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Grigorii Shelikov was a prominent figure in the Russian-American Fur Trade and among the most important explorers of Russian America in the 18th Century.  

Shelikov financed and led a number of important expeditions between 1775 and 1783.  In 1784, he established a factory on Kodiak Island in 1784 at Three Saints Harbor, the first European settlement in Alaska.  he later set up other settlements on Afognak and Atka Islands, and on the Kenai Peninsula. In 1792, the factory on Kodiak was moved north to St. Pauls Harbor after Thre Saints Harbor was destroyed by an earthquake.  He was also one of the founders of the Russian American Company in 1799.