VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Kamchatka was discovered by Russian Cossacks more than 300 year ago. The earliest record of the peninsula dates back to the mid-17th century when an expedition led by Semyon Dezhnyov landed there. The sailors on the expedition were the first Europeans to spend the winter on the peninsula. Almost 50 years after that, in 1697, steward Vladimir Atlasov, led a party of 120 men to "look for new lands" and laid the foundations of the settlement of Upper Kamchatsk. Atlasov accomplished a historic mission by integrating Kamchatka into Russia.
By the early 18th century, Russia had developed into a full-fledged maritime power. However, the Pacific and Arctic oceans were still insufficiently explored and inaccurately shown on maps. In order to explore the Pacific Ocean, obtain more accurate information about Russia's north-eastern frontiers, discover new lands and set trade with Eastern countries on track, Peter the Great issued a decree in December 1724 to organise the First Kamchatka Expedition. Vitus Bering was appointed to lead the expedition. After enduring many hardships on their way from St Petersburg to Kamchatka, the expedition only managed to reach as far as the Lower Kamchatka Ostrog by 1728.
The Second Kamchatka Expedition occupies an absolutely remarkable place in the history of geographical explorations. It outlined Russia's state borders in the east and founded the city of Petropavlovsk in October 1740, explored and described the Kuril Islands, landed on America's north-eastern coast and discovered the Aleutian Islands and the Commander Islands. More than 200 islands, peninsulas, bays, straits, capes and other geographical sites are named after the leaders of the first Kamchatka expeditions, for example, the Bering Sea, the Bering Strait, Bering Island, the Commander Islands, etc.
Later, future Academician Stepan Krasheninnikov, a member of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, explored the peninsula for four years, carrying out a number of expeditions along Kamchatka's eastern and western coasts that took many months. He summarised the results of his research in his book An Account of the Land of Kamchatka, which is still regarded as one of a classic of world literature on geography.
In the 19th century, many navigators, travellers and explorers, who carried on Krasheninnikov's work, visited Kamchatka, including navigators Ivan Krusenstern, Vasily Golovnin, Fyodor Litke, Otto von Kotzebue; geologists and geographers Georg Erman, Carl von Ditmar, Karl Bogdanovich; historians Alexander Sgibnev, Vasily Margaritov, Vladimir Komarov and many others.
In the first half of the 18th century, administrative and territorial reforms were launched in what is now the Kamchatka Territory. From 1708 to 1710, Peter the Great reformed Russia's territorial divisions. He issued a decree on December 18, 1708, to create eight provinces (gubernias), with each province consisting of districts (uyezds) that had already existed by that time. The entire north-east of the Asian part of Russia, including Kamchatka, was integrated into the Yakutsk uyezd, which, in its turn, was part of the Siberian gubernia. Kamchatka changed its administrative status several times. And in 2007, the Koryak Autonomous Area and the Kamchatka Region were consolidated to form the Kamchatka Territory.
