

Named in honor: Lisianski Island.
 
Neva in Kodiak
 
Lisianski Island
  Friedrich von Lütke^
(1797–1882)
Russian admiral, circumnavigator
Litke took part in Vasily Golovnin's world cruise on the ship Kamchatka in 1817–19. In 1821–24, Litke explored the coastline of Novaya Zemlya, the White Sea, and the eastern Barents Sea. In 1826–29, he led the circumnavigation on the ship Senyavin and accompanied Mikhail Staniukovich on the sloop Moller. During this voyage they explored the Bering Sea (including the Pribilof Islands, St. Matthew Island and the Commander Islands), the Bonin Islands off Japan, and the Carolines, discovering 12 new islands. Litke was a co-founder and the president of the Russian Geographic Society in 1845–50 and 1857–72. He was the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1864–82, and occupied a number of major military and state offices.[66]

Named in honor: Cape Lutke, Alaska, Litke Strait, Icebreaker Feodor Litke.
 
Litke's voyage on Senyavin
 
Cape Lutke
Fyodor Luzhin*
(?–1727)
cartographer, geodesist
In 1719–1721, together with Ivan Yevreinov, Luzhin made the first instrumental mapping of Kamchatka and the first map of the Kuril Islands during the "secret expedition", as ordered by Peter the Great. In 1723–24 he made surveys of different parts of East Siberia near Irkutsk. In 1725–27, Luzhin participated in the first Kamchatka Expedition led by Vitus Bering.[67]

Named in honor: Luzhin Strait.
 
Kuril Islands
Ivan Lyakhov
(?–c. 1800)
merchant
Lyakhov, a merchant, investigated the New Siberian Islands in three expeditions on dogsleds in 1770, 1773–74 and 1775. He hoped to find mammoth ivory there as he believed the islands were mainly formed by a substratum of bones and tusks of mammoths. He explored the follow-up Lyakhovsky Islands, crossed the Sannikov Strait and discovered Kotelny Island.[68]

Named in honor: Lyakhovsky Islands.
 
New Siberian Islands
  Vladimir Lysenko
(born 1955)
traveler, scientist, circumnavigator
Dr. Vladimir Lysenko had three globe circumnavigations: (1) in a car (1997–2002), crossed 62 countries; (2) on a bicycle, crossed 29 countries; (3) along the equator, from west to east, deviating no more than two degrees of latitude from the Equator – starting in Libreville (Gabon), Vladimir had successfully crossed (in a car, a motor boat, a yacht, a ship, a kayak, a bicycle, and by foot) Africa, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Pacific Ocean, South America and Atlantic Ocean with finish in Libreville in 2012. He also completed project titled "From Earth's Bowels to Stratosphere". Vladimir rafted on rivers in 63 countries. He visited all 195 UN member and observer states.[69][70]
 
Lysenko's circumnavigations

M edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Stepan Makarov
(1849–1904)
Russian admiral, oceanographer, naval engineer and inventor, hero of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and Russo-Japanese War, commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet
Makarov built and captained the world's first torpedo boat tender Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin. He was the first in the world to successfully launch torpedoes (against the Turkish armed ship Intibah in 1877). He was one of the developers of the Russian Flag semaphore system and insubmersibility theory. Makarov directed two round-the-world oceanographic expeditions on the corvette Vityaz in 1886–89 and in 1894–96. He built and commanded Yermak, the world's first true icebreaker, which was able to ride over and crash pack ice. Yermak was tested in two Arctic expeditions in 1899 and in 1901. Admiral Makarov was killed in action during the 1904–05 war with Japan after his battleship Petropavlovsk struck a naval mine.[71]

Named in honor: Makarov (town), Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy, Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov (1906), Icebreaker Admiral Makarov.
 
Corvette Vityaz
 
Icebreaker Yermak
  Stepan Malygin
(?–1764)
Russian Navy captain, navigator, cartographer

(Malygin, Ovtsyn, Chelyuskin, Kh. Laptev and D. Laptev on a commemorative coin)
Malygin was the first to write a manual on navigation in the Russian language in 1733. In early 1736, he was appointed leader of the western unit of the Great Northern Expedition. In 1736–37, two boats Perviy (First) and Vtoroy (Second) under the command of Malygin and A. Skuratov undertook a voyage from the Dolgiy Island in the Barents Sea to the mouth of the Ob River. During this trip, Malygin for the first time described and mapped the part of the Russian Arctic coastline between the Pechora and Ob Rivers.[72]

Named in honor: Malygin Strait, Icebreaker Malygin (1912).
 
Bely Island and Malygin Strait
  Fyodor Matisen
(1872–1921)
Russian Navy officer, hydrographer
Matisen replaced Nikolai Kolomeitsev as commander of Eduard Toll's Zarya during the Russian Polar Expedition in 1900–03. He was the first to make a thorough geographical survey of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, exploring it on dogsled and discovering and naming 40 of its islands. Subsequently, Toll and Matisen led Zarya across the Laptev Sea to the New Siberian Islands. The ship was trapped in fast ice, and Toll and three companions went in search of the elusive Sannikov Land on foot and kayaks, and were lost. When Zarya became able to set sail, Matisen made for the Lena River delta.[52]
 
Nordenskiöld Archipelago
  Fyodor Matyushkin
(1799–1872)
Russian admiral, circumnavigator
Matyushkin studied in Tsarskoselsky College together with Alexander Pushkin. He participated in Vassili Golovnin's world cruise aboard the Kamchatka in 1817–19. In 1820–24 he took part in Ferdinand Wrangel's Arctic expedition to the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea. They explored and mapped the Medvyezhi Islands. Following this survey, Matyushkin on his own explored a vast tundra area east of the Kolyma River. In 1825–27, he joined Wrangel in his world cruise aboard Krotky.[2]
 
Kolyma region nature
  Alexander Middendorf*
(1815–1894)
zoologist, botanist, geographer, hippologist. agriculturalist
In 1840 Middendorf took part in Karl Baer's expedition to the Kola Peninsula and Lapland. In 1843–45 he pioneered the scientific exploration of the Taimyr Peninsula and discovered the Putorana Plateau on Central Siberian Plateau. Then he traveled along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and entered the lower Amur River valley. He studied the ethnography of Siberian peoples, and the climate, animals and plants of Siberia. He was a founder of permafrost science and the Vice President of the Russian Geographical Society. He determined the southern border of the permafrost and explained the high sinuosity of the northern boundary of the taiga zone. In 1870 he accompanied Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich to Novaya Zemlya and discovered the North Cape sea current (a part of the Norwegian Current). In 1870 he also explored the Baraba steppe, and in 1878 he travelled in Fergana Valley.[73]

Named in honor: Middendorff Bay, Middendorff's grasshopper warbler.
 
Putorana Plateau location
 
Permafrost in the North Hemisphere
  Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay
(1846–1888)
ethnologist, anthropologist, biologist
Miklouho-Maclay visited north-eastern New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Melanesia on a number of occasions starting in 1870, and for a long time he lived amongst the native Oceanian tribes, studying their way of life and customs. One of the earliest followers of Charles Darwin, he was among the first to refute the then prevailing view that the different 'races' of mankind belonged to different species. He arrived in Sydney in 1878 and organised a zoological centre known as the Marine Biological Station, the first marine biological research institute in Australia. He married a daughter of the Premier of New South Wales, John Robertson, and returned to Russia. Being in poor health after the trip he died, and left his skull to the St. Petersburg Military and Medical Academy.[74]

Named in honor: Macleay Museum, N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology.
 
Papua New Guinea
 
Maklay among the Papuans
  Nicolae Milescu*
(1636–1708)
writer, scientist, traveler, geographer, diplomat
In 1671 Milescu went from Moldavia to Russia, where he became a diplomat. He wrote the first arithmetics textbook in the Russian language, Arithmologion. He led the Russian diplomatic mission to China in 1675–78, for the first time among Russian ambassadors travelling to Beijing through East Siberia rather than through Mongolia. After his assistant Ignatiy Milovanov (sent beforehand) Milescu was the first known European to cross the Amur River from the north and reach Beijing by that route. Milescu made the first detailed description of Lake Baikal and all the rivers feeding the lake, and he was the first to point out Baikal's unfathomable depth. His travel notes also contain valuable descriptions of major Siberian rivers and the first ever orographic scheme of East Siberia.[75]
 
Milescue and his route from Moscow to China
Fyodor Minin
(c. 1709–after 1742)
Russian Navy officer
In the 1730s, Minin participated in the Great Northern Expedition. In 1736, he joined the unit led by Dmitry Ovtsyn. In 1738 together with Dmitry Sterlegov he led the group that charted the Arctic coastline east of the Yenisei river for some 250 km. In 1738–42, Minin made several vain attempts to sail around the Taimyr Peninsula. He also mapped and described Dikson Island.[76]

Named in honor: Minina Skerries.
 
Location of the Minina Skerries
Ivan Moskvitin*
(?–after 1645)
Siberian Cossack leader
Moskvitin came with ataman Dmitry Kopylov from Tomsk to Yakutsk and then to a new fort on the Aldan River in 1638. In 1639 Kopylov sent Moskvitin in command of 20 Tomsk Cossacks and 29 Krasnoyarsk Cossacks to look for silver ore to the east. Leading the party, Moskvitin became the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean and to discover the Sea of Okhotsk, building a winter camp on its shore at the Ulya River mouth. In 1640 the Cossacks apparently sailed south, explored the south-eastern shores of the Okhotsk Sea and probably reached the mouth of the Amur River. On their way back they discovered the Shantar Islands. Based on Moskvitin's account, Kurbat Ivanov draw the first Russian map of the Far East in 1642. Moskvitin, presumably a native of Moscow, personally brought the news of the discovery of the eastern ocean to his native city.[77]
 
Location of the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk
  Gerhard Friedrich Müller*
(1705–1783)
historian, ethnologist
Müller came to St. Petersburg in 1725 and became a co-founder of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1733–43 he participated in the Academic Squad of the Great Northern Expedition and traveled extensively through Siberia, studying its geography and peoples. Müller is considered to be one of the fathers of ethnography. He collected vernacular stories and archival documents about Russian explorers of Siberia, including Pyanda, Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov. He was among the first to write a general account of Russian history based on extensive study of documentary sources. He put forth the Normanist theory, a controversial accentuation of the role of Scandinavians and Germans in the history of Russia.[78]
 
Kunstkamera, the first building of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky*
(1809–1881)
Russian Army general, statesman, diplomat
In 1847 Muravyov became the governor general of Eastern Siberia. He pursued the Russian exploration and settlement of the territories north of the Amur River. He assisted in the organisation of Gennady Nevelskoy's expeditions, which led to the Russian presence near Amur estuary and on Sakhalin. In 1854 military troops sailed down the Amur, in 1855 the first settlers reached the river mouth, and in 1856 the city of Blagoveshchensk was founded. In 1858, Muravyov concluded the Treaty of Aigun with China, which recognised the Amur River as a border between the two countries and granted Russia easier access to the Pacific Ocean. The new territories acquired by Russia included Priamurye and most of the territories of modern Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais. For this achievement Muravyov was granted the title of Count Amursky. The Treaty of Aigun was confirmed and expanded the Convention of Peking of 1860, which granted Russia the right to the Ussuri krai and the south of Primorsky Krai. To defend the new lands Muravyov created the Amur Cossacks corps.[79][80]

Named in honor: Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula.
 
Muravyov's first expedition off Aigun
 
Monument in Khabarovsk (5000 ruble banknote)
  Ivan Mushketov!
(1850–1902)
geologist, geographer
In 1873–79 Mushketov traveled extensively in Central Asia, discovering and cataloguing mineral deposits. He produced the first geological map of Turkestan (together with S. Romanovsky). Mushketov also started observations of earthquakes in Kazakhstan, organized regular observation of the glaciers of the Caucasus, and researched the gold mines of the Urals. He led the team that surveyed the territory for the future Circum-Baikal Railway.[81]
 
Central Asia

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Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Ivan Nagurski
(1888–1976)
engineer, Russian Navy officer, pioneer of aviation, hero of the First World War and Russian Civil War
Nagurski was among the first pilots of the Russian Navy. In 1914 he was tasked with the difficult mission of locating the expeditions of Georgy Sedov, Georgy Brusilov, and Vladimir Rusanov all lost in the Russian Arctic. He flew five missions, spending more than ten hours in the air and travelling more than a thousand kilometers over land and the Barents Sea reaching as far as the 76th parallel north. He did not find the expeditions, but became the first polar aviator in history. Later he performed the first ever loop with a flying boat.[82]

Named in honor: Nagurskoye airfield.
 
Nagurski's plane in the Arctic off Novaya Zemlya
  Gennady Nevelskoy*
(1813–1876)
Russian admiral
In 1848 Nevelskoy led the expedition in the Russian Far East, exploring the area of Sakhalin and the Amur Liman (which he found possible to sail through on tall ships). He proved that the Tatar Strait was not a gulf, but indeed a strait, connected to the Amur River's estuary by a narrow section later called Nevelskoy Strait. Not knowing about the efforts of Japanese navigator Mamiya Rinzo who explored the same area earlier, Nevelskoy's report was taken as the first proof that Sakhalin was indeed an island. In 1850 Nevelskoy founded Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, the first Russian settlement in the lower Amur region. He also founded several military posts on Sakhalin.[83]

Named in honor: Nevelskoy Strait, Nevelsk.
 
Nevelskoy Strait is the narrowest part of Tatar Strait
  Afanasy Nikitin
(?–1472)
merchant, writer
In 1466, Nikitin left his hometown of Tver on a commercial trip to India. He traveled down the Volga River, reached Derbent, then Baku and later Persian Empire by crossing the Caspian Sea, where he lived for a year. In 1469 Nikitin arrived in Ormus and then, crossing the Arabian Sea, reached the sultanate of Bahmani, where he lived for 3 years. On his way back, Nikitin visited the African continent (Somalia), Muscat, Trabzon and in 1472 arrived at Feodosiya by crossing the Black Sea. Thus Nikitin became one of the first Europeans to travel to and to document his visit to India. He described his trip in a narrative known as A Journey Beyond the Three Seas, which is a valuable study of the 15th-century India, its social system, government, military (Nikitin witnessed war-games featuring war elephants), its economy, religion and lifestyles.[84]
 
Persia
 
India

O edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Vladimir Obruchev*
(1863–1956)
geologist, geographer, science fiction author
Having graduated from the Petersburg Mining Institute in 1886, Obruchev went to Siberia. He studied gold-mining and assisted in constructing the Trans-Siberian and Central Asian Railways. In Central Asia he explored the Kara Kum Desert, the shores of the Amu Darya River, and the old riverbeds of the Uzbois. In 1892–94 Obruchev took part in Grigory Potanin's expedition to Mongolia and North China. He explored the Transbaikal area, Dzhungaria and the Altai Mountains. Having spent half a century in exploring Siberia and Inner Asia, Obruchev summarized his findings in the extensive work The Geology of Siberia. He studied the origins of loess, the ice formation and permafrost, and the tectonics of Siberia. All together, he authored over a thousand scientific works. Obruchev is also known as the author of two popular science fiction novels, Plutonia (1915) and Sannikov Land (1924). These stories, imitating the pattern of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, depict in vivid detail the discovery of an isolated world of prehistoric animals in hitherto unexplored large islands in the Arctic.[85]

Named in honor: Obruchev Hills, Obruchev crater (Moon), 3128 Obruchev (asteroid), Obruchevsky District.
 
