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In the 12th-20th centuries, Russian navigators, explorers and natural scientists discovered a great many geographical objects that are listed on the modern map of the world. Only a small part of our great discoverers is familiar to readers from textbooks of geography and history. In his book "Pioneers" Mikhail Tsiporukha collected invaluable information about those travelers whose names are undeservedly forgotten today.

The book contains biographies of Russian explorers, exciting stories of their travels, cultural essays on the life of little-known peoples and descriptions of geographical objects made during the expeditions. Each chapter is dedicated to a different traveler. Ancient maps, archival materials perfectly complement and illustrate the publication.

Mikhail Isaakovich Tsiporukha
PIONEERS
RUSSIAN NAMES ON THE MAP OF EURASIA

Going for a dream

In the 17th-20th centuries, Russian navigators, explorers and natural scientists discovered for the country and for the world many geographical objects in the northern seas, in Siberia and the Far East, in the Middle and Central Asia- islands and peninsulas, bays and straits, rivers and lakes, mountain peaks and ranges. Dozens and hundreds of new names appeared on the maps, associated with the names of Russian travelers and explorers. Enlightened Europe and the rest of the world admired them, our ancestors. “The advance of the Russians through Siberia during the 17th century,” wrote the English scientist J. Baker, “went with stunning speed ... This obscure army gets such a feat that will forever remain a monument to its courage and enterprise and which no other European people has done ".

Our famous travelers S. I. Chelyuskin, the Laptev brothers, N. N. Miklukho-Maclay, N. M. Przhevalsky, I. F. Krusenstern, G. I. Nevelsky, F. F. Bellingshausen are known both in Europe and in Australia and in America.

This book tells about those researchers whose names are not so well known. Unfortunately, they are rarely remembered, and many of them are forgotten or almost forgotten. However, the activities of these pioneers, who passionately dreamed of unexplored lands, were aimed at the benefit of the country and greatly contributed to the development of domestic science, inherited by the same dreamers, passionate people - scientists of our time.

M. Tsiporukha

Ivan Moskvitin
TO THE SERIOUS SEA OF OKHOTSK

Her cliques sounded through the ages!

We walked, blind, and you opened up to us,

Quiet! Great!..

That's what we were waiting for, the children of the steppes!

Here it is, the element akin to the heart!

A miracle happened: on the verge of

Became Russia!

(Valery Bryusov)

In the 30s of the 17th century, Russian Cossacks and industrialists entrenched themselves in Yakutsk on the Lena and, based on the Lena prisons and winter quarters, in search of "new lands" moved both by sea to the east from the mouth of the Lena, and directly to the east along the land, and to south along the Lena and its right tributaries. Vague rumors reached them from local tribes that a huge sea stretched in the east, and in the south a wide, full-flowing river "Chirkol or Shilkor" flows behind the ridges (it is clear that it was undoubtedly about the Shilka and Amur rivers).

Tomsk Cossack ataman Pentecostal Dmitry Epifanovich Kopylov, service man Foma Fedulov and Yenisei clerk Gerasim Timofeev on January 11, 1636 filed a petition to the Tomsk governor Prince Ivan Ivanovich Romodanovsky, in which they claimed that they knew the way "to the Siviryuyu River, and many Tungus live on that river ... and for you, sovereign, yasak (tax, which was collected with valuable furs) from those Tunguses was not washed, and your sovereign people did not visit those lands. Petitioners asked the prince to let them go to this river and supply the expedition with weapons and food.

The voivode sent 10 cavalry and 40 foot Cossacks with Kopylov on a campaign. In 1637, Kopylov led a detachment from Tomsk to Yakutsk, the main prison of the Lena Land. The detachment even included a clerk and a blacksmith "for squeaky handicrafts and for all kinds of ship affairs." Probably, no one in Yakutsk could show Kopylov the way to this mysterious river, on the banks of which one could get a lot of "soft junk", that is, valuable furs. Oddly enough, the ataman chose the right direction.

In the spring of 1638, Kopylov’s detachment, with the translator-interpreter Semyon Petrov, nicknamed Chistoy, taken from Yakutsk, descended the Lena to the mouth of its right tributary, the Aldan, and then climbed up it on poles and tow lines for five weeks. At the end of July, 100 versts (about 107 kilometers) above the mouth of the May River, the right tributary of the Aldan, Kopylov set up the Butal winter hut and explained to the surrounding Tungus (now they are called Evenks) and Yakuts. This winter hut became the base for the formation of reconnaissance detachments to find a way to unknown seas and rivers.

It was there, in the Butala winter hut, that the earliest information about the existence in the lower reaches of the Chirkol River flowing into the sea of ​​the "silver mountain" (Mount Odzhal) was obtained. But in Russia at that time there was an acute shortage of silver. That is why it was decided at the end of 1638 to send a special expedition from Aldan to search for this mountain.

In the late autumn of 1638, Kopylov sent a detachment of Cossacks to the upper reaches of the Aldan in order to find the mysterious "Chirkol", but the lack of food forced the messengers to return. From the inquiries of local residents, the Cossacks learned that there was a large sea behind the Dzhugdzhur mountain range. The idea arose of sending an expedition to the mouth of Chirkol along this sea.

In May 1639, Kopylov sent a detachment led by Tomsk Cossack Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin to reconnoiter the path to the "sea-ocean". The detachment included 20 Tomsk Cossacks and 11 Krasnoyarsk Cossacks. The detachment was led by Evenk guides. The detachment consisted of the Cossack Nehoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov, who, like Moskvitin, presented in January 1646 a "skazka" about his service in this campaign. Both of these "tales" were important documents that shed light on the circumstances of the exit of Russian explorers to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Here are the lines from the "skask" of the Cossack Nekhoroshka Ivanov, the son of Kolobov.

"Last year, in the year 147 (1639) from the Aldan river from the Bhutan prison, the Tomsk ataman Dmitry Kopylov sent Tomsk service people Ivashka Yuryev, the son of Moskvitin, and their Cossacks, with him thirty people to the great sea of ​​Okyan, in the Tungus language to Lama .

And they went down the Aldan down to the May river for eight days, and up the May river up to the portage for seven weeks, and from the May river in a small river to a straight portage in shavings they went six days, and the portage went on for a day and went to the river on the Ulya to the top, Yes, that River Hive went down a plow for eight days, and on the same River Hive, having made a boat, they sailed to the sea to the mouth of that River Hive, where it fell into the sea, five days. And here they, at the mouth of the river, set up a winter hut with a prison.

Shortly after the Moskvitin detachment reached the Maya River in June 1639, it turned out that among the Tungus who accompanied the Cossacks as leaders (guides), there were two women who had already been to the Amur region. They were the first to inform the Cossacks that the lower part of the Chirkol River is also called Omur or Amur. So for the first time the Russians learned this new name - Amur, and subsequently the well-known geographer of the second half of the 17th century, the Dutchman N. Witsen, defined it as the "Moscow word".

The road to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk along an unfamiliar route was difficult and dangerous. With considerable effort, the Cossacks dragged the boats along the shallow rivers. On the way, they often had to leave alone and build new plows and boats, overcoming portages and waterfalls in the mountainous sections of the rivers. It was truly a journey into the unknown.

End of the 16th century. The victories of Yermak's squad over the troops of the ruler of Siberia, Khan Kuchum. The story “Description of the New Lands, that is, the Kingdom of Siberia” said: “... and so by the grace of God and the state’s happiness and providence and zeal, Ataman Ermak and comrades of the Siberian Gentiles of many hordes and the tongue of military people were beaten in that battle and taken live bait ... Tsar Kuchum, seeing the strength of his people, many beaten, from a city with small people, he fled to his wife, the queen, and to his children, to his beloved village on Obalak, from Tobolsk ... "

Some leaders of the Siberian tribes went over to the side of the Russians, while others continued for some time to resist the onslaught of the Cossacks and service people of the Moscow Tsar.

In the 17th century, European politicians were surprised: how in just fifty-five years “Muscovites were able to rapidly advance from the Ural Mountains to the coast Pacific Ocean". They were also surprised by the fact that as a result of this advancement, new Russian villages, cities, Orthodox churches, industrial enterprises were organized, peasant farms arose and, no less important, cooperation between Russians and Siberian tribes and peoples was established.

“Summer 7146, August on the 6th day (1638 August 6) the sovereign king and Grand Duke Mikhailo Fedorovich and all Russia, ordered the stewards and voevodas Pyotr Petrovich Golovin, and Matvey Bogdanovich Glebov, and the clerk Efim Filatov to go to Siberia, to Tobolsk, and from Tobolsk to the Yenisei prison, and from the Yenisei prison to the great Lena River ... ".

This royal decree on the establishment of the Yakut voivodeship appeared six years after the founding of the prison Yakutsk on the Lena, “... that great river Lena is pleasing and spacious, and there are a lot of people along it, nomadic and sedentary pink lands, and sables and all kinds of other animals; and how the sovereign will point out to that great river Lena to send more than enough Siberian people and orders to build a city or prisons, where it is more convenient, and orders along that great river Lena and along other rivers of new lands of people to bring people under their sovereign royal high hand ... ".

Founded in 1632, Yakutsk became a kind of base for exploring Eastern Siberia, the Pacific Ocean and the coast of North America.

“... And along the great river Lena, rowing down to the midnight okiyan for two months or more, and sailing weather will run for a week.

And on both sides of the great rivers of Lena and up to the mouth of the midnight Okiya, Yakuts, Tunguses, Mayads, Panagirs, Koyaty, Karigils and many other nomadic and sedentary people. Yes, in the same de great river Lena below the Vilyuisk mouth, many great rivers slept on both sides, and on those rivers live axes, Tungus, shamagiri, bayakhts and many other people, and there are a lot of sables and every animal and fish along those along all rivers ... ".

