Overview

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is administrative center of the Kamchatka Territory of Russia located at the Avacha Bay of the Pacific Ocean not far from two active volcanoes:  the Koryakskaya Sopka and the Avacha Volcano. City was founded in 1740 by Russian navigator (Danish in origin) Vitus Jonassen Bering during the Second Kamchatka Expedition (Great Northern Expedition) and named after two ships of the expedition: “St. Peter” and “St. Paul”. In XVIII-XIX cc. city was visited by expeditions of many famous navigators: Jean François de Lapérouse, Charles Clerke who headed James Cook's expedition after his ruin at the Hawaiian Islands, the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth headed by Adam Johann von Krusenstern etc.. During the Crimean War (1853-1853) small garrison of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky successfully repulsed an attack of the British and French forces. Russian historian Yevgeny Tarle named Petropavlovsk victory “ray of light” which suddenly broke "through the dark clouds”. Now Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is large center of Russian Far East and one of the Russian Pacific Navy bases.