Paul Theodor von Krusenstern
Russian (Baltic) polar explorer (1809–1881)
Paul Theodor von Krusenstern (Russian: Павел Иванович Крузенштерн – Pavel Ivanovich Krusenstern), born January 24, 1809 in Reval, died December 8, 1881 at Schloss Ass, near Gilsenhof, Estonia.
Life
He was the son of Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Juliane Taube von der Issen. Krusenstern attended the Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo from 1823 to 1826 and participated in the circumnavigation of the schooner Senyavin under the command of Admiral Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke as a squire of the Guard Equipage from 1826 to 1829, during which he was promoted to cadet in 1827.
From 1831 to 1835 further sea voyages followed for astronomical and geodetic measurements. From 1835 to 1839 he was adjutant to the military governor of Reval, Login Petrovich Heiden.
In 1842 he was promoted to captain-lieutenant, and in 1843 he led a research expedition to the Pechora land (bordering the Barents Sea near Novaya Zemlya), in which Count Alexander Keyserling also participated.
In 1849/50 he undertook a research expedition to the Arctic Ocean and Novaya Zemlya on his own schooner, and in 1853 he conducted another research expedition to the Pechora area to study raft connections with the Arctic Ocean on the river.
In 1853 he became captain. In 1861/62 he explored the Kara Sea with his schooner Ermak.
In 1864 he became rear admiral, and in 1869 he retired as vice admiral. From 1874 to 1876 he undertook another research journey to the Pechora region and the northern Urals.
Decorations and memberships
In 1844 he received the Order of Vladimir, 4th class, and in 1853 the Order of Anna, 2nd class. In 1847 he received the Demidov Prize. He was a member of the Russian Geographical Society.
Family
Krusenstern married the daughter of August von Kotzebue, Wilhelmine (d. 1851), in 1832, and in his second marriage Pauline Countess von Zeppelin-Aschhausen in 1853. Daughter Wilhelmine married architect Rudolf Otto von Knüpffer (1831–1900) in 1862.
Writings
- With Count Keyserling: Scientific observations from a journey to the Pechora Land in 1843, Petersburg 1846
- Maps of the rivers Pechora, Izhma, Ilych, Vychegda, northern and southern Myleva, 1846
- Journey to the Northern Urals 1874–76