Kamtchatka Coast

The Alyutor coast belonged to a settled maritime society whose fishing and sea-mammal hunting differed from the reindeer economy of the inland tundra. Russian expansion into Kamchatka brought detachments across Koryak lands, and abuses in tribute collection and requisitioning provoked sustained resistance in the early eighteenth century.

In 1714 a Russian-led force attacked Bolshoi Posad, an Alyutor fortified settlement on a rocky headland washed by the sea on two sides. The campaign's aftermath brought a wider uprising involving Yukaghirs and Koryaks. The Russians eventually evacuated their Alyutor fortress by boat, and it was burned. A replacement built in 1732 was destroyed the following year. Control of this coast remained contested despite the establishment of Russian forts and the movement of supplies towards Kamchatka.