Wrangel, Wrangell, or Vrangel, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von, 1796-1870, Russian naval officer, arctic explorer, and government administrator. He commanded a Russian naval expedition (1820-24) that explored the Arctic. He led another Russian expedition around the world (1825-27) and was the first governor of the Russian colonies in Alaska (1829-35), director of the Russian-American company (1840-49), and minister of the navy (1855-57). He was highly critical of the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. Several islands are named for him. His diaries of his arctic expedition have been translated into German and English.

Wrangel, Friedrich Heinrich Ernst, Graf von, 1784-1877, Prussian field marshal. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1848 he commanded the German federal army sent to aid the primarily German provinces of Schleswig and Holstein in their revolt against Danish rule. In the same year he suppressed the revolutionists in Berlin. He commanded the Austro-Prussian troops in the first months of the war with Denmark in 1864.

Wrangel, Karl Gustaf, 1613-76, Swedish general and admiral. After distinguishing himself in land campaigns in the Thirty Years War, he succeeded to command of the fleet at Fehmarn and defeated (1644) the Danes. In 1646 he became field marshal, succeeded Torstensson as commander in chief of the Swedish army in Germany, and overran Bavaria with the French general, Turenne. Wrangel was created count of Salmis and Solvesborg in 1651. During the reign of Charles X he commanded in the Polish wars as admiral and general and successfully invaded (1657-58) Denmark. After the peace of 1660, he was presented with honors and was made regent of Charles XI.

Wrangel, Baron Piotr Nikolayevich, 1878-1928, Russian general. After serving in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) and in World War I, he joined (late 1917) the anti-Bolshevik armies in S Russia. After the rout in early 1920 of the Denikin forces, Wrangel succeeded Denikin in command and soon whipped the demoralized remains of the White Army into shape. He also tried to win popular support with a program for land reform. He was successful for a while on the Crimean front, but the Russian armistice with Poland, with which it was at war from April to Oct., 1920, enabled the Communists to concentrate larger forces against him. Wrangel was forced back into the Crimea, and in Nov., 1920, he had to evacuate his forces to Constantinople. The Russian civil war thus came to an end. Wrangel died in exile at Brussels.

Island, northeastern Russia. Located in the Arctic Ocean, it is crossed by the 180th meridian. It has an area of some 2,800 sq mi (7,300 sq km). Although it reaches an altitude of 3,596 ft (1,096 m) at Sovetskaya Mountain, there are no glaciers. The Russian explorer Ferdinand P. Wrangel, for whom the island was later named, determined its location from accounts of Siberian natives but did not land there during his mapping of the Siberian coast in the early 1820s. Russian fur traders subsequently visited the island, and it was sighted by U.S. vessels in 1867 and 1881. Survivors of a sunken Canadian ship reached Wrangel in 1914, and the leader of the expedition created an international incident in the early 1920s when he claimed Wrangel for Canada without authorization. The Soviet Union then annexed the island, and permanent occupation began in 1926. Wrangel Island State Reserve, established in 1976, occupies 1,730,000 ac (700,000 ha). The reserve was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.

Learn more about Wrangel Island with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Wrangel or Wrangell can refer to:

• House of Wrangel, a Baltic German noble family
• Herman Wrangel, a Swedish Governor-General of Livonia, Field Marshal, and Privy Councillor
• Carl Gustaf Wrangel, a Swedish soldier and Privy Councillor (son of Herman Wrangel)
• Ferdinand von Wrangel (1797-1870), Baltic German admiral and explorer in Russian service, Governor of Russian Alaska
• Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (Peter von Wrangel), a leader of the White Army during the Russian Civil War

• Friedrich Heinrich Ernst Graf von Wrangel (1784-1877), Prussian Generalfeldmarschall

Places in Siberia and Alaska named after Ferdinand von Wrangel:

• Wrangel Island, a Russian island in the Arctic Ocean
• Wrangell Island, Alaska
• Wrangell, Alaska, a town on Wrangell Island
• Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve
• Wrangell Narrows
• Wrangell Mountains
• Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, Alaska
• Mount Wrangell, Alaska

See also

• Wrangle
• Wrangler
• Rangel
• Rangle