Creat Northern Expedition: In the Wake of the Academic Detachment

А.Ch. ELERT

The Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition of 1733—1743 led by Captain-Commodore Vitus Bering was one of the most grandiose enterprises in the history of world exploration: it encompassed the whole of Siberia from the Urals to the Pacific coast, the Arctic coast from the North Dvina estuary to Chukotka, coastline areas of the Arctic Ocean and northern part of the Pacific Ocean.

and to its separate detachments set the following tasks: a sea voyage to the shore of America; search for a sea route to the Kuril and Japanese Islands; exploration and cartographic survey of coastline regions of North and North-East Siberia; finding out whether there was a gulf between the Asian and American continents; and study of the nature, history and peoples inhabiting Siberia. Coping with these tasks was of both academic and political importance; therefore, information about the Expedition, its progress and results was secret.

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