Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern (November 19, 1770 – August 24, 1846; ,
Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern), was an admiral and
explorer, who led the
first Russian circumnavigationThe first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth took place from August 1803 to August 1806. It was sponsored by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev and was headed by Adam Johann von Krusenstern.-Events:...
of the
globeEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
.
Life
Krusenstern was born in
HagudiHagudi is a small borough in Rapla Parish, Rapla County, Estonia.Adam Johann von Krusenstern was born in Hagudi manor in 1770.-External links:* * *...
,
HarrienHarju County , or Harjumaa , nowadays one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, and borders Lääne-Viru County to the east, Järva County to the south-east, Rapla County to the south, and Lääne County to the south-west.528,468 people...
,
EstoniaThe Governorate of Estonia or Estland, also known as the Government of Estonia or Province of Estonia, was a governorate of the Russian Empire in what is now northern Estonia.-Historical overview:...
, into a Baltic German family descended from the
SwedishThe Swedish Empire refers to the Kingdom of Sweden between 1561 and 1721 . During this time, Sweden was one of the great European powers. In Swedish, the period is called Stormaktstiden, literally meaning "the Great Power Era"...
aristocratic family von Krusenstjerna, which remained in the province after the country was ceded to Russia. In 1787, he joined the Russian Imperial Navy, and served in the war against Sweden. Subsequently, he served in the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1793-99, visiting America, India and China.
After publishing a paper pointing out the advantages of direct communication between Russia and
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
by
Cape HornCape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
and the
Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
, he was appointed by Tsar
Alexander IAlexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
to make a voyage to the east coast of Asia to endeavour to carry out the project. Under the patronage of Tsar
Alexander IAlexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
and Baron
Nikolai RezanovNikolay Petrovich Rezanov was a Russian nobleman and statesman who promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California. One of the ten barons of Russia, he was the first Russian ambassador to Japan , and participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe ,...
, Krusenstern led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world. The purpose of the two-ship expedition was to establish trade with China and
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, facilitate trade in
South AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and examine
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for a possible colony.
The two ships,
Nadezhda (Hope, formerly
HMS LeanderSix ships of the Royal Navy, have been named HMS Leander after the Greek hero Leander: was a 52-gun fourth rate launched in 1780. She was captured by the French in 1798, but was recaptured by the Russians in 1799 and returned. She was renamed HMS Hygeia in 1813 while being used as a medical depot,...
) under the command of Krusenstern, and
Neva (formerly
HMS ThamesEight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Thames , after the River Thames:* HMS Thames was a 32 gun fifth rate launched in 1758 and broken up in 1803...
) under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Yuri F. Lisianski, set sail from Kronstadt in August 1803, rounded
Cape HornCape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
, reached the northern Pacific, and returned via the
Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
. Krusenstern arrived back at Kronstadt in August 1806. Both seafarers made maps and detailed recordings of their voyages.
Upon his return, Krusenstern wrote a detailed report,
Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 und 1806 auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserliche Majestät Alexanders des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadeschda und Newa (Journey around the World in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 at the Command of his Imperial Majesty Alexander I in the Ships Nadezhda and Neva) published in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in 1810. It was published in 1811-1812 in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
; this was followed by an English translation, published in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1813 and subsequently by French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Italian. His scientific work, which includes an atlas of the Pacific, was published in 1827 in
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
and won him an honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1816, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
.
As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did much useful work. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine department, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence of the iron in vessels on the compass was adopted in the navy. Krusenstern became an admiral in 1841 and he was awarded the
Pour le MériteThe Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....
(civil class) in 1842. He died in 1846 in Kiltsi manor, an Estonian manor he had purchased in 1816, and was buried in the Tallinn Cathedral.
Legacy
The Russian training
tall shipA tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....
KruzenshternThe Kruzenshtern or Krusenstern is a four masted barque and tall ship that was built in 1926 at Geestemünde in Bremerhaven, Germany as the Padua . She was surrendered to the USSR in 1946 as war reparation and renamed after the early 19th century Baltic German explorer in Russian service, Adam...
is named after him. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Krusenstern's circumnavigation, the ship retraced his route around the globe in 2005-2006.
Another ship named after him is Russian
icebreakerAn icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...
Ivan Kruzenshtern.
The crater
KrusensternKrusenstern is a lunar crater that lies amidst the battered terrain in the southern part of the Moon's near side. Nearly attached to the east-southeast rim is the crater Apianus. Less than one crater diameter to the southwest is the prominent Werner. Krusenstern is intruding into a large circular...
on the
MoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
is named after him. There is
Krusenstern IslandKrusenstern Island is a toponym honoring the Baltic German explorer Adam Johann von Krusenstern . It was and sometimes still is used for a number of places in the Pacific Ocean:* Ailuk in the Marshall Islands...
in the
Bering StraitThe Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
, as well as a small group of islands in the
Kara SeaThe Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....
, southwest of the
Nordenskiöld ArchipelagoThe Nordenskiöld Archipelago or Nordenskjold Archipelago is a very large and complex cluster of islands in the eastern region of the Kara Sea. Its eastern limit lies west of the Taymyr Peninsula....
, called Krusenstern Islands.
In Russia (as well as in other
RussophoneA Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...
places), a fictional steamship
Admiral Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern from the popular
Prostokvashino animated film series is well-known, often as part of a catchphrase "Admiral I.F.Kruzenshtern, a man and a steamship", "pirated" from the title of a requiem poem by
Vladimir MayakovskyVladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
,
To Comrade Nette, a Man and a Steamship. As a third-level linguistic derivation, there is a Russophone
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
klezmerKlezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
-rock band,
Kruzenshtern & ParohodKruzenshtern & Parohod is a Russophone Israel klezmer-rock band from Tel Aviv, created in 2002. Its style is variously branded as "experimental jazz", "klezmercore" , "ethno jazz", "avant-garde".The core team is :...
("Krusenstern and Steamship").
See also
- Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....
- Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral...
- Empire of Japan–Russian Empire relations
- European and American voyages of scientific exploration
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment...
External links