Bering's Voyages: The Reports from Russia

Rasmuson Library Historical Translation Series #3

by Gerhard Friedrich Müller, Carol Urness (Translator)

This translation provides a modern English version of the official reports by which Tsarist Russia learned of Vitus Bering's accomplishments, including his discovery of Alaska. Muller prepared these accounts for the Russian Academy of Sciences, founded by Peter the Great. Muller accompanied Bering's expedition as far as Kamchatka, researching and writing Siberian history as well as that of Bering's expedition. Commentary, scholarly notes, maps, and manuscripts are also included.

221 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1983

About the author

Gerhard Friedrich Müller, a Russian historian, born at Herford, Westphalia, Oct. 18, 1705, died in Moscow in October, 1783. He studied at Leipsic, became in 1725 a teacher in St. Petersburg, and in 1730 was appointed professor of history. In 1733 he accompanied Gmelin and De Lisle de la Croyère to Siberia, and returned in February, 1743, having spent the interval in studying the geography and antiquities of that country. In 1747 he was appointed historiographer of the Russian empire, in 1754 secretary of the academy of sciences, in 1766 keeper of the archives at Moscow, and afterward councillor of state. He is best known by his Sammlung Russischer Geschichte (9 vols., 1732-'64). His other writings include Histoire des voyages et découvertes des Russes (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1766). He has been called the father of Russian history, wrote French, Latin, Russian, and German with equal ease, and was the first to found a literary journal in the Russian language.