New land Cossack Dezhnev
Karazin N.N. 17 century. Siberian Cossacks in conducting a new piece of land
At the end of June, 1648, a detachment of industrialists left the Nizhnekolymsky fortress on seven roads and went into the unknown. For the Russian people, this land, infinitely far from the relatives of Suzdal, Kostroma, Novgorod, or Moscow’s capital, was almost the end of the world. The path from the local suburbs to the central regions of the Russian state took many months and totaled thousands of miles across the wild and unexplored terrain. Now it was necessary to penetrate even further into completely unexplored lands, information about which was received only by scanty scraps from the local population. The expedition, which had left the Nizhnekolymsky jail, had very practical goals: to explore the places of walrus rookeries and territories rich in fur-bearing animals. Its participants had to overcome many difficulties, and not all of them came back. The facts of geographic discoveries made by explorers will become known to the general public much later.
"New land"
The first half of the seventeenth century for the Russian state was a period filled with diverse and often tragic events. The Great Smoot shuddered the whole country and almost led her to death. However, despite numerous external and internal factors, Russia has withstood and continued its development. The processes of state-building interrupted by strife, war, and foreign intervention gradually returned to their traditional course. The ruined cities gradually came to life, trade was established. Russia had something to offer Europe to a war-shrouded Thirty Years War. And it was not only bread, in the trade with which Russian merchants fiercely competed with their counterparts from the Commonwealth. Traditionally, not only in the West, but also in the Middle East, dressed skins of fur-bearing animals were in great demand. This product was expensive, delivered it from afar - it was often used as valuable gifts at diplomatic receptions. Furs, or, as they said in Russia, soft junk largely played the role of currency in foreign markets.
The second sheet of Western European prints 1576, the "Russian Embassy to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian II in Regensburg." Unknown artist
When the squadron of ataman Yermak Timofeevich in the second half of the XVI century passed through the Stone Belt (as the people called the Ural Mountains) and defeated one of the last fragments of the once huge Golden Horde - the Siberian Khanate, - stories Rus - the development of Siberia. It cannot be said that the territories located beyond the Urals were absolutely not known. In the northeastern lands of Novgorod made their campaigns in the earlier time. But it was precisely with the expedition of Yermak that the planned development of the vast spaces beyond the Ural Range began. The economic factor of this expansion was very significant: expensive furs highly valued in foreign markets. In addition, another valuable material was harvested in the northern regions - walrus bone, which is widely used in crafts and jewelry.
During the Great Troubles, the pace of development of Siberia declined - in the central regions of the Russian state great tragic events took place, all of its internal forces were aimed at survival. Subsequently, in the XVII century, the land exploration took a different turn - it became purposeful. Siberia, a new region of the country, was ruled by a special Siberian order, which emphasized the special attitude to this land. The Siberian order included its most important component - the sable treasury. The treasury was supposed to keep records of the arrival and expenditure of "soft junk" (as they used to call furs in Russia) and "fish tooth" (walrus bone). These products of the trade along with gold and precious stones were truly strategic reserves of the Russian state.
The Siberian order itself was located in Moscow, and the skins and furs were brought from Siberia by special wagons under heavy guard. The Office had for those times quite wide powers. For example, it sent special orders to local governors — orders that instructed them to continuously search for a “new land”, rich in fur-bearing animals. The increasing scale of hunting has consistently reduced the population of animals, which forced hunters and fishermen to move farther to the East. Often it was a crowd of free miners, going at their own risk and in search of mining and earnings.
The organization of special trade expeditions were often invested by wealthy merchants, primarily capital ones. If successful, such enterprises promised huge profits. Their European counterparts were doing the same thing, equipping ships to distant eastern countries for precious spices. Following industrialists and merchants, servicemen often went to Siberia — local people, often very unfriendly-minded, needed to swear in the Sovereign and tax yasak.
An important role in the development of Russian Siberia in the first quarter of the seventeenth century was played by the city of Mangazeya. He quickly grew out of a small settlement on the Taz River, becoming a polar trade center, a yasak assembly point and a river port. In 1600, despite the difficult period for the state, Tsar Boris Godunov sent a hundred archers from Tobolsk to the Taz River to lay a wooden fort and a church there. The place was successful, and soon this remote area became a very lively place. From here, trade in fur and walrus bones was conducted not only with other regions of the country, but also through Arkhangelsk - with Western Europe. Mangazeya became so famous a city that in Amsterdam, this peculiar trade and financial gate of Europe, its map was even published in 1612.
