9
votes
Accepted
What were Catherine the Great's orders to von Böhm?
The actual quote from Forsyth's book is:
Captain Magnus Karl von Böhm, attempted to restrain the Russian soldiers and make them treat the Itelmens as human beings, and to introduce justice and ...
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9
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Six pregnant maidens from Kamchatka
I think I found Semyonov's "old book"! This is Sgibnev's Historical Essay of Most Important Events in Kamchatka, 1650-1855, published in 1869. The story there is more or less as follows:
On January ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Was slaughtering cows in Kamchatka prohibited in the 1820s?
Apparently the rule did exist. John Dundas Cochrane clarified its origin in his Narrative of a pedestrian journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary, from the frontiers of China to the Frozen sea and ...
- 27.6k
7
votes
Which English ship was in Kamchatka in 1793?
In a letter from Baranov to Shelikhov, written in July 1793, he mentions an English ship named Phoenix. It doesn't explicitly mention when the ship arrived there or if it had wintered there.
Here I ...
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6
votes
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How were settlers' houses in Kamchatka built?
According to Archibald Campbell's account "A voyage around the world", the Petropavlovsk houses of Russians in 1807 were thus:
... with the exception of the Governor's house, [the town] consists of ...
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5
votes
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Was there a church around 1800 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky?
According to I. V. Viter, in 1767 the town population couldn't support the church, so it was moved to nearby Paratunka.
According to Svetlana G. Federova and her coauthor Yakov M. Svet, Captain ...
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5
votes
Why did USSR lay down undersea communications cable between Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok?
Laying a land cable would be prohibitively expensive. The main reason is not the
large distance but the fact that most of this territory is completely undeveloped: it has no roads. If you look at the ...
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5
votes
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Who was the American settler Tolman of Kamchatka?
William "Василий" Tolman was a New Englander born in 1793. According to the book "Тайны камчатских имен", he arrived in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka in 1813.
A story about one of his daughters, long ...
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5
votes
Is there any overland route to Kamchatka?
There have been trips done in well equipped 4x4s in recent years. You can generally find more info searching in Russian. Several examples:
There is a youtube video from 2016 and corresponding news ...
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5
votes
Is there any overland route to Kamchatka?
Before the snowmobile, the only options for land travel in such a region would have been reindeer sleigh or snowshoes. I can find no mention of a navigable river. Here is a fairly detailed account on ...
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5
votes
How were settlers' houses in Kamchatka built?
James Forsyth's 'A History of the Peoples of Siberia' suggests that settler constructions were similar to those used in Siberia.
Before the Russian's arrival (in the early eighteenth century) the ...
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4
votes
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Why was the Kamchatka Regiment sent?
(Note: I'm not very knowledgeable about this period in Russia. I'm piecing this together from a few sources.)
Somov's regiment was not sent due to the Napoleonic threat, but was part of the existing ...
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4
votes
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Wreck of the Juno
According to Wikipedia, there are several places named Petropavlovsk in the huge country of Russia. No surprise.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is in Kamchatka and should be the correct Petropavlovsk.
I ...
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4
votes
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Which STD did adults & children have in Kamchatka?
Helpful comments above indicate that the disease was syphilis. This is backed up by secondary sources:
Jones's Empire of Extinction describes it as "rampant".
Jochelson's The Kamchadals called it "...
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3
votes
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Were the officers assigned to Kamchatka being punished?
I believe punishment is an inaccurate term. Two cultures, one earnestly striving to be a pure meritocracy and the other firmly entrenched in the recognition of birth privilege and honour, are here ...
- 72.3k
3
votes
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How often did ships stop at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the early 1800s?
According to James R. Gibson's "Feeding the Russian Fur Trade", supply ships from Okhotsk visited Petropavlovsk in this period annually around October.
Several round-the-world voyages (Nadezhda, ...
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3
votes
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Is there any overland route to Kamchatka?
The Itelmen or Kamchadal were the native inhabitants of the southern part of Kamchatka while the Koryaks lived at the northern end. The presence of the isolated southern tribe suggests to me that land ...
- 27.6k
2
votes
Accepted
Whereabouts of the ancient Korean cannon in Kamchatka
Wildes seems mistaken about the cannon's destination: it never went to Kamchatka. Stephan in The Kuril Islands cites Lensen in reporting that after their raids, Khvostov and Davydov headed to Okhotsk. ...
- 27.6k
2
votes
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Origin of the Petropavlovsk artillery company
The artillery company seems to have been formed between 1773 and 1780.
According to Город над Авачинской бухтой by Витер, Magnus Carl von Böhm, chief of Kamchatka from 1773 to 1779, sent 32 soldiers ...
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2
votes
Accepted
What was the first printed material owned and kept in Kamchatka?
My assumption about ships' libraries may have been in error. Chamisso, in "A voyage around the world...", wrote about his trip on the Rurik, on which in 1816 he found in Petropavlovsk not just books, ...
- 27.6k
2
votes
Accepted
Kabris, the "half-wild Frenchman", in Kamchatka
TL; DR
Cabri doesn't seem to have been in Kamchatka for more than a few months, from late July / early August 1804. He left Kamchatka, and travelled to St. Petersburg in the company of Count Fyodor ...
- 77.4k
1
vote
What were Catherine the Great's orders to von Böhm?
Major Karl Magnus Von Behm was my 5xgreat grandfather. His wife Eva Von Borg was a friend of the Empress Catherine 11. She wanted Alaska to be opened up for settlers and the Major was to find a ...
- 11
1
vote
Why was the Kamchatka Regiment sent?
There is a potential that this is true.
First (as mentioned in the comments) Russian intelligence was suspect at times leading to events such as What made the Russian Fleet suspect Japanese Torpedo ...
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1
vote
Were commandants in Kamchatka from the Army or the Navy?
The general rule is that the command is with the most relevant officer.
E.g., an amphibious operation is commanded by the naval commander. I.e., when a ship lands an amphibious force on an enemy ...
- 26.9k
1
vote
Accepted
Which English ship was in Kamchatka in 1793?
According to James Gibson's "Otter Skins, Boston Ships and China Goods", the ship was the Halcyon of Captain Charles Barkley. At Petropavlovsk (the only practical place to winter in Kamchatka) in 1793,...
- 27.6k
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