Departing from Yakutsk, Russian pioneers reached the rivers Indigirka, Alazeya, Kolyma. In the forties of the 17th century, the Cossack and navigator Mikhail Stadukhin built three fortified winter huts in Kolyma. These small villages allowed the Russians to get comfortable, securely settle in this area and carry out trips to the shores of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

Few names of glorious explorers and sailors of those times have been preserved - participants in travels from Lena to uncharted lands. Among them: Elisey Yuryev, Yeleska Buza, Ivan Rebrov, Ilya Perfilyev. With their comrades, they made geographical discoveries, paved the way to the ocean and to the mainland, not yet knowing that the ocean was called the Pacific, and the mainland - America.

According to historical documents, Russian travelers reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean in the 30s of the 17th century. But it may have happened before.

The great expanse of water with its indomitable temper began to gradually reveal its secrets to the pioneers. One of the conquerors and explorers of the Pacific coast was Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev. He served in Yeniseisk, Tobolsk, Yakutsk. For some time he was in the detachment of Mikhail Stadukhin on the Oymyakon River.

In 1647, the clerk of the Ustyug merchant Fedot Alekseev (known by the surname Popov) assembled a team to sail the Arctic Sea to the East, from the mouth of the Indigirka. He was interested in walrus hunting. The expedition was also entrusted with the study of "uncharted shores" and the search for new "obscure people."

The detachment was headed by Semyon Dezhnev. By that time, the forty-two-year-old Cossack for his courage, experience and business acumen was well known and respected among sailors, servicemen and merchants from the banks of the Lena to the Kolyma.

On four kochs, a detachment under the command of Dezhnev entered the East Siberian Sea. But that summer, an unusually powerful accumulation of ice did not allow the planned voyage to be completed.

In June 1648 the campaign was repeated. This time 90 people participated in the expedition. Seven koches left the mouth of the Kolyma and headed to the East.

There are different versions of what happened to these ships. According to one, several ships died during a storm, according to another, they were carried to the shores of America, and the surviving Russian sailors settled forever in Alaska.

Semyon Dezhnev mentioned in his report: “And that Fedot (Fedot Alekseev Popov) with my Family, was blown up at sea without a trace. And it carried me, Semeyka (as Dezhnev called himself in the note), across the sea after the Intercession of the Virgin (after October 1/14) everywhere involuntarily, and threw me ashore at the front end beyond the Anadyr River. And there were twenty-five of us on the koche. And I, poor Family, and my comrades went exactly ten weeks to Anadyr ... "

There is no unequivocal opinion about the further fate of the expedition members. But it is indisputable: three out of seven kochas, rounding the Chukchi Peninsula from the north, passed the strait between Asia and America. The voyage of Dezhnev and his comrades proved that these two continents are separated by water.

The surviving members of the expedition founded the Anadyr prison, explored and mapped the banks of the Anadyr River. Subsequently, Semyon Ivanovich made many more trips along the northeastern rivers of Siberia. Moscow highly appreciated his merits. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich awarded Dezhnev the rank of Cossack chieftain. In 1667, thanks to the discoveries and research of Semyon Ivanovich, on geographical map"Drawing of the Siberian Land" was applied to the image of the North-East of Russia. However, the report of the glorious pioneer about the existence of a strait between Asia and America remained unclaimed in the archive for a long time.

Only in the 30-40s of the 18th century, during the Great Northern Expedition, Gerard Friedrich Miller, a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, found and published this document.

The reference literature about Fedot Alekseev Popov says: "The years of birth and death are unknown." It remains a mystery what actually happened to him after the storm separated the expedition ships. There is an assumption that the koch, on which Fedot Alekseev Popov and the Cossack foreman Gerasim Ankudinov and his comrades were, reached Kamchatka.

A lot of fragmentary information about their future fate has been preserved. In his report, Semyon Dezhnev reported: “... I, Semeyka, defeated the Yakut woman Fedot Alekseev from the Koreans. And that woman said that de Fedot and the service man Gerasim died of scurvy, and other comrades were beaten, and small people remained and fled in boats with one soul, nowhere to go.

Almost a century after the expedition of 1648, the scientist and traveler Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov wrote: “Who was the first Russian in Kamchatka, they do not have reliable evidence, but according to verbal reports, this is attributed to a certain merchant Fedot Alekseev, after whom the river flowing into Kamchatka It's called Fedotovshchina.

The version about the stay of Fedot Alekseev Popov on the peninsula was also mentioned in his notes by academician Gerard Miller: “The rumor circulating among the inhabitants of Kamchatka, which from everyone who has been there, is confirmed.

... they say that many years before the arrival of Volodymyr Otlasov (Vladimir Atlasov - a Cossack explorer) to Kamchatka, a certain Fedotov son lived there on the Kamchatka River at the mouth of the river, which is now called Fedotovka after him, and lived with children from Kamchatka, who then at the Penzhina Bay, where they crossed the rivers from Kamchatka, they were beaten by the Koryaks. This Fedotov's son, in all appearances, was the son of the aforementioned Fedot Alekseev ... "

But these references to Popov raise doubts among some modern historians. The fate of one of the Russian pioneers of the 17th century remains an unsolved mystery.

Jakob Johann Lindenau, a member of Vitus Bering's expedition, translator of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, has been researching the tribes and peoples of North-Eastern Siberia for many years. His pen belongs to the well-known work in the 18th century: “Description of the Tunguzes on foot, or the so-called Lamuts.”

Lindenau managed to record the stories of the Chukchi about the northern Pacific islands and the shores of the New World. Of course, the word "America" ​​was not known to this people at that time.

“Near the Chukchi Nose there is one island under the north and four islands to the east, and Chukchi live on those islands.

And not far from the last distance is meant by their title Big Land (meaning Alaska), which is so called because that land is more than their Chukchi land and they Chukchi from their dwellings go to that land by canoes and bring wooden dishes from that land , like Russian dishes. And according to the ranting of those Chukchis, there is news through the Russian people for sure, that supposedly to the merchant people twelve koches of the past years for seventy or more Kolyma middle winter quarters, where the fair used to be for the bargaining of those who went and from strong sea weather, having dispersed from each other, some sailed through Kamchatka, and others landed on that island, which they called the Greater Land, and the peoples living there, mating with them, married and bred.

The learned naturalist, member of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, Georg Wilhelm Steller, who collected a rich collection of American flora in 1741, wrote: “Among the Americans, allegedly, there lives a people who are completely identical to the Russians in figure, customs and customs; Anadyr Cossacks of the opinion that these are the descendants of persons who left the Lena on horseback and disappeared without a trace.

It is highly plausible that their flat ships were thrown ashore by a storm, and the local population forced them to stay here.

The stories of Russian sailors of the second half of XVIII centuries that the Alaskan natives were pagans, but at the same time they knew some biblical traditions. These legends they heard from their ancestors.

Who and when first told the people of Alaska Bible stories? There is no reliable answer yet.

In the early 90s of the 18th century, the “Historical Report Card of Russian Voyages and Discoveries in the Northeast Sea” was published in St. Petersburg.

In this work, an unknown author wrote: “The opinion of many foreign writers [it] is very unfounded that the Russians, before transforming their foreign customs into a state of hostility against the scientists of the European peoples, did not have such a spirit and ability to turn their attention to the most useful discoveries beyond the limits of the conquered in 1697 Kamchatka land. The spirit of the always indefatigable Russians not only carefully tried to find out the places, lands and peoples beyond Kamchatka lying, but also went into very difficult and almost impossible trials in the Arctic Sea even before the conquest of Kamchatka.

... the enterprise was in 1646 a ship's passage between the eternal ... [ices] and the Chukotskaya nose lying between north and east, not far from the American materago coast and stretching to the unknown limits of North America, has long been bypassed by the sea and therefore that small the strait that separates Asia from America, which other nations have not known before."

In the late 70s of the last century, the author of this book met in Boston with Russians of the White émigré wave. Two of them, Alexander Nikolaev and Ivan Pozykov, were fond of the history of Russian America. After retiring, both of them visited the Pacific coast - from the former Fort Ross to Alaska.

Nikolaev and Pozykov were convinced that the leader of the Cossack detachment, Mikhail Stadukhin, and not Semyon Dezhnev, was the first to prove by his journey the existence of a strait between Asia and America. At the same time, amateur historians relied on the notes of the navigator and explorer Ivan Rubets. They had seen this document in the possession of some Californian antiquarian before World War II.

Their words were astonishing. After all, little is known about this Anadyr Cossack, who lived in the middle of the 17th century. His notes were not mentioned in Russia either in scientific or even in fiction. Only a few lines of ancient documents testify to the deeds of Ivan Rubets.

In 1661, a record was made in Yakutsk: “... On June 6, the great sovereign was sent to serve overseas on the Anadyr River foreman Cossack Ivan Rubets, and with him 6 service people. And those service people were given a koch ... "

As follows from the documents of the 17th century, in the summer of 1662 Ivan Rubets and his comrades managed to cross the strait separating Asia and America. However, there is no mention that the Cossack foreman reported this in writing to his superiors.

In the 17th century, many statesmen, navigators, merchants and scientists of Europe closely followed the discoveries of Russians in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans and possible visits to the northwestern shores of America.

In 1664, the Dutch geographer Nikolaas Witsen arrived in Moscow. He collected information about the expeditions of Russian sailors and explorers in Eastern Siberia. The Dutchman was especially interested in whether they managed to find a strait between Asia and America.

Subsequently, after returning to his homeland, Witsen wrote that the northwestern coast of America was visited by Russians, and he managed to collect a lot of supporting documents. “When I made my first map, I wrote at the bottom: “It is not known if one peninsula is connected to America.” But since then I have received more detailed information and now I know for sure that all this is separate, so I myself have now amended my map, ”said Nikolaas Witsen.

