Pyotr Beketov

Pyotr Beketov ( _ru. Пётр Иванович Бекетов, born сirca 1600 - died circa 1661) was a prominent Cossack explorer of Siberia and founder of many cities such as Yakutsk, Chita, and Nerchinsk.

Biography

Pyotr Beketov started his military service as a guardsman (strelets) in 1624 and was sent to Siberia in 1627. He was appointed Enisei voevoda and started his first voyage in order to collect taxes from Zabaykalye Buryats. He carried out his mission successfully and he was the first Russian who stepped in Buryatia and founded the first Russian settlement, Rybinsky ostrog.Pyotr Beketov was sent to the Lena River in 1631 and in the following year he and his Cossacks founded Yakutsk that became a startpoint of further expeditions eastward. He sent his Cossack to explore the Aldan River and the Kolyma River, to found new fortresses, and to collect taxes from the locals. In 1640 he transported collected taxes to Moscow where at his arrival he was appointed Strelets and Cossack commandor and in 1641 Beketov returned to Enisei ostrog as the head of the fortress.

In 1652 he launched the second tax collecting voyage to Buryatia, and in 1653 Beketov's Cossacks founded a fortress, Irgensky ostrog, and on the bank of the Ingoda River they built winter settlement, follow-up Chita. In the following year Beketov's Cossacks founded future Nerchinsk. In 1655 Beketov's Cossacks were sieged in Shilkinsky ostrog by rebelous Buryats and after pacifying the locals they had a chance to leave the fortress for the Amur River. Beketov returned to Tobolsk in 1661 where he met protopop Avvakum and probably died in the same year.

References

* [http://oldchita.megalink.ru/ History of Chita]