Mangazeya, judging by later archaeological research and information from the chronicles, had four streets and more 200 houses. It housed the Kremlin, the voevodsky house, three churches, numerous storage and craft buildings. In addition to the Cossacks, there were a hundred archers with guns in the garrison of Mangazeya. However, the prosperity of the city was short - in 1620, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich issued a decree banning the sea route to Mangazeya, fearing not only the smuggling of furs, but also the widespread penetration of foreigners into the Russian north. The fact is that in those years in England, the options for taking this remote region under its protectorate were considered. However, their own turmoil and the measures taken by the Russian government, prevented the implementation of such plans of businesslike British.
The 1620 decree adversely affected the well-being of Mangazeya: trade began to decay, to this was added a reduction in the vicinity of the fur-bearing beast due to uncontrolled extermination, the city experienced two fires. After that, its importance as an economic center began to decline steadily, and by the middle of the 17th century it fell into decay, and in 1671 it was completely abandoned. Despite the decline of Mangazeya, the exploration of Siberia by Russian explorers continued - they penetrated farther and farther to the East, and more and more often heard from the local population talk of the huge sea.
Oceanside
As already mentioned, the Cossacks played the most active role in the development of Siberia. They were desperate and brave people who were not afraid of the enormous distances, the hardest frosts, hunger and deprivation. Many of them disappeared, were missing in the vast expanses of the Siberian land. But a lot of them captured their names on geographical maps. One of the brightest figures in the extensive list of conquerors of distant and harsh territories was the Cossack Semyon Ivanov Dezhnev.
Map of Siberia of Tobolsk Voevoda Peter Godunov, 1667
Semyon Dezhnev was a simple man - he did not have a noble birth with an extensive list of noble ancestors and influential relatives. There was no reason to participate in so typical of the then aristocracy parochialism - the squabbles, during which it was found out who is more distinguished, whose beard is longer, and the beaver hat is higher. Dezhnev was born in the ancient city of Veliky Ustyug in 1605 in an ordinary peasant family, when the fractional tramp of Polish cavalry and the discordant clash of foreign mercenaries were heard along the roads of Russia. Although there is no final opinion on the birthplace of the future explorer. It is known that in the 16th century on the Pinega River of the Arkhangelsk Territory there were Pomors, named Dezhneva, who were supposedly relatives of him.
The exact time when Semyon Dezhnev left his home and went to look for happiness in distant lands has not been established, however there is an assumption that this did not happen before 1630 of the year. It is known that in 1631, for the service in Tobolsk in Vologda, Veliky Ustyug, Totme they recruited 500 men - probably the future ataman was among them. Rumors about the unprecedented riches of the far northern lands prompted many to go to serve in the Siberian cities and ostrog. In 1635, Mr. Semyon Ivanov found himself in Tobolsk, and in 1638, together with a detachment under the command of Peter Beketov, he moved to Lensky burg. In the same year, the Yakutsk voivodship was founded, and the burg was later moved to 70 km upstream and renamed Yakutsk. This stronghold became the center of Russian development in Eastern Siberia.
Service in Lensky prison was difficult. As an ordinary Cossack, Semyon Dezhnev received 5 rubles a year, plus a certain amount of rye, oats, and salt from state-owned storerooms. But even this modest salary was systematically delayed. The first documentary mention of Dezhnev refers to the 1638 summer of G .: according to the Cossack entry in the purchase book, in exchange for four sable skins received 27 beesmen of the sovereign flour. In 1640, a special decree allowed the Cossacks to engage in animal industry, trade, with the exception of the fur trade and the collection of yasak. In March of the same 1640, the name of Dezhnev and other Cossacks as respondents is found in the case of abuse of the son of the boyar Parfen Khodyrev. During the two years of management of Lensky, Khodyrev appropriated more than 3 thousand yasak sable skins, led the illegal fur trade and appropriated state funds on a large scale for that time.
Relations with the population evolved quite uneasy - the locals were not at all enthusiastic about the fact that it was necessary to pay tribute to some Big King, who also lived in the vast distance from the local lands. At the same time, the royal authorities tried not to quarrel without good reason with the Yakuts, resolving matters with them as far as possible with the world. In August, 1640 Mr. Semyon Dezhnev, with a small detachment, was sent by ataman Osip Galkin to settle a difficult dispute between two tribes, and in the instructions he was instructed to "do not fix insults and violence" and use force only as a last resort. Dezhnev successfully coped with the task, rightly reconciling the warring.
