(1747–1795), merchant, entrepreneur, explorer of the North Pacific, corresponding member of the Free Economic Society.
Born into a wealthy family, belonging to an old merchant family. He was educated at home and showed a family inclination towards commerce. In 1773 he came to Irkutsk, started buying furs, became rich, and became a shareholder in eight different companies; his marriage strengthened his financial position. In 1776–1783, Shelikhov participated in the affairs of 10 trading enterprises, including a large state-merchant company.
In 1775 and 1778–1779, Shelikhov made two trips to Okhotsk. He began his journey towards the American continent in 1783 from Bering Island (Commanders). He was the first to correctly present the true length (2600 kilometers) of the Komandoro-Aleutian underwater structure. On Kodiak Island he founded a settlement, which for 20 years was the center of Russian America. He established several more points on the northwestern shores of the Gulf of Alaska.
On Shelikhov's instructions, navigator G. Pribylov set sail and in 1786 discovered a small archipelago, named Shelikhov in honor of the discoverer.
The report on the voyage to the American shores was published in 1789 and was republished in 1793. The work was translated into German (three editions) and English (two publications), in 1971 it was republished again in Russian, and in 1981 - in English.
In 1788, seafarers D. Bocharov and G. Izmailov, who were in Shelikhov’s service, discovered (partly secondarily, after D. Cook) about 800 kilometers of the mainland coast of the Gulf of Alaska from the Kenai Peninsula to Lituya Bay, including Yakutat Bay. The collected materials allowed Shelikhov to compile the first detailed ethnographic description of the Kodiak Eskimos ("horses"), as well as the Indians of Alaska and the coastal islands.
Shelikhov is the author of the plan for the economic development of the Kuril Islands and the project for exploring the Baikal-Amur transport and trade route, which almost coincided with the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The charter of the country's first monopoly joint-stock company, developed by him in 1793–1794, became the basis for the creation of a set of rules for the Russian-American Company.
Shelikhov's main merit was the actual annexation of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska to Russia's possessions. “For zeal... in the discovery of unknown lands and peoples” in 1788 he was awarded a silver sword and a gold medal.
In his program for the “reconstruction” of Russian America, Shelikhov provided for the establishment of state borders of Russian possessions along the “hard land” and the Pacific Islands, the construction of shipyards, the expansion of foreign trade of the region and the development of its agriculture, and the assignment of lands in California to Russia. In a report (late 1794), he proposed to begin developing a sea route along the Arctic Ocean to establish trade with southern countries.
According to contemporaries, Shelikhov had an extraordinary intelligence and encyclopedic knowledge. He had remarkable abilities as an entrepreneur and organizer, the ability to establish business connections, sense changing situations and take reasonable risks. He was distinguished by excellent knowledge of commercial, industrial and financial issues, slowness and flexibility in decision-making, and intuition.
But this outstanding, almost legendary man, who played a huge role in the Russians’ exploration of the Aleutian Islands and the “creation” of Russian America, was power-hungry and merciless, arrogated to himself the right to “execute and hang” in order to establish discipline in his American trading posts (A. Radishchev called him "Tsar Shelikhov"). The circumstances of his death remain mysterious to this day.
In the 80s of the 18th century there were already several Russian settlements on the northwestern coast of America. They were founded by Russian industrialists who, hunting for fur-bearing animals and fur seals, undertook long voyages across the Sea of Okhotsk and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. However, industrialists then did not yet have a fully realized goal of founding Russian colonies. This idea first arose from the enterprising merchant Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov. Understanding the economic importance of the coast and islands of North America, which were famous for their fur riches, G. I. Shelikhov, this Russian Columbus, as the poet G. R. Derzhavin later called him, decided to annex them to the Russian possessions.
G.I. Shelikhov was from Rylsk. As a young man, he went to Siberia in search of “happiness.” Initially he served as a clerk for the merchant I. L. Golikov, and then became his shareholder and partner. Possessing great energy and foresight, Shelikhov convinced Golikov to send ships “to the Alaskan land, called American, to known and unknown islands for fur trade and all sorts of searches and establishment of voluntary bargaining with the natives.” In company with Golikov, Shelikhov built the ship "St. Paul" and in 1776 set off for the shores of America. After being at sea for four years, Shelikhov returned to Okhotsk with a rich cargo of furs totaling at least 75 thousand rubles at the prices of that time.
To implement his plan for the colonization of the islands and coast of North America, Shelikhov, together with I. L. Golikov and M. S. Golikov, organizes a company to exploit these territories. The company's particular attention was attracted to Kodiak Island for its fur riches. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries (from 1784 to 1804), this island became the main center of Russian colonization of the Pacific coast of North America. During his second expedition, launched in 1783 on the Three Saints galliot, Shelikhov lived for two years on this island, the largest of the islands adjacent to the coast of Alaska. On this island Shelikhov founded a harbor, named after his ship, the Harbor of the Three Saints, and also erected fortifications. 
A small fortification was built on the island of Afognak. Shelikhov also became acquainted with the coast of Alaska, visited Kenayok Bay and visited a number of islands surrounding Kodiak.
In 1786, Shelikhov returned from his voyage to Okhotsk, and in 1789 - to Irkutsk.
News of his activities off the American coast and the founding of colonies there reached Catherine II, upon whose call he went to St. Petersburg.