Siberian craton
  Dmitry Ovtsyn
(?–after 1757)
Russian Navy officer, hydrographer
In 1737–38 Ovtsyn led one of the units of the Great Northern Expedition that charted the coastline of the Kara Sea east of the Ob River, making the first hydrographic description of the large Gydan Peninsula and part of the Taymyr Peninsula. In 1741–42 Ovtsyn took part in Vitus Bering's voyage to the shores of North America.[86]
 
Gydan Peninsula

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Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Pyotr Pakhtusov
(1800–1835)
Russian Navy officer, hydrographer

(a monument in Kronstadt)
A participant of the earlier explorations by Fyodor Litke, Pakhtusov led two expeditions to Novaya Zemlya in 1832 and 1835. He twice wintered on the islands and took detailed meteorological observations. Together with fellow explorer and cartographer Avgust Tsivolko, Pakhtusov made the first reliable maps of Novaya Zemlya's southern shores.[87]
 
Novaya Zemlya
  Peter Simon Pallas~
(1741–1811)
naturalist, zoologist, botanist, geographer
Born in Berlin, Pallas was invited by Catherine the Great to become a professor at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1768–74, he led an academic expedition to the Central Russia, Povolzhye, the Caspian Sea, the Urals, and Siberia, reaching as far east as Transbaikal. Pallas sent regular reports to St. Petersburg covering the topics of geology, native peoples, new plants and animals. He became a favourite of Catherine II and was provided with the specimens collected by other naturalists to compile the Flora Rossica (publ. 1784–1815) and Zoographica Rosso-Asiatica (1811–31). He also published an account of Johann Anton Güldenstädt's travels in the Caucasus and the journals of Georg Wilhelm Steller from Kamchatka and Alaska. In 1793–94 Pallas led an expedition to southern Russia, visiting the Crimea and the Black Sea, the Caucasus and the Dnieper. He discovered and described a large number of new species and amassed a vast natural history collection.[88]

Named in honor: pallasite (meteorite type), Pallasovka (town), asteroid 21087 Petsimpallas, Pallas's cat, Pallas's squirrel, Pallas's gull and other species.
 
Krasnojarsk, the first known pallasite meteorite
 
Pallas's cat
Ivan Papanin
(1894–1986)
Soviet admiral, scientist, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union
In 1931 Papanin took part in the expedition on icebreaker Malygin to Franz Josef Land, where in 1932–33 he was the chief of a polar expedition on the Hooker Island. In 1934–35 he was the head of a polar station on Cape Chelyuskin. In 1937–38 he was the head of the drifting ice station North Pole-1, the world's first expedition of its kind. Together with Ernst Krenkel, Yevgeny Fyodorov and Pyotr Shirshov he landed on the Arctic drifting ice-floes in an airplane flown by Mikhail Vodopyanov. For 234 days the team carried out a wide range of scientific observations in the near-polar zone, until taken back. In 1939–46 Papanin became the head of the Glavsevmorput, an establishment that oversaw operations on the Northern Sea Route. In 1940 he organized the expedition that rescued the ice-trapped icebreaker Sedov.[89]
Maksim Perfilyev*
(?–after 1638)
Siberian Cossack leader
In 1618–19 Perfilyev became a co-founder of Yeniseysky ostrog, the first Russian fortress on the central Yenisey River and a major standpoint for further expeditions eastward. In 1618–27 Perfilyev made several journeys on the Angara, Ilim, Lena and Vitim rivers, and built several new ostrogs. In 1631 he founded Bratsky ostrog (follow-up Bratsk). In 1638 he became the first Russian to set foot in Transbaikalia.[90][91]
 
Yenisey basin
Yakov Permyakov
(?–1712)
Siberian Cossack, seafarer, merchant
In 1710, while sailing from the Lena River to the Kolyma River, Permyakov discovered the Medvezhyi Islands, siting them from afar. In 1712, Permyakov and his companion Merkury Vagin crossed the Yana Bay from the mouth of the Yana over the ice and explored Bolshoy Lyakhovsky island, the southernmost of the New Siberian Islands, thus initiating the exploration of the archipelago. On their way back Permyakov and Vagin were murdered by mutineering expedition members.[92]
 
Medvyezhi Islands
Ivan Petlin!
(?–after 1619)
Siberian Cossack, diplomat
Petlin was the first Russian to reach China on an official diplomatic mission in 1618–19. His expedition may have been the second European expedition to reach China from the west by an overland route (after that of Bento de Góis) since the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. Together with Andrey Mundov and 10 other men, Petlin went south up the Ob River, crossed the Abakan Range, went south to Tuva and rounding Uvs Nuur reached the court of the Altan Khan of the Khotgoid. Then they passed through Mongolia to the Great Wall of China and Beijing. He was not allowed to see the Wanli Emperor because of not bringing proper tribute. He brought back a letter in Chinese inviting Russians to open trade, but no one in Russia was able to read it until 1675. An account of Petlin's expedition was translated into English and published in Samuel Purchas's Pilgrims in 1625, and then translated into other European languages.[93][49]
 
Petlin's expedition established Russia-China relations
  Valeri Polyakov$
(born 1942)
cosmonaut and physician, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia
Polyakov holds the world record for the longest continuous spaceflight in history, 437 days 18 hours (more than 14 months), which he spent aboard Soyuz TM-18, Mir space station and Soyuz TM-20 in 1994–95. With his earlier expedition to Mir on Soyuz TM-6 and back on Soyuz TM-7 in 1988–89, his combined space experience is more than 22 months.[94]
 
Mir SS with Soyuz TM-20 at the top
  Fedot Popov^
(?–1648/54)
merchant
An agent of Moscow merchant Alexey Usov, Fedot Popov came to Srednekolymsk in Siberia in 1645. There he organized an expedition eastward, and brought in Semyon Dezhnev. In 1648 they sailed down to the Arctic and became the first to pass through the Bering Strait and to discover Chukchi Peninsula and the Bering Sea. All their kochi and most of their men (including Popov himself) were lost in storms and clashes with the natives. A small group led by Dezhnyov reached the Anadyr River. In 1653–54, while fighting with Koryaks near Anadyrsk, Dezhnyov captured Popov's Yakut wife, who confirmed him dead. When Vladimir Atlasov came to conquer Kamchatka in 1697, he heard from the locals about a certain Fedotov, who had lived with his men near Kamchatka River and had married local women – so the Fedotov legend appeared. G. F. Müller thought Fedotov was Fedot's son, while Stepan Krasheninnikov thought he was Fedot himself, thus deeming Popov to be the possible discoverer of Kamchatka.[31]
 
1773 map of Chukchi Peninsula, showing the 1648 route of Popov and Dezhnyov
  Konstantin Posyet^
(1819–1899)
Russian admiral, military writer, statesman, diplomat
In 1852–54, Posyet journeyed on the frigate Pallada to Japan under the command of admirals Yevfimy Putyatin and Ivan Unkovsky. Accompanied also by novelist Ivan Goncharov and inventor Alexander Mozhaisky, Posyet explored and mapped the northern coastline of the Sea of Japan, including the follow-up Possiet Bay. In 1856 he carried to Japan the news of the ratification of the Treaty of Shimoda. Possiet's journeys and published observations made him an expert on Japan in Russia. Having become Minister of Ways and Communications, he negotiated the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) with Enomoto Takeaki, which brought the entire Sakhalin Island into the Russian fold. He prepared the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and was a leading advocate for the restoration of the white-blue-red flag of Russia in 1896.[95]

Named in honor: Possiet Bay, Posyet port.
 
Possiet Bay
  Grigory Potanin!
(1835–1920)
geographer, ethnographer, botanist
Potanin traveled extensively through Siberia, studying its nature and peoples, once accompanied by Nikolai Yadrintsev. In 1876 and 1879 Potanin led two expeditions into Mongolia. In 1884–86 Potanin explored Northern China and Tibet, returning to Russia through the Qilian Mountains and Mongolia. He encountered the Salar people and made other ethnographic and geographic discoveries, including the first account of the East and West Uighur languages. In 1989 Potanin became one of the founders of Tomsk University, the first university in Asian Russia. In 1892–93 he again explored Northern China and Sichuan accompanied by geologist Vladimir Obruchev. Before reaching Tibet, Potanin was forced to turn back because of the illness and death of his wife Alexandra, who was the first woman member of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1899 Potanin travelled to Greater Khingan.[96]

Named in honor: Potanin Glacier, 9915 Potanin (asteroid).
 
Tibetan Plateau
  Vassili Poyarkov*
(?–after 1668)
Siberian Cossack ataman
In 1643, Poyarkov was sent with 133 men from Yakutsk to explore the new lands south of Stanovoy Ridge. He reached the upper Zeya River in the country of the Daur people, who were paying tribute to the Manchu Chinese. After wintering, in 1644 Poyarkov pushed down the Zeya and became the first Russian to reach the Amur River. He descended to the Nivkh people country and discovered the mouth of the Amur River from land. Since his Cossacks provoked the enmity of the locals they passed, Poyarkov chose a different way back. They built boats and in 1645 sailed along the Sea of Okhotsk coast to the Ulia River and spent the next winter in the huts that had been built by explorer Ivan Moskvitin six years earlier. In 1646 they returned to Yakutsk.[97]
 
Amur River basin
Gavriil Pribylov^
(?–1796)
navigator
Pribylov, commanding the ship St. George, led an expedition funded jointly by Grigory Shelikhov and Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin with an aim to find the lucrative breeding grounds of fur seals, long sought by Siberian merchants. He discovered St. George Island in the Bering Sea in 1786, by following the sounds of barking northern fur seals and possibly hinted by Aleut people. A year later in 1787, Pribylov discovered St. Paul Island to the north of St. George.[98]

Named in honor: Pribilof Islands.
 
Pribilof Islands
  Vasili Pronchishchev
(1702–1736)
Russian Navy officer

(forensic facial reconstruction)
In 1735–36 Pronchishchev led one of the units of the Great Northern Expedition that discovered and mapped more than 500 miles of the Arctic shore to the west of the mouth of the Lena River. He took his wife Maria Pronchishcheva with him aboard the sloop Yakutsk. Despite the difficulties, they reached Taymyr Peninsula in 1736, having discovered the follow-up Faddey Islands, Komsomolskoy Pravdy Islands, Saint Peter Islands, and the east Byrranga Mountains on Taymyr. Pronchishchev and his wife died from illness on the way back and were buried at the mouth of the Olenek River[24]
 
Location of the Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands
  Maria Pronchishcheva
(1710–1736)
first female Arctic explorer

(forensic facial reconstruction)
Maria Pronchishcheva (or Tatiana according to some sources) accompanied her husband Vasili Pronchishchev in 1735–36, during the Great Northern Expedition, when they explored the coastline west of the mouth of the Lena River, making many discoveries. She is considered to be the first known female explorer of the Arctic. Maria died from illness on the way back, only 14 days after the death of her husband Vasili.[24]

Named in honor: Maria Pronchishcheva Bay
 
Location of Maria Pronchishcheva Bay
  Nikolai Przhevalsky!
(1839–1888)
Russian Army general, geographer, naturalist
In 1867–69 Przhevalsky led an expedition to the basin of the Ussuri River. Subsequently, he made four major journeys to largely unknown parts of Central Asia, in total covering more than 40,000 km in length. In 1870–73 he crossed the Gobi desert to Beijing, explored the upper Yangtze River, and crossed into Tibet, surveying over 18,000 km2 and collecting some 5,000 plant species, 1,000 birds, 3,000 insects, 70 reptiles and the skins of 130 different mammals. In 1876–77, travelling through southern Xinjiang and the Tian Shan range, he visited Lake Lop Nor. In 1879–80 he traveled via Hami City and the Qaidam basin to Lake Koko Nor. Passing over Tian Shan into Tibet, he was 260 km from Lhasa before being turned back by Tibetan officials. In 1883–85 Przhevalsky traveled across Gobi to Alashan and Tian Shan, then back to Koko Nor, and westwards to Lake Issyk Kul. His journeys opened a new era for the study of the geography, fauna and flora of Central Asia. He was the first to report on the wild population of Bactrian camels, to describe the Przewalski's gazelle and the Przewalski's horse (the only extant wild horse).[80][99]

Named in honor: Przewalski's gazelle, Przewalski's horse, Przhevalsk (Kyrgyzstan), Przhevalskoye.
 
Przewalski's horse
 
Monument in St. Petersburg
  Yevfimy Putyatin^
(1803–1883)
Russian admiral, diplomat
In 1822–25 Putyatin sailed with Mikhail Lazarev around the world aboard the Suvorov. Later he led diplomatic missions to Iran and the Caucasus. Together with Admiral Ivan Unkovsky he led a scientific round-the-world expedition on the frigate Pallada to Japan in 1852–55. This expedition contributed many important discoveries in oceanography. One of the results achieved was the Treaty of Shimoda with Japan. In 1857–58 Putyatin twice traveled to both Japan and China and explored Peter the Great Gulf, Russky Island, the Eastern Bosphorus and other features of the Russian shores of the Sea of Japan.[2][100]
 
Peter the Great Gulf
Demid Pyanda*
(?–after 1637)
Siberian Cossack ataman
Coming from Mangazeya, Demid Pyanda was a hunter for Siberian furs. Starting his long journey from Turukhansk, in three and a half years from 1620 to 1624 Pyanda passed a total of 8000 km of hitherto unknown large Siberian rivers. He explored some 2300 km of Lower Tunguska (Nizhnyaya Tunguska in the Russian language) and, having reached the upper part of Tunguska, he discovered the great Siberian river Lena and explored some 2400 km of its length. When doing this, he became the first Russian to reach Yakutia and meet the Yakuts. He returned up Lena until it became too rocky and shallow, and by land reached Angara. On his way, Pyanda became the first Russian to meet the Buryats. He built new boats and explored some 1400 km of the Angara, finally discovering that the Angara (a Buryat name) and the Upper Tunguska (Verkhnyaya Tunguska, as known by Russians) are one and the same river.[101]
 
Siberian river routes

R edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Semyon Remezov*
(c. 1642–after 1720)
cartographer, geographer, historian

(a monument in the Tobolsk Kremlin)
In 1683–1710 Remezov described and mapped the Tobolsk region, where he was born. He wrote the Remezov Chronicle, one of the earliest historical accounts of Siberia and its exploration, a part of the Siberian Chronicles. In 1699–1701 he created the Chart book of Siberia, the first large format cartographic atlas of Siberia. In total, he made more than 200 charts and maps of eastern Russian regions.[102]
 
Siberian peoples, Remezov Chronicle
  Nikolai Rezanov^
(1764–1807)
statesman, diplomat
Rezanov was one of the founders of the Russian-American Company in 1799, based on the earlier Shelikhov-Golikov Company. In 1803–06, he was made an ambassador to Japan by Alexander I of Russia, and co-led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world, aboard the Nadezhda under the captaincy of Ivan Krusenstern. Rezanov was in command as far as Kamchatka. After his embassy to Japan failed, he was made an inspector of Russian colonies in America. In 1806 he managed to open trade with Spanish California, conclude a treaty, and become engaged with Concepción Argüello, the daughter of the comandante of San Francisco. Rezanov died in Siberia, however, on a journey back to St. Petersburg while carrying the treaty to the capital.[103]

Rezanov's love affair with Concepción Argüello inspired a ballad by the San Francisco author, Francis Bret Harte, and a 1937 novel, Rezánov and Doña Concha, by another SF author, Gertrude Atherton, as well as a very successful 1979 Russian rock opera Juno and Avos by the composer Alexei Rybnikov and the poet Andrey Voznesensky.
 
A replica of Russian trading post in Sitka, Alaska
  Voin Rimsky-Korsakov*
(1822–1871)
Russian Navy officer, hydroghafer and geographer
An elder brother of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (the composer and conductor), in the 1850s and 1860s Voin Rimsky-Korsakov explored the area of the Sea of Japan near Ussuri Krai, including Sakhalin Island, the Amur Liman and the Strait of Tartary. Later he also surveyed the shores of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.[104]

Named in honor: Rimsky-Korsakov Archipelago.
 