Cossack noticed and began to give him even more important assignments. After the Yakut uprising was suppressed in 1637, most of the local Toyoons (leaders) concluded a peace agreement with Lensky prison and paid tribute. However, some of them, who valued their independence, decided to flee to remote areas. The most significant in terms of influence among the discontented was Toyon Sahei Otnakov. He killed two Cossacks sent to him to collect Yasak and fled to Orgutskaya volost. Another experienced Cossack, Ivan Timofyevich Metlenk, was sent along his trail, but he also shared the sad fate of the previous envoys. Then Ataman Osip Galkin ordered Semyon Dezhnev to catch up with the rebellious Toyon and make him pay his due. The difficult mission was successfully accomplished. Taking the Sables from Sahey Otnakov and his clan 140, the Cossack returned to Yakutsk.
And further Dezhnev's service passed dynamically, without monotonous garrison sitting. In winter, 1640 – 1641. He served on Yana in the detachment of Dmitry Ivanovich Zyryan. After gathering the yasak, the detachment moved on to Alazei, and Dezhnev and several Cossacks were sent with collected furs to Yakutsk. On the way back they were attacked by the Evenki - Dezhnev was wounded several times, but the natives attacking with superior forces were beaten off with losses.
Next winter 1641 – 1642. he goes along with the detachment of Mikhail Stadukhin to the upper Indigirka, one of the coldest places on earth, Oymyakon, to gather tribute from Evenks and Yakuts. Successfully collecting a tribute, in the spring the Cossacks built a koch and marched on it to the very headwaters of Indigirka. The next year, 1643, the Stadukhin detachment passed by sea to Alazeya, where they were met by the people of Dmitry Zyryan. In the autumn of the same year, the combined expedition decided to take a sea voyage to Kolyma. There, at the end of 1643 - the beginning of 1644, the settlement of Nizhnekolymsk was founded. Here Dezhnev and his comrades lived for almost three years.
Soon, through contacts with the local population, Cossacks began to hear rumors about a large river, the banks of which are rich in fur. So it was received one of the first news about the Angara. In the summer of 1646, a party of industrialists headed by feeding man Isaev Ignatiev, nicknamed Mezenets, came out in search of a “sable river”. For two days they walked along the sea eastward in ice-free water, until they reached a certain lip, apparently Chaunskaya. In this area, the Chukchi were met, with whom they managed to establish trade relations - walrus bone and products made of it were acquired through exchange. They also received information that a lot of walruses are found here.
When Ignatiev returned to Nizhnekolymsk and spoke about his reconnoitered comrades, the settlement became agitated. The trade in “fish tooth” was not considered as profitable as fur, however, according to Ignatiev, there was a lot of tooth, and walrus rookeries were relatively close. Moreover, there was a kind of “state order” for large-scale mining of walrus bones — at this time Russia was at war with the Commonwealth, and in this situation the political position of the Ottoman Empire and its vassal of the Crimean Khanate was very important. Along with fur, the walrus bone was actively sent to Istanbul, where Russian diplomats used it as valuable gifts for important Turkish dignitaries. Oriental artisans and jewelers highly appreciated this exotic product in the south and made various articles and decorations from it. For the pood of the walrus bone, the royal cauldron paid 15 – 25 rubles, and sometimes more, depending on safety.
In the summer of 1647, on the initiative of Fedot Alekseevich Popov, nicknamed Kholmogorets, clerk of a wealthy Moscow merchant Vasily Usov, a large fishing expedition was equipped, the purpose of which was to search not only for extensive walrus rookery, but also for the rest of the sable people of the Anadyr river. Popov himself by this time was no longer a novice in the north and had experience of Arctic trips. Fedot Popov's squad consisted of 63 people on four kochas.
Pomeranian Koch
Koch was a single-deck ship, well adapted for navigation in the Arctic. They were built from small-layer dry pine forest, flexible and elastic, resistant to compression by ice. The length of the koch reached 18 – 24 meters and 4 – 5 with a small meter in the middle of the middle section. The carrying capacity of such a ship reached 2 thousand pounds, sometimes more. The crew was 10 – 15 people, in addition, he could carry 40 – 50 people passengers - industrialists or Cossacks. For the implementation of fishing and exits to the shore aboard there was a carbas or a boat-pad. A canvas sail with a height of 13 – 15 m and a width of 8 – 9 m was used as a mover. The ship was equipped with a metal anchor and several spare sails. Well-built and equipped koch cost a lot in the northern lands - 200 – 300 rubles. Simple Koch, for small groups of industrialists, was much cheaper - about 60 rubles.