In 1692, a book by the Jesuit d'Avril was published in Paris. Referring to his conversations with the Russian governor Musin-Pushkin, he wrote that winds and currents sometimes carry Asian walrus hunters on ice floes to unknown lands: “... I have no doubt that many of the hunters, captured in the same way, swim on ice floes to the northern cape of America, very close to this part of Asia, ending in Tatar (probably d "Avril meant the Chukchi Peninsula). I am convinced in my opinion that the Americans, who live on the part of America that stands out further than others in the sea on this side, are of the same species with the islanders ... "

There are many facts when European scientists, diplomats and travelers in the 17th century, referring to Russian sources, announced the possibility of penetrating the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Ocean, the possibility of reaching the shores of America and advancing to India and China.

In those days, foreigners, visiting Muscovy, not only wrote down stories about the wanderings of Russian sailors and explorers from the words of knowledgeable people, but also bought and even stole documents and maps of the expedition. According to Nikolaev and Pozykov, in this way the recordings of Ivan Rubets could end up abroad, and then fall into the hands of a Californian collector.

Many European countries still keep rarities and documents related to Russian travels to the shores of America.

Do the recordings of Ivan Rubets really exist? If so, who specifically keeps them? Couldn't find out. Maybe future researchers will be lucky.

One of the researchers of the history of Russian America called the 17th century for Russia "a century of long-standing journeys, significant discoveries" ... And also - "the time of Russia's touch with America."

Perhaps the Cossack foreman Ivan Rubets became one of the first Russians to make this “touch”.

Terra incognita - these words excite the imagination. Ancient people were drawn to unknown lands by the voices of sirens; the echo of these voices resounds in our hearts even now, when on modern maps we see spaces designated as unexplored ... Geographers were attracted by the opportunity to map the outlines of the Oikoumene and show how various phenomena characteristic of it are distributed inside it, and also put before them the most complex the task of combining individual elements of existence to create a coherent representation of the whole.

(Jen K. Wright. President of the Association of American Geographers. XX century)

It was possible to discover an unknown land in ancient times without geographical maps. There are many examples in history when, at the behest of storms, torn off ice floes with people or ships washed up on unfamiliar shores. It happened that navigators were looking for some geographical objects, and discovered completely different ones.

The development of Siberia, the determination of the borders of the state, the settlement of relations with neighboring countries, the search for a sea route from the Arctic Ocean to India and China, and hence the resolution of the question of whether Asia and America were separated, required the development of cartography in Russia. Back in the 15th century, when Muscovy began to unite into a powerful state, attempts were made to create geographical maps of the country.

In the first half of the 16th century, by order of the Grand Duke of Moscow Basil III a census of settlements was carried out, boundary, boundary, road drawings were drawn up. These documents became the basis for the creation of geographical maps of Russia.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, European scientists, researchers, diplomats Anton Vid, Sigismund Herberstein and others used the work of Russian cartographers in their writings.

The most famous geographical map of Russia in the 16th century, drawn up at the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, was called the "Big Drawing".

Under Tsar Boris Godunov, two of his relatives were associated with the development of Russian cartography.

The young son of the monarch, Fyodor Borisovich, received a decent education for his time. At the age of 13-14, he became interested in drawing maps. There is an assumption that the king found some ancient geographical documents in the archives. They were in a deplorable state and required restoration. Boris Godunov nevertheless managed to discern unknown lands and seas on them. The tsar decided: the shabby maps should be kept secret for the time being, even from his close associates.

But who is to entrust the secret restoration of important documents?

Boris Godunov chose his son. Fifteen-year-old Fedor not only coped with the difficult task of his father, but also took part in compiling the best map of Russia for that time.

After the death of Tsar Boris, he ascended the throne, but soon, at the age of 16, he was meanly killed by traitors to the motherland, supporters of False Dmitry I.

The Polish invaders, with the help of Russian henchmen, captured Moscow in June 1605. The conquerors exported from Russia not only material values. They were interested in books, archival documents and geographical maps. They confiscated all the works of Fedor that fell into their hands.

The second cousin of Tsar Boris, Semyon Nikitich Godunov, headed the political investigation under him. At the end of 1604, Semyon Nikitich returned to Moscow from Astrakhan. There he negotiated with the Nogai prince Ishtereke and managed to convince him to go over to the side of Russia. The king's brother brought with him from the Nogai possessions a geographical map, made by no one knows who and when, although the names and explanations on it were in Russian. However, Semyon Nikitich was most surprised by the outlines of the northeastern outskirts of Siberia and the “unknown land” separated by a strait. According to historical documents, by the beginning of the 17th century, Russian explorers had not yet been east of the banks of the Ob.

After the capture of Moscow by False Dmitry I, Semyon Godunov was exiled to Pereyaslavl. But he did not live there long. At first, some foreigner visited him from the capital. He tried to find out where the geographical map brought from the Nogai possessions was hidden.

How the interrogation ended is unknown. Soon Semyon Godunov was killed. Was there really a map made before the 17th century showing northeastern Siberia and the strait separating Asia and America? Searches in the archives of Russia and the United States have not yet given an answer to this.

Compiled in 1570 in the Moscow Discharge Order, the map "Big Drawing" was highly appreciated by scientists and specialists in Europe. But time passed, new lands, rivers, lakes, sea coasts opened up, the borders of the Russian state expanded. The "big drawing" needed improvements and additions. Such work was done in 1627. In addition to the geographical map, the "Book of the Big Drawing" appeared. It was a description of the Muscovite state.

In the introduction of this remarkable monument of Russian historical and geographical thought, it was noted: “According to the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich of All Russia, by decree, a drawing was found in the Rozryad of the old drawing of the entire Muscovite state for all the surrounding states, and in that drawing and the measure of versts, and miles, and horse driving, how much to drive during the day by a stanitsa ride for a day is written, and the measure is set for versts.

And that old drawing is dilapidated, henceforth it’s not good to look at the tracts, it was beaten all over and fell apart ...

And in the Razryad, the clerks, Duma Fyodor Likhachev and Mikhailo Danilov, ordered, trying on that old drawing, to the same extent to create a new drawing for the entire Muscovite state, for all neighboring states ... from the mouth of the Tenuya River, by the sea coast to the east to the mouth of Kola; and from the mouth of the Kola by the sea coast to the Solovetsky inversion to the mouth of the Ntsva River to the east by the sea coast to the Sumy Ostrog and to the mouth of the Onega River; and from Onega to the mouth of the Dvina River; and from the Dvina to the mouth of the Pechora River, to Pusto Lake, and from Pustoozero to the mouth of the Knyazkovoi River and the Narymsky bank to the river to the Ob, rivers and all sorts of tracts; and across the river beyond the Ob by the seashore to the Taza River and the Pura River to Mangazeya; and along the Yenisei river ... ".

Although the “Book of the Big Drawing” reflected the expansion of the expanses of the Moscow state, it did not yet contain either the Chukotka Peninsula, or the Pacific Ocean, or the coast and islands of America. All these geographical features appeared on maps only in the 18th century.

Only copies of the “Book of the Great Drawing” have survived to our time, and the map itself has not been preserved.

In 1667, the Tobolsk voivode Pyotr Ivanovich Godunov compiled new map Siberia. By that time, Russian pioneers in northeast Asia had made expeditions to the Lena, Indigirka and Kolyma, founded settlements on the Lena and in other East Siberian lands. And the Cossacks, merchants, fur hunters have already heard a lot from the northern peoples about the mysterious “great land”, which can be reached by moving “towards the sun”.

In the very late XVIII century, Tsar Peter I, studying the map of governor Godunov, on which there was no Taimyr, Chukotka, or Kamchatka, said: "And Siberia is taking shape." To this the sovereign himself put a lot of effort.

In 1698, the historian, geographer and cartographer Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov compiled a "Drawing of all Siberia". His work was approved by Peter I. Inspired by the success and royal praise, Remezov continued his studies in cartography. To help, he attracted his sons - Ivan, Leonty and Semyon.

By 1701 they had completed the Drawing Book of Siberia. In addition, they compiled the so-called "Remizov Chronicle". It reflected in detail the events of the conquest and development of the Trans-Ural lands by the Russians from 1576 to 1598.

As noted at the beginning of the last century famous historian Professor S. V. Bakhrushin: "Remezov, the author of a wonderful geographical atlas of Siberia ... His description of the conquered lands provided rich material on the ethnography of the region." Bakhrushin also emphasized that the works of Semyon Ulyanovich and his sons "... revealed to Western Europe a hitherto unknown corner of Asia: according to the Russian map copied by the Swedes, immediately after its publication, the outdated map of Herberstein was corrected ...".

In the 18th century, the further spread of Russian possessions beyond the Urals went in two directions: in the northeast to the Chukotka Peninsula and the islands of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, to the shores of America, and to the south - to the upper reaches of the Ob, Irtysh, Ishim and Yenisei. This advancement was reflected in the works of Semyon Remezov and his sons.

The "Drawing Book", compiled by them, is apparently the first Russian Geographical Atlas, i.e., a systematic collection of maps arranged in the form of an album and united by a common idea. This atlas had 23 geographical maps of both the whole of Siberia and its individual sections. America, the shores and islands of the Pacific Ocean were not yet designated in it.

Thanks to the work of Pyotr Godunov, Semyon Remezov and his sons, as well as the studies of many Russian pioneers and sailors of the 17th-18th centuries, Siberia really “gained contours” on the geographical map.

Many researchers believe that the outlines of Alaska and some of the North Pacific islands of America appeared on the Russian map in 1700. Its creator was the Yakut governor Dorofey Traurniht. On the so-called "Mourning drawing" to the east of Chukotka there was a large island with the name "Land again explored." So Dorotheus Traurnicht called Alaska in his work. The word "Alaska" will come into use in Russia only decades later.