Rimsky-Korsakov Archipelago
  Nicholas Roerich!
(1874–1947)
painter, philosopher, archeologist, writer, public figure, traveler
Roerich emigrated to the U. S. after the Russian Revolution. By the sale of his paintings and writings, and the gains from the activity of his cultural and enlightener organizations, Roerich was able to collect the finance and lead a major expedition to Central Asia in 1924–28, in which his family, including his wife Helena Roerich, participated. The expedition went through Sikkim, Kashmir, Ladakh, Xinjiang, Siberia, Altai, Mongolia, Tibet, and unstudied areas of the Himalayas. Archeological and ethnographical investigations were conducted, dozens of new mountain peaks and passes were marked on maps, rare manuscripts were found, and some of the best series of Roerich's paintings were created. In 1934–35 Roerich conducted an expedition in Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and China, collecting nearly 300 species of xerophytes, herbs, manuscripts and archeological relics. Roerich was an author and initiator of an international pact for the protection of artistic and academic institutions and historical sites (Roerich’s Pact, 1935) and a founder of an international movement for the defence of culture. He created about 7,000 paintings and founded a number of scientific and cultural institutions in the U. S., Europe and India.[105][106]

Named in honor: Roerich’s Pact, 4426 Roerich.
 
Peaks and passes named after the Roerichs in the Altai Mountains
 
Institute of Himalayan studies "Urusvati", founded by the Roerichs
  Alexander Nevsky! (Rurikid)
(1220–1263)
Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir, national hero and patron saint of Russia
Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky traveled to the Mongolian capital Karakorum in Central Asia, between 1247 and 1249, accompanied by his brother Andrey Yaroslavich. They were summoned there by the Genghisid Khans who had conquered Rus' a few years before. Unlike their father Yaroslav II of Vladimir, who had come into Karakorum in 1245–46 and was poisoned by the Mongols, Alexander and Andrey were able to get back to Rus', confirmed in power by their new overlords. Russian princes were among the first known Europeans to travel so far into Asia, making their journey around the same time as the Italian monk Plano Carpini traveled to Mongolia.[107]

Named in honor: Order of Alexander Nevsky, numerous Alexander Nevsky Cathedrals, churches, monasteries.
  Vladimir Rusanov
(1875–1913?)
geologist
In 1909–11 Rusanov carried out explorations in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. In 1912 he commanded a government expedition to Svalbard to investigate its coal reserves. They sailed on the small ship Herkules under Captain Alexander Kuchin, Amundsen's South Pole expedition navigator. Concluding the work, part of the expedition returned to Russia, while the rest, without consultation with the authorities, set off with Rusanov in an incredibly rash attempt at reaching the Pacific via the Northern Sea Route, and disappeared in the Kara Sea. The relics of the expedition were found in 1937 in the Kolosovykh Islands. Soviet coal mining on Svalbard began in 1932.[108][109]

Rusanov and his expedition are among the prototypes for the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin, where the search proceedings for fictional captain Tatarinov resemble the search for Rusanov.
 
Hercules schooner

S edit

Portrait Person Achievements Image
  Anatoly Sagalevich
(born 1938)
oceanographer, submersible pilot, Hero of Russia

(right in photo with Vladimir Putin)
From 1979 Sagalevich has been the head of the Deepwater Submersibles Laboratory at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology. He took part in the construction of the Pisces VIII, Pisces IX and MIR Deep Submergence Vehicles and completed more than 300 submersions as the chief pilot of DSVs. He piloted MIRs during expeditions to RMS Titanic, German battleship Bismarck, Soviet and Russian submarines K-278 Komsomolets and K-141 Kursk, and Japanese submarine I-52. Sagalevich holds the world record for the deepest fresh water dive at 1637 m in Lake Baikal aboard a Pisces in 1990. On August 2, 2007, he was the pilot of the MIR-1 DSV that reached the seabed at the North Pole during the Arktika 2007 expedition.[110]
 
MIR submersible
  Rudolf Samoylovich
(1881–1940?)
geographer
In 1912 Samoylovich took part in Vladimir Rusanov's geological expedition to Spitsbergen. He was one of the initiators and the first director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. In 1928 he was the head of the rescue party on the Krasin icebreaker, that saved most of the crew of the Airship Italia of Umberto Nobile. He participated in the polar flight of LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin in 1931 and headed expeditions on the icebreakers Vladimir Rusanov (1932), Georgy Sedov (1934), and Sadko (1936 and 1937–38).[111]
Yakov Sannikov
(1780–after 1812)
merchant
Exploring the New Siberian Islands, in 1800 Sannikov discovered and charted Stolbovoy Island, and then Faddeyevsky Island in 1805. In 1809–1810, he took part in the expedition led by Matvei Gedenschtrom. He discovered Bunge Land and suggested that there was a vast land north of Kotelny Island, thus introducing a theory about the existence of the legendary Sannikov Land.[112]

Named in honor: Sannikov Land, Sannikov Strait.
 
De Long Islands, beyond which the Sannikov Land was deemed to exist
  Gavriil Sarychev^
(1763–1831)
Russian admiral, cartographer
In 1785–94 Sarychev took part in the expedition sponsored by Catherine the Great and led by Joseph Billings. Commanding the ship Slava Rossii (Glory of Russia), he mapped the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk from Okhotsk to Aldoma and many of the Aleutian Islands (especially Unalaska). He also described the Pribilof Islands, St. Matthew Island, St. Lawrence Island, Gvozdev, and King Island. He was in charge of hydrographic research in Russia from 1808 and led the compilation of the Atlas of the Northern Part of the Pacific Ocean in 1826.[113]

Named in honor: Sarychev Peak, Cape Sarichef Airport, Sarichef Island.
 
Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension, Unalaska
  Svetlana Savitskaya
(born 1948)
female cosmonaut, aviator, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, politician

(Savitskaya with her 1982 crew fellows Popov and Serebrov)
Savitskaya was the second woman in space (after Valentina Tereshkova) and the first woman to conduct an extra-vehicular activity. She achieved this during the two successful expeditions to the Salyut 7 space station in 1982 and 1984, making her spacewalk on July 25, 1984.[114]
 
Model of Salyut 7 with two Soyuz spacecraft, VDNKh, Moscow
  Johan Eberhard von Schantz
(1802–1880)
admiral, ship designer, explorer
Finnish-born admiral of the Russian Imperial Navy who circumnavigated the globe as the commander of the Imperial Navy ship America in 1834–1836. He rediscovered the Wotho Atoll, originally discovered by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos in the 1540s.[115]

Named in honor: Schantz Islands (now Wotho Atoll).
 
Wotho Atoll
  Otto Schmidt
(1891–1956)
mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, Hero of the Soviet Union
In 1932–39 Schmidt was the head of the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. In 1929–30, travelling on the icebreaker Sedov, he established the first research station on Franz Josef Land, explored the northwestern Kara Sea and western Severnaya Zemlya, discovering a few islands. In 1932 his expedition on the icebreaker Sibiryakov with Captain Vladimir Voronin made the first non-stop voyage through the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific without wintering. In 1933–34 Schmidt and Voronin led the voyage on the steamship Cheliuskin, that resulted in the loss of the ship and evacuation of the crew. In 1937 Schmidt supervised an airborne expedition that established the first ever drift-ice station, North Pole-1.[116]

Named in honor: 2108 Otto Schmidt (minor planet).
 
Northern Sea Route
  Leopold von Schrenck*
(1826–1894)
zoologist, geographer, ethnographer
Schrenck explored the fauna of the Russian Far East, in Amurland between 1853 and 1854, and on Sakhalin in 1854–55, discovering a number of animals. Later he turned to the study of the native peoples of Russia. He coined the term Paleo-Asiatic peoples and was a director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St Petersburg.[80]

Named in honor: Amur sturgeon, Manchurian black water snake.
 
Manchurian black water snake
  Georgy Sedov
(1877–1914)
Russian Navy captain
In 1909 Sedov led the expedition that described the mouth of the Kolyma River. In 1910 he explored the Krestovaya Bay on Novaya Zemlya. He suggested an expedition to the North Pole and found private sponsors. In 1912 Sedov's ship "Svyatoy Muchenik Foka" (Saint Martyr Foka) sailed north but had to stay for the winter near Novaya Zemlya because of impassable ice. Sv. Foka reached Franz Josef Land then, but had to stop for another winter due to lack of coal. In early 1914, Sedov, sick with scurvy, set off with two companions for the North Pole with the draft dogs. Sedov died near Rudolf Island and was buried there, at Cape Auk. On the way back, at Franz Josef Land, the Sv. Foka rescued the two survivors of the Brusilov expedition, Valerian Albanov and Alexander Konrad.[3]

Named in honor: Icebreaker Sedov, Sedov (sailing ship). He and his last expedition are among the prototypes for the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin, where the fictional captain Tatarinov has Sedov-like appearance and shares his passion for Arctic exploration.
 
