The most important ways of Russian explorers. Development of new lands
The great past of the Soviet people Pankratova Anna Mikhailovna
4. Russian sailors and explorers in the 17th century
Courageous and inquisitive Russian people have long begun to make long voyages to the West, East and North, opening up new paths and new lands.
As early as 1496, four sea boats with an embassy, headed by the clerk Grigory Istoma, sent by Ivan III to Denmark, left the White Sea for the Northern Ocean. Following along the Murmansk coast, the Istoma embassy reached the western coast of Norway, from where it set off for Denmark. Other embassies to the West sailed along the same sea route. By the same White Sea, the English expedition of Chancellor arrived in Russia, who visited Ivan IV in Moscow and achieved privileges for English merchants.
At the beginning of the XVII century, for maritime trade relations from the White Sea with. The trading port of Mangazeya was founded by Western and Eastern Siberia (on the Tazu River, east of the Gulf of Ob). In 1600, by order of Boris Godunov, 15 sea vessels - "sailors" - were specially built for navigation by the northern route.
In the same 17th century, an energetic advance of the Russians into Siberia began. Russian sailors reached the river in 1610. Yenisei, went down to its mouth and built here the fortified Yenisei prison (later the city of Yeniseisk). Soon the Lena River was opened, on which the Lena Ostrog (later the city of Yakutsk) was founded, which became a stronghold for the advancement of Russian sailors to the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk. One of the first to come along the Lena River to the Arctic Ocean was the expedition of the Tobolsk Cossack Ivan Rebrov. In 1636, a new expedition of the Cossack ataman Ilya Perfiryev, which reached the Amur River, left Yeniseisk to “walk the path” along the Angara to the Lena River. An even more significant expedition to the Amur was organized by the "Cossack head" Vasily Poyarkov. This expedition set off on ships in the summer of 1643 from Yakutsk along the Aldan. With great difficulties and hardships, having lost more than half of the detachment, she reached the mouth of the Amur and from there headed along the Sea of Okhotsk, discovering the island of Sakhalin along the way. Only in the summer of 1646, partly by rivers, partly by land, Poyarkov returned to Yakutsk.
Almost at the same time, the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev and the industrialist Fedot Alekseev made their historical campaign around the northeastern tip of Asia. In June 1646, Dezhnev and his companions set off for the Arctic Ocean from the Kolyma River, but only two years later they managed to break through the ice to the sea. Moving along the coast to the east, Dezhnev rounded the Chukchi Peninsula and in 1648 discovered the strait that separates Asia from America. The extreme northeastern point of the Chukotka Peninsula was subsequently named Cape Dezhnev. The expedition of Semyon Dezhnev, like that of Vasily Poyarkov, was wrecked more than once, fell into a storm, endured hunger and cold, but no difficulties and obstacles stopped the courageous and energetic Russian explorers. In the autumn of 1648, a detachment of seventeen people, including the organizer of the expedition, Fedot Alekseev, landed on the eastern coast of Kamchatka. After wintering, the detachment went out to sea again in the spring of next year. On the way, brave sailors discovered the Kuril Islands.
In the middle of the 17th century, the Cossack Yerofei Khabarov undertook a new expedition to the Amur on ships, who made up a detachment of 70 people of “eager people”. In 1652, Khabarov and his detachment had to repulse the attack of a large Chinese army, which was trying to block the Russians from reaching the mouth of the Amur.
The fight against the Chinese troops continued in subsequent years, until in 1689 the first treaty with China was signed in Nerchinsk, which established the boundaries between Russian and Chinese possessions in the Far East.
During the expeditions of Khabarov and Onufry Stepanov, who replaced him, part of the Cossacks reached the Kamchatka Peninsula. In 1696–1700 Vladimir Atlasov undertook a special trip to Kamchatka with a party of Cossacks, who managed to reach the Pacific Ocean, discover the Aleutian Islands and visit the Kuril Islands. The entry of the Russians to the Pacific Ocean made it possible to begin the development of the Far Eastern Territory and pave the way for new remarkable discoveries in the 18th century.
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Moskvitin Ivan Yurievich - Russian explorer is known for being the first to reach the Sea of Okhotsk in 1639: he discovered its coast and Sakhalin Bay. Nothing is known from his biography, except that he was a Tomsk Cossack.
From Yakutsk in the 30s of the 17th century, the Russians moved in search of new lands not only south and north - up and down the Lena, but also directly east, partly under the influence of vague rumors that there was a Warm Sea in the east. The shortest path through the mountains from Yakutsk to the Pacific Ocean was found by a group of Cossacks from the detachment of the Tomsk ataman Dmitry Epifanovich Kopylov.
In May 1639, Kopylov sent an expedition led by Tomsk Cossack Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin to explore the path to the "sea-ocean". Among them was the Yakut Cossack Nehoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov, who, like Moskvitin, presented in January 1646 a “fairy tale” about his service in the Moskvitin detachment. These "fairy tales" are the most important documents about the discovery of the Sea of Okhotsk. The interpreter Semyon Petrov Chistoy also went on the campaign.
