Malygin, Stefan

Date of birth unknown; died 1764. Russian arctic explorer, captain-commodore (1762).

Malygin studied at the Moscow School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences from 1711 to 1717. He entered the navy in 1717 as a midshipman (naval cadet); in 1721 he was promoted to lieutenant. He served in the Baltic Fleet until 1735. He compiled A Brief Navigation Guide According to Quartier de Reduction (1733), the first manual on navigation in the Russian language. In early 1736 he was appointed head of the western detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. In the summer of 1736, Malygin and A. Skuratov went in two boats from Dolgii Island through Iugorskii Shar to the lower course of the Kara River, where they left the boats for the winter. In the summer of 1737 they took both boats from the Kara River to the mouth of the Ob’, crossing the strait between the Yamal Peninsula and Belyi Island (now known as Malygin Strait); the voyages of Malygin’s detachment resulted in a description of this part of the arctic coastline and a compilation of a map of the coast from the Pechora to the Ob’. From 1741 to 1748, Malygin directed the training of navigators for the navy (he was in charge of the Kronstadt Navigator’s Rota [Company]), and in 1762 he became head of the Admiralty Office in Kazan.