Catherine II perfectly understood the significance of Shelikhov’s activities and received him very favorably. Returning to Irkutsk, Shelikhov equipped two ships to explore the Kuril Islands and the coast of America and gave instructions to their commanders, navigators Izmailov and Bocharov, to “affirm Her Majesty’s authority in all newly discovered points.” During these expeditions, a description of the North American coast from Chugatsky Bay to Litua Bay was made and a detailed map of it was compiled. At the same time, the network of Russian settlements off the coast of America is expanding. The head of the Russian colony, left by Shelikhov, Delarov, founded a number of settlements on the shores of the Kenai Bay.
Shelikhov, through his various activities, sought to expand and strengthen the network of Russian settlements in Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands.
He developed a number of projects to bring the Russian colonies into a “worthy form.” Shelikhov instructed his manager Baranov to find a suitable place on the shores of the American continent to build a city, which he proposed to call “Slavorossia”.
Shelikhov opened Russian schools on Kodiak and other islands and tried to teach crafts and agriculture to the local residents, the Tlingit Indians, or Koloshes, as the Russians called them. For this purpose, on Shelikhov’s initiative, twenty Russian exiles who knew various crafts and ten peasant families were sent to Kodiak.
In 1794, Shelikhov organized a new “Northern Company”, one of the main goals of which was the establishment of Russian colonies on the coast of Alaska.
After Shelikhov’s death (in 1795), his activities to expand Russian colonization off the coast of Alaska and exploitation of its wealth were continued by the Kargopol merchant Baranov. Baranov turned out to be no less persistent and enterprising leader of the new Russian colonies than Shelikhov himself, and continued the work begun by Shelikhov to expand and strengthen Russian possessions on the northwestern shores of America.
Sh Elikhov (Shelekhov) Grigory Ivanovich (25...30.I.1749 – 22(31).VII.1795) - merchant, navigator, one of the founders of Russian America.
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov was born in 1747 in the provincial town of Rylsk, Kursk province, into the family of a small merchant.
The boy learned his initial literacy from a sexton. At the age of eleven, at the insistence of his father, Grigory dropped out of school and began working at the counter. He spent fourteen long years in the Rylsk warehouse. During the plague epidemic of 1770, he lost his mother and younger brother.
In 1772 G.I. Shelikhov moved to Kursk and then to Siberia. In 1773 he appeared in Okhotsk as a clerk for the Vologda merchant M. Okonishnikov. After some time, he moved to the service of his fellow countryman - Kursk merchant I.L. Golikov. Cooperation with the rich and influential Golikov helped him firmly stand on his feet. This was especially facilitated by his advantageous marriage in 1775.
Over the next eight years, Shelikhov participates in the activities of ten fishing companies. His fortune and influence are growing. I.L. Golikov, whose clerk he remained until 1781, treated him with increasing respect. Finally, they become full partners, and Grigory Ivanovich sets off on his famous voyage to the shores of America. The expedition was organized by the American Northeast Company, created by I.L. Golikov, M.S. Golikov and G.I. Shelikhov. In 1783, three galliots were built and equipped: “Three Saints”, “St. Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess", "St. Archangel Michael." Moreover, one ship was built by Shelikhov exclusively at his own expense. Almost two hundred working people were hired. The command of the ships was entrusted to experienced sailors - G.G. Izmailov, D.I. Bocharov, V. Olesov. The flotilla set off for the shores of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and some other western territories of the Pacific coast of America on August 16, 1783. Together with her husband, Natalya Alekseevna Shelikhova and their 4-year-old son Mikhail set off on a difficult journey. The expedition was successful. Having landed on the island in 1784. Kodiak - the largest of the Aleutian Islands, Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement with a fortress, thanks to which Alaska became part of Russia. There he taught the local population crafts and agriculture, opened a school for Aleut children, carried out diverse research work to study new lands, and compiled detailed inventories and maps.
In May 1786, Grigory Ivanovich sailed back to Okhotsk, taking with him furs worth 56,000 rubles. Returning to Russia, Shelikhov immediately got involved in work - conducting business correspondence with clerks, checking documentation, drawing up a report to Governor General I.V. Jacobi, sends a report on his achievements and a sailing map to I.L. Golikov. Having set sail as a junior partner of respectable merchants, he returned as a man confident in his abilities, with the firm intention of taking the whole matter into his own hands. In a note addressed to I.V. Jacobi, he unfolds a broad plan for the company’s activities under his, Jacobi’s, patronage: with permanent settlements in America, with its own armed forces of up to 100 people, with the sending of Orthodox priests to the colonies, with the right to bring the aborigines into citizenship, to establish “arable farming, plants and factories "
In 1788 I.L. Golikov and Shelikhov go to St. Petersburg with a petition in the Tsar's name to petition for privileges and a government loan for their company. Consideration of the project “Golikov and the Communists” continued in the capital from February to September 1788. Catherine II reacted sharply negatively to the project. She did not like her partners' claims to a monopoly; she also argued that “much spreading in the Pacific would not bring lasting benefits. Trading is another matter, taking possession is another matter.” She had no time for America at all - there was another war with Turkey. The “royal favor” ultimately manifested itself only in the awarding of companions with gold medals, silver swords and certificates of commendation.
However, although Shelikhov’s projects were rejected, his position after his visit to the Court was greatly strengthened. He gained fame. Many metropolitan businessmen without hesitation provided him with substantial loans. In Irkutsk, he built himself a new house in the most prestigious area of the city. In his native Rylsk, he also started construction on a site that belonged to him. Every spring, starting from 1789, he now travels to Okhotsk on maritime business, leaving everything in Irkutsk in the care of his wife. Showing extraordinary resourcefulness, he does his best to attract capable people to the service of the company.
The last years of G.I.’s life Shelikhov were filled with vigorous activity. He regularly sends expeditions to the American shores, fights with competitors, driving them out of fishing grounds. In 1790–1791 I.L. Golikov and Shelikhov established the North-Eastern, Unalashka and Predtechensk companies to expand the fishery. In 1791, he undertook the publication of his book, in which he spoke about all the details of the two-year voyage and about what he saw on the Aleutian Islands. For the first time, it described in detail the flora and fauna, as well as the life and customs of the Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians, and covered almost all aspects of their material and spiritual culture. The collected ethnographic information is of great value, because it contains much of what subsequent researchers did not find. A new edition was published in 1793, and a little later Shelikhov’s work was republished three times in German, and then twice in English. Thanks to this, his name became known abroad.
In 1794, through the efforts of his companions, the first Orthodox mission, headed by Archimandrite Joasaph, was finally sent to Kodiak. At the same time, government permission was received to send artisans and cultivators to America. Grigory Ivanovich is making plans for landing settlers on the Kuril Islands. With the help of his younger brother Vasily, he carries out trading operations at almost all Siberian fairs and trades with the Chinese through Kyakhta. He acquired important allies through family ties, thereby strengthening his position at court and in commercial circles. In 1795, Shelikhov organized the Atkha Company, the purpose of which was to fish on the Kuril, Commander and Andrean Islands, as well as on the Pribilof Islands. Her forces founded a settlement on the Kuril Island. Urup, which existed until 1805.
According to the reviews of his contemporaries who knew him directly, he had an extraordinary mind and literally absorbed knowledge. He had remarkable abilities as an entrepreneur and organizer, strong will and courage, the ability to establish business connections, sense changing situations and take reasonable risks. He was distinguished by his excellent knowledge of commercial, industrial and financial affairs, slow decision-making, resourcefulness and intuition, as well as foresight and flexibility in choosing previously developed schemes.
At the same time, this outstanding, truly almost legendary person, who played a huge role in the Russians’ exploration of the Aleutian Islands and the creation of “Russian America,” was a power-hungry, withdrawn and cruel person. He arrogated to himself the right to “execute and hang” in order to establish discipline in his American trading posts. Ruthless and suspicious of competitors, he sometimes kept double accounting. The circumstances of his early death remain very mysterious to this day.
Death found him in the midst of business, preventing him from completing many plans. He died suddenly “in the middle of exercises that were so important to him, in full health and in the middle years of his life.” The suddenness and unclear circumstances of the death of a prominent merchant, who left a considerable inheritance, gave rise to a wide variety of rumors in Irkutsk. The circumstances of his early death remain very mysterious to this day.
On November 10, 1797, by imperial decree, Shelikhov’s widow and children “for the merits of her husband and father” were granted nobility “with the right to trade.”
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov was buried in Irkutsk in the Znamensky Convent opposite the church altar. In 1800, through the efforts of his wife, a marble monument was erected at the grave with a bronze bas-relief of the deceased and with an incised epitaph of G. Derzhavin: “...Columbus of Russia is buried here: he sailed the seas, discovered unknown countries...”.
A strait and a lake in Alaska and a city in the Irkutsk region are named after Shelikhov. In his homeland on Red Square in Rylsk on August 24, 1908, a monument to him by I.Ya. Gintsburg. Funds for the monument were collected through an all-Russian subscription. In 1928, the monument was dismantled, but in 1957, by decision of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, a new monument by sculptor V.I. was installed in its place. Ingala.
Name G.I. Shelikhova bears a large bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, a strait between the coast of Alaska and Kodiak Island, a number of lakes and rivers in North America.
Municipal educational institution "Nizhnegridinsk secondary school"
Bolshesoldatsky district, Kursk region
"Ushakov Readings"
(Research work)
"Russian Columbus"
merchant-entrepreneur,
founder of Russian America.
Fedyukina Yulia 11th grade
Head: history teacher T.A. Anichkina
Fans of travel and the history of geographical discoveries should be doubly grateful to our Russian Columbuses, who not only discovered and explored unknown lands, but also left very interesting descriptions of their own travels.
Only the desire for the unknown and natural curiosity can explain their activities in an environment full of enormous hardships. In addition, they were driven by the realization that their actions lead to the exaltation of their native Fatherland. Studies by Russian travelers of the American shores in the 18th - 19th centuries. once again they proved “that glory will reach the Russians to all ends.”
Petrov Alexander Yurievich
Doctor of Historical Sciences,
Leading Researcher
Institute of World HistoryRAS
T 
For our research work, we decided to take the activities of the outstanding Russian navigator and explorer of the sea spaces of the Far East, Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov.
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (1747 - 1795), an outstanding Russian traveler of the second half of the 18th century, came from among the Rila merchants.
R 
od Shelikhov - ancient in Rylsk. In the scribe book compiled under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1621, which lists all the trading establishments of the city of Rylsk, the merchant Ivan Shelekh is mentioned, and in the scribe book of the Rylsk district, compiled in 1625 - 1626, when describing the lands and population of the village of Gruni, it says about the forest and hayfields of Frolka Shelikhov.
