Baltic Germans in the Russian Imperial Navy: Navigators, Explorers, and Contributors to Place Naming

Abstract

From the 13th century onwards, Germans spread northeastwards along the Baltic coast, the area now occupied by Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the St. Petersburg region of Russia, and Finland. Most of these Germans were active as merchants. While for most of this period Lithuania had Poland as an overlord and Finland had Sweden, in Estonia, Livonia, and Courland (now Estonia and Latvia) the Germans soon formed the ruling class. Not only were they merchants, landowners and military leaders, but they also basically formed the government of these regions. In 1710, Russia became the new overlord of these regions. As a result, the Germans in this area were obliged to serve in the Russian Imperial forces. The Germans rapidly gained leading positions in these forces. In the Russian Imperial Navy, Baltic German captains sailed in the North Pacific area, particularly along the coasts of Siberia and Alaska. We will look at some of these captains and their role in naming places they visited and having places named after them. Among the most prominent are Adam Johann von Krusenstern, Ferdinand von Wrangel, Fabian von Bellingshausen and Otto von Kotzebue.