Yevfimy Putyatin

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Yevfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin (Russian: Евфи́мий Васи́льевич Путя́тин) (November 8, 1803–October 16, 1883) was a Russian admiral noted for his diplomatic missions to Japan and China in the 1850's.

He was amongst the crew that sailed around the world i with M.P. Lazarev (1822 - 1825). and participated in the Caucasus Campaign (1838 - 1839). In 1842 he led an armed diplomatic mission to Iran, which secured diplomatic relations, trade relations and steamer communication between the two countries.

He commanded a Russian expedition to open Japan to trade, which went to England, Africa and Japan and back to Russia from 1852 to 1855, onboard the frigate Pallada. These efforts culminated in the signing of a commercial treaty between Russia and Japan in 1855.

He arrived in Nagasaki on August 12, 1853, just one month after the first visit of Commodore Perry. Putyatin made a demonstration of a steam engine on his ship the Pallada, which led to Japan's first manufacture of a steam engine the same year under the direction of Hisashige Tanaka.

In his expedition, Putyatin was accompanied by a secretary, the writer Goncharov, who wrote a travelogue, The Frigate Pallada (The Frigate Pallas), published in 1858 ("Pallada" is the Russian spelling of "Pallas").

Following his successful trip to Japan he was made a Count and following the Crimea War he wa appointed Naval Attaché in London. In February 1857 he was appointed plenipotentiary to China and set out aboard the from St Petersburg in March of that year