![Grigory Shelikov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Grigory_Shelikov.jpg)
Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (Григо́рий Ива́нович Ше́лихов in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
) (1747,
Rylsk,
Belgorod Governorate
Belgorod ( rus, Белгород, p=ˈbʲeɫɡərət) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River north of the Russia–Ukraine border, bor ...
– July 20, 1795 (July 31, 1795
New Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
)) was a Russian seafarer, merchant, and fur trader who perpetrated the
Awa'uq Massacre
The Awa'uq Massacre Sven Haakanson, Jr. (2010)"Written Voices Become History" In ''Being and Becoming Indigenous Archaeologists''. George Nicholas (editor). Left Coast press, Inc., 2010 or Refuge Rock Massacre, or, more recently, as the Wounde ...
.
Career
Starting in 1775, Shelikhov organized voyages of merchant ships to the
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...
and the
Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...
, in what is now Alaska, for fur trading. In 1783–1786, he led an expedition to the coastal shores of the mainland, where they founded the first permanent
Russian settlements in North America. Shelikhov's voyage was done under the auspices of his
Shelikhov-Golikov Company
The Shelikhov-Golikov Company (SGC) was a Russian fur trading venture, founded by Irkutsk entrepreneurs Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov in 1783. Formed in Eastern Siberia during the 1780s along with several competing companies, th ...
, the other owner of which was Ivan Larionovich Golikov. This company was the predecessor of the
Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty (russian: Под высочайшим Его Императорского Величества покровительством Российская-Американс ...
, which was founded in 1799.
In April 1784, Shelikhov arrived in what he named as
Three Saints Bay
Three Saints Bay (russian: Бухта Трёх Святителей, r ''Bukhta Tryokh Svyatitelyej'') is a 9 Mile (14 Kilometer)-long inlet on the southeast side of Kodiak Island, Alaska, north of Sitkalidak Strait. It is southwest of Ko ...
on
Kodiak Island
Kodiak Island (Alutiiq: ''Qikertaq''), is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second larges ...
with two ships, the ''Three Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom'' and the ''St. Simon.'' The indigenous Koniaga, an
Alutiiq
The Alutiiq people (pronounced in English; from Promyshlenniki Russian Алеутъ, "Aleut"; plural often "Alutiit"), also called by their ancestral name ( or ; plural often "Sugpiat"), as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a sout ...
nation of
Alaska Natives
Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a numbe ...
, defended themselves from the Russian party. In what became known as the
Awa'uq Massacre
The Awa'uq Massacre Sven Haakanson, Jr. (2010)"Written Voices Become History" In ''Being and Becoming Indigenous Archaeologists''. George Nicholas (editor). Left Coast press, Inc., 2010 or Refuge Rock Massacre, or, more recently, as the Wounde ...
, Shelikhov and his armed forces, who had guns and cannons, killed hundreds of the Alutiiq, including women and children. They also took hundreds of hostages, many of them children, to force submission by other Alaska Natives. Having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska along the island's Three Saints Bay. (
Unalaska
Unalaska ( ale, Iluulux̂; russian: Уналашка) is the chief center of population in the Aleutian Islands. The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska ...
had been established long before, but it was not considered the permanent base for Russians until Shelikhov's time.)
In 1790, Shelikhov, having returned to Russia, hired
Alexandr Baranov
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (russian: Алекса́ндр Андре́евич Бара́нов; 1747 – 1819), sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was a Russian trader and merchant, who worked for some time in Siberia. He ...
to manage his
fur trading enterprise in Russian America.
![Shelikhov settlement](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Shelikhov_settlement.jpg)
A
gulf
A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...
in the
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
, a
strait
A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...
between
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
and Kodiak Island, and a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and Nizh ...
in Russia bear Shelikhov's name. Shelekhov travelled via Shelikhov Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk in December 1786-January 1787, after he had been left behind at Bol’shereck in Kamchatka as the winds tore the ''Three Hierarchs'' from her anchors and carried her out to sea. There is a statue of Shelikhov in his native Rylsk.
Family
![Natalia Alekseevna Shelikhova](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Natalia_Alekseevna_Shelikhova.jpg)
His father was Ivan Shelikhov. Ivan had a brother, Andrei, who had at least two children: Semen Andreevich Shelikhov and Sidor Andreevich Shelikhov.
Grigory had two siblings: a sister, Agrofena Ivanova Shelikhova, and a younger brother, Vasilii Ivanovich Shelikhov, who went to Siberia with Grigory to assist with the business.
In 1775 Shelikhov married
Natalia Alexeyevna Kozhevina, the daughter of a prominent clan of Okhotsk navigators and mapmakers and their wives. At his death he had five surviving daughters and one son.
Grigory and Natalia had the following children:
*Anna Grigorevna Rezanova, b. 1780
*Ekaterina Grigorevna Timkovskaya, c. 1781
*Avdotia Grigorevna Buldakova, b. 1784
*Aleksandra Grigorevna Politkovskaya, b. 1788
*Natalia Grigorevna Shelikhova, b. 1793
*Katerina Grigorevna Shelikhova
*Vasilii Grigorevich Shelikhov
![Kokoshkina by Hampeln](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Kokoshkina_by_Hampeln.jpg)
His 14-year-old daughter Anna married
Nikolai Rezanov
Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov (russian: Николай Петрович Резанов) ( – ), a Russian nobleman and statesman, promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Emperors of All Russia ...
in January 1795.
[Lensen, George A. ''Early Russo-Japanese Relations.'' The Far Eastern Quarterly 10, No. 1 (1950), pp. 2–37.] She died in childbirth seven years later, but had at least one surviving daughter, Olga Nikolaevna Rezanova, who married Kharkiv Governor-General
Sergey Aleksandrovich Kokoshkin.
See also
*
Daikokuya Kōdayū
(1751 – 28 May 1828) was a Japanese castaway who spent nine years in Russia. His ship landed at Amchitka, in the Aleutian Islands. The crew managed to travel to the Russian mainland and Catherine the Great allowed them to go back to Japan. ...
, a Japanese castaway in Russia
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelikhov
1747 births
1795 deaths
People from Rylsky District
People from Belgorod Governorate
Russian America
Russian explorers of North America
Explorers from the Russian Empire
18th-century explorers
Explorers of Asia
Explorers of Alaska
18th-century businesspeople from the Russian Empire