Boris Vilkitsky
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Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky (Russian: Борис Андреевич Вилькицкий)(22 March (possibly 3 April) 1885 — 6 March 1961) was a Russian hydrographer and surveyor. He was the son of Andrey Ippolitovich Vilkitsky.
Vilkitsky graduated from the Naval Academy in Saint Petersburg in 1908. He participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In 1913—1915 he led the Arctic hydrographic expedition on the ships "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" with the purpose of further exploration of the Northern Sea Route. In 1913, Vilkitsky's expedition discovered Severnaya Zemlya, an island that now bears his name, the islands of Maliy Taimyr and Starokadomsky. In 1914—1915, Vilkitsky's expedition made the first through voyage from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk, discovered the Novopashenniy Island (now Zhokhov Island), and described the southern coastline of Severnaya Zemlya.
In 1918, Vilkitsky was appointed head of the first Soviet hydrographic expedition, which never took place due to its seizure by the interventionists in Arkhangelsk. In 1920, Vilkitsky emigrated to Britain. In 1923 and 1924, Vilkitsky led commercial expeditions in the Kara Sea at the invitation of the Soviet foreign trade organizations. Later in his life, Vilkitsky was employed as a hydrographer in the Belgian Congo.
A strait between Severnaya Zemlya and Taimyr Peninsula bears Vilkitsky's name.
He died in Brussels in 1961.
