Ivan Antonovich Kupreyanov ( or ; 1794 – 20 April 1857),Pierce, Richard A. ''Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary.'' Kingston, Canada: The Limestone Press. 1990, pp. 227-229. also spelled in English as Kupreanof or as Kuprianov, served as the head of the

Russian-American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the c ...

Russian America Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

from 1835 to 1840. He entered the

Sea Cadet Corps Sea cadets are members of a cadets youth program sponsored by a national naval service, aimed for young people with an interest in waterborne activities and or the national navy. The organisation may be sponsored in whole or in part by the navy or ...

at the age of 10, in 1809. Kupreyanov served as a on the '' Mirny'' under captain

Mikhail Lazarev Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (; ) was a Russian fleet commander and explorer. Education and early career Lazarev was born in Vladimir city, a scion of the old Russian nobility from the Vladimir province. In 1800, he enrolled in Russ ...

during the

First Russian Antarctic Expedition The First Russian Antarctic Expedition took place in 1819–1821 under the direction of Fabian Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The expedition aimed to reach the Southern Ocean in order to prove or disprove the existence of a suspected seven ...

(1819-1821), a

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

led by

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeyevich Bellingshausen or Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen ( – ) was a Russian cartographer, explorer, and naval officer of Baltic German descent, who attained the rank of admiral. He participated in the first Russi ...

. The expedition discovered

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

and explored a number of island chains in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and Southern Oceans. He participated in an additional circumnavigation by Lazarev that lasted from 1822 to 1824. Kupreyanov attained the rank of

Captain lieutenant Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of navies worldwide and formerly in the British Army. Northern Europe Denmark, Norway and Finland The same rank is used in the navies of Denmark (), Norway () and Fin ...

with command of a frigate and fought in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

against the

Ottoman Navy The Ottoman Navy () or the Imperial Navy (), also known as the Ottoman Fleet, was the naval warfare arm of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Ottomans first reached the sea in 1323 by capturing Praenetos (later called Karamürsel ...

during the

Russo-Turkish War (1828–29) The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

. Kupreyanov and his wife, Yuliya Ivanovna (nee Gildenbrant), began a school for native girls in Sitka. It closed at the end of his administration but reopened later. He built the famous residence, library and museum in

New Archangel Sitka (; ) is a unified city-borough in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was under Russian rule from 1799 to 1867. The city is situated on the west side of Baranof Island and the south half of Chichagof Island in the Al ...

called Baranof's Castle by early American settlers, who assumed that it had been built by

Alexandr Baranov Alexander Andreyevich Baranov (; 1747 – 1819), sometimes spelled Aleksandr or Alexandr and Baranof, was a Russian trader and merchant, who worked for some time in Siberia. He was recruited by the Shelikhov-Golikov Company for trading in Russ ...

, Kupreyanov's predecessor by eighteen years. The residence was the site of the ceremony in which control of Russian America passed from the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

to the United States in 1867. Although the residence fell down in 1897, the hill where it was located is still called Castle Hill. In 1837 Kupreyanov greeted the British captain

Edward Belcher Sir Edward Belcher (27 February 1799 – 18 March 1877) was a British naval officer, hydrographer, and explorer. Born in Nova Scotia, he was the great-grandson of Jonathan Belcher, who served as a colonial governor of Massachusetts, New ...

, who was commanding a surveying expedition of two ships, HMS ''Sulphur'' and HMS ''Starling''. Belcher recorded that "his civilities were overpowering." Blecher, Edward
''Narrative of a Voyage round the World performed in H.M.S. Sulphur, 1836-1842.''
Vol. 1. London:

Henry Colburn Henry Colburn (1784 – 16 August 1855) was a British publisher. Life Virtually nothing is known about Henry Colburn's parentage or early life, and there is uncertainty over his year of birth. He was well-educated and fluent in French and h ...

. 1843, p. 94. Departing from New Archangel on 30 September 1840 with his family, Kupreyanov continued his career in the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

, and won promotion to the rank of

vice admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

in October 1852.

Legacy

Kupreanof Island Kupreanof Island () is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. The island is long and wide with a total land area is , making it the 13th largest island in the United States and the 170th largest island in the world. T ...

in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago () is a archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep ...

(the

Alaska Panhandle Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to southeast or southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian provi ...

) was named after him, and indirectly the city of

Kupreanof, Alaska Kupreanof (Lingít: ''Aansadaak’w'') is a city on the eastern shore of Kupreanof Island in the Petersburg Borough, in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 21 as of the 2020 census, down from 27 in 2010. It is the smallest incorporat ...

, which is on that island.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kupreyanov, Ivan Governors of the Russian-American Company 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire 1794 births 1857 deaths Naval Cadet Corps alumni