In 1697, the Yakut governor received an order from Moscow to organize an expedition to find a way from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific. Traurnicht himself did not participate in the campaigns, but collected geographical information from Russian pioneers. One of these discoverers of lands in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean was the Cossack Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov. Back in 1672, he was recruited to "searching for new lands." He was rightly called the "Kamchatka Ermak", and in the reference literature they wrote that Atlasov was an outstanding explorer, "who completed the great Russian geographical discoveries of the 17th century in Siberia with the study of Kamchatka."

Records of the Cossack Pentecostal Vladimir Atlasov about his campaign have been preserved. They mention unknown islands: “And between the Kolyma and Anandyr rivers, the necessary nose, which fell into the sea (which cannot be bypassed), and on the left side of that nose there are ice on the sea in summer, and in winter that sea is frozen: and on the other side of that there are ice on the nose in the spring ... And he Volodimer (Atlasov) did not visit that necessary nose.

And the local foreigners of the Chukchi, who live near that nose and at the mouth of the Anadyr river, said that there is an island opposite that necessary nose; and from that island in the winter, when the sea freezes, foreigners come, speak their own language and bring thin sables, like a ferret beast; and those sables… he saw Volodimer. And the tails of those sables are a quarter of an arshin long, with transverse black and red stripes.

Most likely, Atlasov saw the skins of raccoons with striped tails, which were found only in North America. In his reports, he reported on nature, the customs and habits of the peoples of Kamchatka, Chukotka, and Alaska.

In 1713, the explorer and traveler Grigory Novitsky completed his work entitled “A Brief Description of the Ostyak People, Who Are Acquired within the Midnight Kingdom of Siberia”. In this book, he mentioned an unknown land - probably Alaska, and the strait, through which you can get from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific.

Long before the expedition of Vitus Bering, the Russian pioneers of northeastern Siberia not only heard about the tribes of America, but also met with their representatives.

In a book published in 1758, "Description of sea voyages in the Arctic and Eastern Sea", Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Gerard Miller made an interesting entry. It dates back to about 1715. It reported on a resident of Alaska who, by chance, came across the Russians: “... There lived a foreign man in Kamchatka, who ... announced himself that he was born in a land where tall cedar trees grow, and on them nuts are much larger than Kamchatka; and this de land lies from Kamchatka to the east ...

It de has large rivers that flowed into the Kamchatka Sea (as the Bering Sea was called at that time). The inhabitants of de name tontala; in habits they are similar to the Kamchadals and use the same leather boats or canoes for the waterway as the Kamchadals. Many years ago, he came with his countrymen to Karaginsky Island, where his comrades from the local inhabitants were killed, and he, left alone, went to Kamchatka ... "

One of the Cossacks, according to a resident of Alaska, tried to sketch a map of the "great land" "beyond the sea to the east." She was sent to Yakutsk. Whether this geographical document has been lost or is still kept in an archive or in someone's collection is unknown.

At all times behind each sign on the geographical map stood the fate of people, dangerous adventures, searches, discoveries, successful or unsuccessful travels. The signs on the map are both a call to a long journey, and the result of this journey. They are milestones in the movement towards the knowledge of the planet.

... a few days before his death, he remembered his old thought about finding a road to China and India by the Arctic Ocean. Already suffering from near-death attacks, he was in a hurry to write instructions for Bering's Kamchatka expedition, which was supposed to investigate whether Asia in the northeast was connected to America ...

(Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky about Peter I. 1901)

“I foresee that the Russians someday, and perhaps during our lifetime, will shame the most enlightened peoples with their success in the sciences, tirelessness in labor and the majesty of firm and loud glory,” wrote Peter I.

The desire to find out whether there is a strait between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific, arose from him during his trip to Europe at the end of the 17th century. Probably, meetings and conversations with foreign scientists contributed to this. However, at that time Russia did not yet have its own navy, and the country's external and internal affairs did not allow the young sovereign to equip expeditions to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

But the victory over the Swedish army in 1709, the victory of the young Russian fleet at Gangut in 1714, the development of Siberia, the development of navigation, industry and science in the country allowed Peter I to return to his old plans.

At the beginning of 1719, he instructed the surveyors Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin to go to the Pacific Ocean and explore if there was a strait between Asia and America. Why was it necessary to find out what was discovered by Russian pioneers in the 17th century? But - documents are lost, and many finds of the past are subject to oblivion.

True, there is a version that Peter still knew about the campaigns of Popov, Stadukhin, Dezhnev and other glorious travelers. And finding out the existence of the strait between Asia and America was only a cover for the true intentions of the sovereign.

As noted by domestic and foreign researchers, at the beginning of the 18th century, Russia needed new lands rich in fur-bearing animals. By that time, the extraction of valuable furs in Siberia had declined. Thus, in order not to displease competitors - European colonial countries (England, Spain, Holland, France), Peter I classified the study of the Pacific coast of North America.

In the tsar's instructions to Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin, it was emphasized: “You must go to Tobolsk and from Tobolsk take an escort to go to Kamchatka and further where you are indicated. And describe the places where America has converged ... "

Evreinov and Luzhin completed the expedition and arrived in 1722 to Peter I for a report. However, the route of their journey did not come into contact with America. The northern part (up to the island of Simushir) of the Kuriles was surveyed and mapped, the coordinates of 33 points of Kamchatka and Siberia were determined.

The sovereign approved the results of the expedition of Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin. Biographer of Peter I Ivan Golikov wrote about this meeting that the emperor “... with great curiosity spent some time with him (with Evreinov. - Auth.) in conversation and with pleasure examined the map of Kamchatka and the aforementioned islands, composed by him and his comrade, Luzhin, and a description of their entire voyage.

The documents of that time do not indicate whether Peter I mentioned "the land on the other side of the Pacific Ocean" during this meeting. After all, the travelers did not follow the instructions: "... describe the local places where America has converged."

Such reticence aroused suspicion among some researchers: maybe Evreinov and Luzhin nevertheless visited the coast of the New World? .. But, probably, the sovereign decided for the time being to keep their voyage to America in the strictest confidence.

The discovery of the New World from the Pacific Ocean still holds many mysteries.

At the end of 1723, Peter I again ordered Evreinov to be summoned to him. Ivan Mikhailovich at that time worked as a topographer in Vyatka. The sovereign wanted to instruct him to go on an expedition a second time to explore the American coast "near Asia."

The royal order was not carried out. Evreinov died in February 1724. Whom to appoint instead of an experienced traveler and surveyor? Peter chose Vitus Bering.

On January 6, 1725, a few days before his death, the emperor wrote instructions for a new expedition:

"one. It is necessary in Kamchatka or in another place to make one or two boats with decks.

2. On these boats [to sail] near the land that goes to the north and aspirations (I don’t know the end of it) it seems that that land is part of America.

3. And in order to look for where she converged with America, but also to get to which city of European possessions or, if they see a European ship, visit from it, as this bush (shore) is called, and take it on a letter and visit it yourself shore and take a genuine statement and put it on the map, come here ... "

It was one of the last documents signed by Peter I. Nineteen days later, on January 28, 1725, he died.

In the first quarter of the 18th century, Russian pioneers strove for the shores of America not only on orders from the capital. In 1720-1725, the sea expedition of the industrialist and navigator Prokopy Nagibin took place. As a result of this trip, it was possible to collect some information about the Pacific coast of the New World.

In those same years, other Russian people were able to visit Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. But their records have probably been lost.

A native of Denmark, Vitus Bering entered the service in the Russian fleet in 1704. He was then 23 years old. By the time he was appointed head of the First Kamchatka Expedition, he had gained rich experience as a navigator.

Bering's assistants were naval officers Alexei Chirikov and Martin Shpanberg. The expedition was provided with 158 people: surveyors, blacksmiths, sailors, soldiers, carpenters, etc. At the end of January 1725, the advance detachment of the First Kamchatka Expedition, led by Alexei Chirikov and midshipman Peter Chaplin, left Petersburg with a convoy to the east. The commander himself joined them a few weeks later.

Only after 3 years, Bering's detachment, having overcome about 10 thousand kilometers, reached the Nizhne-Kamchatsky prison. A few months later, an expedition ship-boat “St. Gabriel".

The voyage began in July 1728. "St. Gabriel" entered the Pacific Ocean, headed north along the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and then headed for Chukotka.

The first Kamchatka expedition discovered the land, which was named the island of St. Lawrence, and reached a latitude of 67 degrees and 18 minutes. Bering, despite the objections of Chirikov, decided not to continue moving north, because he considered that the issue of the existence of a strait between Asia and America had been resolved.

On the way back, an island was discovered, which received the name of St. Deomid. Subsequently, it turned out that in fact these are two islands. Nowadays, one of them, Ratmanov Island, belongs to Russia, the other, Krusenstern Island, belongs to the USA.

The expedition returned to Kamchatka and, having wintered there, set sail again in the summer of 1729. This time, Vitus Bering intended to reach the shores of America. However, weather conditions did not allow this plan to be carried out.

The Admiralty Board considered the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition unsatisfactory. But Vitus Bering did not receive any penalties. Taking into account the experience and knowledge of the navigator, he was again appointed head of the expedition, which was called the "Second Kamchatka".

As noted by Russian and foreign researchers, the Second Kamchatka, or Great Northern, expedition in terms of its tasks, the number of participants, the coverage of water and land territories and scientific results surpassed all known in history. It consisted of several detachments of travelers who explored the vast expanse of water and the shores of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

Shortly before the start of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, in the summer of 1732, navigator Ivan Fedotov and surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev sailed and reached Alaska. On the ship "St. Gabriel”, preserved from the expedition of Bering, the travelers reached the eastern tip of Asia. Then they crossed the strait that separates Asia and America, and ended up off the coast of Alaska.

