'Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy' (; in Drakino, now in
Soligalichsky District,
Kostroma Oblast – in
St. Petersburg) was a
Russian
navigator.
In 1848 Nevelskoy led the expedition in the
Russian Far East, exploring the area of the
Sakhalin and the outlet of the
Amur River. On
13 August 1850 he founded
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, the first Russian settlement in the region. Not knowing about the efforts of
Japanese navigator
Mamiya Rinzo who explored the same area forty years earlier, the Russians took Nevelskoy's report as the first proof that Sakhalin is indeed an island. They renamed Gulf of Tartary,
Strait of Tartary, and named the
northernmost, narrowest section of the strait, which connects the strait's main body (formerly known as the Gulf of Tartary) with the Amur's mouth, in the captain's honour, Strait of Nevelskoy.