Knight Leontiy Vassilievich Spafaryev (; 19 March 1765 – 30 January 1847) was a

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

of the Imperial Russian Navy.Отечества достойный сын
Molodezh Estonii 4 February 2002 Spafaryev was director of lighthouses in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

and cartographer of the Russian Admiralty.

Career

Spafariev was an important contributor to the improvement of navigation along the Russian coasts. The first lighthouses in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

were built during tsar Peter the Great's drive for reform and modernization at the beginning of the 18th century. However, it was only in 1807, when the Russian Lighthouse Administration was created under the Russian Hydrographic Service, that the Russian lighthouse system followed an organized pattern, becoming effective and efficient. This office was established by the Russian Navy and it began under the leadership of Leontiy V. Spafaryev. In 1820, Spafariev published his essay "Description of the lighthouses of Finland and Gulf of Riga", a highly valued work by hydrographers. As a cartographer, perhaps his most outstanding work is the "Atlas of the

", published in 1817. His name is spelt as "Spafarief" or "Spafarieff" in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. USGS – Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)
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Honours

The Spafaryev Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk and Spafarief Bay in the coast of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

were named after Leontiy V. Spafaryev.

References

External links

Article (in Estonian) with picture of L. Spafaryev
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spafaryev, Leontiy 1765 births 1847 deaths Imperial Russian Navy personnel Cartographers from the Russian Empire