Ivan Mikhaylovich Yevreinov (russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Евре́инов) (1694 – 3 February O.S. 1724) was a Russian geodesist and explorer. Ivan Yevreinov was born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, then brought to Russia and baptized into

Orthodox Christianity Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Chu ...

. Ivan Yevreinov was first a student at the

Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation () was a Russian educational institution founded by Peter the Great in 1701. Situated in the Sukharev Tower, it provided Russians with technical education for the first time and much of its curriculum w ...

(from 1714) and then in a

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connecti ...

class of the ''Naval Academy'' in St. Petersburg. In 1719, Ivan Yevreinov was sent to Kamchatka and

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese language, Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakh ...

by the order of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

to secretly perform

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...

together with Fyodor Luzhin and find if

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

are joined. In 1720, he reached Okhotsk by land (through

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

), then on a small ship ''Vostok'' he reached Kamchatka, then by land traveled to Nizhnekamchatsk (and was the first to measure geographical coordinates of this place). He returned to the ship, mapped the shores of Kamchatka, then sailed to the south along

(was first to map sixteen of Kuril Islands) down to

Hokkaidō is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

. On the Kuril Islands they collected taxes from the local population, then through Kamchatka, Okhotsk and

Yakutsk Yakutsk (russian: Якутск, p=jɪˈkutsk; sah, Дьокуускай, translit=Djokuuskay, ) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one ...

they returned to

Tobolsk Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, ...

and finally to

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzan is the capital city, capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and t ...

, there Ivan reported about his findings to Peter the Great. Ivan Evreinov was not able to answer whether America and Asia are connected by land, but he was first to make accurate mapping of Kamchatka, Kuril Islands and Russian Pacific Coast, before him even coordinates of local forts and villages were not known. Since 1723 he worked on mapping

Khlynov Kirov ( rus, Ки́ров, p=ˈkʲirəf, a=Ru-Киров.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Kirov Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Vyatka River in European Russia, 896 km northeast of Moscow. Its population was ...

and surroundings and died there. Name of Evreinov is given to a Mountain and a Peninsula on Okhotsk Sea and one of the straits between Kuril Islands.

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yevreinov, Ivan 1694 births Explorers from the Russian Empire Explorers of Asia Russian geodesists 1724 deaths