Pavel Sergeyevich Lebedev-Lastochkin (Russian: Павел Сергеевич Лебедев-Ласточкин) was a Russian merchant from Yakutsk who, in the late 18th century, became one of the first Russians to make contact with the Japanese. The government had hoped to enlist the efforts of private merchants, to help them open Japan at far less cost to the government than if they had sent official emissaries or military.