As the richest and, therefore, the most influential member of the upcoming expedition, Fedot Popov appealed to the local authorities to appoint a special mandative to collect the yasak. It was both a lucrative and very responsible position. On the one hand, the person assigned to it had a share of the profits, and on the other, he carried substantial financial responsibility. If he did not deliver the specified number of skins to the treasury, he was responsible for the non-fulfillment of all his property, up to inventory and sales. Semyon Dezhnev compiled a petition in which he was called to be an order in the Popov detachment. The Cossack was not literate, so all his petitions, reports and reports were written by other people under dictation. His request was granted, and Dezhnev was seconded as responsible for collecting yasak to the upcoming expedition.
In June, Popov’s detachment left Nizhnekolymsk, but the summer weather was not favorable this year, and the Kochi met solid ice. Having stood almost all summer in one place, the expedition was forced to return. Failure did not stop the enterprising Popov, and he began preparations for the next expedition, which he planned for next year. Dezhnev again filed a petition on appointing him responsible for collecting yasak.
Around the enterprise, which promised to be profitable, there was an uproar in local circles, and Semyon had an unexpected rival. They were the Yakut Cossack Gerasim Ankidinov, who pledged to deliver the pellets to the 280 treasury and go to the service with his ship, people and supplies. Dezhnev, in response to this attack, offered to give 290 sables and accused a competitor, perhaps with good reason, that under the guise of participation in the expedition Ankidinov and his people are going to engage in robbery and robbery of the local population in the newly discovered territories. So it was true or not, but local authorities made a Solomonic decision: they appointed Dezhnev responsible for collecting the yasak and at the same time did not prevent Ankidinov and his people from taking part in the enterprise on their own. Nor was he against Popov himself, who, unlike last year’s attempt, had already equipped six kochas.
20 June 1648. More than 90 people on seven kochas (one belonged to Ankidinov) left Kolyma and turned east. Thus began the historic voyage of Semyon Dezhnev and his comrades.
From ocean to ocean
The first days of swimming were relatively calm. A fair wind blew and the sea was free of ice. Popov and Dezhnev were on different coaches. However, soon the ships were overtaken by a storm, and two kochas were cast ashore. As local residents later told, the wrecked were met with hostility by the Koryaks and were partially killed. The fate of the rest remains unknown. Presumably at the end of August, travelers ended up in the strait that separates Asia from America, which is now called Bering. The September 20 expedition rounded the Big Stone nose, as Dezhnev called it, the easternmost point of the Eurasian continent. Somewhere in the area, Koch Gerasim Ankidinova crashed against the rocks, and he and his crew switched to the remaining four ships.
During the next storm that broke out on October 1, the ships of Dezhnev and Popov were separated. So the first known voyage from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific took place. In his subsequent petitions, Dezhnev pointed out that quite a few people lived on the banks, who used original jewelry: they wore two bones in the pierced lower lip. In the end, Dezhnev’s koch with the 25 people on it washed ashore, presumably on the Olyutorsky peninsula located 900 kilometers south-west of the Chukotka Peninsula. Koch Fedot Popov (as narrated by the legends of the local population collected in the first half of the 18th century) brought to the Kamchatka coast. Here the Russian people lived for a long time, repulsing the attacks of the Koryaks with the help of firearms. weapons. In the end, the emboldened aborigines attacked and slaughtered them all.
Dezhnevtsy, taking all possible equipment and supplies from the Koch, moved north-east to the Anadyr River. After weeks of 10 walking and skiing, exhausted and starving, travelers finally reached the mouth of this river. At this point, the detachment divided - half of it went to the neighborhood in search of traces of nomads. After wandering through the 20 days and finding nothing, the scouts returned. Exhausted, they did not reach the Dezhnev site about three miles away - they dug holes in the ground to settle down for the night. Envoys were sent to the ataman himself. Dezhnev sent one of those returning back with a scant supply of provisions and the last surviving blanket. However, he found empty pits and not a trace of his comrades. Dezhnev suggested that the exhausted people were simply attacked by the local people and took them away. Thus, the detachment of Semen Dezhnev was reduced by almost half.
Wintering 1648 – 1649 on Anadyr was hard, but the Cossacks were able to overcome difficulties and survive. The river itself made a dual impression on them: on the one hand, it was rich in fish, on the other, its shores were poor in forest, and there were few sables in the vicinity. In the spring of 1649, having built boats from the materials at hand, a handful of stubborn explorers set off up the river. Here Dezhnev and his associates met the locals, the Anaules - the Yukagir tribe roaming the tundra. The clash ended in victory for the Russians. Two soldiers were taken as hostages, and the tribe itself was forced to pay tribute to the Russian Tsar.
