Grigory Shelikhov

Grigori Ivanovich Shelikof, also Shelekhov (Russian Григорий Иванович Шелихов, scientific transliteration Grigorii Ivanovich Šelichov, also Шелехов / Shelekhov; * 1747 in Rylsk in today's Kursk Oblast, .. † 20 Julijul / July 31 1795greg ), was a Russian geographer, navigator and merchant whose name is closely linked with Russian colonization of Alaska.

Life

Shelikof organized from 1775 trading voyages to the Kuriles and the Aleutian Islands. 1783-86 he headed the Russian America expedition. Mid- August 1783 broke Shelikof with three ships and 192 people on to Alaska. After one month of crossing, where he lost a ship, he reached the island of Unalaska. Russian fur hunters, who were here on the prowl, advised him against it, to settle here, as there had been violent conflicts recently. Shelikof yet established its first settlement on the island of Kodiak.

Shelikof presents his work on Kodiak as "friendly " and civilizing positive dar. "Not by fear and coercion, but by kindness and for their own benefit ," he wanted to make supposed to Russian subjects. But there were battles and massacres of the island population, as the Kodiak refused to "voluntarily" hostage to the Russians to deliver. Ultimately, Kodiak became an important base for the colonization of the Aleutian Islands and the northeastern coast of America by Russia.

Shelikof was also a founder of the Russian - American Company, which was officially registered but only after his death in 1799.

Schelikow, who died in 1795 at the age of only 48 years, was buried in Irkutsk. The marble tomb of his verses by the Russian poet Gavriil Derzhavin were carved: "Russia's Columbus is buried here, went through the sea, was unknown lands ... "

After Schelikow a bay in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, a strait between Kodiak Island and the mainland of Alaska and the City of Shelekhov is named in the Russian Irkutsk Oblast.