Sedov amid the crew of St. Foka
list, russian, explorers, russian, explorers, yermakdezhnyovshelikhovkruzensternlisyanskybellingshausenlazarevkotzebuewrangellitkemiddendorffprzewalskisemyonovmiklouho, maclaymakarovtollkozlovushakovgagarinleonovtereshkovachilingarovthe, history, exploration, . Russian explorers YermakDezhnyovShelikhovKruzensternLisyanskyBellingshausenLazarevKotzebueWrangelLitkeMiddendorffPrzewalskiSemyonovMiklouho MaclayMakarovTollKozlovUshakovGagarinLeonovTereshkovaChilingarovThe history of exploration by citizens or subjects of the Russian Federation the Soviet Union the Russian Empire the Tsardom of Russia and other Russian predecessor states forms a significant part of the history of Russia as well as the history of the world At 17 075 400 square kilometres 6 592 850 sq mi Russia is the largest country in the world covering more than a ninth of Earth s landmass In the times of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire the country s share in the world s landmass reached 1 6 Most of these territories were first discovered by Russian explorers if indigenous peoples of inhabited territories are not counted Contiguous exploration in Eurasia and the building of overseas colonies in Russian America were some of the primary factors in Russian territorial expansion Apart from their discoveries in Alaska Central Asia Siberia and the northern areas surrounding the North Pole Russian explorers have made significant contributions to the exploration of the Antarctic Arctic and the Pacific islands as well as deep sea and space explorations Contents 1 Alphabetical list 1 1 A 1 2 B 1 3 C 1 4 D 1 5 E 1 6 F 1 7 G 1 8 H 1 9 I 1 10 J 1 11 K 1 12 L 1 13 M 1 14 N 1 15 O 1 16 P 1 17 R 1 18 S 1 19 T 1 20 U 1 21 V 1 22 W 1 23 Y 1 24 Z 2 See also 3 References 4 External linksAlphabetical list editAreas primarily explored Siberia the Far East Alaska North Pacific Europe Tropics Arctic the Far North Antarctic South Pacific Central Asia SpaceContents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A edit Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Valerian Albanov 1881 1919 Russian Navy lieutenant Albanov was one of the only two survivors of the ill fated 1912 14 Brusilov expedition the other being Alexander Konrad They left the ice bound ship St Anna and by ski sledge and kayak crossed the Kara Sea reached Franz Josef Land and were finally rescued by Georgy Sedov s Saint Phocas The data about ice drift of St Anna provided by Albanov helped Vladimir Vize to calculate the coordinates of previously unknown Vize Island 1 Either Albanov or Konrad is a prototype for a hero in the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin nbsp St Anna nbsp Pyotr Anjou 1796 1869 Russian admiral hero of the Battle of Navarino In 1820 as a lieutenant Anjou described the coastline and the islands of Eastern Siberia between the Olenek and Indigirka rivers and mapped the New Siberian Islands In 1825 26 he participated in describing the northeastern coast of the Caspian Sea and the western coast of the Aral Sea 2 Named in honor Anjou Islands nbsp New Siberian IslandsDanila Antsiferov 1712 Siberian Cossack ataman Danila Antsiferov was elected Cossack ataman on Kamchatka after the death of Vladimir Atlasov He was one of the first Russians to visit the Kuril Islands and describe them in writing including Shumshu and Paramushir Island 3 Named in honor Antsiferov Island nbsp Paramushir Atlasov and Shumshu Islands nbsp Dmitry Anuchin 1843 1923 geographer anthropologist ethnographer archaeologist In 1880 Anuchin researched Valday Hills and Lake Seliger In 1894 95 joining the expedition of Alexei Tillo he again studied Valday Anuchin finally determined the location of the source of the Volga River the largest European river He published a major work about the relief of European Russia and founded the Geography Museum at Moscow State University 4 Named in honor Anuchin crater Moon Anuchin Island nbsp The source of the Volga River nbsp Vladimir Arsenyev 1872 1930 military topographer writer Arsenyev wrote a number of popular books about his journeys to the Ussuri basin in 1902 07 where he was accompanied by Dersu Uzala a native Nanai hunter Arsenyev was the first to describe numerous species of Siberian flora he produced some 60 works on the geography wildlife and ethnography of the regions he traveled to In 1975 the joint Japanese Soviet movie Dersu Uzala by Akira Kurosawa won an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film 5 Named in honor Arsenyev town nbsp Dersu Uzala photo by Arsenyev nbsp Vladimir Atlasov 1661 64 1711 Siberian Cossack ataman Atlasov established the first permanent Russian settlements on Kamchatka Peninsula and led its colonisation He was the first to present a detailed description of the region s nature and people and also accounted on the lands near Kamchatka Chukotka and Japan Atlasov brought Dembei a shipwrecked Japanese merchant to Moscow where he conducted the first Japanese language education in Russia 6 Named in honor Atlasov Island Atlasov volcano nbsp Topography of KamchatkaB edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Mikhail Babushkin 1893 1938 military and polar aviator Hero of the Soviet Union Babushkin took part in an expedition to rescue Umberto Nobile in 1928 and in the rescue of the SS Chelyuskin crew in 1933 He performed the flights to the first drifting ice station North Pole 1 in 1937 In 1937 38 he participated in a search for Sigizmund Levanevsky 3 Named in honor Babushkinsky District Moscow Babushkinskaya Moscow Metro nbsp SS Chelyuskin sinking nbsp Konstantin Badygin 1910 1984 Soviet Navy captain writer scientist Hero of the USSR Badygin left Sedov s mechanic D G Trofimov right In 1938 Badygin became the captain of the ice captured icebreaker Sedov turned into a kind of drifting ice station Most of the crew was evacuated but 15 sailors and scientists including Vladimir Vize stayed aboard and carried out valuable scientific research in the course of 812 days After drifting from New Siberian Islands across the North Pole they were finally freed between Greenland and Svalbard by icebreaker Joseph Stalin in 1940 7 nbsp Icebreaker Sedov nbsp Karl Ernst von Baer 1792 1876 naturalist a founder of embryology In 1830 40 Baer researched Arctic meteorology He was interested in the northern part of Russia and explored Novaya Zemlya in 1837 collecting specimens Other travels led him to the Caspian Sea Lapland and North Cape Norway After his explorations of the Volga River he formulated the geological Baer s law stating that in the Northern Hemisphere erosion occurs mostly on the right banks of rivers and in the Southern Hemisphere on the left banks Baer was one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society in 1845 and also a co founder and the first President of the Russian Entomological Society 4 nbsp Library of the Russian Geographical Society in 1916 nbsp Georgiy Baidukov 1904 1994 military and test pilot Hero of the Soviet Union Baidukov Chkalov and Belyakov in 1937 Baidukov was involved in a number of Soviet ultralong flights In 1936 Valery Chkalov Baidukov and A V Belyakov on ANT 25 flew 9 374 km from Moscow through the North Pole to follow up Chkalov Island in Okhotsk Sea which took 56 h 20 min In 1937 also on ANT 25 the same crew flew 8 504 km from Moscow through the North Pole to Vancouver Washington which was the first transpolar flight between Europe and North America by airplane rather than dirigible 8 Named in honor Baydukov Island nbsp Chkalov and Baydukov Islands nbsp Alexander Baranov 1746 1819 merchant colonial administrator Baranov was hired to head the Shelikhov Golikov Company which in 1799 was transformed into the Russian American Company Thus Baranov became the first governor of Russian America and held this post in 1799 1818 He explored the coast areas of northwestern North America helped Russian Orthodox missionaries and improved relations with Alaska natives He established trade with China Hawaii and also with California where he founded Fort Ross 9 Named in honor Baranof Island nbsp Fort Ross in California nbsp Nikifor Begichev 1874 1927 Russian Navy officer forensic facial reconstruction Begichev was the bosun of the ship Zarya carrying Eduard Toll s expedition in 1900 03 In 1922 at the request of Norway Begichev led a Soviet expedition in search of the lost crew members of Roald Amundsen s 1918 expedition on the ship Maud Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen but was unsuccessful remains were later found by Georgy Rybin In 1923 24 Begichev explored the Taymyr Peninsula with Nikolay Urvantsev 10 11 Named in honor Bolshoy Begichev Island Maliy Begichev Island nbsp Begichev Islands location nbsp Pyotr Beketov c 1600 c 1661 Siberian Cossack voevoda a monument in Chita Zabaykalsky Krai Beketov initially a strelets was appointed Enisei voevoda in Siberia after 1627 He successfully carried out the voyage to collect taxes from Zabaykalye Buryats becoming the first Russian to set foot in Buryatia He founded the first Russian settlement there Rybinsky ostrog Beketov was sent to the Lena River in 1631 where in 1632 he founded Yakutsk a startpoint of further Russian expeditions eastward southward and northward He sent his Cossacks to explore the Aldan and Kolyma rivers to found new fortresses and to collect taxes In 1652 he launched another voyage to Buryatia and in 1653 Beketov s Cossacks founded follow up Chita and then future Nerchinsk in 1654 12 nbsp A tower of Yakutsky ostrog nbsp Alexander Bekovich Cherkassky 1717 Russian Army officer Bekovich Cherkassky a Circassian Muslim converted to Christianity was made by Tsar Peter the Great the leader of the first Russian military expeditions into Central Asia in 1714 17 with the aim of conquering the Khanate of Khiva and the golden sands of the Oxus River Bekovich received these orders in Astrakhan where he was engaged in preparing the first Russian map of the Caspian Sea He commanded a preliminary expedition to Turkmenistan and set up the forts in Krasnovodsk and Alexandrovsk In 1717 he won the battle against Khivan Khan but was tricked into separating his men betrayed by the Khan defeated and killed 13 nbsp The Caucasus Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan nbsp Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen 1778 1852 Russian admiral circumnavigator cartographer Bellingshausen took part in the first Russian circumnavigation under Ivan Krusenstern on Nadezhda in 1803 06 He himself led another Russian circumnavigation in 1819 21 on the sloop Vostok together with Mikhail Lazarev on Mirny this expedition was the first to discover the continent of Antarctica on January 28 1820 New Style They also discovered and named Peter I Island Zavodovski Leskov and Visokoi Islands Antarctic peninsula mainland and Alexander Island Alexander Coast and made discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific including Vostok Island 14 15 Named in honor Bellingshausen Island Atlantic Bellingshausen Sea Bellingshausen Station Bellinshausen Island Pacific Faddey Islands Bellingshausen Plate Bellinsgauzen crater Moon 3659 Bellingshausen minor planet nbsp Vostok and Mirny in Antarctica nbsp Lev Berg 1876 1950 geographer biologist Berg studied and determined the depth of the lakes of Central Asia including Balkhash Lake and Issyk Kul He researched the ichthyology of Central Asia and European Russia He developed Dokuchaev s doctrine of biomes and climatology and was one of the founders of the Geographical Institute now the Faculty of Geography of the Saint Petersburg University In 1940 50 Berg was the President of the Soviet Geographical Society 16 nbsp Balkhash Lake nbsp Vitus Bering 1681 1741 Russian Navy captain commander Returning from the East Indies Bering joined the Russian Navy in 1703 He became the main organiser of the Great Northern Expedition to explore northern Asia In 1725 Bering went overland to Okhotsk crossed to Kamchatka and aboard Sv Gavriil mapped some 3500 km of the Bering Sea coast and passed the Bering Strait in 1728 29 Later Ivan Fyodorov and Mikhail Gvozdev aboard the same Sv Gavriil sighted the Alaskan shore in 1732 Having organised a major Second Kamchatka expedition Bering and Aleksei Chirikov sailed from Okhotsk in 1740 aboard Sv Piotr and Sv Pavel founded Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky and headed together to North America in 1741 until separated by storm Bering discovered the southern coast of Alaska landed near Kayak Island and discovered the Aleutian Islands Chirikov discovered the shores of America near Aleksander Archipelago and safely returned to Asia Bering however became very ill and his ship was driven to an uninhabited follow up Bering Island of the Commander group Bering died there along with part of his crew The rest built a vessel out of the wreckage of Sv Piotr and escaped to Petropavlovsk 17 18 19 Named in honor Bering Strait Bering Sea Bering Island Bering Glacier Bering Land Bridge Beringia nbsp A plaque in Danish Vitus Bering Park with Bering s voyages etched nbsp A postage stamp depicting the discovery of the Commander Islands and Alaska nbsp Yuri Bilibin 1901 1952 geologist Bilibin led the First Kolyma Expedition in 1928 and in 1931 1932 he organized the Second Kolyma Expedition The result of the explorations was the discovery of gold deposits in Northeast Siberia In 1934 together with mining engineer Evgeny Bobin 1897 1941 Bilibin surveyed and charted the last unmapped areas of the continental USSR the Yudoma Maya and the Aldan highlands as well as the Sette Daban in the course of an expedition sent by the Soviet government 20 Named in honor Bilibino Town Bilibino District Bilibinskite nbsp Monument located in BilibinoJoseph Billings c 1758 1806 Royal Navy and Russian Navy officer In 1785 95 Billings previously an English officer who had sailed with Captain Cook led a Russian expedition in search of the Northeast Passage with Gavril Sarychev as his deputy They made accurate maps of the Chukchi Peninsula the west coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands They landed on Kodiak Island examined the area of Prince William Sound and compiled a census of the native population of the Aleutians Billings crossed Chukotka on reindeer and made the first elaborate description of the Chukchi people 21 Named in honor Cape Billings Billings Chukotka nbsp Location of Cape Billings in Chukotka nbsp Georgy Brusilov 1884 1914 Russian Navy captain In 1910 11 Brusilov took part in a hydrographic expedition on the icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach to the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas In 1912 14 he led an expedition on the brigSt Anna which aimed to travel by the Northern Sea Route from the Atlantic to the Pacific St Anna became icebound west of Yamal Peninsula and drifted to the North Pole in 1913 Brusilov became ill and many of the crew succumbed to scurvy In 1914 a group led by lieutenant Valerian Albanov abandoned the ship and walked south over the drifting ice Only Albanov and Alexander Konrad managed to reach Franz Joseph Land where they were rescued by Georgy Sedov s St Foka The efforts to find the St Anna were unsuccessful 1 Brusilov and his ship are among the prototypes for the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin where the fictional St Maria repeats the drift of St Anna nbsp Kara Sea nbsp Alexander Bulatovich 1870 1919 Russian Army officer writer hieromonk tonsured Father Antony imiaslavie leader hero of World War I In 1897 Bulatovich was a member of the Russian mission of the Red Cross in Africa where he became a confidant of Negus Menelek II of Ethiopia and his military aide in the war with Italy and the southern tribes He became the first European to provide a description of the Kaffa province conquered by Menelek II with Bulatovich s help and among the first to reach the mouth of the Omo River Among the places named by Bulatovich was the Nicholas II Mountain range 22 23 The prototype for grotesque Schema Hussar Alexei Bulanovich in Ilf and Petrov s The Twelve Chairs the hero of Valentin Pikul s The Hussar on a Camel and Richard Seltzer s The Name of Hero nbsp Ethiopia nbsp Fabian Bellingshausen 1878 1852 Russian officer of Baltic German descent in the Imperial Russian Navy cartographer and explorer The discoverer of the Antarctica In 1819 the authorities selected Bellingshausen to lead the First Russian Antarctic Expedition which was intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole With two ships sloop of war Vostok East and support vessel Mirny Peaceful were led by Mikhail Lazarev the journey started from Kronstadt on 4 June 1819 Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to twice circumnavigate the continent Thus they disproved Captain Cook s assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice fields The expedition also made discoveries and observations in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean nbsp First Russian Antarctic Expedition 1819 1821C edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Semion Chelyuskin c 1700 1764 Russian Navy officer Malygin D Ovtsyn Chelyuskin Kh Laptev and D Laptev on a commemorative coin Chelyuskin participated in the Great Northern Expedition in 1733 43 He traveled in the groups led by Vasily Pronchischev and Khariton Laptev In 1741 he led his own voyage from the Khatanga River to the Pyasina River by land He explored and described the western coastline of Taimyr Peninsula and the mouths of Pyasina and Yenisei Rivers In 1741 42 he traveled from Turukhansk to the mouth of the Khatanga and described the northern coastline of Taimyr from Cape Faddey in the east to the mouth of the Taimyra River in the west Chelyuskin discovered the northern extremity of Asia Cape Chelyuskin 24 Named in honor Cape Chelyuskin Chelyuskin Peninsula Chelyuskin Island Chelyuskin steamship nbsp Cape Chelyuskin the northernmost point of Eurasia nbsp Ivan Chersky 1845 1892 paleontologist geologist geographer Exiled to Transbaikalia for participation in the January Uprising and pardoned only in 1883 Chersky became a self taught scientist in Siberia He traveled to the Sayan Mountains the Irkut River Valley and Lower Tunguska During four expeditions in 1877 81 Chersky explored Selenga river He explained the origin of Lake Baikal made the first geological map of its coast and described the geological structure of East Siberia He analysed the tectonics of Inner Asia and pioneered the geomorphological evolution theory He collected over 2 500 ancient bones In 1892 he explored the Kolyma Yana and Indigirka Rivers and died from illness there 25 Named in honor Chersky Range Chersky settlement nbsp Selenga watershed nbsp Vasili Chichagov 1726 1809 Russian admiral victorious commander in chief of the Baltic Fleet in the Russo Swedish War 1788 1790 In 1764 66 Chichagov led two expeditions to find the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific along the northern coast of Siberia a project of Mikhail Lomonosov Although he sailed past Svalbard reached 80 26 N in 1765 and 80 