Secondary school building named after. G. I. Shelikhova
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov was born in Rylsk in 1747 into the family of a merchant. He spent his childhood and youth in his hometown, where he helped his father in his trade. The house where the navigator was born has not survived. Now on this site there is the building and courtyard of secondary school No. 1 named after. G. I. Shelikhova (Lunacharsky St.).
One of Shelikhov’s houses is located on the corner of Uritsky and K. Liebknecht streets. In front of the house there is a memorial stone made of Baikal granite - a gift from the Siberian sister city of Shelekhov. Shelikhov's two-story house (corner of Uritsky and Karl Liebknecht streets) stands on land purchased by Grigory Shelikhov during his visit to Rylsk in 1788, but construction began no earlier than 1798, that is, after Shelikhov's death. Obviously, he could never live in this house. But Alexander the First stayed there during his last trip to the south in the fall of 1825 (in December of the same year, as is known, he died in Taganrog). In addition to the main house, an outbuilding facing Karl Liebknecht Street (house 28) has been preserved. The entire corner of Lenin and Dzerzhinsky streets is occupied by the Von Filimonov house (1870s, architect Karl Friedrichovich Scholz), clearly built with an eye on the St. Petersburg mansions of that time. In front of the entrance to the city park, opposite the Assumption Cathedral, a monument to Shelikhov was restored in 1957, erected before the revolution (1903) with funds collected through an all-Russian subscription, and destroyed immediately after the revolution.
Shelikhov House
Young Shelikhov in Rylsk and Kursk heard a lot from local merchants about the profitable trade of Siberian merchants in furs, about the discovery by brave Russian people of islands rich in fur-bearing animals in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Siberia beckoned to him.
In 1773, twenty-six-year-old Gregory left for Siberia. In Irkutsk he serves as a clerk for the merchant Golikov. In 1775, he married the young widow of a wealthy Irkutsk merchant, Natalya Alekseevna, and left for Okhotsk. Here he begins vigorous activity in organizing expeditions for hunting fur-bearing animals. From 1776, when Shelikhov sent the first ship for a fur-bearing animal, until 1783, when he himself went to sea, 10 campaigns are known in which the energetic and enterprising merchant from Rylsk took part.
The ships returned loaded with valuable furs. But unlike other industrialists, Shelikhov sought not only to enrich himself, but also to protect Russia’s interests in the Pacific Ocean. A bold and far-sighted plan for exploring and annexing newly discovered lands to Russia, their economic development and development, establishing permanent Russian settlements on these lands and educating the indigenous population is maturing in his head.
To implement the plan, Shelikhov entered into a company with a wealthy Irkutsk merchant, his former master Golikov. Having built three ships at the mouth of the Urak River: “Three Saints”, “St. Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess” and “St. Michael”, Shelikhov headed to the shores of Alaska on August 16, 1783 to found a Russian colony. On all three ships there were 192 “working people” - sailors and trappers.
IN 
Along with Shelikhov, his wife Natalya Alekseevna and two children also set off on a long voyage. This is a Russian woman who shared with her husband all the hardships of a long sea voyage in the harsh, little-explored northern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. Shelikhov wrote about her with warmth and gratitude: “and being on the first galliot with my wife, who followed me everywhere and did not renounce all difficulties.”
P 
Settlement of Grigory Shelikhov on Kodiak Island
Almost a year after leaving Okhotsk, on August 3, 1784, the ships, having overcome a number of obstacles, approached Kodiak Island - the final goal of the voyage. Here G.I. Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement.
Having established himself on Kodiak and having thoroughly studied the coast and interior of the island, in the spring of 1785 he began exploring and developing the coast of the American continent and
adjacent islands, establishing friendly relations with local residents who voluntarily transferred to Russian citizenship. On the coast and islands, Shelikhov built fortresses and erected crosses as a sign that these territories belonged to Russia.
Along with the exploration of the new region, its economic and cultural development was carried out. The beginning of agriculture and cattle breeding was laid, the population became familiar with the material and spiritual culture of the Russian people.
During his two years on Kodiak, G.I. Shelikhov firmly established himself on American soil. It was time to think about the affairs left in Siberia, about consolidating their rights with the Siberian administration, about the official recognition of Alaska, Kodiak and other adjacent islands as Russian possessions.
May 22, 1786 G.I. Shelikhov left Kodiak Island, heading to his native shores. On January 27, 1787, he arrived in Okhotsk, and in April of the same year - in Irkutsk. Here he presented the Irkutsk Governor General Jacobi with a description of his journey, a map of the explored lands and plans for fortresses (fortifications) erected to protect the colony he founded. The governor reported this to St. Petersburg, and Shelikhov was summoned to the capital.
Catherine II reacted favorably to Shelikhov's case. It was proposed to equip two expeditions to the Far East, and G.I. In 1788, Shelikhov was awarded a medal strewn with diamonds to be worn on a blue ribbon around his neck, a sword and a diploma, which allowed him to continue the work he had begun to develop new territories and annex them to Russia.
Returning to Irkutsk, Shelikhov developed energetic activities. He asks for government support for his enterprise and develops plans to establish trade relations with Japan, China, India, the Philippines and other countries. He comes up with bold plans to explore Siberia, the Pacific and Arctic oceans. From Irkutsk, Shelikhov directs the life of the first Russian colony in America, where the Shelikhovites are developing new and new territories, installing metal boards there with the succinct inscription “Land of Russian Dominion.”
