Polar Explorer F. A. Matisen (in Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of His Birth)

Abstract

This article for the first time offers the detailed biographical materials concerning Fyodor Andreyevich Matisen (1872–1921), polar explorer and naval officer, member of the 1899 Russian-Swedish Spitsbergen grade-measurement expedition on the “Bakan” ship and the Imperial Academy of Sciences’ Russian Polar expedition on the “Zarya” schooner (1900–1903), head of the river expeditions to the mouth of the river Lena that were organized by A. V. Kolchak’s Omsk Government (1919) and by the Soviet Government (1920), and the first commander (1908–1910) of the “Taymyr” icebreaking steamer of the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition. The article also describes Matisen’s service on the Russian Navy’s combat ships. It is based on the materials from the Russian State Naval Archive, Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Russian State Archive of Economics. The article is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Matisen’s birth.