30 N in 1766 and conducted valuable research both expeditions failed to find the route 26 Named in honor Chichagof Island nbsp Barents and Baltic Seas where Chichagov explored and fought nbsp Pyotr Chikhachyov 1808 1890 naturalist geologist In 1842 Chikhachyov led an expedition to the unknown territories of the Altai and Sayan Mountains He discovered Kuznetsk Coal Basin reached the sources of the rivers Abakan Chu and Chulyshman and entered Tuva In 1845 he published works on the geology of Altai Mountains and Xinjiang In 1848 63 he led eight expeditions in Asia Minor Armenia Kurdistan and East Thrace In 1853 69 he conducted a major study of Asia Minor while being the attache of the Russian embassy in Constantinople In 1878 at the age of 71 he visited Algeria and Tunis He published many works in geography natural history and the politics of the Eastern Question 27 nbsp Mountains of Central Asia nbsp Asia Minor nbsp Artur Chilingarov born 1939 polar scientist Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of Russia politician In 1969 Chilingarov became the head of the research station North Pole 19 and in 1971 the head of Bellingshausen Station during the 17 th Soviet Antarctic Expedition In 1985 he successfully led the mission to rescue the research vessel Mikhail Somov which had been ice blocked in the Southern Ocean During the Russian Arktika 2007 expedition Chilingarov accompanied by other explorers from different countries descended to the seabed 13 980 feet below the North Pole in order to plant the Russian flag there and gather specimens of the bottom ground using MIR submersibles In 2008 he took part in the expedition which descended one mile to the bottom of Lake Baikal on MIRs 28 nbsp MIR submersible nbsp Aleksei Chirikov 1703 1748 Russian Navy captain In 1725 30 and in 1733 43 Chirikov was Vitus Bering s deputy during the 1st and the 2nd Kamchatka expeditions On July 15 1741 Chirikov the captain of Sv Pavel became the first European to land on the northwestern coast of North America near Alexander Archipelago Thereafter he discovered some of the Aleutian Islands In 1742 Chirikov specified the location of the Attu Island during the search for Bering s lost ship In 1746 Chirikov took part in creating the final map of the Russian discoveries in the northern Pacific Ocean 29 Named in honor Chirikof Island nbsp Alexander Archipelago nbsp Valery Chkalov 1904 1938 military and test pilot Hero of the Soviet Union Chkalov developed several new figures of aerobatics He was involved in a number of Soviet ultralong flights In 1936 Chkalov Georgiy Baidukov and A V Belyakov on ANT 25 flew 9 374 km from Moscow through the North Pole to follow up Chkalov Island in the Okhotsk Sea which took 56 h 20 min In 1937 also on ANT 25 the same crew flew 8 504 km from Moscow through the North Pole to Vancouver Washington which was the first transpolar flight between Europe and North America on airplane rather than on dirigible 30 Named in honor Chkalovsk Chkalov Island Chkalovskaya Moscow Metro Chkalovskaya Saint Petersburg Metro nbsp ANT 25D edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Semyon Dezhnyov c 1605 1672 Siberian Cossack leader In 1643 Dezhnyov and Mikhail Stadukhin discovered the Kolyma River and founded Srednekolymsk Fedot Alekseyev Popov organized a further expedition eastward and Dezhnyov became a captain of one koch In 1648 they sailed from Srednekolymsk down to the Arctic and after some time they rounded a great rocky projection thus becoming the first to pass through the Bering Strait and to discover Chukchi Peninsula and the Bering Sea All their kochi and most of their men including Popov himself were lost in storms and clashes with the natives A small group led by Dezhnyov reached the mouth of the Anadyr River and sailed up it in 1649 having built new boats out of the wreckage They founded Anadyrsk and were stranded there until Stadukhin found them coming from Kolyma by land 31 Named in honor Cape Dezhnyov the easternmost cape of Eurasia nbsp Bering Strait and the Anadyr River nbsp Vasily Dokuchaev 1846 1903 geographer geologist pedologist Dokuchaev led numerous expeditions to study the soils and geology of European Russia As a result of his long research of Russian soils he founded modern soil science developed the conception of biomes and proposed ways to improve soil productivity 2 Named in honor Dokuchaevsk nbsp Global soil regionsE edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Arvid Adolf Etholen 1799 1876 Russian Navy officer colonial administrator Etolin sailed to Alaska with Vasily Golovnin on Kamchatka and entered the service of the Russian American Company He was part of a group that surveyed the Aleutian Islands in 1822 24 In 1833 he explored the Gulf of Alaska Etolin was the governor of Russian America in 1840 45 and continued to explore Alaska and the Bering Sea 32 Named in honor Etolin Island Etolin Strait nbsp Aleutian Islands nbsp Eduard Eversmann 1794 1860 naturalist In 1820 Eversmann traveled to Bukhara disguised as a merchant and in 1825 traveled with a military expedition to Khiva In 1828 he became a professor of zoology and botany at the University of Kazan He wrote numerous publications and pioneered the research of the flora and fauna of the southeast steppes of Russia between the Volga and the Urals 33 Named in honor Eversmann s redstart Eversmann s parnassian Eversmann s rustic and other species nbsp Walls of Itchan Kala in KhivaF edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Alexei Fedchenko 1844 1873 naturalist In 1868 Fedchenko traveled through Turkestan including Samarkand Panjkent and the upper Zarafshan River valley In 1870 he explored the Fan Mountains south of the Zarafshan In 1871 he reached the Alay Valley at Daroot Korgan and explored the northern Pamir Mountains but was unable to penetrate southward He perished on Mont Blanc while engaged in an exploring tour in France 17 34 Named in honor Fedchenko Glacier 3195 Fedchenko asteroid nbsp Pamir Mountains in Central Asia nbsp Alexander Fersman 1883 1945 geologist geochemist Fersman founded geochemistry the science of the chemical composition of the Earth He led numerous expeditions in Crimea Kola Peninsula and the Urals He discovered copper and nickel in Monchegorsk apatite reserves in Khibiny and sulfur in Central Asia 35 Named in honor Fersman Mineralogical Museum Fersman crater Moon nbsp Khibiny MountainsIvan Fyodorov 1733 Russian Navy officer Fyodorov took part in the first Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering in 1725 30 In 1732 Fyodorov and geodesist Mikhail Gvozdev aboard the Sviatoi Gavriil Bering s ship sailed to Cape Dezhnyov the easternmost point of Asia From there they sailed east and soon discovered the Alaskan mainland near the Cape Prince of Wales the westernmost point of North America They charted the north western coast of Alaska By doing this Fyodorov and Gvozdev completed the discovery of the Bering Strait started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Popov and continued by Bering Their expedition also discovered three previously unknown islands 36 nbsp Seward Peninsula on Alaska where the Cape Prince of Wales is located nbsp Johan Hampus Furuhjelm 1821 1909 Russian admiral governor of the Russian Far East Taganrog and Russian America in photo with his wife Anna In 1850 Furuhjelm became a commander of Novoarkhangelsk port now Sitka Alaska and in 1854 of Ayan port In 1858 64 he was the governor of Russian America He improved relations with natives once using the Columbus like trick of an eclipse of the moon to impress the Indians In 1865 72 Furuhjelm served as military governor of Primorsky Krai and chief of Russian seaports on the Pacific where he contributed significantly to the development and exploration of the whole region 37 Named in honor Mount Furuhelm Furugelm Island nbsp Russian AmericaG edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Yury Gagarin 1934 1968 Soviet Air Force pilot cosmonaut Hero of the Soviet Union On 12 April 1961 Gagarin became the first human to travel into space launching into orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA 3 Vostok 1 38 Named in honor Gagarin Russia Gagarin Armenia Gagarinsky inhabited locality Gagarinsky District Gagarinskaya metro station Gagarin crater Moon asteroid 1772 Gagarin Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin ship Gagarin s Start Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Gagarin Air Force Academy Gagarin Cup Cosmonautics Day aka Yuri s Night is a yearly celebration of Gagarin s flight on 12 April Yakov Gakkel 1901 1965 oceanographer Gakkel was a director of the geography department of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute He participated in numerous Arctic expeditions including the ones on the icebreaker Sibiryakov in 1932 and on Chelyuskin in 1934 He was the first to create a bathymetric map of the Arctic Ocean 3 Named in honor Gakkel Ridge nbsp Bathymetric map of the Arctic with Gakkel Ridge on itMatvei Gedenschtrom 1780 1845 public servant scientist Gedenschtrom was sent to serve in Siberia for his connection with a smuggling affair at Tallinn customs In 1809 10 together with Yakov Sannikov he led the cartographic expedition to the Arctic shores of Yakutia They explored and named the New Siberian Islands earlier discovered by Yakov Permyakov This expedition established a theory about the existence of the legendary Sannikov Land somewhere northwest of Kotelny Island Gedenschtrom discovered the presence of Siberian polynya patches of open water at the edge of the drifting ice and continental fast ice He charted the coastline between the Yana and Kolyma Rivers He made numerous trips across Yakutia and the areas east of Lake Baikal 2 nbsp New Siberian Islands nbsp Johann Gottlieb Georgi 1729 1802 geographer naturalist ethnographer physician chemist Georgi accompanied both Johan Peter Falk and Peter Simon Pallas on their respective journeys through European Russia and Siberia In 1772 he mapped Lake Baikal and was the first to describe omul fish as well as other fauna and flora of the Baikal region He amassed a large collection of minerals and in 1776 80 published the first comprehensive work on the ethnography of the indigenous peoples of Russia 39 Named in honor Georgia flower nbsp Omul in an aquarium in the Baikal Museum in Listvyanka nbsp Johann Georg Gmelin 1709 1755 naturalist botanist geographer In 1733 43 Gmelin participated in the Great Northern Expedition and made a number of journeys through Siberia covering more than 34 000 km in total He discovered that the Caspian Sea lies below sea level He published two major works about his travels in Russia and the flora of Siberia and described more than 500 previously unknown plants 40 Named in honor Gmelina and Larix gmelinii plant genera nbsp Gmelina arborea nbsp Vasily Golovnin 1776 1831 Russian admiral circumnavigator Golovnin made two circumnavigations on the sloop Diana 1807 09 and the frigate Kamchatka 1817 19 In 1811 he described and mapped part of the Kuril Islands At that time he was taken prisoner for two years by the Japanese He described his years in captivity life in Japan and his voyages around the world in books Later he was the general quartermaster of the Russian Navy and supervised the building of the first Russian steamships He tutored Fyodor Litke Ferdinand Wrangel and other seafarers 41 Named in honor Golovin Alaska nbsp Golovnin s circumnavigations nbsp Bronislav Gromchevsky 1855 1926 Russian Army officer Gromchevsky participated in the Russian conquest of Central Asia and led reconnaissance expeditions in the surrounding regions In 1885 86 he explored Kashgar and Tian Shan In 1888 89 he explored the Pamirs Kafiristan Kashmir and northwestern Tibet and went as far as British India He is regarded as the Russian counterpart to the British military explorer Francis Younghusband The two Great Game rivals famously met in 1889 when they were exploring the Hunza Valley In 1900 Gromchevsky explored North Eastern China 17 42 nbsp Kashmir region nbsp Grigory Grum Grshimailo 1860 1936 zoologist entomologist ethnographer geographer In 1884 Grum Grshimailo started his first Pamir expedition on which he explored the Alai Mountains and reached as far as Lake Karakul In 1885 87 he traveled extensively through Central Asia reaching the Silk Road Lake Chatyr Kul and Kashgar In 1889 90 he discovered the Ayding Lake the second lowest land point on Earth at 130 m below sea level He obtained two Przewalski s horses over 1000 bird specimens and tens of thousands of insects during his 8600 km long travels In 1903 he explored Mongolia and Tuva and later traveled in the Far East 3 17 nbsp Stele at the Ayding LakeMikhail Gvozdev 1700 04 after 1759 military geodesist Gvozdev took part in the 1st Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering In 1732 together with Ivan Fedorov aboard Sviatoi Gavriil Bering s ship they reached Dezhnev Cape the easternmost point of Asia sailed east and soon discovered the Alaskan mainland near the Cape Prince of Wales the westernmost point of North America They charted that part of the Alaskan coast and discovered three new islands Thus they completed the discovery of the Bering Strait once started by Semyon Dezhnyov and Fedot Popov and continued by Bering Subsequently in 1741 42 Gvozdev participated in the Great Northern Expedition and mapped most of the western and southern shores of the Okhotsk Sea and the eastern shore of Sakhalin 43 nbsp Sea of Okhotsk Kamchatka Alaska in the North PacificH edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Ludwig von Hagemeister 1780 1833 Russian Navy captain colonial administrator circumnavigator After taking part in the Napoleonic Wars in 1806 07 Hagemeister journeyed to Alaska as captain of the Neva former ship of Lisyansky In 1808 09 he explored the shores of Alaska and the waters of the North Pacific In 1812 15 he supervised the building of the first tall ships to sail on Lake Baikal In 1816 19 he made a circumnavigation on Kutuzov with a stop in Alaska where he was a governor of Russian America in 1818 19 In 1828 29 Hagemeister made his second circumnavigation aboard Krotky Among other islands he surveyed the Menshikov Atoll Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands group 44 Named in honor Hagemeister Island nbsp Hagemeister s circumnavigationsI edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements ImageKurbat Ivanov 1666 Siberian Cossack voevoda In 1642 on the basis of explorations made by Ivan Moskvitin Ivanov made the earliest known map of the Russian Far East In 1643 with a group of Cossacks he sailed up the Lena River from Verkholensky ostrog having decided to check the rumors of a large body of water to the south They crossed the Baikal Mountains by foot descended down the Sarma River discovered Lake Baikal and visited its Olkhon Island Ivanov made the first chart and description of Baikal In 1659 65 Ivanov was the next head of Anadyrsky ostrog after Semyon Dezhnyov In 1660 he sailed from Anadyr Bay to Cape Dezhnyov He is credited with the creation of the early map of Chukotka and the Bering Strait which was the first to show on paper schematically the yet undiscovered Wrangel Island both Diomede Islands and Alaska 45 46 nbsp Lena River and Lake BaikalGerasim Izmailov c 1745 after 1795 Russian Navy officer In 1771 Izmailov was caught up in the Benevsky mutiny while serving on Kamchatka After an attempt to break away from the mutineers he was marooned on Simushir an uninhabited isle in the Kurils For a year he lived like Robinson Crusoe before being rescued tried on charges of mutiny and cleared From 1775 he created the first detailed map of the Aleutian Islands In 1778 he met with Captain James Cook in Unalaska In 1783 85 Izmaylov and Grigory Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in North America on Kodiak Island In 1789 Izmaylov became the first to explore and map the Kenai Peninsula Later he helped Alexander Andreyevich Baranov to fight off the Tlingit natives and saved the lost crew of a Russian ship from Saint Paul Island Alaska 47 nbsp Aleutian IslandsJ edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Wilhelm Junker 1840 1892 physician ethnographer Born into the rich family of a Moscow banker Junker traveled a lot He carried out a major exploration of Eastern and Equatorial Africa in 1875 86 with Khartoum and then Lado as bases for his expeditions He researched African peoples including the Zande people from Niam Niam and collected plant and animal specimens He explored the Congo Nile Divide where he established the identity of the Uele and Ubangi rivers The Mahdist uprising prevented his return to Europe through the Sudan and in 1884 86 he went south traveled through Uganda and Tabora reached Zanzibar and finally returned to St Petersburg 17 nbsp Congo River basinK edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Otto Kalvitsa 1888 1930 aviator polar explorer Finnish born aviator who is one of the pioneers of the Soviet Arctic aviation He explored the waters of Matochkin Strait between the Severny and Yuzhny Islands of Novaya Zemlya in order to survey ship routes for the Northeast passage Kalvitsa also participated Georgy Ushakov s expedition to the Wrangel Island 48 Named in honor Kalvitsa nbsp Location of the Matochkin Strait nbsp Yerofey Khabarov 1603 after 1671 Siberian Cossack leader A manager for the merchants Stroganovs Khabarov went to Siberia and in 1641 founded saltworks on the Lena River In 1649 50 he became the second Russian to explore the Amur river after Vassili Poyarkov Through the Olyokma Tungur and Shilka Rivers he reached Amur Dauria returned to Yakutsk and then back to Amur with a larger force where he engaged in the Russian Manchu border conflicts He built winter quarters at Albazin then sailed down the Amur and found Achansk which preceded the present day Khabarovsk defeating or evading large armies of Daurian Manchu Chinese and Koreans on his way He charted the Amur in his Draft of the Amur river 49 Named in honor Khabarovsk nbsp Amur River basin nbsp Maria Klenova 1898 1976 marine geologist Klenova was one of the founders of marine geology She began her career in 1925 aboard the Soviet research vessel Persey in the Barents Sea visiting Novaya Zemlya Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land In 1933 Klenova made the first complete seabed map of the Barents Sea Her later work included the research of seabed geology in the Atlantic and the Antarctic and in the Caspian and White Seas She was one of the earliest women explorers of the Antarctic 50 nbsp Barents Sea as seen from space nbsp Aleksandr Kolchak 1874 1920 Russian admiral hero of the Russo Japanese War World War I Russian Civil War one of the leaders of the White movement Kolchak joined the expedition of Eduard Toll on the ship Zarya in 1900 as a hydrologist He took part in two further Arctic expeditions and explored the shores of Taymyr Peninsula He was nicknamed Kolchak the Polar He published a number of important works on Arctic ice 51 Named in honor