Mikhail Gvozdev wrote about this event: “August 21 days after midnight at 3 o’clock the wind began to rise, they raised the anchor, spread the sails and went to the mainland, anchored and there were no dwellings against that, and the navigator Ivan Fedotov ordered to raise the anchor . And they went near the Earth to the southern end ...

From the southern end to the western side they saw yurts - dwellings of a verst and a half, and it was impossible to get close to these de yurts behind the wind, and they went near the ground to the south side, and it became de be a shallow place, they threw lots, depths of 7 and 6 sazhens, and from that place they returned back and began to laver near the mainland (Alaska. - Auth.), to blow to the earth, and the wind began to be great from the land opposite ...

And from this Big Land it was blown away by such a great wind, and the wind de was north-nor-west. And from the fourth de island, he rowed the Chukchi to the board in a small yalych, according to them called Kukhta ... Gvozdev, through the interpreter, asked about the Great Land: what kind of land, and what kind of people live on it, and is there a forest, also rivers, and what animal. And he de, the Chukchi, told the interpreter and called the Great Land, and de their own Chukchi live on it, and the de owner’s forest, as well as rivers, and about animals he said that he had a wild deer, marten and fox, and decided beavers.

Russian travelers, due to weather conditions, failed to land on American soil. As the researchers suggest, the ship "St. Gabriel approached Alaska near Cape Prince of Wales, and a day later visited King Island, or Ukivok. It was there that the Russians met with the locals.

In September 1732, the expedition of Mikhail Gvozdev and Ivan Fedorov returned to Kamchatka. Thanks to this journey, for the first time, sections of the Asian and American coasts, separated by the Dezhnev Strait, were correctly depicted on a geographical map.

Soon after the completion of the voyage, Ivan Fedorov died, and Mikhail Gvozdev ended up in prison. For several years, the notes of their journey to the "Great Earth" remained unknown to anyone.

The participants of the Second Kamchatka Expedition still managed to find some of these documents and get acquainted with the released Mikhail Gvozdev. But as the writer and researcher Sergei Markov noted, the map of the 1732 trip to St. Gabriel" disappeared, and it was only approximately restored according to Ivan Fedorov's notes.

... Columbus Rossky,

despising gloomy rock,

Between the ice the way will be opened to the east

And our power will reach America ...

(Mikhail Lomonosov)

The Sitka tribe has a silent tradition about white people washed ashore many years ago.

... Chief Annahuts dressed in a bearskin and went ashore. He depicted the waddling gait of the beast with such accuracy that the Russians, carried away by hunting, went deep into the forest, where the native warriors killed them all to the last.

(T. L. Andrews)

Long, tiring flight from New York to Alaska.

And then I failed...

In whatever seas and lands she overtakes you, she has the same habits.

An unexpected blow to ideas and plans. The dream shatters into many fragments and seems to fall into an invisible abyss. People around become gloomy and do not look into the eyes. The voices of birds sound different. Trees and grasses bow to the wind, exhausted. Sea waves crash. And the heavy rains are starting...

This is how failure comes.

The wind from the ocean was trying to blow through the window of my room. The sound of raindrops waxed and waned. And from these sounds it was clear that the bad weather had come for a long time.

And this means that the helicopter promised to me will not rise over the town of Juneau, proudly called the administrative center of Alaska. And I can no longer visit the island where Russian sailors landed almost two and a half centuries ago and for some reason did not return.

An unsolvable riddle!

Or is someone still lucky, and failure will let him go to find an answer? For the time being, she left me rains and winds, and even cold rational thoughts. What did you want to find on that island? Do you really hope that for two and a half centuries at least some sign of the disappearance of travelers has remained? ..

The world has become different. The land and waters have changed beyond recognition. Other herbs and trees have grown. Even on the stones, prescription has probably erased the traces of human hands ...

And failure is right.

Reconcile? Wait another day or two, and then return to New York without even touching the mystery?

But maybe I can still see in the twilight of bad weather the cherished lights of the “path to the unknown”?

If you believe the stories of local residents, the spirit of passion and excitement loves to play with people. He drops heavenly lights, and on earth they form a "path into the unknown." The playful spirit beckons people to step on this path, intoxicating with a sense of close luck and happy change...

Was it not he who, back in 1741, enchanted Russian sailors and led them into the unknown?

I asked my acquaintances from Juneau, what is the name of this mysterious spirit of passion, excitement, suspense?

And they answered me: there is no name for him.

The second Kamchatka expedition lasted from 1733 to 1743. More than 600 people took part in it, 13 ships were involved.

In the summer of 1740, the construction of the ships "St. Peter" and "St. Pavel". They were intended for navigation in the Pacific Ocean. According to contemporaries, the ships were suitable for any sea trials. From Okhotsk, the packet boats made the transition to the Avacha Bay of Kamchatka. There, preparations for a long voyage continued.

Finally, on June 4, 1741, the St. Peter" and "St. Pavel "left Kamchatka and headed for the shores of America ...

“... they left the harbor of the holy apostles Peter and Paul for a raid in the Avacha Bay of the Maya on the 29th, in which, after a contrary wind, they stumbled on June until the 4th, and on the 4th, with calm, they went to the sea and followed a certain course to the land of Ianda Gamma ... ".

So Alexey Chirikov reported about the beginning of the voyage to the Admiralty College in December 1741.

The expedition planned by Peter the Great continued.

Bering's deputy and commander of the St. Pavel, lieutenant commander Alexei Ilyich Chirikov, according to contemporaries, was one of the best officers and the hope of the Russian fleet.

The Admiralty instructions of the expedition noted that when the shores of America were reached, “... then visit them and find out what kind of peoples there are and how that place is called and whether those shores are truly American and doing that ... put everything on the map and then go for that as for reconnaissance near those shores, how much time and opportunity will allow ... ".

The first days the expeditionary ships went together. But on June 20, 1741, heavy fogs began. Neither the experience of Bering and Chirikov, nor sound signals didn't help. Packets "St. Peter" and "St. Paul" lost each other.

Fog separated Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov forever.

After unsuccessful searches for each other, the ships of the Second Kamchatka Expedition continued on their way to the shores of America, but each on its own course. The crew of Chirikov, consisting of 75 people, continued to perform everyday work: astronomical observations, measurements of ocean depths, studying currents and winds, amending the map, preparing for a meeting with the unknown Pacific coast of America.

Finally, on July 15, the travelers saw the land - the island, named on modern maps Baker, which is located off the coast of North America south of Alaska.

With excitement, Russian sailors looked at the unknown land. Snow-capped mountains, small bays, sea birds and animals - all this reminded me of Kamchatka. And yet there was something new and peculiar in what he saw.

Did anyone think during those hours on the St. Pavel", what is the discoverer of America from the Pacific Ocean?

In his report, without any victorious pathos and enthusiasm, somehow in an everyday way, Chirikov noted: time, moving away from the coast, at midnight at 5 o'clock, since the wind was capable of us, we turned north to that rhumb, as the last part of the earth lay, seen from us to the north of the past evening, and at midnight at 10 o'clock at of this land we passed a distance of half a verst, because it was very foggy, and in order to move away from it, we went somewhat parallel to it between the north and the west ... and, if an unfortunate accident, which is below this clear, had not prevented, I hoped a considerable part America to describe ... "

On July 18, Chirikov ordered the yalbot to be sent ashore. The boat accommodated ten sailors, headed by navigator Avram Dementyev.

Chirikov wrote detailed instructions on what to do and how to behave on the American coast.

“... when, with God's help, land on the shore, then see if there are inhabitants on it and, if you see inhabitants, then show them pleasantness and give gifts ...

... and if no one knows the language, then at least signs - what kind of land is it and people under whose authority and call them several people to visit us on the ship;

... to see if there is a convenient place for the arrival of a ship from the sea where it would be safe to stand and measure such a harbor by lot and make a drawing ...

... to see what forests and grasses grow on the shore;

... are there any excellent stones and land in which you can expect to be rich in ore ...

... from the inhabitants, as much as possible, to inquire where this land extends and whether there are rivers flowing into the sea from it and where those rivers flowed into the sea;

... if the inhabitants turn hostile, then defend themselves from them and, as soon as possible, return to the ship, and do not do any bitterness to them ...

... to return to the ship on the same day, or at least the next day ...

... as God brings it to the shore, then to let us know, launch a rocket ... and being on the shore, lay out a big fire, if you see that we can see it ... ".

Alas, there were no signals from Dementyev's detachment either that day or the next.

Hours of suspense dragged on slowly. The sailors took turns climbing the mast of the packet boat to get a better view of the shore through the fog.

Despite the unfavorable weather, Aleksey Chirikov kept the ship under light sails in a perilous proximity to the island.

Only seven days later, the long-awaited fire broke out on the shore.

Bonfire! Alive!

Joyfully excited on board the St. Pavel”: obviously, something happened to Dementiev’s boat and his team cannot return to the ship. Hastily began to collect a new detachment to the island.

The last boat remained on the packet boat. The boatswain Sidor Savelyev and three other sailors set out to rescue their comrades.

Chirikov ordered the ship's cannons to be fired several times so that they would know on the shore that help was near. But there were no responses.

On the island - fog and unkind silence.

“... And since then the weather was very calm, then in the meantime they let him go to the shore and themselves followed him to the shore and came very close and saw that the boatswain in the boat approached the shore about noon at 6 o’clock, precisely determined from I didn’t repair the signals and didn’t return to us at a reasonable time, and the weather was the quietest ... ”.

So noted in the report Alexei Chirikov.

There were no boats left on the packet boat, which means that communication with the shore was lost. Neither help your comrades on the island, nor recruit drinking water travelers could not.

