Fyodor Petrovich Litke was a Russian navigator, geographer, and Arctic explorer. He explored the Arctic and who exerted a considerable influence on Russian science in general and geography in particular.
Background
Ethnicity:
Fyodor came from the Lütke family of Brandenburgish origin and originated in Jüterbog.
Litke was born on September 17, 1797, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His parents died when he was young. His grandfather was Johann Philipp von Lütke, a German Lutheran preacher and writer on physical science and theology.
Education
Litke was poor during his childhood and thus could not obtain advanced education. It is known that he attended a Lutheran German-speaking school. His maternal language was German and he always spoke Russian with a German accent.
Career
In 1812 Litke was accepted as a sailor in the Imperial Russian Navy; and his resourcefulness and boldness led to his rapid promotion. His participation in the round-the-world voyage (1817-1819) of the sloop Kamchatka, commanded by the well-known geographer and traveler V. M. Golovnin, decisively determined his future. Soon after his return from this voyage Litke, on the recommendation of Golovnin, was appointed commander of an expedition to survey the shores of Novaya Zemlya. In 1821-1824 the expedition made four attempts to circumnavigate Novaya Zemlya from the north. Although exceptionally heavy ice prevented it from succeeding, the expedition contributed much to science. Important mistakes on maps in the position of the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, Matochkin Shar, Proliv, Strait, Kanin Nos, the eastern coast of the mouth of the White Sea, and the Murmansk coast of the Barents Sea were corrected; a number of bays of the Barents Sea were investigated with the aim of determining the possibility of using them for anchorage; and extensive areas of the Barents Sea were studied, including its northern part, between Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya.
In 1826-1829 Litke commanded the sloop Senyavin, on a round-the-world voyage designed to survey the little-known islands of the central Pacific and the coast of the Bering Sea. In the Bering Sea, Litke made astronomical determinations of the most important points of the coast of Kamchatka north from the Avachinskaya gulf; he measured the height of many hills; he described in detail the hitherto unknown Karaginskiy Pribilof Ostrova, and Matveyev Islands and also the Chukchi coast from East Cape almost to the mouth of the Anadyr River. In the central Pacific he made a detailed investigation of the Carolines, discovering twelve previously unknown islands, describing the entire archipelago in detail, and placing it on the map. The expedition gathered materials on the botany, zoology, ethnography, geophysics, and oceanography of the regions explored.
Soon after the voyage of the Senyavin, Litke became involved in organizing the Russian Geographical Society and was elected its president at the first meeting, in 1845.
Led by Litke, the Russian Geographical Society conducted a number of important expeditions to the outlying areas of the country and beyond its borders. In 1873, citing his advanced years, he asked to be relieved of the presidency; the society agreed, and in recognition of his exceptional services it established a gold medal in his name to honor especially distinguished geographical discoveries and research.
From 1864 to 1881 Litke was president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, retiring only a few months before his death. As president he did much to make the Academy flourish, helping various scientific institutions and societies to develop rapidly. In particular, through his efforts the Pulkovo observatory, the main physical observatory, and the Pavlov magnetic-meteorological observatory substantially broadened their activities.
Achievements
Religion
Litke attended a Lutheran German-speaking school and remained a practicing Lutheran after.