Kolchak Island nbsp Kolchak Island in the Kara Sea nbsp Nikolai Kolomeitsev 1867 1944 Russian admiral hero of the Russo Japanese War After several expeditions in the Arctic Kolomeitsev became a commander of Eduard Toll s ship Zarya during the Russian Polar Expedition in 1900 They aimed to explore the area north of the New Siberian Islands and to find Sannikov Land There was a disagreement between Kolomeitsev and Toll over the treatment of the crew and finally Fyodor Matisen was made captain while Kolomeitsev was sent with Stepan Rastorguyev to organize coal depots and carry the post to the mainland They made a number of discoveries on the 800 km long sledge trip over Taymyr Peninsula 52 Named in honor Kolomeitsev Islands nbsp Polar ship Zarya nbsp Fyodor Konyukhov born 1951 yacht captain traveler painter writer Orthodox priest Konyukhov made more than 40 unique trips and climbs expressing his vision of the world in more than 3000 paintings and 9 books He set a record for crossing the Atlantic on a single row boat in 46 days He also crossed 800 km in a record 15 days and 22 hours during a Trans Greenland dog sleigh ride He was the first Russian to complete the Three Poles Challenge and Explorers Grand Slam He is the first and so far the only person in the world to have reached the five extreme Poles of the planet North Pole 3 times South Pole the Pole of inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean Mount Everest Alpinists pole and Cape Horn Yachtsmen pole He set a record for the solo yacht circumnavigation of Antarctica in 2008 102 days 53 54 nbsp The Seven Summits on an elevation world map nbsp Nikolai Korzhenevskiy 1879 1958 Russian Army officer geographer glaciologist In 1903 28 Korzhenevskiy organized 11 expeditions to explore the Pamir Mountains He discovered a number of glaciers and the highest peaks in the Pamirs including Peak Korzhenevskaya which he named after his wife Evgeniya He discovered and named Academy of Sciences Range in honor of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and made a catalogue of all the glaciers in Central Asia having discovered 70 of them himself 3 nbsp Peak Korzhenevskaya nbsp Otto von Kotzebue 1787 1846 Russian Navy captain circumnavigator Kotzebue accompanied Ivan Krusenstern on the first Russian circumnavigation in 1803 06 On the brig Rurik he led another Russian circumnavigation in 1815 18 He discovered the Romanzov Islands Rurik Islands and Krusenstern Islands in the Pacific then moved towards Alaska and discovered and named Kotzebue Sound and Cape Krusenstern Returning south he discovered the New Year Island In 1823 26 he made another world cruise on the sloop Enterprise making more discoveries 17 Named in honor Kotzebue Sound Kotzebue Alaska nbsp Kotzebue s circumnavigations nbsp Pyotr Kozlov 1863 1935 Russian Army officer Kozlov started traveling in Central Asia with Nikolai Przhevalsky and after the death of his mentor he continued his work From 1899 to 1901 he explored the upper reaches of the Yellow River Yangtze and Mekong rivers He rivaled Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein as the foremost researcher of Xinjiang at the historical peak of the Great Game In 1907 he visited the Dalai Lama in Urga In 1907 09 Kozlov explored the Gobi Desert and discovered the remains of the ancient Tangut city of Khara Khoto He excavated the site and uncovered no less than 2 000 books in the Tangut language In 1923 26 he explored Mongolia and Tibet and discovered an unprecedented number of Xiongnu royal burials at Noin Ula 55 nbsp A silk painting from Khara Khoto nbsp Stepan Krasheninnikov 1711 1755 naturalist geographer Krashennikov was a classmate of Mikhail Lomonosov Krashennikov traveled in Siberia in 1733 36 and then on Kamchatka Peninsula in 1737 41 during the Second Kamchatka Expedition He gave the first full description of Kamchatka in his book An Account of the Land of Kamchatka with detailed reports of the plants and animals of the region and also the language and culture of the indigenous Itelmen and Koryaks 56 Named in honor Krascheninnikovia and other species nbsp Fire breathing mountain on Kamchatka from Krasheninnikov s bookPyotr Krenitsyn 1728 1770 Russian Navy captain In 1766 70 Krenitsyn led the secret expedition to the North Pacific together with Mikhail Levashov as ordered by Catherine the Great They explored the Aleutian Islands and part of the Alaskan shore discovering good haven in Unalaska and many features of the Alaskan coast Krenitsyn died by drowning in the Kamchatka River On the basis of his explorations the first general map of the Aleutian Islands was created 2 Named in honor Krenitzin Islands nbsp Alaska and the Aleutian Islands nbsp Sergei Krikalyov born 1958 cosmonaut and mechanical engineer Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of Russia Krikalyov spent a record 803 days 9 hours and 39 minutes in space during his six spaceflights As a Soviet cosmonaut he traveled into space and back aboard Soyuz TM 7 in 1988 and then launched aboard Soyuz TM 12 in 1991 both times working on the Soviet space station Mir The last Citizen of the USSR Krikalev landed back on Earth aboard Soyuz TM 13 in 1992 to turn into a Russian cosmonaut He became the first Russian to travel on an American Space Shuttle during the STS 60 mission to Mir in 1994 and then he made another Shuttle flight STS 88 which was the first Shuttle mission to the International Space Station He again traveled to ISS on Soyuz TM 31 in 2000 and returned on STS 102 in 2001 Again he traveled to ISS and back on Soyuz TMA 6 in 2005 57 nbsp Mir space station nbsp Pyotr Kropotkin 1842 1921 Russian Army officer geographer zoologist anarchist revolutionary While serving in Siberia in 1864 Kropotkin led a survey expedition crossing North Manchuria from Transbaikalia to the Amur River Subsequently he took part in the expedition which proceeded up the Sungari River into central Manchuria yielding valuable geographic results In 1871 he explored the glacial deposits of Finland and Sweden He published several important works on the geography of Asia 58 Named in honor Kropotkin Krasnodar Krai Kropotkinskaya Moscow Metro nbsp Manchuria 1892 nbsp Adam Johann von Krusenstern 1770 1846 Russian admiral circumnavigator geographer In 1803 06 under the patronage of Alexander I of Russia and Nikolai Rumyantsev Krusenstern led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world aboard the Nadezhda together with Yuri Lisianski on Neva The purpose of the expedition was to establish trade with China and Japan and examine California for a possible colony They sailed from Kronshtadt rounded Cape Horn and reached the northern Pacific making a number of discoveries Krusenstern made an atlas of the Pacific receiving an honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences for the work 3 Named in honor Krusenstern Islands Cape Krusenstern Kruzenshtern ship Krusenstern crater nbsp A coin dedicated to the first Russian circumnavigation nbsp Alexander Kuchin 1888 1913 Russian Navy captain oceanographer Kuchin s life was bound with Norway he started as a seaman on a Norwegian ship created a Small Russian Norwegian dictionary studied oceanography from Bjorn Helland Hansen conducted oceanographic studies during Amundsen s South Pole Expedition on the Fram when he became the first Russian to set foot on the land of Antarctica and married Aslaug Poulson a Norwegian In 1912 13 he was the captain of Vladimir Rusanov s expedition to Svalbard on their ship Hercules After the successful research of the coal reserves on Svalbard without consultation with the Russian authorities they made an incredibly rash attempt to pass via the Northern Sea Route and were lost in the Kara Sea Relics of the Herkules were found near the Kolosovykh Islands 59 nbsp SvalbardL edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Georg von Langsdorff 1774 1852 physician naturalist consul general of Russia in Rio de Janeiro Langsdorf participated as a naturalist and physician in the first Russian circumnavigation in 1803 05 Independently he explored the Aleutians Sitka and Kodiak Islands in 1805 07 In 1813 he became consul general of Russia in Rio de Janeiro Brazil There he explored the flora fauna and geography of the province of Minas Gerais with French naturalist Augustin Saint Hilaire in 1813 20 In 1821 22 he led an exploratory and scientific expedition from Sao Paulo to Para in the Amazon Rainforest via a fluvial route accompanied by an international team of scientists In 1826 29 he led a 6000 km long expedition from Porto Feliz to the Amazon River and back emassing huge scientific collections now deposited in Kunstkamera 60 nbsp Minas Gerais province in Brazil nbsp Dmitry Laptev 1701 1771 Russian admiral Malygin Ovtsyn Chelyuskin Kh Laptev and D Laptev on a commemorative coin A cousin of Khariton Laptev Dmitry Laptev led one of the parties of the Great Northern Expedition in 1739 42 He described the sea coastline from the mouth of the Lena River to the Cape Bolshoy Baranov east of the mouth of the Kolyma River the basin and the mouth of the Anadyr River and the land route from the Anadyr fortress to the Penzhin Bay In 1741 42 Laptev surveyed the Bolshoy Anyuy River 61 Named in honor Laptev Sea nbsp Laptev Sea nbsp Khariton Laptev 1700 1763 Russian Navy officer Malygin Ovtsyn Chelyuskin Kh Laptev and D Laptev on a commemorative coin A cousin of Dmitry Laptev Khariton Laptev led one of the parties of the Great Northern Expedition in 1739 42 Together with Semion Chelyuskin N Chekin and G Medvedev Laptev described the Taimyr Peninsula from the mouth of the Khatanga River to the mouth of the Pyasina river and discovered several islands He participated in the creation of the General Map of the Siberian and Kamchatka Coast 61 Named in honor Laptev Sea nbsp Taimyr Peninsula nbsp Adam Laxman 1766 1806 Russian Army officer diplomat Son of Kirill Laxman Adam Laxman led a diplomatic mission to Japan in 1791 92 with the aim to return Daikokuya Kōdayu and another Japanese castaway in exchange for trade concessions from Tokugawa shogunate He made valuable observations but returned to Russia essentially empty handed though he possibly obtained the first official Japanese documents granting very limited permission to trade to a nation other than China or the Netherlands 62 nbsp Map of Japan by Daikokuya Kōdayu in Japanese and RussianKirill Laxman 1737 1796 clergyman naturalist Kirill Laxman became a priest first in St Petersburg and then in the Siberian town of Barnaul In 1764 68 he explored Siberia reaching Irkutsk Baikal Kiakhta and the border with China and researching the Siberian flora and fauna In 1782 he founded the oldest museum in Siberia in Irkutsk where he had settled earlier and was a business partner of Alexander Baranov the future governor of Russian America Laxman was engaged in attempts to establish relationships between Russia and Japan He brought Daikokuya Kōdayu a Japanese castaway to the court of empress Catherine the Great 3 nbsp Mikhail Lazarev 1788 1851 admiral circumnavigator hero of the Battle of Navarino commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet tutor of admirals and war heroes Nakhimov V Kornilov and V Istomin Lazarev thrice circumnavigated the globe He led the 1813 16 circumnavigation aboard the vessel Suvorov and discovered Suvorov Atoll He commanded Mirny the second ship in the Russian circumnavigation of 1819 21 under the leadership of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen aboard Vostok this expedition was the first to discover the continent of Antarctica on January 28 1820 New Style They also discovered and named Peter I Island Zavodovski Leskov and Visokoi Islands the Antarctic peninsula mainland and Alexander Island Alexander Coast and made some discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific In 1822 25 Lazarev sailed around the globe for the third time on his frigate Kreyser Named in honor Lazarev Bay Lazarev atoll Lazarevskoye settlement Novolazarevskaya Station Lazarev Mountains Lazarev Ice Shelf Lazarev Trough 3660 Lazarev minor planet nbsp Lazarev s world cruise on Suvorov nbsp Antarctica nbsp Alexei Leonov 1934 2019 cosmonaut and Soviet Air Force general twice a Hero of the Soviet Union painter writer On March 18 1965 connected to the spacecraft Voskhod 2 by a 5 35 meter tether Leonov became the first person to make a spacewalk or extra vehicular activity He was in open space for 12 min 9 sec At the end of the spacewalk Leonov s spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum to the point where he could not reenter the airlock He opened a valve to allow some of the suit s pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule where his companion Pavel Belyayev assisted him Subsequently Leonov made a second spaceflight on the Soyuz 19 a part of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in 1975 Thus Leonov participated in the first joint flight of the U S and Soviet space programs He published several books and albums of paintings some of which he created in space 63 Named in honor a fictional spaceship in Arthur C Clarke s book 2010 Odyssey Two which was dedicated to Leonov Mikhail Levashov c 1738 1774 76 Russian Navy officer In 1766 70 Levashov was second in command in the secret expedition to the North Pacific led by Pyotr Krenitsyn as ordered by Catherine the Great They explored the Aleutian Islands and part of the Alaskan shore discovering good haven in Unalaska and many features of the Alaskan coast Levashov also explored and described the Commander Islands On the basis of their explorations the first general map of the Aleutian Islands was created 64 nbsp Kamchatka and the Commander Islands nbsp Yuri Lisyansky 1773 1837 Russian Navy officer circumnavigator In 1803 06 Lisyansky aboard the Neva together with Ivan Krusenstern on the Nadezhda led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world The purpose of the expedition was to establish trade with China and Japan and to examine California for a possible colony The ships split near Hawaii and Lisyanski headed to Russian Alaska where the Neva became essential in defeating the Tlingit in the Battle of Sitka Lisyansky was the first to describe the Hawaiian monk seal on the island which now bears his name He met Krusenstern again in Macau but they soon separated Eventually Lisyansky was the first to return to Kronstadt 65 Named in honor Lisianski Island nbsp Neva in Kodiak nbsp Lisianski Island nbsp Friedrich von Lutke 1797 1882 Russian admiral circumnavigator Litke took part in Vasily Golovnin s world cruise on the ship Kamchatka in 1817 19 In 1821 24 Litke explored the coastline of Novaya Zemlya the White Sea and the eastern Barents Sea In 1826 29 he led the circumnavigation on the ship Senyavin and accompanied Mikhail Staniukovich on the sloop Moller During this voyage they explored the Bering Sea including the Pribilof Islands St Matthew Island and the Commander Islands the Bonin Islands off Japan and the Carolines discovering 12 new islands Litke was a co founder and the president of the Russian Geographic Society in 1845 50 and 1857 72 He was the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1864 82 and occupied a number of major military and state offices 66 Named in honor Cape Lutke Alaska Litke Strait Icebreaker Feodor Litke nbsp Litke s voyage on Senyavin nbsp Cape LutkeFyodor Luzhin 1727 cartographer geodesist In 1719 1721 together with Ivan Yevreinov Luzhin made the first instrumental mapping of Kamchatka and the first map of the Kuril Islands during the secret expedition as ordered by Peter the Great In 1723 24 he made surveys of different parts of East Siberia near Irkutsk In 1725 27 Luzhin participated in the first Kamchatka Expedition led by Vitus Bering 67 Named in honor Luzhin Strait nbsp Kuril IslandsIvan Lyakhov c 1800 merchant Lyakhov a merchant investigated the New Siberian Islands in three expeditions on dogsleds in 1770 1773 74 and 1775 He hoped to find mammoth ivory there as he believed the islands were mainly formed by a substratum of bones and tusks of mammoths He explored the follow up Lyakhovsky Islands crossed the Sannikov Strait and discovered Kotelny Island 68 Named in honor Lyakhovsky Islands nbsp New Siberian Islands nbsp Vladimir Lysenko born 1955 traveler scientist circumnavigator Dr Vladimir Lysenko had three globe circumnavigations 1 in a car 1997 2002 crossed 62 countries 2 on a bicycle crossed 29 countries 3 along the equator from west to east deviating no more than two degrees of latitude from the Equator starting in Libreville Gabon Vladimir had successfully crossed in a car a motor boat a yacht a ship a kayak a bicycle and by foot Africa Indian Ocean Indonesia Pacific Ocean South America and Atlantic Ocean with finish in Libreville in 2012 He also completed project titled From Earth s Bowels to Stratosphere Vladimir rafted on rivers in 63 countries He visited all 195 UN member and observer states 69 70 nbsp Lysenko s circumnavigationsM edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Stepan Makarov 1849 1904 Russian admiral oceanographer naval engineer and inventor hero of the Russo Turkish War 1877 1878 and Russo Japanese War commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet Makarov built and captained the world s first torpedo boat tender Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin He was the first in the world to successfully launch torpedoes against the Turkish armed ship Intibah in 1877 He was one of the developers of the Russian Flag semaphore system and insubmersibility theory Makarov directed two round the world oceanographic expeditions on the corvette Vityaz in 1886 89 and in 1894 96 He built and commanded Yermak the world s first true icebreaker which was able to ride over and crash pack ice Yermak was tested in two Arctic expeditions in 1899 and in 1901 Admiral Makarov was killed in action during the 1904 05 war with Japan after his battleship Petropavlovsk struck a naval mine 71 Named in honor Makarov town Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov 1906 Icebreaker Admiral Makarov nbsp Corvette Vityaz nbsp Icebreaker Yermak nbsp Stepan Malygin 1764 Russian Navy captain navigator cartographer Malygin Ovtsyn Chelyuskin Kh Laptev and D Laptev on a commemorative coin Malygin was the first to write a manual on navigation in the Russian language in 1733 In early 1736 he was appointed leader of the western unit of the Great Northern Expedition In 1736 37 two boats Perviy First and Vtoroy Second under the command of Malygin and A Skuratov undertook a voyage from the Dolgiy Island in the Barents Sea to the mouth of the Ob River During this trip Malygin for the first time described and mapped the part of the Russian Arctic coastline between the Pechora and Ob Rivers 72 Named in honor Malygin Strait Icebreaker Malygin 1912 nbsp Bely Island and Malygin Strait nbsp Fyodor Matisen 1872 1921 Russian Navy officer hydrographer Matisen replaced Nikolai Kolomeitsev as commander of Eduard Toll s Zarya during the Russian Polar Expedition in 1900 03 He was the first to make