On July 25, two boats were spotted from the ship. They walked from the bay, where the teams of Dementyev and Savelyev landed.

Chirikov ordered the packet boat to be sent towards the boats.

Joyful mood on board the St. Paul" quickly faded away. The travelers soon saw that these were not their boats.

Several rowers on them were most likely from the Tlingit tribe. Swimming closer to the ship, the Indians jumped to their feet and shouted: “Agay! Agay!

Then they waved their hands. The Russian sailors could not understand either their words or gestures.

The Tlingit took up the oars again and turned towards the island. The heavy packet boat could not catch up with the nimble Indian boats. The ship followed them to a dangerous limit. It was impossible to get closer to the shore. To be aground meant the certain death of both the ship and the entire crew.

The travelers now realized that fifteen of their comrades had either died or were held captive by hostile Indians.

It was bitter to realize such a loss and his impotence, the inability to help his comrades.

“... we walked near that place until evening, waiting for our ships, only at night we moved away from the shore for fear, and at night we had a lantern with fire on the stern flask, so that, if more than expected, they would blow out, so that they could come to us at night ... "- recalled Alexei Chirikov.

There was very little fresh water left on the ship. You can't reach Kamchatka. It was impossible to continue the expedition and explore new lands without boats.

AT last time packet boat "St. Pavel" walked past the ominous, mysterious shore. Another volley of cannons - and the ship moved back to Kamchatka.

Despite the loss of life, the illness of many sailors, the lack of water, the disappearance of boats, the expeditionary detachment under the command of Alexei Chirikov completed its task - opened the Pacific coast of North America. More than 400 kilometers of its coast were mapped for the first time.

Hearing from Alexei Chirikov a story about the disappearance of sailors, Sven Waxel came to the conclusion: “It can be assumed with with good reason that when they (the sailors under the command of Dementyev) approached the shore, the Americans (Indians) probably hid, and that the people who arrived in the boats, unaware of the danger that threatened them when landing, dispersed in different directions for water.

Thus, they, presumably, were separated from each other when the Americans, having finally seized a convenient time, suddenly appeared between them and the boat, blocking the way back ... "

The writer, author of the book "Bering" Nikolai Chukovsky did not agree with the conclusions of Sven Waxel. He believed that the coast, where the sailors disappeared from the ship "St. Pavel", was inhabited by peaceful Indians - Tlinglits, who would not attack strangers.

In addition, it is not so easy to defeat a detachment of sailors armed with rifles and pistols, using only spears and bows.

Nikolai Chukovsky was inclined to the version that both boats of the St. Pavel" died in a whirlpool. Dangerous for small boats, whirlpools often form during high tides off the northwest coast of the United States. In the eighties of the XVIII century, approximately in the places where the sailors from the ship "St. Pavel", died in the whirlpool of the boat of the French traveler Jean-Francois Laperouse.

A little more than thirty years after the Second Kamchatka Expedition, the Spanish court received a message from their American colony that there was a settlement of Russian people in California. How these people got there is unknown. Since the time of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, not a single Russian ship has yet come to the shores of America.

My grandfather Grigory Burlak traveled the Pacific coast of the United States from California to Alaska in search of work in the early 20th century. He also had a chance to visit the Alexander Archipelago, discovered by the expedition of Alexei Chirikov.

On one of the islands of the archipelago, grandfather heard from the locals a story about how, many years ago, bright, bearded people who sailed on a big ship from “the land where the sun goes”, were bewitched by “Ageoy”.

When my grandfather asked what this word means, they explained to him: "Ageoy" - lights that fell from the sky.

What a misfortune happened later with bearded fair people - they said different things. Some claimed that the "path of heavenly lights" took the aliens to the magical land of Gemm. Others said that a spirit without a name told the bearded people to make boats and sail towards the sun to the mainland and start there. new life.

Then this story did not interest my grandfather. Only many years later, when he read about Chirikov's expedition and about fifteen missing sailors, did grandfather remember the legends he had heard on the Alexander archipelago.

The report of the expedition mentioned that the Tlinglit Indians, who sailed from the island, shouted the word "Agay". Maybe they didn’t hear on the packet boat and wrote down “Agai” instead of “Ageoi” incorrectly? ..

Of course, my grandfather later regretted that he did not ask in detail and did not write down the stories of the inhabitants of the archipelago. He didn't get to go there again.

Who knows, maybe the old Indian legends would at least slightly lift the veil over the mystery of the disappearance of fifteen Russian sailors?

"The path to the unknown" from the lights that fell from heaven ...

Everyone sees in these lights what he wants to see when he begins his journey along the "path into the unknown." But at the end of the journey, "everyone gets what they deserve"...

That's what my friends from Juneau said. Thus spoke to them the spirit of passion and excitement, which has no name and which intoxicates people with a sense of near success and happy change.

For those who have set foot on the "path into the unknown", it seems that this is the righteous path. Other beckoning lights appear precious stones that lead to earthly wealth. Still others see something mysterious in them, which must be comprehended and experienced ...

I returned to New York without having visited the land that holds the secret of fifteen Russian sailors.

In the porthole of the plane, in the darkness, some islands were barely visible. Could this be the Alexander Archipelago?

I wanted to believe it. As well as the fact that the multi-colored lights below are a mysterious "path to the unknown" of the spirit of passion and excitement, and not just the light of electric bulbs of settlements and sea ​​ships.

In New York, I told the story of the missing Russian sailors to the well-known American journalist Art Shields. Once he worked as a correspondent in Moscow, and before the First World War he lived for many months in Alaska.

It turned out that at one time Art studied the materials of the Second Kamchatka Expedition and even wrote down several legends related to the mysterious, in his opinion, the disappearance of sailors from the St. Pavel".

From a Russian emigrant living in New York, Shields got acquainted with a handwritten copy of the notes of the famous businessman and researcher Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov.

In the second half of the 18th century, Grigory Ivanovich was the organizer of permanent Russian settlements in Alaska and on the islands of the northern regions of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1788, Shelekhov's envoys met in Alaska, in Yakutat Bay, light-eyed, fair-haired, tall white people. They lived in a tribe of Koloshi Indians, spoke their language, but differed in manners and attire.

When Shelekhov was informed about this meeting, he immediately remembered the stories about the missing sailors from the St. Pavel "and decided that the fair-haired Indians were their children or grandchildren.

Around the 1870s, an unusual, silent old man appeared in New York. He knew only a few words in English.

He was met by hunters in the upper reaches of the Delaware River. With signs, gestures, in separate words, the old man managed to explain that many years ago, on the ocean shore, he was captured by some Indians. At first, they gave him and his comrades - Russian sailors - a bowl of hot broth.

Then oblivion came. How long it lasted - the old man either did not know, or was unable to explain. He did not see his comrades from the ship again. He, then still a young, strong man, the Indians decided to make a "white shaman."

From the island where he was captured, he was transported to the mainland. This path was not easy. In the boat, the future "white shaman" was constantly given a drink, from which at first the head was spinning, and then consciousness was lost.

How and what the “supreme teacher of shamans” taught the Russian sailor, the old man could not tell. When, after many months, the "hour of initiation" came, the teacher cut a vein in the sailor's arm and tasted the blood. Then he explained that blood is bad, and a stranger cannot become a shaman. And the Indians will not forgive this and will give the pale-faced man as a sacrifice to the white wolves.

For some reason, the Russian sailor liked the "supreme teacher of shamans", and he advised the unfortunate student to run - all the time towards the sun, until he comes to the shore of another ocean. And there, if he does not meet happiness, then at least he will find peace.

The sailor followed the advice. For more than twenty years he moved from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Overcame rivers, dense forests, lakes. Several times the sailor was captured by the Indians of different tribes. Sometimes he ran away, but more often the Indians, having learned what path he had traveled and how much he still had to go, set him free as a sign of respect.

It is not known whether the Russian sailor met happiness in New York - "on the shore of another ocean", as the "supreme teacher of shamans" prophesied to him. Did you find peace in an unfamiliar city? Was he really in the crew of St. Paul"?

There is no documentary evidence of all this ... Another undisclosed secret of Russian America.

East. The indigenous peoples of Siberia: Evenki, Khanty, Mansi, Yakuts, Chukchi, and others were engaged in cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, tribal relations dominated among them. The accession of Western Siberia took place in the late 16th century - the conquest of the Siberian Khanate. Gradually, explorers and industrialists penetrate Siberia, followed by representatives of the tsarist government. Settlements and fortresses are founded.

Ostrogs - Yenisei (1618), Ilimsk (1630), Irkutsk (1652), Krasnoyarsk (1628). The Siberian order is created, Siberia is divided into 19 districts, controlled by governors from Moscow.

Pioneers: Semyon Dezhnev, 1648 - discovered the strait separating Asia from North America. Vasily Poyarkov, 1643-1646 - at the head of the Cossacks sailed along the rivers Lena, Aldan, along the Amur to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk. Erofey Khabarov, in 1649 carried out a campaign in Dauria, compiled maps of the lands along the Amur. Vladimir Atlasov, in 1696 - an expedition to Kamchatka.

