Ivan Moskvitin

Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin (Russian: Иван Юрьевич Москвитин) was a Russian explorer, presumably a native of Moscow, who led a Russian reconnaissance party to the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first person on record to sail in the Sea of Okhotsk.

First attested in 1626 as residing among the Cossacks in Tomsk, Moskvitin accompanied their ataman Dmitry Kopylov to Yakutsk. On 28 July 1638 Kopylov founded a small fort on the Aldan River and dispatched Moskvitin in command of 20 Tomsk Cossacks and 29 Krasnoyarsk Cossacks to look for silver ore further to the east.

Moskvitin's expedition sailed downstream before reaching the Pacific in mid-September. Moskvitin's Cossacks built a winter camp on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk and learned from the indigenous population about the proximity of the Amur River. In April 1640 they apparently sailed to the mouth of the Amur River and spotted the Shantar Islands on their way back.

In 1645, Moskvitin reported his discoveries to Prince Shcherbatov, the Muscovite voivode in Tomsk. A year later he brought news about the eastern sea to Moscow. Based on his account, the first Russian map of the Far East was drawn in March 1642.

References

This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article of the Russian Wikipedia on 30 July 2007.