The Commander Islands are an archipelago that includes 4 large and 10 small islands. They are located in the southwest of the Bering Sea. It is located in the north of the Pacific Ocean. On the map, the Bering Sea must be searched between the Far Eastern part of Russia and American Alaska. According to the administrative division, the archipelago is located in the Kamchatka Territory of the Russian Federation. Few people know after whom the Commander Islands are named.
The Russian and Aleutian cultures are closely intertwined in them. The largest formation is Bering Island, which has an elongated shape from north to south. It has an area of 1660 square kilometers. Of all four island formations, people live only on it. Remain uninhabited the rest of the Commander Islands. Russia has many territories with a low population density. These islands belong to them.
In the village of Nikolskoye on the island of Bering, there are approximately 700 inhabitants. To get to the mainland, they need to overcome several hundred kilometers. By plane, the flight is 3 hours, and there is practically no other way to move. In the winter season, the island is covered with snow and blows with strong winds. In summer, warmth pleases locals only occasionally. Mostly damp weather, heavy fogs prevail, it often rains. A sharp change in weather conditions is characteristic.
The first expedition of Vitus Bering
It all started with the Russian Tsar, who “cut through the window to Europe”. At the end of his reign, Peter I took an active part in creating events for the discovery of new northern and eastern territories, as well as laying sea routes to American and Indian lands. At the beginning of 1725, exhausted from serious illnesses, the Russian tsar developed an instruction for the preparatory work of the Siberian Expedition, the purpose of which was to reach America through the northern seas, study the shores there and put them on the map.
The leader of the expedition was Vitus Bering, whose discoveries will be surprising in the future. The choice in favor of the Dane fell, first of all, because of his repeated attempts to reach the American coast. However, he was not able to go through the strait, which was later named in his honor, as a result of which he returned to Petersburg in 1730.
The second expedition of Vitus Bering
In the capital of the Russian Empire, Bering reported on his journey to the government of Anna Ioannovna, and also showed a plan for new research, arguing the importance of exploring the northern territories and Siberian coasts so that it could be traded with Northwest America and Japan.
The Danish navigator's plan received support, as a result of which significant funding was provided for its implementation. That is why everything that Bering discovered was entrenched to Russia. The Senate, Admiralty and the Academy of Sciences put a special zeal in the implementation of the project. In 1732, a Senate decree appeared on the preparation of the Second Kamchatka expedition. She went down in history called the Great Northern Expedition. In the text of the decree, it was stated that the expedition is the farthest, with significant difficulties, first realized.
The Great Northern Expedition began in 1733 and ended in 1743. Having studied its results, you can find out in honor of whom the Commander Islands are named. The expedition included 7 detachments that were independent of each other. 10 ships accommodated 580 people. The tasks of each detachment included the inspection of a specific area.
Unit Tasks
The first detachment, led by lieutenants Stepan Muravyov and Mikhail Pavlov, took his way from Arkhangelsk. He was destined to study the coastal zone between Pechora and the Gulf of Ob.
The second detachment, which set off from Tobolsk, was commanded by Lieutenant Dmitry Ovtsyn. He needed to explore the coast east of the Gulf of Ob to the northern end of the Taimyr Peninsula or to Khatanga.
Lieutenant Vasily Pronchishchev led the third detachment, whose task was to study the coast, which is west of the mouth of the Lena. Together with the Russian officer, his wife Tatyana set sail. She became the first woman to participate in a polar expedition.
The leader of the fourth detachment was Lieutenant Peter Lasinius, after whose death Dmitry Laptev was appointed responsible. The tasks of this group of researchers included the study of the east coast, which stretched from the mouth of the Lena to the modern Bering Strait.
At the head of the fifth detachment was Bering himself. It is the merits of this man in the future that will answer the question: "In whose honor are the Commander Islands named?" The fifth detachment was to explore Kamchatka, Northwest America and the available islands in the northern Pacific Ocean.
The sixth detachment, led by Martyn Spanberg, needed to find out about the Kuril Islands and the Japanese coast. The tasks of the seventh detachment, which was called the Academic, included the study of the internal terrain of Siberia. Professor Gerhard Miller was appointed its leader. The work of researchers was held in a secret mode.
First Team Achievements
The first detachment spent 4 years moving from Arkhangelsk to the mouth of the Ob. Researchers did not achieve much success (compared to what Bering discovered) - a rather small area of the coast, Ugra Shar, as well as Matveyev, Dolgiy and Mestny islands were described. This is largely due to the appearance of scurvy, which began to mow the expedition almost from the first days of the trip.
There were problems with discipline among sailors, to achieve which cruel punishment was used with rods. There were disagreements in the leadership of the first detachment, and in winter the local population was harassed by forwarders, on the basis of which complaints began to be received. After this, a change of leadership took place, Lieutenant Stepan Malygin became the leader of the group, who subsequently completed the mission of the first detachment.
Achievements of the second squad
The expedition of Vitus Bering in the second detachment was able to achieve great success in comparison with the first group. During his mission, the detachment of officer Ovtsyna completed the tasks that concerned the study of the coast from the mouth of the Ob to the Yenisei. After arriving in St. Petersburg, the group leader was demoted three years after the start of the trip, based on a political decision. He was credited with close relations with Prince Dolgoruky, who was in exile.
After that, the leaders of the second detachment were Fedor Minin and Dmitry Sterlegov. During the first voyage, Minin managed to reach only the mouth of the Yenisei. Then in the summer months of the following year he advanced east. But after passing a series of small islands, faced with ice, Minin decided to stop his journey. By land, Sterlegov overcame the distance northeast from the mouth of the Yenisei to the cape, which would later receive his name. The Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering of the second detachment ended there.
However, there were disagreements between the new leaders of the second detachment. After returning from the expedition, a lawsuit arose, following which Minin was demoted to sailors for 2 years.
Third Achievement Achievements
The third detachment on the Yakutsk ship from the mouth of Lena kept its way west. After they reached the mouth of Olenek, the group leader Pronchishchev decided to winter. After that, the detachment continued the expedition, overcoming heavy ice. Having reached the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula from the east, the researchers, due to the inability to continue the path, returned to the mouth of Olenek.
After the death of Pronchishchev in 1736, Khariton Laptev became the head of the detachment. Freight forwarders completed the study of the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula through land.
Fourth Division Achievements
The fourth detachment suffered considerable human losses due to scurvy, as a result of which its head, Petr Lasinius, as well as 35 members of the expedition died. The new leader was Dmitry Laptev, who successfully explored the coast between Lena and Kolyma. Under his command, the fourth detachment made an effort to go around the Chukchi Peninsula and get by sea to Kamchatka, but to no avail.
Achievements of the fifth detachment. Discovery of the Commander Islands
The fifth detachment, led by Bering on the postal ships “St. Peter "and" St. Pavel ”headed for North America. On July 15, 1741, the captain “St. Paul "Alexey Chirikov. A few days later, a ship headed by Bering approached the mainland. Due to the storm "St. Peter "found himself on a desert island, on which the captain-commander died of scurvy. Burials of deceased expedition members were found in 1991.
So, in whose honor are the Commander Islands named? In honor of Commander Vitus Bering. But not only the names of the islands are associated with it. The strait and the Bering Sea on the map in the North Pacific also bear the name of the great commander.
Achievements of the sixth and seventh units
Thanks to the sixth and seventh divisions, useful information was obtained in the geographical, geological, ethnographic sphere of the north and east of Siberia, and the Kuril Islands and the north of Japan were discovered and studied.