: Erez,

: 1. Baidarka is russian for small boat. That is what the russians called the
: Aleut kayaks (qajaq or qayaq).

There was a hint in Dyson's (absolutely magnificent) book 'Baidarka' that the word is not Russian but Ukrainian. I checked this with a lady at my work, whose parents are Ukrainian.

Apparently, the Ukrainian for a canoe (yep, it's in the Ukrainian dictionary) is baidark (in the Cyrillic alphabet, of course). The 'a' ending is for 'little', since the noun is feminine gender. The pronunciation is like 'bey-duck', the 'r' is silent and the accent is on the second syllable. It is in common but specialised usage - there are many are other, less-specific terms for 'boat', of course.

The Russian empire of the 1700's included a lot of nationalities and ethnic groups other than the Russians themselves. Just like now. Also a lot of mercenaries, like the Englishman James Shields, who we know as the shipwright who drew that beautiful double-pointed ikyak from Unalaska.