YAKUTSK, January 10. /TASS/. The Russian Geographical Society's branch in Yakutia plans for the current year an expedition on a sailing yacht to mark the 300th anniversary of the Great Northern Expedition led by Captain-Commander Vitus Bering (1681-1741), the branch's leader Alexander Gorokhov told TASS.

The expedition, due in April-October, will promote the history of the Far East's development.

"In 2025 we mark the 180th anniversary of the Russian Geographical Society, as well as the 300th anniversary of the date when Vitus Bering's Great Northern Expedition began," he said. "For the jubilee year, our branch has planned an inter-regional sailing expedition from Yakutsk to the Kamchatka through the Bering Strait."

The inter-regional project will feature branches of the Russian Geographical Society in the Kamchatka, Krasnodar, Magadan and Chukotka Regions. The expedition will begin in Yakutsk to finish in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

"Back in 1731, the Russian Empire set an ambitious goal for Vitus Bering - to find a route between Eurasia and North America," the Yakut branch's representative said. "Big groups of explorers were to map shores of large Siberian rivers, of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. That project is dubbed the Great Northern Expedition. It lasted for a total of about ten years, if we include preparations in St. Petersburg, which in fact began the Russian scientific studies of the Eastern Siberia rivers and of the Arctic coast. For many decades, all Far East studies have relied on data gathered under the guidance of Vitus Bering and his associates."

Expedition projects

Vitus Bering was the founder of a navigation school in Yakutsk, the expert said. Therefore, the Russian Geographical Society will start a navigation school for school students. The yacht's crew will meet school students in settlements on the route to promote the history of great geographical discoveries. The students will learn about sailing and tourism, types of sailboats, basic navigation, will see navigation and communication equipment, and will be invited to practice certain skills.

The expedition participants will make a film about the expedition for a wide audience to show the current state of the Northern Sea Route and the life of the North's indigenous peoples. The participants will explore extreme yacht tourism along the Northern Sea Route and will identify potentially sites to develop tourism. "I would like to note separately the memorial project of laying a handful of soil from Denmark onto Bering's grave - that would be a public diplomacy event," he continued.

The Great Northern Expedition in the 18th century explored the northern coast of Eurasia, entire Siberia, the Kamchatka, seas and lands of the Pacific Ocean, shores of Japan, and opened for scientists and navigators the northwestern shores of America. The expedition participants conducted research, made scientific discoveries in geography, geology, physics, botanic, zoology, and ethnography. The expedition is known for the first ever complete and detailed map of a vast part of the Russian Empire.