Russian explorers and their discoveries. Famous travelers and their great discoveries

Apr 26, 2016

The age of great geographical discoveries has long ended, the world map is fully formed and full of tourist routes. Traditional holiday lovers enjoy. But there are those who do not stop at the known and constantly strive for new heights. the site tells about contemporaries for whom travel is not a vacation, but the meaning of life associated with the constant overcoming of the elements.

Russia owns a lot of both domestic and world geo- and ethnographic discoveries and research. At one time, the country was glorified by many travelers who explored unknown lands. Centuries later, their exploits inspire our compatriots to new achievements - to repeat the historical route or create their own special one.

The heroes of our time set themselves a very realistic goal and approach it from a young age, or after a significant career path. Passion for travel generates project after project, inspiring people around the world for personal travel, and our heroes wholeheartedly share their successes by publishing books, participating in exhibitions of paintings and photos, uniting like-minded people.

Fedor Konyukhov was born and raised on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov. He began to conquer the sea with his father on a fishing boat, and then on his own. Sport, military service and study hardened character and brought up endurance, resourcefulness and courage, which will later manifest itself in expeditions to conquer the highest mountain peaks, water, air and land travel.

In the biography of Fyodor Konyukhov there is a significant moment when he receives from his grandfather the pectoral cross of the great conqueror of the north Georgy Sedov. The Russian explorer left him before his last trip to the North Pole in the hope that Mikhail Konyukhov would give the cross to the child who could reach the Arctic.

Fedor was able to achieve his cherished goal three times: following the route of the legendary Vitus Bering and recreating the conditions of that period; as part of the Soviet-Canadian transantarctic ski expedition, as well as having made a solo 72-day trek to the North Pole in 1990.

Subsequently, Fedor conquered the South Pole in 59 days, participated in land and bicycle expeditions, carried out solo sea voyages, 6 round-the-world voyages; climbed 7 peaks of the world, and this year he plans to return back, bypassing 33-35 thousand km through the Tasman Sea, the Pacific Ocean, Chile, Argentina, the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian Ocean.

Wherever the Russian traveler is, his trips are connected with research activities and the development of Russian science, as well as creativity. He is the author of 17 books and 3000 paintings.

Successful Russian businessman Sergey Dolya called the fear of air travel the main reason for traveling.

Overcoming oneself led to a passion, which Sergey talks about in the Virtual Travelers Page blog, trying to introduce the uniqueness of each place visited, whether it be a village in the Russian outback, or a fishing village in Tanzania.

Photo reports are collected by exhibition halls, publications are formed into two full-fledged books, and Dolya sets herself new tasks: she fights against garbage dumps for the sake of the country, is rapidly losing weight for the sake of health, and visits the mystical Dyatlov Pass. Exprussia is considered the most patriotic project: in 2014 Share with like-minded people.

The founder of the Academy of Free Travel society, Anton Krotov, is the author of about 40 books about visiting the cities of Russia, Europe, Africa, Asia, America, as well as the features of a safe stay and hitchhiking, finding fellow travelers and sights of the usual way of life in these places.

The most important project of the traveler is the "House for All" that has existed since 2006 and has become a base for explorers in various countries.

The founder of the Ethical Ecological Movement (EDEM), Vladislav Ketov from St. Petersburg, considers the preservation of life on earth and environmental protection to be global values. For this, he received from the United Nations Organization for the Environment (UNEP) in 1995 the official status of a representative.

The bicycle, as an ecological mode of transport, and the desire to go through a unique route helped to put into practice the very first ever trip around the earth (along the coastline of the continents) from May 14, 1991 to June 3, 2012.

Having traveled 167,000 km and visited 86 countries, without passing through the war zones (Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Western Sahara, Angola, Mozambique, Northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Cambodia, Colombia), mainly in difficult places, Ketov communicated with the local population, gave press conferences and drew graphic portraits for memory.

Vladimir Nesin

Vladimir has always been fond of a healthy lifestyle, sports (sambo) and hiking, so after retiring he took up hiking around the world barefoot. Currently, I have traveled more than 100 countries using only GPS gadgets and devices without a map. In 1999, he received the passport "Citizen of the World" in Australia and strives to pass on the experience to the younger generation.

