Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin

Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin had established one of the most important fur-trading companies to operate in the eastern Aleutian Islands and on the Alaskan mainland in the 1780s and 1790s. Pavel’s initial interest was in the Kurile Islands and opening up trade with Japan, but the venture proved unsuccessful and he turned his attention towards Aleutian Islands and Alaska.

In his early attempts in trade with japan and Aleutians, Lebedev-Lastochkin worked closely with Grigorii Shelikhov. The interests of the two men diverged with Shelikhov’s voyage to establish a settlement on Kodiak Island (1783–1786), and from 1792 the companies of the former partners engaged in an increasingly bitter fight for control of the Alaskan fur trade.

The Lebedev-Lastochkin Company was strong in Unalaska, and his men were the first to explore and dominate the trade in the upper Alaska Peninsula, where they explored and controlled the portages from Bristol Bay to Cook Inlet. The company also explored inland as far as the Yukon-Kuskokwim basin and in 1787 and 1790 the company established two forts, St. George and St. Nicholas, on the western side of the Kenai Peninsula. The Lebedev-Lastochkin Company was dominant at the head of Cook Inlet, and controlled the portages between Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound (PWS), had outposts on Montague Island, at Nucek (Port Etches) on Hinchinbrook Island, and explored down the coast from PWS into the delta of the Copper River.

However the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company was in trouble during the late 1790s. The company had no strong settlement or management in Alaska, no ship building facilities, and he was overextended and unable to provide employees with sufficient supplies and reinforcements. The company was overshadowed by others but Lebedev-Lastochkin was an extremely important figure in the initial period of Alaskan exploration, trade and establishment of Russian control around the Gulf of Alaska.