Ichinskiy Coast

The Ichinskiy Coast faces the Sea of Okhotsk on western Kamchatka. The peninsula's rivers and shores were home to Indigenous communities long before Russian expansion. Itelmen livelihoods depended heavily on fishing, especially salmon; river settlements and fishing grounds connected families to particular waterways.

Russian expeditions reached Kamchatka in the late seventeenth century, bringing new forts and demands for fur tribute. Resistance, coercion and disease accompanied the imposition of Russian rule. In the eighteenth century sea routes connected western Kamchatka with Okhotsk, while Stepan Krasheninnikov's account described the peninsula and its inhabitants.