Okhotsk Foundation

During the Peter’s age the port of Okhotsk was chosen for communication with Kamchatka. Semen Shelkovnikov, a Cossack foreman had built this port in 1647 as the strong point of the Russian dominion on the new territory.

By 1681 Okhotsk became the Far-Eastern center of Russia. People built ships, amassed cargoes there, controlled business and exploration of the whole of Priokhotye, Kamchatka, Chukotka, the Aleutan and the Kuril islands from Okhotsk. Despite the fact that Kamchatka was already discovered, it was very difficult to get there, especially in winter. During the period of 1703-1716 about two hundred men perished on the way from Anadyr to Kamchatka. So, in 1713 Peter I ordered some experienced men such as shipbuilders and navigators commanded by Officer Kuzma Sokolov to find a shorter and more convenient sea passage to Kamchatka. But there were no special sea-going vessels appropriate for such a voyage.

In 1714, shipbuilders built the first Russian sea-going vessel in the Okhotsk shipyard. It was a sea flat-bottom boat Vostok. In 1716, the Vostok made two voyages to Kamchatka coast.

A major Russian port in the Pacific became the cradle of the Russian Far-Eastern fleet. In several years, there were built and sent to the sea the boats: the Fortuna, Vostochny Cavriil, and Lew.

In 1732 Vitus Bering initiated the creation of the first navigational school because new ships needed new crews. That school became the first educational institution in the Far East.

In 1736 that town officially became the first Russian Far-Eastern port.

In November 1737 Vitus Bering ordered to build there two ships named St. Peter and St. Paul for his second expedition to America. Bering reached Avacha Bay on July 10, 1740 and laid the foundation stone for the harbor town, naming the new settlement "Petropavlovsk" (Peter + Paul) after his two ships. Later it was renamed Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

From 1731 to 1849 Okhotsk was the main Russian port on the Pacific Ocean and the cradle of Russian Pacific Fleet. It is associated with the names of Bering, Chirikov, Billings, Shelikhov and many other prominent explorers and researchers.

Okhotsk was a boundary between two continents – Eurasia and America and two ages of the later Far Eastern development, when “Muravyov’s” age began with the Amur expedition of G.I. Nevelskoy, supported by N.N. Muravyov-Amursky.

6. Answer the following questions:

•Is the location of Okhotsk convenient?

•Who was the founder of this town?

•Why did Peter I send some experienced men to Okhotsk?

•Was the navigational or primary school the first educational institution in the Russian Far East?

•What was the first sea-going vessel built in the Okhotsk shipyard?

•What was the importance of Okhotsk for the development of the Far East?