Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev
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Portrait of Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev |
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (
Лазарев, Михаил Петрович in
Russian) (
November 3,
1788 —
April 11,
1851) was a Russian
fleet commander and
explorer, and
Admiral (
1843).
Lazarev was a scion of the old Russian nobility from the Vladimir province
[ V.V. Rummel, V.V. Golubtsov, Rodoslovnyi sbornik russkikh dvorianskikh familii, vol. 1, Sankt Petersburg, 1886, p. 504. The Russian noble family Lazarevs shall not be confused with the Armenian family Lazariants who Russfied their surname from Lazariants into Lazarevs.]. In
1800, he enrolled in Russia's Naval College. Three years later he was sent to the
British fleet, where he would stay for a continuous five-year
navigation. In
1808—
1813, Lazarev served in the
Baltic Fleet. He took part in the
Russo-Swedish War of 1808-1809 and
Patriotic War of 1812.
Lazarev first
circumnavigated the
globe in
1813—
1816, on board on the vessel
Suvorov; the expedition began at
Kronstadt and reached
Alaska. During this voyage, Lazarev discovered the
Suvorov Atoll.
As a commander of the ship
Mirny and
Fabian von Bellingshausen's deputy on his
world cruise in
1819-
1821, Lazarev took part in the discovery of
Antarctica and numerous islands. On
January 28 1820 (New Style) the expedition discovered the
Antarctic mainland approaching the Antarctic coast at a point with coordinates and seeing ice-fields there.
In
1822-
1825, Lazarev circumnavigated the globe for the third time on his
frigate Kreyser, conducting broad research in the fields of
meteorology and
ethnography.
In
1826, Lazarev became commander of the ship
Azov, which would sail to the
Mediterranean Sea as a part of the
squadron under the command of
Admiral Login Petrovich Geiden and participate in the
Battle of Navarino in
1827. Lazarev received the
rank of
Rear Admiral for his excellence during the battle.
In
1828—
1829, he was in charge of the
Dardanelles blockade.
In
1830, Lazarev returned to Kronstadt and became a commander of naval units of the
Baltic Fleet. Two years later, he was made
Chief of Staff of the
Black Sea Fleet.
In February-June of
1833, Lazarev led a Russian squadron to the
Bosporus and signed the
Treaty of Hunkar-Iskelesi with
Turkey. In 1833, Lazarev was appointed Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, the Black Sea
ports, and also military governor of
Sevastopol and
Nikolayev.
Admiral Lazarev was influential both in technical matters and as a mentor to younger officers. He advocated the creation of a
steam-powered fleet, but Russia's technical and economical backwardness was a major hindrance to this. He also tutored a number of the Russian fleet commanders, including
Pavel Nakhimov,
Vladimir Kornilov,
Vladimir Istomin, and
Grigory Butakov.
An
atoll in the
Pacific Ocean,
capes in the
Amur estuary and on the
Unimak Island, an island in the
Aral Sea, a
bay and a port in the
Sea of Japan and other locations bear Lazarev's name.
Several Russian ships were named after the Admiral
* A Light Cruiser ordered for the Imperial Navy in 1914 completed and renamed the
Krasny Kavkaz after the revolution
* A
Sverdlov class cruiser built in the early 1950's
* The
Kirov class battlecruiser Frunze was renamed Admiral Lazarev after the fall of Communism
*
A map of his Antarctic expedition (in Russian), attention - all dates there are
Julian