Anatoly Khizhnyak

Sports hobbies prompted Anatoly Khizhnyak to travel alone. At the age of fourteen, he had already crossed the Kola Peninsula, and in 1991 he went to South America, where he walked 500 km through the Amazon jungle. Considered the best connoisseur of Peru in Russia.

He is called the Russian Indiana Jones, because he began his journey through South America without any understanding of the language, practically without a map, during a real war between the local population and almost died after staying in an Inca cave.

Leonid Kruglov

The traveler and documentarian Leonid Kruglov, based on the latest facts and research, repeated the path of the first Russian round-the-world trip of I.F. Krusenstern to create a complete reconstruction and a documentary. For 13 months, three oceans were crossed again on the legendary barque "Sedov".

Text: Olga Mikhailova

Everything that we now know was once discovered by people - pioneers. Some crossed the ocean for the first time and found a new land, someone became the discoverer of space, someone was the first to dive in a bathyscaphe into the world's deepest cavity. Thanks to the ten pioneers below, today we know the world for what it really is.

• Leif Eriksson/Leifur Eiriksson is the first European of Icelandic origin who, according to some scholars, was the first to visit the continent of North America. Around the 11th century, this Scandinavian sailor lost his course and landed on some coast, which he later called "Vinland". Documentary, of course, there is no evidence of exactly in which part of North America he moored. Some archaeologists claim that they managed to discover Viking settlements in Newfoundland, Canada.

• Sacajawea, or Sacagawea / Sakakawea, Sacajawea is a girl of Indian origin, on whom Maryweather Lewis and his partner William Clark completely relied on during their expedition, the path of which ran through the entire American continent. The girl walked with these researchers more than 6473 kilometers. On top of that, the girl had a newborn baby in her arms. During this journey in 1805, Sacagawea found her lost brother. The girl is mentioned in the movie "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum 2".

• Christopher Columbus / Christopher Columbus - a navigator of Spanish origin who discovered America, but due to the fact that he and his expedition were looking for a sea route to India, Christopher believed that the lands he had discovered were Indian. In 1492, his expedition discovered the Bahamas, Cuba and a number of other islands in the Caribbean. Christopher set sail for the first time at the age of 13.

• Amerigo Vespucci is the man after whom the continent America was named. Although, in fact, Columbus made this discovery, it was American Vespucci who documented the “find”. In 1502, he explored the shores of South America, and it was then that the well-deserved fame and honor came to him.

• James Cook / James Cook - a captain who managed to sail much further into southern waters than any of his contemporaries. Cook owns a proven fact about the falsity of the northern route through the Arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is known that Captain James Cook made 2 round-the-world expeditions, mapped the islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as Australia, for which he was later eaten by the natives. That's how gratitude is.

• William Beebe is a 20th century naturalist explorer. In 1934, he descended 922 meters on a bathysphere and told people that "the world under water is no less strange than on another planet." Although how does he know how to live on other planets?

• Chuck Yeager is a general in the US Air Force. In 1947, the first one broke the sound barrier. In 1952, Chuck flew at twice the speed of sound. Chuck Yeager, in addition to setting speed records, was a trainer for pilots of such space programs as Apollo, Gemini and Mercury.

• Louise Arne Boyd / Louise Boyd is also known to the world under the nickname "Ice Woman". She got this nickname thanks to her explorations of Greenland. In 1955, she flew over the North Pole and was the first woman to do so in an airplane. She also has the discovery of an underwater mountain range in the Arctic Ocean.

• Yuri Gagarin / Yuri Gagarin - April 12, 1961, the first of all people living on our planet, was in space. His first flight lasted as much as 108 minutes. It was a real achievement in astronautics.

• Anousheh Ansari is the first female space tourist. She made her flight in September 2006. To her achievements, one can add the fact that she was the first of all those who have been in orbit to blog on the Internet from space.