a thorough geographical survey of the Nordenskiold Archipelago exploring it on dogsled and discovering and naming 40 of its islands Subsequently Toll and Matisen led Zarya across the Laptev Sea to the New Siberian Islands The ship was trapped in fast ice and Toll and three companions went in search of the elusive Sannikov Land on foot and kayaks and were lost When Zarya became able to set sail Matisen made for the Lena River delta 52 nbsp Nordenskiold Archipelago nbsp Fyodor Matyushkin 1799 1872 Russian admiral circumnavigator Matyushkin studied in Tsarskoselsky College together with Alexander Pushkin He participated in Vassili Golovnin s world cruise aboard the Kamchatka in 1817 19 In 1820 24 he took part in Ferdinand Wrangel s Arctic expedition to the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea They explored and mapped the Medvyezhi Islands Following this survey Matyushkin on his own explored a vast tundra area east of the Kolyma River In 1825 27 he joined Wrangel in his world cruise aboard Krotky 2 nbsp Kolyma region nature nbsp Alexander Middendorf 1815 1894 zoologist botanist geographer hippologist agriculturalist In 1840 Middendorf took part in Karl Baer s expedition to the Kola Peninsula and Lapland In 1843 45 he pioneered the scientific exploration of the Taimyr Peninsula and discovered the Putorana Plateau on Central Siberian Plateau Then he traveled along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and entered the lower Amur River valley He studied the ethnography of Siberian peoples and the climate animals and plants of Siberia He was a founder of permafrost science and the Vice President of the Russian Geographical Society He determined the southern border of the permafrost and explained the high sinuosity of the northern boundary of the taiga zone In 1870 he accompanied Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich to Novaya Zemlya and discovered the North Cape sea current a part of the Norwegian Current In 1870 he also explored the Baraba steppe and in 1878 he travelled in Fergana Valley 73 Named in honor Middendorff Bay Middendorff s grasshopper warbler nbsp Putorana Plateau location nbsp Permafrost in the North Hemisphere nbsp Nicholas Miklouho Maclay 1846 1888 ethnologist anthropologist biologist Miklouho Maclay visited north eastern New Guinea the Philippines Indonesia and Melanesia on a number of occasions starting in 1870 and for a long time he lived amongst the native Oceanian tribes studying their way of life and customs One of the earliest followers of Charles Darwin he was among the first to refute the then prevailing view that the different races of mankind belonged to different species He arrived in Sydney in 1878 and organised a zoological centre known as the Marine Biological Station the first marine biological research institute in Australia He married a daughter of the Premier of New South Wales John Robertson and returned to Russia Being in poor health after the trip he died and left his skull to the St Petersburg Military and Medical Academy 74 Named in honor Macleay Museum N N Miklukho Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology nbsp Papua New Guinea nbsp Maklay among the Papuans nbsp Nicolae Milescu 1636 1708 writer scientist traveler geographer diplomat In 1671 Milescu went from Moldavia to Russia where he became a diplomat He wrote the first arithmetics textbook in the Russian language Arithmologion He led the Russian diplomatic mission to China in 1675 78 for the first time among Russian ambassadors travelling to Beijing through East Siberia rather than through Mongolia After his assistant Ignatiy Milovanov sent beforehand Milescu was the first known European to cross the Amur River from the north and reach Beijing by that route Milescu made the first detailed description of Lake Baikal and all the rivers feeding the lake and he was the first to point out Baikal s unfathomable depth His travel notes also contain valuable descriptions of major Siberian rivers and the first ever orographic scheme of East Siberia 75 nbsp Milescue and his route from Moscow to ChinaFyodor Minin c 1709 after 1742 Russian Navy officer In the 1730s Minin participated in the Great Northern Expedition In 1736 he joined the unit led by Dmitry Ovtsyn In 1738 together with Dmitry Sterlegov he led the group that charted the Arctic coastline east of the Yenisei river for some 250 km In 1738 42 Minin made several vain attempts to sail around the Taimyr Peninsula He also mapped and described Dikson Island 76 Named in honor Minina Skerries nbsp Location of the Minina SkerriesIvan Moskvitin after 1645 Siberian Cossack leader Moskvitin came with ataman Dmitry Kopylov from Tomsk to Yakutsk and then to a new fort on the Aldan River in 1638 In 1639 Kopylov sent Moskvitin in command of 20 Tomsk Cossacks and 29 Krasnoyarsk Cossacks to look for silver ore to the east Leading the party Moskvitin became the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean and to discover the Sea of Okhotsk building a winter camp on its shore at the Ulya River mouth In 1640 the Cossacks apparently sailed south explored the south eastern shores of the Okhotsk Sea and probably reached the mouth of the Amur River On their way back they discovered the Shantar Islands Based on Moskvitin s account Kurbat Ivanov draw the first Russian map of the Far East in 1642 Moskvitin presumably a native of Moscow personally brought the news of the discovery of the eastern ocean to his native city 77 nbsp Location of the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk nbsp Gerhard Friedrich Muller 1705 1783 historian ethnologist Muller came to St Petersburg in 1725 and became a co founder of the Russian Academy of Sciences In 1733 43 he participated in the Academic Squad of the Great Northern Expedition and traveled extensively through Siberia studying its geography and peoples Muller is considered to be one of the fathers of ethnography He collected vernacular stories and archival documents about Russian explorers of Siberia including Pyanda Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov He was among the first to write a general account of Russian history based on extensive study of documentary sources He put forth the Normanist theory a controversial accentuation of the role of Scandinavians and Germans in the history of Russia 78 nbsp Kunstkamera the first building of the Russian Academy of Sciences nbsp Nikolay Muravyov Amursky 1809 1881 Russian Army general statesman diplomat In 1847 Muravyov became the governor general of Eastern Siberia He pursued the Russian exploration and settlement of the territories north of the Amur River He assisted in the organisation of Gennady Nevelskoy s expeditions which led to the Russian presence near Amur estuary and on Sakhalin In 1854 military troops sailed down the Amur in 1855 the first settlers reached the river mouth and in 1856 the city of Blagoveshchensk was founded In 1858 Muravyov concluded the Treaty of Aigun with China which recognised the Amur River as a border between the two countries and granted Russia easier access to the Pacific Ocean The new territories acquired by Russia included Priamurye and most of the territories of modern Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais For this achievement Muravyov was granted the title of Count Amursky The Treaty of Aigun was confirmed and expanded the Convention of Peking of 1860 which granted Russia the right to the Ussuri krai and the south of Primorsky Krai To defend the new lands Muravyov created the Amur Cossacks corps 79 80 Named in honor Muravyov Amursky Peninsula nbsp Muravyov s first expedition off Aigun nbsp Monument in Khabarovsk 5000 ruble banknote nbsp Ivan Mushketov 1850 1902 geologist geographer In 1873 79 Mushketov traveled extensively in Central Asia discovering and cataloguing mineral deposits He produced the first geological map of Turkestan together with S Romanovsky Mushketov also started observations of earthquakes in Kazakhstan organized regular observation of the glaciers of the Caucasus and researched the gold mines of the Urals He led the team that surveyed the territory for the future Circum Baikal Railway 81 nbsp Central AsiaN edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Ivan Nagurski 1888 1976 engineer Russian Navy officer pioneer of aviation hero of the First World War and Russian Civil War Nagurski was among the first pilots of the Russian Navy In 1914 he was tasked with the difficult mission of locating the expeditions of Georgy Sedov Georgy Brusilov and Vladimir Rusanov all lost in the Russian Arctic He flew five missions spending more than ten hours in the air and travelling more than a thousand kilometers over land and the Barents Sea reaching as far as the 76th parallel north He did not find the expeditions but became the first polar aviator in history Later he performed the first ever loop with a flying boat 82 Named in honor Nagurskoye airfield nbsp Nagurski s plane in the Arctic off Novaya Zemlya nbsp Gennady Nevelskoy 1813 1876 Russian admiral In 1848 Nevelskoy led the expedition in the Russian Far East exploring the area of Sakhalin and the Amur Liman which he found possible to sail through on tall ships He proved that the Tatar Strait was not a gulf but indeed a strait connected to the Amur River s estuary by a narrow section later called Nevelskoy Strait Not knowing about the efforts of Japanese navigator Mamiya Rinzo who explored the same area earlier Nevelskoy s report was taken as the first proof that Sakhalin was indeed an island In 1850 Nevelskoy founded Nikolayevsk on Amur the first Russian settlement in the lower Amur region He also founded several military posts on Sakhalin 83 Named in honor Nevelskoy Strait Nevelsk nbsp Nevelskoy Strait is the narrowest part of Tatar Strait nbsp Afanasy Nikitin 1472 merchant writer In 1466 Nikitin left his hometown of Tver on a commercial trip to India He traveled down the Volga River reached Derbent then Baku and later Persian Empire by crossing the Caspian Sea where he lived for a year In 1469 Nikitin arrived in Ormus and then crossing the Arabian Sea reached the sultanate of Bahmani where he lived for 3 years On his way back Nikitin visited the African continent Somalia Muscat Trabzon and in 1472 arrived at Feodosiya by crossing the Black Sea Thus Nikitin became one of the first Europeans to travel to and to document his visit to India He described his trip in a narrative known as A Journey Beyond the Three Seas which is a valuable study of the 15th century India its social system government military Nikitin witnessed war games featuring war elephants its economy religion and lifestyles 84 nbsp Persia nbsp IndiaO edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Vladimir Obruchev 1863 1956 geologist geographer science fiction author Having graduated from the Petersburg Mining Institute in 1886 Obruchev went to Siberia He studied gold mining and assisted in constructing the Trans Siberian and Central Asian Railways In Central Asia he explored the Kara Kum Desert the shores of the Amu Darya River and the old riverbeds of the Uzbois In 1892 94 Obruchev took part in Grigory Potanin s expedition to Mongolia and North China He explored the Transbaikal area Dzhungaria and the Altai Mountains Having spent half a century in exploring Siberia and Inner Asia Obruchev summarized his findings in the extensive work The Geology of Siberia He studied the origins of loess the ice formation and permafrost and the tectonics of Siberia All together he authored over a thousand scientific works Obruchev is also known as the author of two popular science fiction novels Plutonia 1915 and Sannikov Land 1924 These stories imitating the pattern of Arthur Conan Doyle s The Lost World depict in vivid detail the discovery of an isolated world of prehistoric animals in hitherto unexplored large islands in the Arctic 85 Named in honor Obruchev Hills Obruchev crater Moon 3128 Obruchev asteroid Obruchevsky District nbsp Siberian craton nbsp Dmitry Ovtsyn after 1757 Russian Navy officer hydrographer In 1737 38 Ovtsyn led one of the units of the Great Northern Expedition that charted the coastline of the Kara Sea east of the Ob River making the first hydrographic description of the large Gydan Peninsula and part of the Taymyr Peninsula In 1741 42 Ovtsyn took part in Vitus Bering s voyage to the shores of North America 86 nbsp Gydan PeninsulaP edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Pyotr Pakhtusov 1800 1835 Russian Navy officer hydrographer a monument in Kronstadt A participant of the earlier explorations by Fyodor Litke Pakhtusov led two expeditions to Novaya Zemlya in 1832 and 1835 He twice wintered on the islands and took detailed meteorological observations Together with fellow explorer and cartographer Avgust Tsivolko Pakhtusov made the first reliable maps of Novaya Zemlya s southern shores 87 nbsp Novaya Zemlya nbsp Peter Simon Pallas 1741 1811 naturalist zoologist botanist geographer Born in Berlin Pallas was invited by Catherine the Great to become a professor at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences In 1768 74 he led an academic expedition to the Central Russia Povolzhye the Caspian Sea the Urals and Siberia reaching as far east as Transbaikal Pallas sent regular reports to St Petersburg covering the topics of geology native peoples new plants and animals He became a favourite of Catherine II and was provided with the specimens collected by other naturalists to compile the Flora Rossica publ 1784 1815 and Zoographica Rosso Asiatica 1811 31 He also published an account of Johann Anton Guldenstadt s travels in the Caucasus and the journals of Georg Wilhelm Steller from Kamchatka and Alaska In 1793 94 Pallas led an expedition to southern Russia visiting the Crimea and the Black Sea the Caucasus and the Dnieper He discovered and described a large number of new species and amassed a vast natural history collection 88 Named in honor pallasite meteorite type Pallasovka town asteroid 21087 Petsimpallas Pallas s cat Pallas s squirrel Pallas s gull and other species nbsp Krasnojarsk the first known pallasite meteorite nbsp Pallas s catIvan Papanin 1894 1986 Soviet admiral scientist twice a Hero of the Soviet Union In 1931 Papanin took part in the expedition on icebreaker Malygin to Franz Josef Land where in 1932 33 he was the chief of a polar expedition on the Hooker Island In 1934 35 he was the head of a polar station on Cape Chelyuskin In 1937 38 he was the head of the drifting ice station North Pole 1 the world s first expedition of its kind Together with Ernst Krenkel Yevgeny Fyodorov and Pyotr Shirshov he landed on the Arctic drifting ice floes in an airplane flown by Mikhail Vodopyanov For 234 days the team carried out a wide range of scientific observations in the near polar zone until taken back In 1939 46 Papanin became the head of the Glavsevmorput an establishment that oversaw operations on the Northern Sea Route In 1940 he organized the expedition that rescued the ice trapped icebreaker Sedov 89 Maksim Perfilyev after 1638 Siberian Cossack leader In 1618 19 Perfilyev became a co founder of Yeniseysky ostrog the first Russian fortress on the central Yenisey River and a major standpoint for further expeditions eastward In 1618 27 Perfilyev made several journeys on the Angara Ilim Lena and Vitim rivers and built several new ostrogs In 1631 he founded Bratsky ostrog follow up Bratsk In 1638 he became the first Russian to set foot in Transbaikalia 90 91 nbsp Yenisey basinYakov Permyakov 1712 Siberian Cossack seafarer merchant In 1710 while sailing from the Lena River to the Kolyma River Permyakov discovered the Medvezhyi Islands siting them from afar In 1712 Permyakov and his companion Merkury Vagin crossed the Yana Bay from the mouth of the Yana over the ice and explored Bolshoy Lyakhovsky island the southernmost of the New Siberian Islands thus initiating the exploration of the archipelago On their way back Permyakov and Vagin were murdered by mutineering expedition members 92 nbsp Medvyezhi IslandsIvan Petlin after 1619 Siberian Cossack diplomat Petlin was the first Russian to reach China on an official diplomatic mission in 1618 19 His expedition may have been the second European expedition to reach China from the west by an overland route after that of Bento de Gois since the fall of the Yuan Dynasty Together with Andrey Mundov and 10 other men Petlin went south up the Ob River crossed the Abakan Range went south to Tuva and rounding Uvs Nuur reached the court of the Altan Khan of the Khotgoid Then they passed through Mongolia to the Great Wall of China and Beijing He was not allowed to see the Wanli Emperor because of not bringing proper tribute He brought back a letter in Chinese inviting Russians to open trade but no one in Russia was able to read it until 1675 An account of Petlin s expedition was translated into English and published in Samuel Purchas s Pilgrims in 1625 and then translated into other European languages 93 49 nbsp Petlin s expedition established Russia China relations nbsp Valeri Polyakov born 1942 cosmonaut and physician Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of Russia Polyakov holds the world record for the longest continuous spaceflight in history 437 days 18 hours more than 14 months which he spent aboard Soyuz TM 18 Mir space station and Soyuz TM 20 in 1994 95 With his earlier expedition to Mir on Soyuz TM 6 and back on Soyuz TM 7 in 1988 89 his combined space experience is more than 22 months 94 nbsp Mir SS with Soyuz TM 20 at the top nbsp Fedot Popov 1648 54 merchant An agent of Moscow merchant Alexey Usov Fedot Popov came to Srednekolymsk in Siberia in 1645 There he organized an expedition eastward and brought in Semyon Dezhnev In 1648 they sailed down to the Arctic and became the first to pass through the Bering Strait and to discover Chukchi Peninsula and the Bering Sea All their kochi and most of their men including Popov himself were lost in storms and clashes with the natives A small group led by Dezhnyov reached the Anadyr River In 1653 54 while fighting with Koryaks near Anadyrsk Dezhnyov captured Popov s Yakut wife who confirmed him dead When Vladimir Atlasov came to conquer Kamchatka in 1697 he heard from the locals about a certain Fedotov who had lived with his men near Kamchatka River and had married local women so the Fedotov legend appeared G F Muller thought Fedotov was Fedot s son while Stepan Krasheninnikov thought he was Fedot himself thus deeming Popov to be the possible discoverer of Kamchatka 31 nbsp 1773 map of Chukchi Peninsula showing the 1648 route of Popov and Dezhnyov nbsp Konstantin Posyet 1819 1899 Russian admiral military writer statesman diplomat In 1852 54 Posyet journeyed on the frigate Pallada to Japan under the command of admirals Yevfimy Putyatin and Ivan Unkovsky Accompanied also by novelist Ivan Goncharov and inventor Alexander Mozhaisky Posyet explored and mapped the northern coastline of the Sea of Japan including the follow up Possiet Bay In 1856 he carried to Japan the news of the ratification of the Treaty