In 1791, a small book by G.I. was published in St. Petersburg. Shelikhov entitled: “The Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov’s wanderings from 1783 to 1787 from Okhotsk along the Eastern Ocean to the American shores and his return to Russia.” The drawing that opened the book showed G.I. Shelikhov and two American residents with whom he trades animal skins, and under the picture in large letters was typed a prophetic verse from the famous poem by Mikhail Lomonosov “Peter the Great”:
The Russian Columbuses, despising gloomy fate,
Between the ice a new path will be opened to the East,
And our power will reach America,
And that the glory of the Russians will reach all ends.
This book attracted everyone's attention, causing joy and jubilation. The residents of Irkutsk and Rylyan were especially happy about the success of the navigator. G.I. Shelikhov in his homeland was proclaimed “an eminent citizen of Rylsk.” This title was firmly assigned to him, and the new edition of his book, published in 1793, already had the title: “The first wanderings of the Russian merchant of the eminent Rylsky citizen Grigory Shelikhov...” In the same year, Shelikhov’s work was republished three times in German, and later - twice in English. Thus, a native of the small Russian town of Rylsk became a world famous navigator. The last years of G. I. Shelikhov’s life were filled with vigorous activity. He regularly sends expeditions to the American shores, fights with competitors, driving them out of fishing grounds. In 1790 - 1791, I. L. Golikov and Shelikhov established the North-Eastern, Unalashkin and Predtechensk companies to expand the fishery. In 1791, Shelikhov undertook the publication of his book, in which he spoke about all the details of the two-year voyage and about what he saw on the Aleutian Islands. For the first time, it described in detail the flora and fauna, as well as the life and customs of the Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians, and covered almost all aspects of their material and spiritual culture.
In the midst of his vigorous activity at the age of 48, Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov unexpectedly died on July 20, 1795 in Irkutsk, where he was buried. Death caught Shelikhov in the midst of business, preventing him from completing many plans. He died suddenly “in the middle of exercises that were so important to him, in full health and in the middle years of his life.” The suddenness and unclear circumstances of the death of a prominent merchant, who left a considerable inheritance, gave rise to a wide variety of rumors in Irkutsk. To this day, the death of Grigory Ivanovich is shrouded in secrecy.
On November 10, 1797, by imperial decree, Shelikhov’s widow and children “for the merits of her husband and father” were granted nobility “with the right to conduct trade.” The matter of further consolidating Russian acquisitions in Alaska was continued by Natalia Shelikhova. On her shoulders fell the heavy burden of managing a huge farm, and after the death of Grigory Shelikhov with his proxies, who reported directly to her.
N 
What was unusual for the merchant environment of that time in Natalia Alekseevna’s behavior was that she often conducted business negotiations on trade transactions on behalf of her husband. We can say that by the beginning of the 90s. XVIII century she developed her own relationships with many people who participated together with Grigory Shelikhov in trade and fishing operations. Most of her connections in the merchant and official world were her own acquisition, and not an inheritance from her husband.
Shelikhov was buried in Irkutsk in the Znamensky Convent opposite the church altar. In 1800, through the efforts of his wife, a marble monument with a bronze bas-relief of the deceased was erected at the grave.
On the monument erected on his grave the words are carved:
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov,
Rylsky famouscitizen
Rylsk. Monument Gregory Shelikhov.
Then, after the main dates of his life, the epitaph of the famous Russian
poet G.R. Derzhavin, beginning with the following words:
Russian Columbus is buried here!
Crossed seas, discovered countriesunknown,
And it’s in vain that everything in the world is decay.
He set his sail on the heavenly ocean -
Seek heavenly treasures, not earthly ones...
Before his death, G.I. Shelikhov bequeathed 30 thousand rubles to the city of Rylsk. In accordance with the will of the deceased, a hospital and the Resurrection Church were built with this money in his homeland.
grave GregoryShelikhova.
Name G.I. Shelikhov, “the eminent citizen of Rila”, is immortalized on
geographical map of the world. A bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, a strait separating Kodiak Island from the Alaska Peninsula, one of the largest lakes in Alaska, the main harbor and bay on Cruz Island are named after him. Not far from Irkutsk, a new city grew up - Shelikhov.
The city of Shelekhov is located in the south of the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo Plain, 20 km southwest of Irkutsk.
Arose in connection with the construction of an aluminum smelter.
Since 1956, the working village of Shelekhov. The name is in honor of the Russian merchant and explorer G.I. Shelikhova. In the 1956 decree on naming the village, the entrepreneur's surname was spelled incorrectly Shelekhov.
Population 48 thousand (2007).
From little Rylsk, located in the depths of Russia, where this amazing man was born and spent his youth, to the sea and oceans - thousands of miles. And at the same time, in the Far East and North America he was destined to play the role of the “Russian Columbus”.
We decided to complete our work with a crossword puzzle we compiled about the life and work of Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov.
How kingdoms fell at Catherine's feet,
Ros Shelikhov without troops without thunderous forces
Flowed into America through stormy abysses
And he conquered a new region for her and God.
Don't forget descendant!
That Ros, your ancestor, is loud in the East.
I.I. Dmitriev
ABOUT 
answer:
Horizontally: 2. Rylsk. 4. Ivan. 5. Merchant. 7. Field. 10. Golikov.
12. Natalya. 14. Znamensky. 15. Voskresenskaya. 16. Columbus.
Vertically: 1. Pribilov. 3. Beringov. 6. Ekaterina. 8. Okhotsk. 9. Jacobi. 11. Alaska. 13. Kodiak.