For eight days Moskvitin descended the Aldan to the mouth of the Maya. Further, about 200 kilometers, the Cossacks walked along Maya on a flat-bottomed plank - where on oars or poles, and where on a towline: they passed the mouth of the Yudoma River and continued to move towards the upper reaches.
After six weeks of travel, the guides pointed out the mouth of the small and shallow river Nyudymi, which flows into the Maya River on the left. Here the Cossacks abandoned the plank, probably because of its large draft, built two plows and in six days they climbed to the source of the river. A short and easy pass through the Dzhugdzhur ridge discovered by them, separating the rivers of the Lena system from the rivers flowing to the "Okiyan Sea", Moskvitin and his companions overcame in a day lightly, without plows.
In the upper reaches of the river, making a big loop to the north, before “falling” into the Ulya (the basin of the Sea of Okhotsk), they built a new plow and, in eight days, descended to the waterfalls, about which the guides undoubtedly warned them. Here again the ship had to be abandoned; the Cossacks bypassed the dangerous area on the left bank and built a canoe, a transport boat that could accommodate 20-30 people. The Cossacks "going to Lama, fed on wood, grass and roots, on the Lama, along the rivers, you can get a lot of fish and you can be full." Sakhorov A.M. Formation and development of the Russian state in the XVI-XVII centuries. M., 2006.-p.57.
From one Evenk, Moskvitin learned about the existence in the south of the “Mamur River” (Amur), at the mouth of which and on the islands “seated Gilyaks” - Nivkhs live. In late April - early May 1640, Moskvitin went by sea to the south, taking with him an Evenk as a guide. They went along the entire western mountainous coast of the Sea of Okhotsk to the Uda Bay, visited the mouth of the Uda and, bypassing the Shantar Islands from the south, penetrated into the Sakhalin Bay.
At the mouth of the Uda, from local residents, Moskvitin received additional information about the Amur and its tributaries the Chie (Zeya) and Omuti (Amgun), about the grassroots and island peoples - “seated Gilyaks” and “bearded Daur people”, who “live in courtyards, and bread from they, and horses, and cattle, and pigs, and chickens, and they smoke wine, and weave, and spin from all the custom from Russian.
Somewhere on the western shore of the Sakhalin Bay, the guide disappeared, but the Cossacks moved further “near the coast” and reached the islands of “sedentary gilyaks” - it can be argued that Moskvitin saw small islands at the northern entrance to the Amur Estuary (the current islands of Chkalov and Baidukov), as well as part of the northwestern coast of Sakhalin Island. Moskvitin, obviously, also penetrated the area of the mouth of the Amur. However, it was not possible to reach the very mouth of the Amur - hunger forced them to turn back.
Autumn storms began, and in November the Cossacks began wintering in a small bay at the mouth of the Aldoma River. And in the spring of 1641, having crossed the Dzhugdzhur ridge for the second time, Moskvitin reached one of the left tributaries of the Mai and in mid-July was already in Yakutsk.
They took a big loot. A lot of magpies of soft junk - sable stomachs, obtained in hunting and collected in yasak, went to the state treasury, but something, of course, remained itself.
On the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, the people of Moskvitin lived "with a passage for two years." Kolobov reports that the rivers in the newly discovered region are “sable, there are a lot of animals, and fish, and the fish is big, there is no such thing in Siberia ... there are so many of them - just run a net and you can’t drag it out with fish ... ". The authorities in Yakutsk highly appreciated the merits of the participants in the campaign: Moskvitin was promoted to Pentecostalism, his companions received from two to five rubles of reward, and some of them received a piece of cloth. For the development of the Far Eastern Territory discovered by him, Moskvitin recommended sending at least 1000 well-armed and equipped archers with ten guns. The geographical data collected by Moskvitin was used by K. Ivanov when compiling the first map of the Far East (March 1642).
Further traces of Ivan Moskvitin are lost without a trace. It is only known that Dmitry Kopylov, who sent him in search of "new lands" and the Warm Sea, was no longer found by Moskvitin as chieftains.
The campaign of Ivan Moskvitin became one of the most significant in Russian history - it made it possible to assess the limits of the Russian land. The Sea of Okhotsk was discovered, almost two thousand miles of its coast were covered. Moskvitin was the first to see the Shantar Islands and the Uda Bay separating them from the mainland coast and returned to Yakutsk with the first reliable information about the Amur. He opened the way for many Russian explorers.
Russia in the Middle Ages
In the period from $XI$ to $XIII$ centuries, a complex political situation developed on the territory of the ancient Russian state. It was during this period that Russia was subjected to raids by eastern nomadic peoples, and experienced a period of feudal fragmentation. Therefore, we can draw basic information about nature and social life from ancient Russian chronicles. The most famous document of that era is The Tale of Bygone Years by Nestor the Chronicler. It dates back to the XII century (about $1110$ a year). The development of new territories occurs spontaneously. Basic information is stored in the monastic libraries.
