The development of gold mining in the northeast of Russia and the Olekma-Vitim expedition of 1866

Most of the existing literature about the Olekma-Vitim expedition of 1866 is devoted to the work of Peter Kropotkin, a well-known scientist, geographer, and geologist, who headed the expedition on behalf of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Meanwhile, the main task of the undertaking was to search for a cattle road between the Olekma mines and the Nerchinsk District, in which the gold mining partnerships were interested. The article is aimed at establishing the role and significance of the gold miners in the organization and conduct of the Olekma-Vitim expedition. The author concludes that the success of the enterprise was mainly due to the effective cooperation of gold mining companies and Russian scientists.