Annexation of Western Siberia (subjugation of the Siberian Khanate at the end of the 16th century)

Penetration into Siberia of explorers and industrialists, as well as representatives of the tsarist government (in the 17th century

Foundation of settlements and fortresses:

Yenisei jail (1618)

Krasnoyarsk prison (1628)

Ilim prison (1630)

Yakut prison (1632)

Irkutsk jail (1652)

Selenginsky prison (1665)

Creation of the Siberian order. The division of Siberia into 19 counties, which were ruled by governors appointed from Moscow ( 1637 )

Russian pioneers of Siberia

Semyon Dezhnev (1605-1673)- made a major geographical discovery: in 1648 he sailed along the Chukchi Peninsula and discovered the strait separating Asia from North America

Vasily Poyarkov in 1643-1646 at the head of a detachment of Cossacks, he went from Yakutsk along the Lena and Aldan rivers, went along the Amur to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk, and then returned to Yakutsk

Erofei Khabarov (1610-1667)- in 1649-1650. carried out a trip to Dauria, mastered the lands along the Amur River and compiled their maps (drawing)

Vladimir Atlasov in 1696-1697 undertook an expedition to Kamchatka, as a result of which it was annexed to Russia

1. The inclusion of the "Siberian kingdom" in the Russian state

Since state revenues have declined catastrophically, the problem of replenishing the state treasury, among the mass of urgent matters, was one of the most urgent and painful. In solving this main problem, like others, the Russian state saved the diversity and vastness of its geopolitical foundation - the Eurasian scale of the Muscovite Empire.

Having ceded its western provinces to Poland and Sweden and having suffered heavy losses in the west, Russia turned for new forces: to its eastern possessions - the Urals, Bashkiria and Siberia.

On May 24, 1613, the tsar wrote a letter to the Stroganovs, in which he described the desperate state of the country: the treasury was empty, and asked to save the fatherland.

The Stroganovs did not reject the request, and this was the beginning of their significant assistance to the government of Tsar Michael.

The natural result of the conquest of Kazan was the Russian advance into Bashkiria. In 1586, the Russians built the Ufa fortress in the heart of Bashkiria.

The Russian administration did not interfere in the tribal organization and affairs of the Bashkir clans, as well as in their traditions and habits, but demanded regular payment of yasak (tribute paid in furs). This was the main source of income for Russians in Bashkiria. Yasak was also the financial basis of the Russian administration of Siberia.

By 1605, the Russians had established firm control over Siberia. The city of Tobolsk in the lower reaches of the Irtysh River became the main fortress and administrative capital of Siberia. In the north, Mangazeya on the Taz River (which flows into the Gulf of Ob) quickly turned into an important center for the fur trade. In the southeast of Western Siberia, the Tomsk fortress on the tributary of the middle Ob served as the advanced post of the Russians on the border of the Mongol-Kalmyk world.

In 1606-1608, however, there were unrest of the Samoyeds (Nenets), Ostyaks, Selkups (Narym Ostyaks) and the Yenisei Kirghiz, the direct cause of which was the case of a flagrant violation of the principles of Russian rule in Siberia - shameful abuses and extortion against the indigenous inhabitants of the sides of two Moscow heads (captains) sent to Tomsk by Tsar Vasily Shuisky in 1606

Attempts by the rebels to storm Tobolsk and some other Russian fortresses failed, and the unrest was suppressed with the help of the Siberian Tatars, some of whom were attacked by the rebels. During 1609 and 1610 The Ostyaks continued to oppose Russian rule, but their rebellious spirit gradually weakened.

The king became the patron of three khans, one Mongol and two Kalmyk, who were in hostile relations. The king was supposed to be the judge, but none of his nominal vassals made concessions to the other two, and the king did not have sufficient troops to force peace between them.

By 1631, one Cossack gang reached Lake Baikal, and the other two - to the Lena River. In 1632 the city of Yakutsk was founded. In 1636, a group of Cossacks, sailing from the mouth of the Olenyok River, entered the Arctic Ocean and went east along the coast. In the footsteps of this and other expeditions, the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev sailed around the northeastern tip of Asia. Having started his journey at the mouth of the Kolyma River, he then ended up in the Arctic Ocean and landed at the mouth of the Anadyr River in the Bering Sea (1648-1649).

Ten years before Dezhnev's Arctic voyage, a Cossack expedition from Yakutsk managed to enter the Sea of ​​Okhotsk along the Aldan River. In the 1640s and 1650s the lands around Lake Baikal were explored. In 1652 founded Irkutsk. In the east, Poyarkov descended the lower reaches of the Amur River and from its mouth sailed north along the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk (1644-1645). In 1649‑1650. Erofey Khabarov opened the way for the Russians to the middle Amur.

Thus, by the middle of the seventeenth century, the Russians had established their control over all of Siberia except for the Kamchatka Peninsula, which they annexed at the end of the century (1697-1698).

As for the ethnic composition of the newly annexed areas, most of the vast territory between the Yenisei and the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk was inhabited by Tungus tribes. The Tungus, linguistically related to the Manchus, were engaged in hunting and reindeer herding. There were about thirty thousand of them.

Around Lake Baikal there were several settlements of the Buryats (a branch of the eastern Mongols) with a population of at least twenty-six thousand people. The Buryats were mainly cattle breeders and hunters, some of them were engaged in agriculture.

The Yakuts lived in the basin of the Middle Lena. They linguistically belonged to the Turkic family of peoples. There were about twenty-five thousand of them - mostly cattle breeders, hunters and fishermen.

In the northeastern triangle of Siberia, between the Arctic Ocean and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, various Paleo-Asian tribes lived, about twenty-five thousand reindeer herders and fishermen

Indigenous peoples were much more numerous than Russian newcomers, but they were disunited and did not have firearms. Clan and tribal elders often clashed with each other. Most of them were ready to recognize the king as their sovereign and pay him yasak.

In 1625 in Siberia there were fourteen cities and forts (fortresses), where governors were appointed. These were Tobolsk, Verkhoturye, Tyumen, Turinsk, Tara, Tomsk, Berezov, Mangazeya, Pelym, Surgut, Kets Ostrog, Kuznetsk, Narym and Yeniseisk. Two governors were usually appointed to each city, one of which was the eldest; in each prison - one. With further advancement to the east, the number of cities and forts, and consequently, the governor increased.

Each voivode supervised the military and civil affairs of his district. He reported directly to Moscow, but the Tobolsk governor had a certain amount of power over all the others, which allowed him to coordinate the actions of the Siberian armed forces and government. The senior voivode of Tobolsk also had a limited right to maintain (under Moscow's control) relations with neighboring peoples such as the Kalmyks and the Eastern Mongols.

The position of the governor in Muscovy, and even more so in Siberia, provided a lot of opportunities for enrichment, but the remoteness, difficulties of travel and unsafe living conditions in the border areas frightened off the Moscow court aristocracy. In order to attract famous boyars to serve in Siberia, the Moscow government granted the Siberian governors the status that governors had in the active army, which meant better salaries and special privileges. For the period of service in Siberia, the voivode's possessions in Muscovy were exempt from taxes. His serfs and serfs were not subject to prosecution, except in cases of robbery. All legal cases against them were postponed until the return of the owner. Each governor was provided with all the necessary means for travel to Siberia and back.

The Russian armed forces in Siberia consisted of boyar children; foreigners such as prisoners of war, settlers and mercenaries sent to Siberia as punishment (all of them were called "ditva" because most of them were Lithuanians and Western Russians); archers and Cossacks. In addition to them, there were local auxiliary troops (in Western Siberia, mostly Tatar). According to Lantsev's calculations in 1625. in Siberia there were less than three thousand Moscow soldiers, less than a thousand Cossacks and about one thousand locals. Ten years later, the corresponding figures were as follows: five thousand, two thousand, and about two thousand. Parallel to the growth of the armed forces in Siberia, there was a gradual expansion of agricultural activities. As noted earlier, the government recruited future Siberian peasants either under a contract (by instrument) or by order (by decree). Peasants mainly moved from the Perm region and the Russian North (Pomorye). The government used a significant number of criminals and exiled prisoners of war for agricultural work. It is estimated that by 1645 at least eight thousand peasant families were settled in Western Siberia. In addition, from 1614 to 1624. more than five hundred exiles were stationed there.

From the very beginning of the Russian advance into Siberia, the government was faced with the problem of a lack of grain, since before the arrival of the Russians, the agricultural production of the indigenous peoples in western Siberia corresponded only to their own needs. To satisfy the needs of military garrisons and Russian employees, grain had to be brought from Russia.

During the construction of each new city in Siberia, all the land around it suitable for arable land was explored and the best plots were allotted for the sovereign's arable land. The other part was provided to employees and the clergy. The rest could be occupied by peasants. At first, the users of this land were exempted from special duties in favor of the state, but during his tenure as governor of Tobolsk, Suleshev ordered that every tenth sheaf from the harvest on the estates allocated to service people be transferred to the state storage of this city. This legislative act was applied throughout Siberia and remained in force until the end of the 17th century. This order was similar to the institution of tithe arable land (a tenth of the cultivated field) in the southern border regions of Muscovy. Thanks to such efforts, by 1656 there was an abundance of grain in Verkhoturye and, possibly, in some other regions of Western Siberia. In Northern Siberia and Eastern Siberia, the Russians were forced to depend on the import of grain from its western part.

The Russians were interested not only in the development of agriculture in Siberia, but also in the exploration of mineral deposits there. Soon after the construction of the city of Kuznetsk in 1618, local authorities learned from the indigenous people about the existence of iron ore deposits in this area. Four years later, the Tomsk governor sent the blacksmith Fyodor Yeremeev to look for iron ore between Tomsk and Kuznetsk. Eremeev discovered a deposit three miles from Tomsk and brought samples of the ore to Tomsk, where he smelted the metal, the quality of which turned out to be good. The governor sent Eremeev with samples of ore and iron to Moscow, where the experiment was successfully repeated. “And the iron turned out good, and steel could be made from it.” The tsar rewarded Yeremeev and sent him back to Tomsk (1623).

Then two experienced blacksmiths were sent to Tomsk from Ustyuzhna to manage a new foundry for the production of guns. The foundry was small, with a capacity of only one pood of metal per week. However, it served its purpose for a while.

In 1628, iron ore deposits were explored in the Verkhoturye region, several foundries were opened there, the total productive capacity of which was greater and the cost of production was lower than in Tomsk. The foundry in Tomsk was closed, and Verkhoturye became the main Russian metallurgical center of Siberia at that time. In addition to weapons, agricultural and mining tools were produced there.

