Klyuchi

Klyuchi lies on the Kamchatka River near the great volcanic cone of Klyuchevskaya Sopka. The river and its tributaries were important routes through the country of the Itelmen, whose communities lived in the peninsula before Russian expansion. In the early eighteenth century a Russian fort known as Lower Kamchatka stood near the site of the later settlement. The region's rivers, springs and volcanic mountains gave travellers landmarks as well as difficult country to cross.

In 1731 Itelmen resistance led by Fyodor Kharchin struck the fort, which was destroyed amid the uprising. The Russian authorities rebuilt the post much farther downstream; the later Lower Kamchatka should therefore be distinguished from the old site near Klyuchi. In 1741 families of farming settlers brought from the Ilim region were sent to Kamchatka, with some placed at the former fort site. A local account records a Trinity church built in 1752 and destroyed by fire in 1780. The history of Klyuchi thus carries the memory of Itelmen resistance, forced migration and the gradual establishment of a farming settlement along the river.