If you think that with the departure of the Age of Discovery, outstanding travelers have sunk into oblivion, then you are mistaken! Our contemporaries also made the most amazing journeys. Among them are scientists who went in search of confirmation of their theories, explorers of the deep sea, and just adventurers who ventured to travel around the world alone or with like-minded people. Many documentaries have been created about their travels, and thanks to them, we can see the whole world through their eyes, real, alive, full of dangers and adventures.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Jacques-Yves Cousteau captivated millions of people, showing them on movie screens how beautiful the underwater world is, giving them the opportunity to see what was still inaccessible to man.

Thor Heyerdahl

Together with his team, in 101 days, having sailed 4300 miles, he reached the atoll of Raroia. It was one of his most famous voyages, the Kon-Tiki Expedition, on a makeshift raft. The film he shot during his trip won an Oscar in 1951.

And in 1969, he went on a new dangerous expedition on a papyrus boat to prove, to prove the possibility of crossing the Atlantic Ocean by African peoples. However, the first journey of Thor Heyerdahl on the boat "Ra" ended in failure, the boat sank, not reaching just 600 miles from the island of Barbados.

A year later, the stubborn Norwegian repeated his journey and sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 57 days. By the way, our compatriot Yuri Senkevich was the doctor on this expedition. Heyerdahl later traveled to the Maldives, Peru and Tenerife.

Yuri Senkevich

as a doctor-researcher Senkevich was trained to participate in a space flight,
participated in the 12th Antarctic expedition to the station "Vostok" in order to study human behavior in extreme conditions,
traveled on the papyrus boat "Ra", then on the "Ra-2" and in the Indian Ocean on the "Tigris".

Millions of Soviet TV viewers were able to see the world, as they joked then "through the eyes of Senkevich." By the way, the program "Cinema Travel Club" was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Nikolai Drozdov

An interesting fact about Nikolai Nikolayevich himself is that his great-great-great-grandfather was Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow, and his maternal great-great-grandfather Ivan Romanovich von Dreiling was an orderly of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov.

Nikolai Drozdov traveled the whole world, all zoological and national parks, studying the habitats and habits of animals in natural conditions, climbed Elbrus, participated from a long expedition on the Callisto research vessel and in the first Soviet expedition to Everest, twice went to the North Pole, passed along the Northern Sea Route on the icebreaker "Yamal", sailed along the coasts of Alaska and Canada on the "Discoverer".

Fedor Konyukhov

But the life of our famous compatriot is not filled with travel alone - Fedor Konyukhov became the youngest member of the Union of Artists of the USSR and the author of twelve travel books. There were also new plans ahead: flying around the world in a balloon and circumnavigating the world in 80 days for the Jules Verne Cup, as well as diving into the Mariana Trench. However, having accepted the priesthood in 2010, Fedor Konyukhov decided not to travel anymore, but ... the ways of the Lord are inscrutable and the famous traveler is again at the helm. In the spring of this year, he "beat" the Russian record and stayed in the air on a balloon for 19 hours and 10 minutes.

Bear Grylls

His list of travels is respected: he sailed around the British Isles in thirty days, crossed the North Atlantic in an inflatable boat, flew a steam-powered plane over Angel Falls, paraglided over the Himalayas, led an expedition to one of the furthest unclimbed peaks in Antarctica and arranged ... a gala dinner in a balloon at an altitude of more than seven thousand meters! Most of Grylls' expeditions are for charitable purposes.

Abby Sunderland

The journey turned out to be more dangerous than expected: between Australia and Africa, 2 thousand miles from the coast, the yacht's hull was damaged and the engine failed. After this message, communication was interrupted, the search for Abby's yacht was unsuccessful, and she was declared missing. A whole month later, Australian rescuers in the zone of the most severe storm found the lost yacht and Abby alive and unharmed. Who then will say that a woman has no place on a ship?

Jason Lewis

The expedition started from Greenwich in 1994, in February 1995 the travelers reached the shores of the United States and after 111 days of sailing decided to cross America separately on roller skates. Lewis had to interrupt the journey for 9 months after an accident. After recovering, Lewis goes to Hawaii, from where he sails on a pedal boat to Australia, where he had to spend some time earning money for his further trip ... selling T-shirts.