In 1654, iron ore deposits were discovered on the banks of the Yenisei, five versts from Krasnoyarsk. Copper, tin, lead, silver and gold were also searched in Siberia, but the results appeared at the end of the 17th century.

The income from furs in 1635, as calculated by Milyukov on the basis of official records, amounted to 63,518 rubles. By 1644, it had grown to 102,021 rubles, and by 1655, to 125,000 rubles.

It should be noted that the purchasing power of the Russian ruble in the 17th century was equal to approximately seventeen gold rubles of 1913. Thus, 125,000 rubles of the 17th century can be considered equal to 2,125,000 rubles of 1913.

The great Russian travelers, whose list is quite long, pushed the development of maritime trade, and also raised the prestige of their country. The scientific community learned more and more information not only about geography, but also about the animal and plant world, and most importantly, about people who lived in other parts of the world and their customs. Let us follow in the footsteps of the great Russian travelers their geographical discoveries.

Fyodor Filippovich Konyukhov

The great Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov is not only a famous adventurer, but also an artist, an honored master of sports. He was born in 1951. From childhood, he could do what would be quite difficult for his peers - swimming in cold water. He could easily sleep in the hayloft. Fedor was in good physical shape and could run long distances - several tens of kilometers. At the age of 15, he managed to swim across the Sea of ​​Azov using a row fishing boat. Fedor was significantly influenced by his grandfather, who wanted the young man to become a traveler, but the boy himself aspired to this. Great Russian travelers often began to prepare in advance for their campaigns and sea voyages.

Konyukhov's discoveries

Fedor Filippovich Konyukhov participated in 40 trips, repeated Bering's route on a yacht, and also sailed from Vladivostok to the Commander Islands, visited Sakhalin and Kamchatka. At the age of 58, he conquered Everest, as well as the 7 highest peaks in a team with other climbers. He visited both the North and South Poles, on his account 4 round-the-world voyages, he crossed the Atlantic 15 times. Fyodor Filippovich displayed his impressions with the help of drawing. Thus he painted 3,000 paintings. The great geographical discoveries of Russian travelers were often reflected in their own literature, and Fedor Konyukhov left behind 9 books.

Afanasy Nikitin

The great Russian traveler Athanasius Nikitin (Nikitin is the patronymic of a merchant, since his father's name was Nikita) lived in the 15th century, and the year of his birth is unknown. He proved that even a person from a poor family can travel so far, the main thing is to set a goal. He was an experienced merchant who, before India, visited the Crimea, Constantinople, Lithuania and the Moldavian principality and brought overseas goods to his homeland.

He himself was from Tver. Russian merchants traveled to Asia to establish ties with local merchants. They themselves carried there, mostly furs. By the will of fate, Athanasius ended up in India, where he lived for three years. Upon returning to his homeland, he was robbed and killed near Smolensk. The great Russian travelers and their discoveries remain forever in history, because for the sake of progress, brave and courageous wanderers often died on dangerous and long expeditions.

Discoveries of Athanasius Nikitin

Afanasy Nikitin became the first Russian traveler to visit India and Persia, on the way back he visited Turkey and Somalia. During her wanderings, she took notes "Journey Beyond the Three Seas", which later became a guide for studying the culture and customs of other countries. In particular, medieval India is well described in his notes. He crossed the Volga, the Arabian and Caspian Seas, the Black Sea. When the merchants near Astrakhan were robbed by the Tatars, he did not want to return home with everyone and fall into a debt hole, but continued his journey, heading to Derbent, then to Baku.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay

Miklouho-Maclay comes from a noble family, but after the death of his father, he had to learn what it means to live in poverty. He had the nature of a rebel - at the age of 15 he was arrested for participating in a student demonstration. Because of this, he not only ended up under arrest in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he stayed for three days, but was also expelled from the gymnasium with a further ban on admission - so the opportunity was lost for him to get higher education in Russia, which he subsequently did only in Germany.

A well-known naturalist, drew attention to an inquisitive 19-year-old boy and invited Miklouho-Maclay on an expedition, the purpose of which was to study marine fauna. Nikolai Nikolaevich died at the age of 42, while his diagnosis was "severe deterioration of the body." He, like many other great Russian travelers, sacrificed a significant part of his life in the name of new discoveries.

Discoveries of Miklouho-Maclay

In 1869, Miklukho-Maclay, with the support of the Russian Geographical Society, left for New Guinea. The shore where he landed is now called Maclay Coast. After spending more than a year on the expedition, he discovered new lands. The natives learned from a Russian traveler how pumpkin, corn, and beans are grown, and how to take care of fruit trees. He spent 3 years in Australia, visited Indonesia, the Philippines, the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia. He also convinced local residents not to interfere with anthropological research. For 17 years of his life, he studied the indigenous population of the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia. Thanks to Miklukho-Maclay, the assumption that the Papuans are a different kind of person was refuted. As you can see, the great Russian travelers and their discoveries allowed the rest of the world not only to learn more about geographical research, but also about other people who lived in new territories.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky

Przhevalsky was favored by the emperor's family, at the end of the first trip he had the honor to meet Alexander II, who transferred his collections to the Russian Academy of Sciences. His son Nikolai really liked the works of Nikolai Mikhailovich, and he wanted to be his student, he also contributed to the publication of stories about the 4th expedition, granting 25 thousand rubles. The Tsarevich always looked forward to letters from the traveler and was glad even for a short news about the expedition.

As you can see, even during his life, Przhevalsky became quite famous person and his works and deeds received great publicity. However, as sometimes happens when great Russian travelers and their discoveries become famous, many details from his life, as well as the circumstances of his death, are still shrouded in mystery. Nikolai Mikhailovich had no descendants, because having understood in advance what fate awaited him, he would not allow himself to condemn his beloved to constant expectations and loneliness.

Discoveries of Przewalski

Thanks to Przhevalsky's expeditions, Russian scientific prestige received a new impetus. During 4 expeditions, the traveler traveled about 30 thousand kilometers, he visited Central and Western Asia, the territory of the Tibetan Plateau and the southern part of the Takla Makan desert. He discovered many ridges (Moscow, Zagadochny, etc.), described the largest rivers in Asia.

Many have heard of (subspecies but few people know about the richest zoological collection of mammals, birds, amphibians and fish, a large number of records about plants and a herbarium collection. In addition to the animal and plant world, as well as new geographical discoveries, the great Russian traveler Przhevalsky was interested in the unknown for Europeans by peoples - Dungans, northern Tibetans, Tanguts, Magins, Lobnors. He created the work "How to Travel in Central Asia", which could serve as an excellent guide for researchers and the military. Great Russian travelers, making discoveries, always gave knowledge for the development of science and successful organization of new expeditions.

Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern

The Russian navigator was born in 1770. He happened to become the head of the first round-the-world expedition from Russia, he is also one of the founders of Russian oceanology, an admiral, a corresponding member and an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. The great Russian traveler Krusenstern also took Active participation when the Russian Geographical Society was created. In 1811 he happened to teach at the Naval Cadet Corps. Subsequently, after becoming director, he organized the highest officer class. This academy then became a naval academy.

In 1812, he allocated 1/3 of his fortune for the people's militia (started Patriotic War). Until that time, three volumes of the books "Traveling Around the World" were published, which were translated into seven European languages. In 1813, Ivan Fedorovich was included in the English, Danish, German and French scientific communities and academies. However, after 2 years, he goes on indefinite leave due to a developing eye disease, which complicated the situation and a difficult relationship with the Minister of the Navy. Many famous sailors and travelers turned to Ivan Fedorovich for advice and support.

Krusenstern's discoveries

For 3 years he was the head of the Russian expedition around the world on the ships "Neva" and "Nadezhda". During the voyage, the mouths of the Amur River were to be explored. For the first time in history, the Russian fleet crossed the equator. Thanks to this journey and Ivan Fedorovich, for the first time the eastern, northern and northwestern shores of the Sakhalin Island appeared on the map. Also due to his work, the Atlas of the South Sea was published, supplemented by hydrographic notes. Thanks to the expedition, non-existent islands were erased from the maps, the exact position of other geographic points was determined. Russian science learned about the trade wind countercurrents in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, water temperatures were measured (depths up to 400 m), its specific gravity, color and transparency were determined. Finally, the reason why the sea shone became clear. Also, data appeared on atmospheric pressure, ebb and flow in many areas of the World Ocean, which were used by other great Russian travelers in their expeditions.

Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev

The great traveler was born in 1605. A sailor, explorer and merchant, he was also a Cossack chieftain. He was originally from Veliky Ustyug, and then moved to Siberia. Semyon Ivanovich was known for his diplomatic talent, courage and ability to organize and lead people. His name is geographical points(cape, bay, island, village, peninsula), premium, icebreaker, passage, streets, etc.

Dezhnev's discoveries

Semyon Ivanovich 80 years before Bering passed the strait (called the Bering Strait) between Alaska and Chukotka (completely, while Bering passed only part of it). He and his team opened sea ​​route around the northeastern part of Asia, reached Kamchatka. Nobody had known before that about the part of the world where America almost converged with Asia. Dezhnev passed the Arctic Ocean, bypassing the northern coast of Asia. He mapped the strait between the American and Asian coasts, and after the ship was shipwrecked, his detachment, having only skis and sleds, traveled 10 weeks before (while losing 13 out of 25 people). There is an assumption that the first settlers in Alaska were part of the Dezhnev team, which separated from the expedition.

Thus, following in the footsteps of the great Russian travelers, one can see how the scientific community of Russia developed and rose, knowledge about the outside world was enriched, which gave a huge impetus to the development of other industries.