The Cossacks built a small island, surrounded it with a shaft with a wooden wall and a moat. In addition to all the other troubles, Dezhnev conducted a survey of the Anadyr River basin and came to the disappointing conclusion that there is not much fur in this area. The ataman planned to first try to build a larger vessel and reach the Kolyma River on it, but the lack of the necessary equipment, such as sails and ropes, made it necessary to abandon the plan. And Dezhnev with his few comrades began to master a new edge. They compiled the first map of the Anadyr basin. In 1650, a party of industrialists and Cossacks from Nizhnekolymsk arrived here on deer and dog sledding. The ataman remained in the fort built by him, nicknamed Anadyr, collecting tribute from the local population. In 1652, he managed to find a very large walrus rookery, on which there was a lot of “fish fish overseas,” that is, walrus bones that died a natural death. From time to time such a bone acquired a characteristic light yellow shade, and was valued at a very high price.
When a sufficiently large amount of walrus bone and fur accumulated in the Anadyr prison, Dezhnev decided to transport the prey to Nizhnekolymsk by dry way. In 1660, the ataman, at his request, was replaced, and with the precious “bone treasury” he moved to Kolyma, and from there the sea to Lena. In the spring of 1662, Mr. Dezhnev arrived in Yakutsk and at the end of July of the same year went to Moscow to deliver the precious walrus bone there. He got to the capital in September 1664.
In January of the following year, 1665, with a deserved Cossack, a full settlement was made. The fact is that from 1641 to 1660 year he did not receive any salary - neither money nor bread. The amount of yasak delivered was estimated at more than 17 thousand rubles in silver. The total amount of salary paid to Dezhnev for 19 years of difficult and dangerous service amounted to 126 rubles 20 kopecks. For his labors and wounds, the king commanded him to "make up for atamans" already officially. Informally, Dezhnev was already a long time leader and chieftain for his associates. Returning to Eastern Siberia, the Cossack continued to serve on the rivers Yana, Vilyuk and Olenek.
In December, 1671 g. Once again arrived in the capital from Yakutsk with a cargo of sable treasury, but the long journeys in harsh conditions were not in vain, and, having become ill, Dezhnev was forced to stay in Moscow. There in 1673, he died. For a long time, the opening of the strait between Asia and America remained unknown - the local Yakut authorities were more interested in systematic collection of yasak from local tribes than any kind of “Stone Noses”. The merits of Dezhnev as a land explorer and discoverer were not evaluated - after 80 years later Vitus Bering, who again opened the strait between two continents, did not even suspect that Cochi Dezhnev and Popov had visited these waters long before the Saint Peter package.
The discovery of Dezhnev became known much later when, in 1738, an employee of the Great Northern Expedition, scientist Miller accidentally discovered in the Yakutsk archives a forgotten petition in which the brave Cossack outlined the details of his voyage. In 1898, at the initiative of the Russian Geographical Society, the extreme extremity of Eurasia, formerly known as Cape Vostochny, was called Cape Dezhnev. The Cossack, perhaps, did not even know about the importance of the discoveries made by him - like many other sovereigns, he simply performed his service. It was an illiterate, rude and tough man, a son of his time, deprived of sentiments and lyrical mood when meeting with the unknown. The European conquistadors, with luck, were returning from New World to wealthy and respected people: the Marquis del Valle would have laughed loudly at such a pitiful amount that Dezhnev received over twenty years of service.
Monument dedicated to the memory of explorers and navigators of the XVII – XVIII centuries. Veliky Ustyug, 1971 Propulsion Sculptor E. A. Vishnevetskaya
Semyon Dezhnev is a large and significant chapter in the extensive and long history of the development of the Arctic. There is still no definitive opinion as to whether the pioneer of the Alaska coast saw, whether he and his companions landed on its shore. In the middle of the 20th century in America, data appeared on the discovery of a supposedly Novgorod colony of the 16th, and possibly of the 15th century in Alaska. Allegedly, there is information that local missionaries saw household items and icons in their local residents, apparently dating back to the time long before the formation of Russian America. There is no exact data on this discussion question, and it remains open. It is likely that for many decades before Semen Dezhnev, the ships of Novgorod, looking for a better life in a foreign land, passed through the modern Bering Strait. After all, the history of geographical discoveries still keeps many secrets and mysteries.
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