In 2005, he reaches Singapore, then crosses China and India on a bicycle. By March 2007, he reached Africa and also crossed all of Europe on a bicycle: Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany and Belgium. Having crossed the English Channel, in October 2007, Jason Lewis returned to London.

Pyotr Beketov (1600 - after 1661) - Russian explorer of the 17th century, explorer of Siberia.

One of the most exemplary "Russian conquistadors", who honestly served his cause and did not get involved in any adventures, Beketov was the founder of several Russian cities.

Biography

Almost nothing is known about the early years of the life of many prominent personalities of the 17th century; Pyotr Beketov is no exception in this sense. Information about him appears only in the 1620s, when he got a job as an archer in the civil service.

Some time later, in 1627, Beketov sent a petition to the tsar, in which he asked to be given the position of centurion in order to have at least some decent salary.

Vasily Poyarkov is one of the discoverers of Siberia. He made a huge contribution to the development of these lands.

In the 17th century, the Russian Empire dreamed of annexing Siberia to its lands. It was a huge and rich territory, where many peoples lived.

Special expeditions were assembled to study and annex the Siberian lands. One of them was headed by Vasily Poyarkov.

Years of life

Accurate information about the years of life of Vasily Poyarkov has not been preserved. Only documentary sources have survived to this day, in which there is information about his activities. They date back to 1610-1667.

Vasily Ermolaevich Bugor was an Arctic navigator and one of the pioneers of Siberia.

He explored unexplored territories, helping the Yenisei governor A. Oshanin.

Years of life

The exact years of Bugor's life are unknown, but historians believe that he was born around 1600 and died in 1668.

Biography of Bugor

Bugor did not have a noble origin. He was a Cossack foreman, participated in the construction of prisons and the study of Siberia.

Mikhail Stadukhin is a explorer and polar navigator of the 17th century who explored North-Eastern Siberia, a man who was one of the first to visit the north of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma, Gizhiga, Penzhina and Anadyr rivers.

The geographical discoveries of M. Stadukhin became a huge contribution to the discovery and study of the Russian coast of the Arctic and the Pacific Ocean.

Years of life of Mikhail Stadukhin

Date of birth unknown, died 1666.

Biography of Mikhail Stadukhin

It is not known for certain what year Mikhail Stadukhin was born. Presumably, the Russian explorer was born into a family of Pomors in one of the villages on the Pinega River.

The development of Siberia in the 17th century is often presented as the most important event in the history of Russia in modern times.

It is referred to as the Russian analogue of the Great geographical discoveries of the European world and the conquest of the New World.

In part, this is a fair comparison. In the context of the emergence of the all-Russian market and the rise of the economy, the development of new trade routes is an important stage in the development of the country.

S. I. Chelyuskin is a sea traveler, researcher, member of a long-term expedition, who made serious geographical discoveries that were ignored during his lifetime.

Origin

Chelyuskin's ancestors (according to the documents of the 17th century - Chelyustkins) were at first quite successful people, held important positions, were well promoted, were rich

But under Peter the Great, Semyon Ivanovich's father fell into disgrace (he was among the rebellious Moscow archers) and until the end of his life his family vegetated in the wilderness, barely making ends meet.

Exact information about where and when S. I. Chelyuskin was born has not yet been found, approximately 1700.

Education

In 1714, the noble undergrowth Semyon Chelyuskin was admitted to a Moscow school, where boys were taught exact and navigational sciences. Here, the future researcher comprehended the wisdom of mathematics, geography, astronomy.

He was a smart and diligent student. In 1721, after graduating, he was recommended for a certificate for navigational activity.

Yu. F. Lisyansky is an outstanding Russian navigator, who together with made a trip around the world.

