List of Russian explorers

At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,850 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of Earth's landmass.

In the times of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, the country's share in the world's landmass reached 1/6.

In 1819 the authorities selected Bellingshausen to lead the First Russian Antarctic Expedition which was intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole.

With two ships, sloop-of-war Vostok ("East") and support vessel Mirny ("Peaceful") were led by Mikhail Lazarev, the journey started from Kronstadt on 4 June 1819.

Thus they disproved Captain Cook's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice fields.