Literature:
V. Prosetsky. Rylsk. Third edition, revised. Central Chernozem Book Publishing House. Voronezh, 1977
G.I. Shelikhov. Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov's journey from Okhotsk along the Eastern Ocean to the American shores. Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk book publishing house, 1971.
M.P. Tsapenko. In the Western lands of Kursk and Belgorod. Moscow “Art” 1976
“Russia, a complete geographical description of our fatherland”, T.2, 1902.
(1747-1795)
G. I. Shelikhov (another spelling of the surname Shelekhov) is widely known as the “Russian Columbus”, as an enterprising merchant and navigator, the inspirer and organizer of the Russian-American Trade and Fishing Company, the initiator of research and development of the Pacific coast of North America, Alaska, the Kuril and Aleutian islands. Shelikhov is also known as a far-sighted and energetic Russian patriot, the author of a number of broad projects: geographical expeditions to find islands not on the map, to explore the Russian Far East, to find a sea passage to Baffin Bay. Shelikhov was one of the first to suggest the idea of a Russian trip around the world. He owns projects for expanding Russian colonization of North America, building new ports on the Okhotsk coast of Russia, expanding Russia’s foreign trade relations with the countries of the Indian and Pacific basins.
During his travels and work on the development of Russian America, Shelikhov himself made several outstanding discoveries.
Shelikhov was born into the family of a merchant (information about his father’s property status is very contradictory) in the city of Rylsk, Kursk province. The month of birth, as well as the first 26 years of life, are unknown.
By his time, Siberia was “roughly” put on the map and only to a small extent developed by the Russians. The main wealth of Siberia at that time was Siberian fur, which became more and more difficult to obtain from year to year. In search of more abundant fisheries, the Siberian merchants expanded the boundaries of their activities to the east, to the islands of the “Eastern Ocean” that had not yet been affected by the predatory plunder. The highly profitable but risky fishing for sea beavers, fur seals, and walrus tusk, associated with the search for yet unknown islands with animal rookeries, attracted the most courageous and enterprising merchants and industrialists to the Okhotsk and Bering coasts. G.I. Shelikhov also became interested in this.
In 1773 [according to other sources - in 1775, when, having married in Irkutsk, Shelikhov received significant funds as a dowry. His wife, the daughter of the merchant Golikov, an intelligent and energetic woman, was Shelikhov’s constant companion (along with her children). After his death, she was an active shareholder of the Russian-American Company] he came to “Siberian Petersburg” - the city of Irkutsk and became a clerk to the wealthy merchant I. L. Golikov, to whom he had a letter of recommendation from his brother, a Kursk merchant. In 1775, Shelikhov moved to Okhotsk where he became the organizer of the construction of ships and equipment of expeditions for sea animals to the Aleutian and Kuril Islands, entering into companies with various merchants (Alin, Lebedev-Lastochkin, Golikov, Kozitsyn). In five years - from 1776 to 1781 - under his leadership ten ships were built and a significant number of expeditions were equipped.
Sent by him in company with Lebedev-Lastochkin, navigator Pribilof on the ship "St. George" discovered islands called the Pribilof Islands.
During these five years, Shelikhov accumulated significant capital, and most importantly, he studied the business and gained trust in the trading world, especially from his main partner, Golikov.
Possessing remarkable intelligence and insight, Shelikhov soon realized the destructive effect of predatory trades undertaken by small and short-term companies, realized the impossibility of expanding shipping, and saw the hatred of merchants that they themselves incited among the indigenous population of the islands. Then he was the first in Siberia to decide to organize a powerful trading company, operating permanently on the islands of the Pacific Ocean and in America, supported by the government, which would organize trades in a businesslike manner, build industrial settlements and ships on the islands, and develop regular shipping.
In 1781, Shelikhov began organizing this company. Golikov became its shareholder. Three ships were built: the galliots “Three Saints”, “Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess” and “Archangel Michael”. Shelikhov became the head of the expedition to select the location of the company's base on the islands.
According to Shelikhov's plan, the place of the first Russian settlement was supposed to be rich in game animals and located on the most remote land. To do this, he decided to immediately settle, and then expand his voyages and look for new rookeries and new islands.
On August 16, 1783, Shelikhov set off along the Aleutian Islands to the extreme land of Kodiak, then known in the east. Before Shelikhov, it was not established whether it was an island or a peninsula. Almost a year later (two ships wintered on Bering Island) - August 3, 1784 - two of the three ships reached Kodiak
Shelikhov's expedition was met with hostility by local residents. However, in contrast to foreign invaders who exterminated entire tribes, Shelikhov sought to use local residents for his endeavors. His activities are permeated with concern for the preservation of the indigenous population and maintaining friendly relations with them, and increasing their cultural level. In the first year of his arrival in Kodiak, he founded a school. Shelikhov took the most capable students of the school to Irkutsk for further education.
Shelikhov tried to bring local American residents closer to Russians as quickly as possible, both through cultural communication and family ties.
Shelikhov did all this at his own expense, taking into account state interests. He wrote to the Irkutsk Governor-General: “Time and my meager mind invented this plan, presented to your Excellency, according to which... I set off myself... to the American north-eastern shores... to seek benefits for the fatherland, without in any way setting greed for the object greed and not seeking to distinguish ourselves by this, but with the sole goal of sacrificing to my dear fatherland with benefit" "... we must, in order to spread trade and trade in this region and expand the borders of the All-Russian Empire, search all parts of the unknown islands and those living in such places To bring peoples into friendship through affectionate treatment...”