Youth

Y. Lisyansky was born in the Little Russian city of Nizhyn in a simple family of a priest in 1773. Since childhood, he dreamed of the sea, so he entered the Naval Cadet Corps and successfully graduated from it. By appointment, he served on the frigate "Podrazhislav" as part of the squadron of Admiral S.K. Greig. He was a participant in Gogland and several other naval battles in the war with the Swedes, served as a volunteer in the British fleet, participated in battles with the French on the shores of North America, sailed to the Antilles and India.

circumnavigation

Returning to his homeland, Lisyansky was appointed commander of the Neva sloop. This ship was sent on a round-the-world expedition under the leadership of I.F. Kruzenshtern, who commanded the second Nadezhda sloop. These two Russian ships left their homeland in the middle of summer 1803 from Kronstadt. In November 1804, Yu. F. Lisyansky and I. F. Kruzenshtern were the first in the history of the Russian fleet to cross the equator line. In February of the same year, both ships bypassed Cape Horn, entering the Pacific waters. Here the ships separated.

Khariton Prokofievich Laptev is one of the largest Russian polar explorers. The future conqueror of the Arctic was born in the village of Pekarevo, located not far from, in 1700. In 1715, young Laptev entered the St. Petersburg Naval Academy, which he successfully completed three years later and entered the fleet as a midshipman. In 1726 he was promoted to midshipman. In 1734, he took part in the war against Stanislav Leshchinsky, who had been proclaimed the Polish king a year earlier.

The Mitava frigate, on which Laptev served, is captured by the French in the course of hostilities, who resorted to deception for this. Upon returning to his homeland, Laptev, along with the rest of the Mitava officers, is sentenced to death for surrendering the ship without a fight, but the crew is found not guilty in time. After this misunderstanding, Khariton Prokofievich returns to the service. In 1737 he was promoted to lieutenant, and was appointed commander of a detachment in the Great Northern Expedition. The purpose of the campaign was to explore the Arctic coast between the Lena and the Yenisei, another great Russian polar explorer, Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev, a cousin of Khariton Prokofievich, also took part in it. In the early spring of 1738, members of the expedition arrived in Yakutsk.

Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev is a famous Russian traveler who, together with his cousin Khariton Prokofievich Laptev, became famous for his polar expeditions.

Born in 1701 into a family of small estate nobles in the village of Bolotovo. In 1715, together with his cousin, he began studying at the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg. Upon graduation in 1718, Laptev was promoted to midshipman on one of the ships of the Kronstadt squadron.

In 1721 he received the rank of midshipman, and in 1724 he became a non-commissioned lieutenant. From 1727 to 1729 he commanded the frigate Saint James.

The biography of the great polar explorer Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov is unusual and tragic. He was born in 1877 in a small Azov village, today this village bears the name of the great polar explorer. George learned hard work from an early age. His father, a simple Azov fisherman, went missing for several years. The boy had to work to feed his mother and eight brothers and sisters. He did not have time to learn to read and write, and until the age of 14 he could neither read nor write.

After his father returned home, in two years he graduated from the parochial school and ran away from home. What the boy did in that life and how he made his way to the desired goal is little known. But at the age of 21, Georgy Sedov received a diploma as a long-distance navigator. At the age of 24, after successfully passing the exam, he receives the rank of lieutenant.
His first hydrographic expedition was to the Arctic Ocean. The northern ice has long attracted the young sailor. He dreamed of conquering the North Pole and proving that a Russian person could do it.

It began, and the expedition to the North Pole had to be postponed. But the idea does not leave him. He writes articles in which he proves that the development of the Northern Sea Route is necessary. He worked on the Caspian Sea, in the Kolyma, explored the Krestovaya Bay in Novaya Zemlya.

Russian navigators, along with European ones, are the most famous pioneers who discovered new continents, sections of mountain ranges and vast water areas.

They became the discoverers of significant geographical objects, took the first steps in the development of hard-to-reach territories, and traveled around the world. So who are they - the conquerors of the seas, and what exactly did the world learn about thanks to them?

