Born c. 1610, Ustyug, Russia
Died c. 1670

During the 1630s, inhabitants of Russia’s eastern frontier heard rumors of a great river that was located in southeastern Siberia. It was said that the people who lived in that river valley possessed great wealth, for their land was rich with precious metals, especially silver. Russian expeditions were soon launched to find the Amur River valley. In 1644, for instance, cossack Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov (?–1668) and his party of men located the river and descended to its mouth near the Pacific Ocean. Yerofey Pavlovich Khabarov was another such explorer, who made two expeditions into the Amur region. He built several forts there during his second trip, establishing Russian claims to the area.

Khabarov was born around 1610 in the town of Ustyug in the northern part of European Russia. Sometime around 1636 he joined other pioneers in Siberia, Russia...