Evstratii Ivanovich Delarov

Evstratii Ivanovich Delarov was a Macedonian Greek who had moved to eastern Siberia and entered the North Pacific fur trade as a young man. During his career in the fur trade business he worked served with several Russian maritime fur trade companies in Russian America.

Delarov's career in Russian America dates to at least 1764, when he was in the Aleutian Islands, and had participated in Solov'ev's 1764 attacks on the Umnak-Unalaska Aleut alliance. Delarov gained a reputation as an excellent skipper and had become part owner of various fur-trading vessels.

In 1780 two wealthy traders, Grigor I. Shelikhov and Ivan Golikov, formed the Shelikhov-Golikov Company. The company established a colony at Three Saints Harbor on Kodiak Island in late July 1784 thereby creating the first permanent settlement of the Russians in Alaska. In 1787, after a meeting in Irkutsk between Delarov and Shelikhov, Delarov became the chief manager of the establishment on Kodiak Island. Delarov worked as a chief manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company from 1787 to 1791 when he returned to Irkutsk. Later he became a partner in Shelikhov enterprises as a major shareholder.

After 1799 Delarov became one of the directors of the Russian-American Company, a company which was granted a 20-year charter in 1799 and exclusive trading rights in North America north of latitude 55° and was also responsible for the administration of Russian settlements there. From then on Delarov was living in Saint Petersburg and served on the company's board of directors until his death in 1806.