Fedor Ivanovich Soimonov

Fedor Soimonov
Oil portrait of Fedor I. Soimonov around 1750
Born	1692 near Kherson, Ukraine
Died	July 22, 1780(1780-07-22) Serpukhov
Allegiance	Russian Empire
Service/branch	Imperial Russian Navy
Rank	Vice-Admiral
Chief of the Russian Admiralty Board
In office 1739–1740
Governor of the Siberia Governorate
In office 1757–1763
Personal details
Awards	Order of St. Alexander Nevsky

Fedor Ivanovich Soimonov (Russian: Фёдор Иванович Соймо́нов; 1692 – 22 July 1780), Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, was a nautical surveyor of the Imperial Russian Navy, hydrographer and pioneering explorer of the Caspian Sea who charted the until then little known body of water. Soimonov was an important contributor to the improvement of navigation along the Russian coasts. As a cartographer he also mapped new territories in Siberia and contributed to the development of farming in that region. As a military man he served in the Russian campaigns against Sweden and against the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Turks

Fedor Soimonov was born in a noble family, the House of Soimonov. He became a graduate of the Moscow School of Navigation and went to the Netherlands for training.

Soimonov made the first thorough hydrographic survey of the Caspian Sea between 1719 and 1727, building up on the survey previously done by Karl Van Verden during tsar Peter the Great's drive for reform and modernization at the beginning of the 18th century. He led the Caspian Expedition that explored the coasts of the sea. As a result of the survey Soimonov drew a set of maps of the Caspian for the 'Atlas of the Caspian Sea' (Atlas Kapiiskago Moria) and wrote the 'Pilot of the Caspian Sea'. Published in 1731 by the Russian Academy of Sciences, these became the first comprehensive report and the first modern maps of the Caspian in history. Between 1730 and 1738 he was employed as a cartographer for the Russian Admiralty Board, which had been established in 1718 by Peter I the Great.