of Shimoda Possiet s journeys and published observations made him an expert on Japan in Russia Having become Minister of Ways and Communications he negotiated the Treaty of Saint Petersburg 1875 with Enomoto Takeaki which brought the entire Sakhalin Island into the Russian fold He prepared the construction of the Trans Siberian Railway and was a leading advocate for the restoration of the white blue red flag of Russia in 1896 95 Named in honor Possiet Bay Posyet port nbsp Possiet Bay nbsp Grigory Potanin 1835 1920 geographer ethnographer botanist Potanin traveled extensively through Siberia studying its nature and peoples once accompanied by Nikolai Yadrintsev In 1876 and 1879 Potanin led two expeditions into Mongolia In 1884 86 Potanin explored Northern China and Tibet returning to Russia through the Qilian Mountains and Mongolia He encountered the Salar people and made other ethnographic and geographic discoveries including the first account of the East and West Uighur languages In 1989 Potanin became one of the founders of Tomsk University the first university in Asian Russia In 1892 93 he again explored Northern China and Sichuan accompanied by geologist Vladimir Obruchev Before reaching Tibet Potanin was forced to turn back because of the illness and death of his wife Alexandra who was the first woman member of the Russian Geographical Society In 1899 Potanin travelled to Greater Khingan 96 Named in honor Potanin Glacier 9915 Potanin asteroid nbsp Tibetan Plateau nbsp Vassili Poyarkov after 1668 Siberian Cossack ataman In 1643 Poyarkov was sent with 133 men from Yakutsk to explore the new lands south of Stanovoy Ridge He reached the upper Zeya River in the country of the Daur people who were paying tribute to the Manchu Chinese After wintering in 1644 Poyarkov pushed down the Zeya and became the first Russian to reach the Amur River He descended to the Nivkh people country and discovered the mouth of the Amur River from land Since his Cossacks provoked the enmity of the locals they passed Poyarkov chose a different way back They built boats and in 1645 sailed along the Sea of Okhotsk coast to the Ulia River and spent the next winter in the huts that had been built by explorer Ivan Moskvitin six years earlier In 1646 they returned to Yakutsk 97 nbsp Amur River basinGavriil Pribylov 1796 navigator Pribylov commanding the ship St George led an expedition funded jointly by Grigory Shelikhov and Pavel Lebedev Lastochkin with an aim to find the lucrative breeding grounds of fur seals long sought by Siberian merchants He discovered St George Island in the Bering Sea in 1786 by following the sounds of barking northern fur seals and possibly hinted by Aleut people A year later in 1787 Pribylov discovered St Paul Island to the north of St George 98 Named in honor Pribilof Islands nbsp Pribilof Islands nbsp Vasili Pronchishchev 1702 1736 Russian Navy officer forensic facial reconstruction In 1735 36 Pronchishchev led one of the units of the Great Northern Expedition that discovered and mapped more than 500 miles of the Arctic shore to the west of the mouth of the Lena River He took his wife Maria Pronchishcheva with him aboard the sloop Yakutsk Despite the difficulties they reached Taymyr Peninsula in 1736 having discovered the follow up Faddey Islands Komsomolskoy Pravdy Islands Saint Peter Islands and the east Byrranga Mountains on Taymyr Pronchishchev and his wife died from illness on the way back and were buried at the mouth of the Olenek River 24 nbsp Location of the Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands nbsp Maria Pronchishcheva 1710 1736 first female Arctic explorer forensic facial reconstruction Maria Pronchishcheva or Tatiana according to some sources accompanied her husband Vasili Pronchishchev in 1735 36 during the Great Northern Expedition when they explored the coastline west of the mouth of the Lena River making many discoveries She is considered to be the first known female explorer of the Arctic Maria died from illness on the way back only 14 days after the death of her husband Vasili 24 Named in honor Maria Pronchishcheva Bay nbsp Location of Maria Pronchishcheva Bay nbsp Nikolai Przhevalsky 1839 1888 Russian Army general geographer naturalist In 1867 69 Przhevalsky led an expedition to the basin of the Ussuri River Subsequently he made four major journeys to largely unknown parts of Central Asia in total covering more than 40 000 km in length In 1870 73 he crossed the Gobi desert to Beijing explored the upper Yangtze River and crossed into Tibet surveying over 18 000 km2 and collecting some 5 000 plant species 1 000 birds 3 000 insects 70 reptiles and the skins of 130 different mammals In 1876 77 travelling through southern Xinjiang and the Tian Shan range he visited Lake Lop Nor In 1879 80 he traveled via Hami City and the Qaidam basin to Lake Koko Nor Passing over Tian Shan into Tibet he was 260 km from Lhasa before being turned back by Tibetan officials In 1883 85 Przhevalsky traveled across Gobi to Alashan and Tian Shan then back to Koko Nor and westwards to Lake Issyk Kul His journeys opened a new era for the study of the geography fauna and flora of Central Asia He was the first to report on the wild population of Bactrian camels to describe the Przewalski s gazelle and the Przewalski s horse the only extant wild horse 80 99 Named in honor Przewalski s gazelle Przewalski s horse Przhevalsk Kyrgyzstan Przhevalskoye nbsp Przewalski s horse nbsp Monument in St Petersburg nbsp Yevfimy Putyatin 1803 1883 Russian admiral diplomat In 1822 25 Putyatin sailed with Mikhail Lazarev around the world aboard the Suvorov Later he led diplomatic missions to Iran and the Caucasus Together with Admiral Ivan Unkovsky he led a scientific round the world expedition on the frigate Pallada to Japan in 1852 55 This expedition contributed many important discoveries in oceanography One of the results achieved was the Treaty of Shimoda with Japan In 1857 58 Putyatin twice traveled to both Japan and China and explored Peter the Great Gulf Russky Island the Eastern Bosphorus and other features of the Russian shores of the Sea of Japan 2 100 nbsp Peter the Great GulfDemid Pyanda after 1637 Siberian Cossack ataman Coming from Mangazeya Demid Pyanda was a hunter for Siberian furs Starting his long journey from Turukhansk in three and a half years from 1620 to 1624 Pyanda passed a total of 8000 km of hitherto unknown large Siberian rivers He explored some 2300 km of Lower Tunguska Nizhnyaya Tunguska in the Russian language and having reached the upper part of Tunguska he discovered the great Siberian river Lena and explored some 2400 km of its length When doing this he became the first Russian to reach Yakutia and meet the Yakuts He returned up Lena until it became too rocky and shallow and by land reached Angara On his way Pyanda became the first Russian to meet the Buryats He built new boats and explored some 1400 km of the Angara finally discovering that the Angara a Buryat name and the Upper Tunguska Verkhnyaya Tunguska as known by Russians are one and the same river 101 nbsp Siberian river routesR edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Semyon Remezov c 1642 after 1720 cartographer geographer historian a monument in the Tobolsk Kremlin In 1683 1710 Remezov described and mapped the Tobolsk region where he was born He wrote the Remezov Chronicle one of the earliest historical accounts of Siberia and its exploration a part of the Siberian Chronicles In 1699 1701 he created the Chart book of Siberia the first large format cartographic atlas of Siberia In total he made more than 200 charts and maps of eastern Russian regions 102 nbsp Siberian peoples Remezov Chronicle nbsp Nikolai Rezanov 1764 1807 statesman diplomat Rezanov was one of the founders of the Russian American Company in 1799 based on the earlier Shelikhov Golikov Company In 1803 06 he was made an ambassador to Japan by Alexander I of Russia and co led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world aboard the Nadezhda under the captaincy of Ivan Krusenstern Rezanov was in command as far as Kamchatka After his embassy to Japan failed he was made an inspector of Russian colonies in America In 1806 he managed to open trade with Spanish California conclude a treaty and become engaged with Concepcion Arguello the daughter of the comandante of San Francisco Rezanov died in Siberia however on a journey back to St Petersburg while carrying the treaty to the capital 103 Rezanov s love affair with Concepcion Arguello inspired a ballad by the San Francisco author Francis Bret Harte and a 1937 novel Rezanov and Dona Concha by another SF author Gertrude Atherton as well as a very successful 1979 Russian rock opera Juno and Avos by the composer Alexei Rybnikov and the poet Andrey Voznesensky nbsp A replica of Russian trading post in Sitka Alaska nbsp Voin Rimsky Korsakov 1822 1871 Russian Navy officer hydroghafer and geographer An elder brother of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov the composer and conductor in the 1850s and 1860s Voin Rimsky Korsakov explored the area of the Sea of Japan near Ussuri Krai including Sakhalin Island the Amur Liman and the Strait of Tartary Later he also surveyed the shores of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands 104 Named in honor Rimsky Korsakov Archipelago nbsp Rimsky Korsakov Archipelago nbsp Nicholas Roerich 1874 1947 painter philosopher archeologist writer public figure traveler Roerich emigrated to the U S after the Russian Revolution By the sale of his paintings and writings and the gains from the activity of his cultural and enlightener organizations Roerich was able to collect the finance and lead a major expedition to Central Asia in 1924 28 in which his family including his wife Helena Roerich participated The expedition went through Sikkim Kashmir Ladakh Xinjiang Siberia Altai Mongolia Tibet and unstudied areas of the Himalayas Archeological and ethnographical investigations were conducted dozens of new mountain peaks and passes were marked on maps rare manuscripts were found and some of the best series of Roerich s paintings were created In 1934 35 Roerich conducted an expedition in Inner Mongolia Manchuria and China collecting nearly 300 species of xerophytes herbs manuscripts and archeological relics Roerich was an author and initiator of an international pact for the protection of artistic and academic institutions and historical sites Roerich s Pact 1935 and a founder of an international movement for the defence of culture He created about 7 000 paintings and founded a number of scientific and cultural institutions in the U S Europe and India 105 106 Named in honor Roerich s Pact 4426 Roerich nbsp Peaks and passes named after the Roerichs in the Altai Mountains nbsp Institute of Himalayan studies Urusvati founded by the Roerichs nbsp Alexander Nevsky Rurikid 1220 1263 Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir national hero and patron saint of Russia Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky traveled to the Mongolian capital Karakorum in Central Asia between 1247 and 1249 accompanied by his brother Andrey Yaroslavich They were summoned there by the Genghisid Khans who had conquered Rus a few years before Unlike their father Yaroslav II of Vladimir who had come into Karakorum in 1245 46 and was poisoned by the Mongols Alexander and Andrey were able to get back to Rus confirmed in power by their new overlords Russian princes were among the first known Europeans to travel so far into Asia making their journey around the same time as the Italian monk Plano Carpini traveled to Mongolia 107 Named in honor Order of Alexander Nevsky numerous Alexander Nevsky Cathedrals churches monasteries nbsp Vladimir Rusanov 1875 1913 geologist In 1909 11 Rusanov carried out explorations in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago In 1912 he commanded a government expedition to Svalbard to investigate its coal reserves They sailed on the small ship Herkules under Captain Alexander Kuchin Amundsen s South Pole expedition navigator Concluding the work part of the expedition returned to Russia while the rest without consultation with the authorities set off with Rusanov in an incredibly rash attempt at reaching the Pacific via the Northern Sea Route and disappeared in the Kara Sea The relics of the expedition were found in 1937 in the Kolosovykh Islands Soviet coal mining on Svalbard began in 1932 108 109 Rusanov and his expedition are among the prototypes for the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin where the search proceedings for fictional captain Tatarinov resemble the search for Rusanov nbsp Hercules schoonerS edit Contents Top 0 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Portrait Person Achievements Image nbsp Anatoly Sagalevich born 1938 oceanographer submersible pilot Hero of Russia right in photo with Vladimir Putin From 1979 Sagalevich has been the head of the Deepwater Submersibles Laboratory at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology He took part in the construction of the Pisces VIII Pisces IX and MIR Deep Submergence Vehicles and completed more than 300 submersions as the chief pilot of DSVs He piloted MIRs during expeditions to RMS Titanic German battleship Bismarck Soviet and Russian submarines K 278 Komsomolets and K 141 Kursk and Japanese submarine I 52 Sagalevich holds the world record for the deepest fresh water dive at 1637 m in Lake Baikal aboard a Pisces in 1990 On August 2 2007 he was the pilot of the MIR 1 DSV that reached the seabed at the North Pole during the Arktika 2007 expedition 110 nbsp MIR submersible nbsp Rudolf Samoylovich 1881 1940 geographer In 1912 Samoylovich took part in Vladimir Rusanov s geological expedition to Spitsbergen He was one of the initiators and the first director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute In 1928 he was the head of the rescue party on the Krasin icebreaker that saved most of the crew of the Airship Italia of Umberto Nobile He participated in the polar flight of LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin in 1931 and headed expeditions on the icebreakers Vladimir Rusanov 1932 Georgy Sedov 1934 and Sadko 1936 and 1937 38 111 Yakov Sannikov 1780 after 1812 merchant Exploring the New Siberian Islands in 1800 Sannikov discovered and charted Stolbovoy Island and then Faddeyevsky Island in 1805 In 1809 1810 he took part in the expedition led by Matvei Gedenschtrom He discovered Bunge Land and suggested that there was a vast land north of Kotelny Island thus introducing a theory about the existence of the legendary Sannikov Land 112 Named in honor Sannikov Land Sannikov Strait nbsp De Long Islands beyond which the Sannikov Land was deemed to exist nbsp Gavriil Sarychev 1763 1831 Russian admiral cartographer In 1785 94 Sarychev took part in the expedition sponsored by Catherine the Great and led by Joseph Billings Commanding the ship Slava Rossii Glory of Russia he mapped the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk from Okhotsk to Aldoma and many of the Aleutian Islands especially Unalaska He also described the Pribilof Islands St Matthew Island St Lawrence Island Gvozdev and King Island He was in charge of hydrographic research in Russia from 1808 and led the compilation of the Atlas of the Northern Part of the Pacific Ocean in 1826 113 Named in honor Sarychev Peak Cape Sarichef Airport Sarichef Island nbsp Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension Unalaska nbsp Svetlana Savitskaya born 1948 female cosmonaut aviator twice a Hero of the Soviet Union politician Savitskaya with her 1982 crew fellows Popov and Serebrov Savitskaya was the second woman in space after Valentina Tereshkova and the first woman to conduct an extra vehicular activity She achieved this during the two successful expeditions to the Salyut 7 space station in 1982 and 1984 making her spacewalk on July 25 1984 114 nbsp Model of Salyut 7 with two Soyuz spacecraft VDNKh Moscow nbsp Johan Eberhard von Schantz 1802 1880 admiral ship designer explorer Finnish born admiral of the Russian Imperial Navy who circumnavigated the globe as the commander of the Imperial Navy ship America in 1834 1836 He rediscovered the Wotho Atoll originally discovered by the Spanish expedition of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos in the 1540s 115 Named in honor Schantz Islands now Wotho Atoll nbsp Wotho Atoll nbsp Otto Schmidt 1891 1956 mathematician astronomer geophysicist statesman Hero of the Soviet Union In 1932 39 Schmidt was the head of the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route In 1929 30 travelling on the icebreaker Sedov he established the first research station on Franz Josef Land explored the northwestern Kara Sea and western Severnaya Zemlya discovering a few islands In 1932 his expedition on the icebreaker Sibiryakov with Captain Vladimir Voronin made the first non stop voyage through the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific without wintering In 1933 34 Schmidt and Voronin led the voyage on the steamship Cheliuskin that resulted in the loss of the ship and evacuation of the crew In 1937 Schmidt supervised an airborne expedition that established the first ever drift ice station North Pole 1 116 Named in honor 2108 Otto Schmidt minor planet nbsp Northern Sea Route nbsp Leopold von Schrenck 1826 1894 zoologist geographer ethnographer Schrenck explored the fauna of the Russian Far East in Amurland between 1853 and 1854 and on Sakhalin in 1854 55 discovering a number of animals Later he turned to the study of the native peoples of Russia He coined the term Paleo Asiatic peoples and was a director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St Petersburg 80 Named in honor Amur sturgeon Manchurian black water snake nbsp Manchurian black water snake nbsp Georgy Sedov 1877 1914 Russian Navy captain In 1909 Sedov led the expedition that described the mouth of the Kolyma River In 1910 he explored the Krestovaya Bay on Novaya Zemlya He suggested an expedition to the North Pole and found private sponsors In 1912 Sedov s ship Svyatoy Muchenik Foka Saint Martyr Foka sailed north but had to stay for the winter near Novaya Zemlya because of impassable ice Sv Foka reached Franz Josef Land then but had to stop for another winter due to lack of coal In early 1914 Sedov sick with scurvy set off with two companions for the North Pole with the draft dogs Sedov died near Rudolf Island and was buried there at Cape Auk On the way back at Franz Josef Land the Sv Foka rescued the two survivors of the Brusilov expedition Valerian Albanov and Alexander Konrad 3 Named in honor Icebreaker Sedov Sedov sailing ship He and his last expedition are among the prototypes for the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin where the fictional captain Tatarinov has Sedov like appearance and shares his passion for Arctic exploration nbsp Sedov amid the crew of St Foka span data srcset, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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