Stadukhin, Mikhail Vasilevich

Stadukhin, Mikhail Vasil’evich 

Year of birth unknown; died 1666. Russian navigator and explorer.

A Yakut cossack, Stadukhin headed an expedition to the Viliui River in 1633. In the years 1641–14, as head of a detachment of sluzhilye liudi (military service class), he traveled down the Indigirka River and by sea reached the Kolyma River, where he established a winter camp. In 1645 he returned by sea to the Lena River, and in the winter of 1650–51 he traveled overland from the Kolyma to the Anadyr’ River, later reaching the Penzhina, Gizhiga, Taui, and Okhota rivers.’