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Adam Johann von Krusenstern

Adam Johann Ritter von (knight of) Krusenstern (born November 19, 1770 in Hagudi, close to Rapla, Estonia (then a part of the Russian Empire), died August 24, 1846 in Kiltsi, Estonia) was the Russian admiral and explorer who in 1803-1806 led the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth. In Russia, Krusenstern is known as Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern (Russian: Иван Фёдорович Крузенштерн).

Krusenstern was born into a Baltic German family descended from the Swedish aristocratic family von Krusenstjerna, which remained in Estonia after the province was ceded to Russia. In 1787, he joined the Russian Imperial Navy and subsequently served in the British Navy in 1793-99. In 1803-1806, under the patronage of Tsar Alexander I and Baron Nikolai Rezanov, Krusenstern led the first Russian circumnavigation of the world. The purpose of the two-ship expedition was to establish trade with China and Japan, facilitate trade in South America, and examine California for a possible colony.

The two ships, Nadezhda (Hope) under the command of Krusenstern, and Neva under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Yuri F. Lisianski, set sail from Kronstadt, rounded Cape Horn, and reached the northern Pacific. Both seafarers made maps and detailed recordings of their voyages.

Upon his return, Krusenstern wrote a detailed report, Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 und 1806 auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserliche Majestät Alexanders des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadeschda und Newa (Journey around the World in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 at the Command of his Imperial Majesty Alexander I in the Ships Nadezhda and Neva) published in Saint Petersburg in 1810. It was published in 1811-1812 in Berlin; this was followed by an English translation, published in London in 1813 and subsequently by French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Italian. His scientific work, which includes an atlas of the Pacific, was published 1827 in St. Petersburg and won him an honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences. He died in 1846 in Kiltsi manor (he had bought this manor in 1816).

The Russian training tall ship Kruzenshtern is named after him. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Krusenstern's circumnavigation, the ship retraced his route around the globe in 2005-2006.

There is a Krusenstern crater on the Moon. And then there is Krusenstern Island in the Bering Strait, as well as a small group of islands in the Kara Sea, southwest of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, called Krusenstern Islands.

In Russia (as well as in other Russophone places), a fictional steamship "Admiral Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern" from the popular Prostokvashino animated film series is very well known, often as part of a catch phrase "Admiral I.F.Kruzenshtern, a man and a steamship", "pirated" from the title of a requiem poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky, To Comrade Nette, a Man and a Steamship. As a third-level linguistic derivation, there is a Russophone Israel klezmer-rock band, Kruzenshtern & Parohod ("Krusenstern and Steamship").

• Otto von Kotzebue
• Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen

• Ilya Vinkovetsky, Circumnavigation, Empire, Modernity, Race: The Impact of Round-the-World Voyages on Russia's Imperial Consciousness, "Meeting of Frontiers" Conference, 2001
• Website of the barque Kruzenshtern
• Kiltsi manor (in German: Schloss Ass) from Estonian Manors Portal
• Hagudi manor (in German: Haggud) from Estonian Manors Portal

• Biographic entry from Nordisk familjebok (in Swedish)