By examining Kodiak, Shelikhov established that it was an island. Then industrialists sent by Shelikhov discovered a number of more islands of the Kodiak archipelago, including Afognak. The strait between these islands and Alaska is deservedly named after Shelikhov.
In 1785-1786 Shelikhov sent a detachment of industrialists to the north, where they discovered the deep Kenai Bay, the shores of North America, described the shores of Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, the coast of the continent to Cape St. Elias and the islands of the Gulf of Alaska.
Shelikhov masterfully developed new lands: he built new settlements and fortresses (the first fortress on Kodiak Island was called Trekhsvyatitelskaya), raised imported livestock, started arable farming, and looked for minerals. Shelikhov repeatedly gave instructions to the company’s rulers, navigators, and industrialists: “...immediately make an accurate inventory... describe large and small islands everywhere, bays, rivers, harbors, capes, laidas, ridges, field and visible stones, where in places there is what kind of land, that is, forests, meadows, properties, type and location of the land, in what place and at what time, what kind and in what quantity, what kind of land there is, where there are fish in the fishery, what they hunt for it, what kind of animals are there where , also at what time and how they hunt. Note all kinds of living plants... The main thing is to describe each vein, where and on which vein to know the number of people, and make a census of the male and female sex, the number of souls, with a description, although approximate, of who is what age. Every river, lake, housing, islands, in a word, every place in the inventory should be supplied with letters that will indicate the most accuracy on the plans. Write the names according to the very strength of the names of all the places of the local inhabitants; and do not disfigure with your names, so that everything can be found by the ranks of the inhabitants.”
Shelikhov encourages geographical research and all sorts of discoveries: he is given a bonus (over and above the company's fee) of 1000 rubles. for the discovery and description of each new island.
He also took care of the wide popularization of the riches of the new lands and their attractions in Russia, and of ethnographic research.
In 1786, leaving most of the people who arrived with him under the leadership of K. A. Samoilov, Shelikhov set off on the return journey, taking with him representatives of several Alaskan Indians, Aleuts, Eskimos, as well as various sights of America.
On his way to Kamchatka, he visited the Kuril Islands, collecting detailed information about the entire ridge and deciding to settle on these islands in the future.
In Kamchatka, Shelikhov met a ship of the English East India Company and started trading with it, leaving an order to his clerk to continue to maintain trade relations with foreigners if their ships were in Kamchatka.
From Kamchatka Shelikhov left for Okhotsk on dogs, detouring that bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, which later received the name Shelikhov Bay.
In the winter of 1787, Shelikhov arrived in Irkutsk, drew up a detailed memo to the Governor-General about his trip, attached several documents and instructions to his employees, drew up a project for organizing a monopoly American trade company with foreigners, and petitioned for the official annexation of the American coast to Russia.
Shelikhov’s note to the Governor-General served as material for the publication of the book “The Russian merchant of the eminent Rylsk citizen Grigory Shelikhov...” This book, published in 1791 without Shelikhov’s knowledge, was a huge success and was translated into English and German. In 1792, the second edition of this book, “The Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov’s continuation of his wanderings...” was published.
In the note and in the projects, Shelikhov reveals a broad outlook: “... This trade carried out through the Seas of Okhotsk and Kamchatka brings considerable profit to the treasury and traders, and since it can bring prosperity to the local region, since through this trade high prices can be averted... will flock there from everywhere there are merchants and every people, over time, numerous, and that most distant region will flourish to greatness and the most noble in the light of commerce and cultivation of the land, ... further knowledge can spread to establish our borders along the North-Eastern Ocean to the most distant limits ... where else. .. no European power has its own establishments.”
Shelikhov was one of the first to pay attention to the expansion of foreign voyages with the aim of seizing colonies in the Pacific Ocean and strenuously sought to get ahead of them.
In 1788, having secured the support of the Irkutsk governor-general, Shelikhov and Golikov turned to Catherine II with a petition to approve a monopoly on American possessions, to allow trade with foreigners and the annexation of discovered new lands to Russia, as well as appropriations for further searches for new lands.
But at that time Russia was at war with Turkey and Sweden, and Catherine feared complications with England and China. Therefore, she rejected the projects presented by Shelikhov and Golikov and only ordered that the merchants be awarded swords and gold medals around their necks for their discoveries and diligence.
Understanding the award as approval of his actions, Shelikhov further expanded his activities to strengthen his possessions and explore the islands in America without government assistance.
He selected intelligent, energetic, and courageous sailors and leaders of the company's affairs in America. These rulers - first Delarov, then Baranov - expanded exploration of Alaska and the shores of America all the way to California. Navigators Izmailov and Bocharov discovered new islands and wrote their descriptions. Everything was done in detail, with the expectation of many years to come. Iron boards with the inscriptions: “Land of Russian possession” were installed everywhere on the banks. In many places, copper boards with the same inscription were buried in the ground. The coasts from Alaska to California were described, villages and fortresses were built in the most convenient places, and cattle breeding and arable farming were widely introduced. At the same time, Shelikhov instructed Baranov to “invent a machine with which it would be convenient to dig the ground.” Shelikhov took great care to ensure that the settlements were beautiful, with comfortable houses and clean air. He was especially concerned about the development of shipbuilding in America, fully understanding the importance of external relations and planning to send ships with goods to China, Malaya, Indonesia, and India.
In 1790-1793 Shelikhov, in addition to the Northeast American, organized three more companies: Predtechenskaya, operating on the Pribilof and Lisikh islands, Unalaskinskaya, located on the island of Unalaska, and North American, whose task was to create and strengthen settlements on the islands of the Bering Sea and on the northern, then completely unexplored coast of Alaska, as well as to find a sea or land passage to Baffin Bay.
Shelikhov also took the initiative in settling the Kuril Islands with Russians. In 1795, he sent 20 industrialists and four peasant families to the 18th Kuril Island (Urup).
Aware of the enormous importance for Russia of a strategic outpost in the form of the Kuril ridge, Shelikhov, despite Catherine II’s warning not to start a dispute over these islands with other powers, took the courage and risk to secure the Kuril Islands for Russia.
Shelikhov's capital grew rapidly. In the shortest possible time, he became the richest merchant in Siberia, but at the same time his trade affairs were inextricably combined with the benefits for Russia and for geographical research. None of his contemporaries contributed so much initiative to the exploration of newly discovered lands, to strengthening the borders of Russia and the development of new lands. He believed that the American possessions were to become a new region of Russia - "Slavorossia" - with cities, shipyards, industry and agriculture superior to Siberia.
American possessions, thousands of kilometers away from the center of Russia, required many different goods. Finding new convenient routes to America was one of Shelikhov’s most important concerns. Traveling through roadless Siberia and especially communicating with its northeastern outskirts was extremely difficult. In this regard, Shelikhov had the idea of finding and exploring part of the Northern Sea Route from the mouth of the Lena to North America and through the Bering Strait, and even about circumnavigating the world: “...As your Excellency knows, one thousand thirteen miles from Yakutsk to Okhotsk are being transported all the hardships... Yakuts on horseback... very often, due to the rainfall that occurs, they throw luggage on the road... since the places are empty, rocky and swampy and often impassable, so are the rivers... Things transported there by sea are not only cheaper... but always in sufficient quantities... can be delivered there...". He had already found people for the first task in 1790.
At the same time, he sought to improve existing ways of exploring the Far East. In November 1794, Shelikhov drew up a “most humble report” to the Irkutsk Governor-General I. A. Pil with a request to allow him to carry out an expedition to find a more convenient place for the construction of a port than Okhotsk, and also to give him “skilled people whom I would send could along the mane of that permanent ridge, which stretches east from Baikal itself... from such an expedition this benefit will be that we will find out the location between the Amur and between the peaks of the Vitim, Olekma, Aldan and Mai rivers, for these places to this day remain completely unexplored by us and undescribed... And as such, an expedition must have all the necessary... benefits and expenses, then I accept these for myself and willingly sacrifice the required amount for the benefit of the fatherland...” But Shelikhov failed to carry out this expedition. This region was already studied under Soviet rule.
Shelikhov was the initiator and organizer of A. Laxman's expedition to Japan in 1792, not only to establish trade relations, but also to describe Japan. Trade could not be established, but the expedition collected valuable information about Japan. In 1795 Shelikhov was preparing a new expedition to Japan. But this expedition did not take place, since on July 20, 1795, at the 48th year of his life, in full bloom and with amazing energy and breadth of activity, Shelikhov died in Irkutsk.
A worthy successor and continuer of Shelikhov’s work was A. A. Baranov, who continued to expand settlements and research in America.
Contemporaries and descendants had different assessments of Shelikhov as a personality and figure. There was often talk about his cruelty, the pursuit of personal benefits, the exploitation of the American population and exiles, etc. All this to some extent could have taken place, since it corresponded to the spirit of that time, but in general the activities of Shelikhov, an exceptional man for his age, a remarkable figure and patriot, was progressive and democratic. Concerns about the native population and the resettlement of Russians to America, who sought to get rid of serfdom, speak of the progressive direction of the colonization of Russian America. This is confirmed by the fact that the Decembrists showed great interest in Russian colonization in America. Some Decembrist sailors dreamed of making independent trips around the world on the company’s ships. The Decembrists Ryleev (former director of the Company), Kuchelbecker, Zavalishin, Romanov were associated with the activities of the Russian-American Company. The Company House at one time served as the headquarters of the Decembrists for their meetings; Meetings of the leaders of the Decembrists sometimes took place there.
Shelikhov's services to Russian geographical science are invaluable. His numerous instructions, projects, reports and requests, bold plans, descriptions of new lands, prudent orders of a state scale, instructions, which were programs for the geographical study of open lands, constitute an interesting work.
Derzhavin’s poems are carved on the monument to Shelikhov in Irkutsk:
“Columbus of Russia is buried here,
Sailed the seas, discovered unknown countries..."
On the other side of the monument are carved the words of I. I. Dmitriev:
“...Ross Shelikhov, without troops, without thunderous forces,
Flowed into America through stormy abysses...
Don't forget, descendant,
That Ross - your ancestor was also loud in the east.”
The following names are named after G.I. Shelikhov: a bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, a strait between the island. Kodiak and the Alaska Peninsula, a bay and river on the Kuril Islands, a city in the Irkutsk region.
Bibliography
- Parmuzin Yu. P. Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov / Yu. P. Parmuzin // Domestic physical geographers and travelers. – Moscow: State educational and pedagogical publishing house of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, 1959. – P. 106-115.
- Molyavko G.I. Geologists. Geographers. Biographical reference book / G. I. Molyavko, V. P. Franchuk, V. G. Kulichenko. – Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1985. – 352 p.
