Vasily Zavoyko

Who was Vasily Zavoyko?

Vasily Stepanovich Zavoyko was an admiral in the Russian navy. Born to a noble Ukrainian family of Poltava Governorate, in 1827 he took part in the Battle of Navarino, and in 1835-1838 he twice circumnavigated the Earth.

In 1840 he became an employee of the Russian-American Company and soon became the manager of the Okhotsk port. He deduced that the port was inconvenient for trade, as it was too far from the Lena River basin and advocated transfer of the Company port to Ayan. During his exploration Zavoyko discovered the estuary of the Amur River. Zavoyko's reports about the potential importance of the river led to the 1846 expedition to study Amur and ultimately to the incorporation of the modern Primorsky Krai to Russia.

In 1850, he was appointed governor of Kamchatka and the commander of the port of Petropavlovsk. Under Zavoyko's governorship, Kamchatka expanded to include a wharf, foundry, and a new army barracks. Zavoyko also encouraged agricultural expansion, urging each household to sustain itself with potato farming. These efforts, however, did little to improve the region's low economic and cultural standards.