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Jacob von Stählin, also known as Jakob Staehlin von Storcksburg, was a German intellectual (1709-1785). He moved to Russia in 1735 after an appointment at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He served as a professor of rhetoric and the tutor to future Tsar Peter III’s for three years; he later served as Peter’s librarian. His most famous work is a collection of anecdotes about the life of Peter the Great, but he also compiled a geographic work on the Russian activity in the North Pacific, which contained an important and controversial map showing Alaska as an island.