'Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky' (
Russian: ''Борис Андреевич Вилькицкий'')(
22 March (
3 April N.S.)
1885 —
6 March 1961) was a Russian
hydrographer and
surveyor. He was the son of
Andrey Ippolitovich Vilkitsky.
Vilkitsky graduated from the
Naval Academy in
Saint Petersburg in
1908. He participated in the
Russo-Japanese War of
1904-
1905. In
1913—
1915 he led the
Arctic hydrographic expedition on the ships ''"Taimyr"'' and ''"Vaigach"'' with the purpose of further exploration of the
Northern Sea Route. In 1913, Vilkitsky's expedition discovered
Severnaya Zemlya, an island that now bears his name, the islands of
Maly Taymyr and
Starokadomsky. In
1914—1915, Vilkitsky's expedition made the first through voyage from
Vladivostok to
Arkhangelsk, discovered Novopashenniy Island (now
Zhokhova Island), and described the southern coastline of Severnaya Zemlya.
In
1918, Vilkitsky was appointed head of the first
Soviet hydrographic expedition, which never took place due to its seizure by the
interventionists in Arkhangelsk. In
1920, Vilkitsky
emigrated to
Britain. In
1923 and
1924, Vilkitsky led
commercial expeditions in the
Kara Sea at the invitation of the Soviet foreign trade organizations. Later in his life, Vilkitsky was employed as a hydrographer in the
Belgian Congo.
A
strait between Severnaya Zemlya and
Taimyr Peninsula bears Vilkitsky's name.
He died in
Brussels in 1961.