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Birthday anniversary of Vasiliy Chichagov, Russian naval commander, navigator, admiralredit Office established under the Ministry of Finance
February 28 (March 11), 1726 in a poor noble family near Kostroma was born Vasiliy Yakovlevich Chichagov, a prominent Russian navigator and admiral (1782).
Chichagov was educated at home, and later graduated from the Naval School in Moscow. He began his service as a midshipman, had served in all the junior officer ranks in the Baltic Fleet, then served in Arkhangelsk. In the years of 1765-1766 Chichagov led a secret expedition, organized on the initiative of M. V. Lomonosov: on three small boats it twice tried to cross the Arctic Ocean and reach the Aleutian Islands between Greenland and Spitsbergen. Solid ice had not allowed sailors to reach their destination, but the expedition managed to gather a wealth of material about the nature of the Greenland Sea and make detailed maps of the region.
In 1768 Chichagov became chief commander of the port of Arkhangelsk, struggled with abuses by public officials and sailors. Two years later he received the rank of rear admiral and was summoned to St. Petersburg. He trained crews for the ships of the Baltic fleet and in 1772 he navigated one of the squadrons to the Mediterranean Sea with no losses. When he returned, he was named the chief commander first of the Revel port, then of the port of Kronstadt.
Rear Admiral Chichagov received his baptism of fire on the Black Sea. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774 he commanded a detachment of the Don Flotilla, which defended the Kerch Strait. In 1775 Chichagov became a member of the Admiralty Board, and in 1782 he was promoted to the rank of admiral.
In the spring of 1789 Chichagov was appointed chief commander of the Archangel, Revel and Kronstadt port. During the war with Sweden of 1789-1790 he commanded the Baltic Fleet and scored three brilliant victories over a stronger enemy fleet: near the island of Öland, in the raid of Revel, and near Vyborg. The victory of the Russian fleet forced the Swedish king Gustav III to conclude a peace treaty.
Tactics of Chichagov in these collisions had been forced to a certain extent. The constant shortage of experienced sailors forced him to avoid a decisive battle. His defensive tactics were not accidental, but a very deliberate method to compensate poor training of crews with local covering. For Revel battle Chichagov was awarded the Order of St. Andrew. After the Battle of Vyborg, he became the first sailor to be awarded the Order of St. George, 1st degree.
Under Paul I Chichagov retired and lived in his estate.
Vasily Yakovlevich Chichagov died on April 4 (16), 1809 and was ceremoniously buried at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
After Vasily Chichagov were named islands in the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, an island in the Alexander Archipelago near the coast of North America, a gulf and the Cape of Nauku-Hiva in South Polynesia, a cape on the island of Kyushu and a mountain on the island of Spitsbergen.
Lit.: Белов М. И. История открытия и освоения Северного морского пути. Т. 1. М., 1956; Скаченко Н. Г. О неизвестной карте В. Я. Чичагова 1765 г. // Вестник Московского университета. Сер. 5: География. 1961. № 5; Соколов А. Проект Ломоносова и экспедиция Чичагова. СПб., 1854; Чичагов Василий Яковлевич [Электронный ресурс] // Некрополь Свято-Троицкой Александро-Несвкой Лавры. Б. д. URL: http://www.lavraspb.ru/nekropol/view/item/id/913/catid/3.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: