№42 (90), 2026. In 2026, Russia marks the 220th anniversary of the completion of the first Russian circumnavigation

MOSCOW. AUGUST 7, 2026. PIR PRESS. “Exactly 220 years ago, on August 6, 1806, Captain Yuri Lisyansky returned to Kronstadt aboard the sloop Neva with a crew of 48. On that day, the first Russian voyage around the world was successfully completed!” said Vladimir Orlov, Founder and Director of PIR Center and Professor at MGIMO University.

In 2026, Russia will celebrate the 220th anniversary of the completion of the first Russian circumnavigation expedition. The first Russian circumnavigation took place in 1803–1806 aboard the sailing sloops “Nadezhda” and “Neva” under the command of Ivan Fedorovich Krusenstern and Yuri Fedorovich Lisyansky. This event became an important milestone in the history of Russian navigation, science, and geopolitics. The memoir legacy of this expedition is Yuri Lisyansky’s book “A Voyage Around the World on the Ship ‘Neva’ in 1803–1806,” published in 1812. To commemorate the occasion, Vladimir Orlov’s website has opened access to the thematic blog “The First Russian Voyage Around the World told by Captain Lisyansky.”

The section features 15 essays reconstructing the route and events associated with the voyage of the sloop Neva under the command of Lieutenant Commander Yuri Lisyansky in 1803–1806, undertaken alongside Ivan Krusenstern’s expedition aboard the Nadezhda. The narrative follows the expedition chronologically through the principal geographical locations visited by the crew during its three-year journey.

The publications include quotations from contemporaries, including Yuri Lisyansky’s own memoirs, as well as extensive illustrative material: route maps, portraits of expedition members, engravings, and drawings depicting island communities and everyday life during the voyage.

Over the next two weeks, we invite our readers to follow the route of the Neva — from the Great Kronstadt Roadstead to its triumphant return — and discover fascinating facts, remarkable episodes, and little-known details of this voyage, which holds an important place in Russian history and science.

The series comprises 15 stories:

1. Not Timati and Morgenstern, but Lisyansky and Krusenstern
2. The Neva in the Marquesas
3. Of Islands and Customs
4. Peasant Barns… of the Sandwich Islanders
5. An Unpretentious Portrait
6. The Captain and Venus’s Army
7. He Almost Annexed It…
8. The Virgin Land Left Untouched
9. Visiting the King of Kauai
10. Aboard an Ordinary Merchantman
11. Some Have a Continent of Their Own; Others, an Island
12. Courage and Treachery
13. The Arctic Fox Spoiled Without Anyone Noticing…
14. Bundles of Yuan from the Yellow Neighbor
15. The Fate of the Russian Magellan

Please note that all texts in the blog are currently available in Russian only.

The materials are available at the link.

Keywords: circumnavigation; Yuri Lisyansky

FF

F8/PASH – 26/08/07