Аннотация

There are many unknown aspects of the history of the great geographical discoveries. Russian expeditions guided by M.S. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov in 1732 are among «mysterious» events, stimulating historians’ curiosity. Based on the contradictory witnesses of the expedition’s participants and other original archive materials the author reveals the story of the expedition which reached the American cost nine years earlier then Vitus Bering, who was widely acknowledged as the first Russian to find the way to North – American continent.