Grigory Shelikhov

Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (Shelekhov) (Григорий Иванович Шелихов (Шелехов) in Russian; English spelling varies from Shelekov to Shelikof) (1747–July 20 1795 (July 31 1795 N.S.)) was a Russian seafarer and merchant born in Rylsk.

Shelikhov organized commercial trips of the merchant ships to the Kuril Islands and the Aleutian Islands starting from 1775. In 1783–1786, he led the expedition to the shores of Russian America, during which they founded first Russian settlements in North America (which Shelikhov supervised starting from 1790). Shelikhov was one of the founders of the Russian-American Company, which was officially registered in 1799.

In 1784, Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov, who would later set up the Russian-Alaska Company that colonized early Alaska, arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island with two ships, the "Three Saints" and the "St. Simon". [1] The indigenous Koniaga, an Alutiiq nation of Alaska Natives, harassed the Russian party and Shelikhov responded by killing hundreds and taking hostages to enforce the obedience of the rest. Having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelikhov founded the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska (after Unalaska) on the island's Three Saints Bay.

In 1790, Shelikhov, back in Russia, hired Alexandr Baranov to manage his Alaskan fur enterprise.

A gulf in the Sea of Okhotsk, a strait between Alaska and Kodiak Island, and a town in Irkutsk Oblast in Russia bear Shelikhov's name. There is a statue of Shelikhov in his native Rylsk.

ee also

*Daikokuya Kōdayū

References

[1] 1. "Alaska History Timeline". Retrieved on August 31, 2005.