Afanasy Nikitin | Pashkov House | Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin | Afanasy Fet |
The fort of Nerchinsk dates from 1654 and the town was founded four years later by Afanasy Pashkov, who in that year opened direct communication between the Russian settlements in Transbaikalia and those on the Amur River which had been founded by Cossacks and fur-traders coming from the Yakutsk region.