Vladimir Atlasov

Who was Vladimir Atlasov?

Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov or Otlasov was a Siberian Cossack who was the first Russian to explore the Kamchatka Peninsula. Atlasov Island, an uninhabited volcanic island off the southern tip of Kamchatka, is named after him.

He is first heard of around 1682 collecting Yasak on the Aldan River and one of the Uda Rivers. In 1695 the voyevoda of Yakutsk appointed him prikazshchik of Anadyrsk. The Russians here had heard reports of a 'Kamchatka River' to the south and were already collecting yasak on the headwaters of the rivers that flow south toward Kamchatka. At least one of them had followed the Penzhina River to the Sea of Okhotsk. In 1696 he sent Luka Morozko south to explore. Morozko got as far south as the Tegil River on the west side of the peninsula and returned with some 'mysterious writings', apparently from a wrecked Japanese ship. In 1697 Atlasov set off south with 65 serving-men and 60 Yukaghirs. Travelling on reindeer, they reached the mouth of the Penzhina River. He went down the west coast for two weeks and then crossed to the east coast.. He left Morzoko to explore the east side and returned to the west side, but Morozko had to be recalled to deal with a Yukaghir mutiny. Going south to the Tegil River, he heard reports of the Kamchatka River and recrossed the Central Range to the Kamchatka where he met the Itelmens for the first time. He made an alliance with one clan and went downriver and burned a village of their enemies. Returning, he learned that some Koryaks had stolen his reindeer. He chased them, killed about 150 and retrieved his reindeer. Continuing down the west side he reached the Icha River where he rescued or captured a Japanese sailor who had been shipwrecked. Further south he reached the Golygina River area, from which he was able to see Atlasov Island. Here he met the first Ainu and managed to kill fifty of them. Returning north to the Icha, he sent a party of men over the mountains to build an ostrog at Verkhnekamchatsk on the upper Kamchatka. Here he decided to return to Anadyrsk, either under pressure of his men or because he was running short of gunpowder and lead.