Afanasy Nikitin - the very first Russian traveler

Afanasy Nikitin is rightfully considered the first Russian traveler who managed to visit India and Persia (1468-1474, according to other sources 1466-1472). On the way back he visited Somalia, Turkey, Muscat. On the basis of his travels, Athanasius compiled the notes "Journey Beyond the Three Seas", which became popular and unique historical and literary aids. These records became the first book in the history of Russia, made not in the format of a story about a pilgrimage, but describing the political, economic and cultural features of the territories.

Afanasy Nikitin

He was able to prove that even as a member of a poor peasant family, one can become a famous explorer and traveler. Streets, embankments in several Russian cities, a motor ship, a passenger train and an aircraft are named after him.

Semyon Dezhnev, who founded the Anadyr prison

Cossack chieftain Semyon Dezhnev was an Arctic navigator who became the discoverer of a number of geographical objects. Wherever Semyon Ivanovich served, everywhere he sought to study the new and previously unknown. He was even able to cross the East Siberian Sea on a makeshift koch, going from Indigirka to Alazeya.

In 1643, as part of a detachment of explorers, Semyon Ivanovich discovered Kolyma, where he founded the city of Srednekolymsk with his associates. A year later, Semyon Dezhnev continued his expedition, walked along the Bering Strait (which did not yet have this name) and discovered the easternmost point of the mainland, later named Cape Dezhnev. An island, a peninsula, a bay, a village also bear his name.

Semyon Dezhnev

In 1648, Dezhnev set off again. His ship was wrecked in the waters located in the southern part of the Anadyr River. Having reached on skis, the sailors went up the river and stayed there for the winter. Subsequently, this place appeared on geographical maps and was called the Anadyr prison. As a result of the expedition, the traveler was able to make detailed descriptions, draw up a map of those places.

Vitus Jonassen Bering, who organized expeditions to Kamchatka

Two Kamchatka expeditions inscribed the names of Vitus Bering and his associate Alexei Chirikov in the history of marine discoveries. During the first trip, the navigators conducted research and were able to supplement the geographical atlas with objects located in Northeast Asia and on the Pacific coast of Kamchatka.

The discovery of the Kamchatka and Ozerny peninsulas, the bays of Kamchatsky, the Cross, the Karaginsky, the Bay of Conduct, the island of St. Lawrence are also the merit of Bering and Chirikov. At the same time, another strait was found and described, which later became known as the Bering Strait.

Vitus Bering

The second expedition was undertaken by them in order to find a way to North America and explore the Pacific Islands. On this journey, Bering and Chirikov founded the Peter and Paul prison. It got its name from the combined names of their ships ("Saint Peter" and "Saint Paul") and subsequently became the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

On the approach to the shores of America, the ships of like-minded people lost sight of each other, heavy fog affected. "Saint Peter", driven by Bering, sailed to the west coast of America, but got into a severe storm on the way back - the ship was thrown onto an island. The last minutes of Vitus Bering's life passed on it, and the island subsequently began to bear his name. Chirikov also reached America on his ship, but successfully completed his voyage, finding several islands of the Aleutian ridge on the way back.

Khariton and Dmitry Laptev and their “named” sea

Cousins ​​Khariton and Dmitry Laptev were like-minded and assistants of Vitus Bering. It was he who appointed Dmitry the commander of the Irkutsk ship, and Khariton led his double boat Yakutsk. They took part in the Great Northern Expedition, the purpose of which was to study and accurately describe and map the Russian shores of the ocean, from Yugorsky Shar to Kamchatka.

Each of the brothers made a significant contribution to the development of new territories. Dmitry became the first navigator to survey the coast from the mouth of the Lena to the mouth of the Kolyma. He made detailed maps of these places, based on mathematical calculations and astronomical data.

Khariton and Dmitry Laptev

Khariton Laptev and his associates conducted research on the northernmost section of the coast of Siberia. It was he who determined the size and shape of the huge Taimyr Peninsula - he surveyed its eastern coast, and was able to identify the exact coordinates of the coastal islands. The expedition took place in difficult conditions - a large amount of ice, snowstorms, scurvy, ice captivity - Khariton Laptev's team had to endure a lot. But they continued the work they had begun. On this expedition, Laptev's assistant Chelyuskin discovered the cape, which was later named after him.

Noting the great contribution of the Laptevs to the development of new territories, members of the Russian Geographical Society decided to name one of the largest seas in the Arctic after them. Also, the strait between the mainland and Bolshoi Lyakhovsky Island is named after Dmitry, and the western coast of Taimyr Island bears the name of Khariton.

Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky - organizers of the first Russian circumnavigation

Ivan Kruzenshtern and Yuri Lisyansky are the first Russian navigators to circumnavigate the world. Their expedition lasted three years (started in 1803 and ended in 1806). They set off with their teams on two ships, which bore the names "Nadezhda" and "Neva". Travelers passed through the Atlantic Ocean, entered the waters of the Pacific Ocean. On them, sailors sailed to the Kuril Islands, Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

Ivan Kruzenshtern

This trip allowed us to collect important information. Based on the data obtained by the navigators, a detailed map of the Pacific Ocean was compiled. Another important result of the first Russian round-the-world expedition was the data obtained on the flora and fauna of the Kuriles and Kamchatka, local residents, their customs and cultural traditions.

During their journey, the sailors crossed the equator and, according to maritime traditions, could not leave this event without a well-known ritual - a sailor dressed as Neptune greeted Krusenstern and asked why his ship arrived where the Russian flag had never been. To which he received the answer that they are here solely for the glory and development of national science.

Vasily Golovnin - the first navigator who was rescued from Japanese captivity

Russian navigator Vasily Golovnin led two round-the-world expeditions. In 1806, being in the rank of lieutenant, he received a new appointment and became the commander of the sloop "Diana". Interestingly, this is the only case in the history of the Russian fleet when a lieutenant was entrusted with the management of a ship.

The leadership set the goal of the round-the-world expedition to study the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, with special attention to that part of it that is within the native country. The path of "Diana" was not easy. The sloop passed the island of Tristan da Cunha, passed the Cape of Hope and entered the port, which belonged to the British. Here the ship was detained by the authorities. The British informed Golovnin about the outbreak of war between the two countries. The Russian ship was not declared captured, but the crew was not allowed to leave the bay either. After spending more than a year in this position, in mid-May 1809, the Diana, led by Golovnin, tried to escape, which the sailors successfully succeeded in - the ship arrived in Kamchatka.

Vasily Golovin

Golovnin received his next responsible task in 1811 - he was supposed to compile descriptions of the Shantar and Kuril Islands, the shores of the Tatar Strait. During his journey, he was accused of not adhering to the principles of sakoku and was captured by the Japanese for more than 2 years. It was possible to rescue the crew from captivity only thanks to the good relations of one of the Russian naval officers and an influential Japanese merchant, who was able to convince his government of the harmless intentions of the Russians. It is worth noting that no one in history has ever returned from Japanese captivity before.

In 1817-1819, Vasily Mikhailovich made another round-the-world trip on the Kamchatka ship specially built for this.

Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev - discoverers of Antarctica

Captain of the second rank Thaddeus Bellingshausen was determined to find the truth about the existence of the sixth continent. In 1819, he went to the open sea, having carefully prepared two sloops - Mirny and Vostok. The latter was commanded by his associate Mikhail Lazarev. The first round-the-world Antarctic expedition set itself other tasks. In addition to finding irrefutable facts confirming or refuting the existence of Antarctica, the travelers were going to explore the waters of three oceans - the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian.

Thaddeus Bellingshausen

The results of this expedition exceeded all expectations. During the 751 days that it lasted, Bellingshausen and Lazarev were able to make several significant geographical discoveries. Of course, the most important of them is the existence of Antarctica, this historical event took place on January 28, 1820. Also during the trip, about two dozen islands were found and mapped, sketches were created with views of Antarctica, images of representatives of the Antarctic fauna.

Mikhail Lazarev

Interestingly, attempts to discover Antarctica were made more than once, but none of them were successful. European navigators believed that either it did not exist, or it was located in places that simply could not be reached by sea. But the Russian travelers had enough perseverance and determination, so the names of Bellingshausen and Lazarev are included in the lists of the world's greatest navigators.