Remark 1
Monasteries in those days in many countries were also scientific centers.
Since states already existed in the west, the south was limited by the sea, and warlike tribes of nomads lived in the east, the inhabitants of Russia rushed to the north. In this era, there is an intensive development of the shores of the White and Barents Seas. The Barents Sea was called the Russian Sea for a long time. Pomors (inhabitants of the northern coast) mastered the islands of the Arctic Ocean. There are known cases of Russian fishermen wintering on Svalbard (Grumand).
In the $XIII$ century, Russia was conquered by the Mongol-Tatars. The yoke, which lasted almost $300$ years, significantly slowed down the development of economy and science.
Development of Siberia
It was only in the $15th century that the Moscow governors undertook a campaign through the Ural Mountains to Western Siberia. They passed the Tyumen region, reached the Irtysh. "Drawings" of new lands were drawn up. Russian pioneers went in search of lands rich in fur-bearing animals - arctic fox, sable, squirrel. But Siberia belonged to the Siberian Khanate, which was formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde. Therefore, the development of Siberian lands would be more correctly called a conquest.
One of the most famous conquerors of Siberia is Yermak. In the middle of the $16th century, with the help (or on the instructions) of the merchant and large Ural landowner Stroganov, he organized a campaign in Western Siberia. The campaign was like a military expedition. With battles, the Russian Cossacks managed to push back the Siberian Tatars. The city of Tobolsk was founded.
In one of the battles, Yermak died. But the territories he conquered served as a springboard for the subsequent advance further east. At the beginning of the $XVII$ century, Russian explorers came to the Yenisei. A little later, Yakutsk (Yakutsk prison) was founded.
Discoveries in the Northeast
Exploring the expanses of Siberia, explorers and travelers often used rivers as transport arteries. The waterway made it possible to save energy and was clear of thickets. In winter, sleds could be used. In $1648$, Cossacks Semyon Dezhnev and Fedot Popov "with comrades" went down the Lena to the sea coast on flat-bottomed boats - kochas. They reached the mouth of the Kolyma. Going further, the expedition opened the strait between Eurasia and North America.
Remark 2
Unfortunately, information about this campaign was lost in the embassy order. Therefore, the authorities did not know for a long time about the existence of a strait between the two continents.
Conquest of the Far East
From $1630$, campaigns of Russian Cossacks to the Pacific coast begin. Ivan Moskvitin was the first European to reach the Pacific coast. Expeditions led by Vasily Poyarkov and Yerofei Khabarov reached the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Amur River. In $1640$ Lake Baikal was discovered. In $1697-1699, VV Atlasov's expedition to Kamchatka took place. During this expedition, an accurate description of the peninsula was compiled.
The development of Siberia and the Far East required considerable courage, dedication, and diplomatic skills from people when dealing with local peoples. And we can only admire the heroic achievements of the first Russian explorers.
8 476
Very little documentary evidence has survived about the very first explorers of the 17th century. But already from the middle of this “golden age” of the Russian colonization of Siberia, “expedition leaders” compiled detailed “skats” (that is, descriptions), a kind of reports on the routes taken, the open lands and the peoples inhabiting them. Thanks to these "tales", the country knows its heroes and the main geographical discoveries that they made.
Chronological list of Russian explorers and their geographical discoveries in Siberia and the Far East
1483
Fedor Kurbsky
In our historical mind, the first "conqueror" of Siberia is, of course, Yermak. It became a symbol of the Russian breakthrough to the eastern expanses. But it turns out that Yermak was not the first at all. 100 (!) years before Yermak, the Moscow governors Fyodor Kurbsky and Ivan Saltykov-Travin entered the same lands with troops. They followed a path that was well known to the Novgorod "guests" and industrialists.
In general, the entire Russian north, the Subpolar Urals and the lower reaches of the Ob were considered the Novgorod patrimony, from where the enterprising Novgorodians “pumped” precious junk for centuries. And the local peoples were formally considered Novgorod vassals. Control over the vast wealth of the Northern Territories was the economic basis for the military seizure of Novgorod by Moscow. After the conquest of Novgorod by Ivan III in 1477, not only the entire North, but also the so-called Yugra land, went to the Moscow principality.
The dots show the northern route that the Russians followed to Yermak
In the spring of 1483, the army of Prince Fyodor Kurbsky climbed the Vishera, crossed the Ural Mountains, went down the Tavda, where he defeated the troops of the Pelym principality - one of the largest Mansi tribal associations in the Tavda river basin. Going further to the Tobol, Kurbsky found himself in the "Siberian Land" - that was the name of a small area in the lower reaches of the Tobol, where the Ugric tribe "Sypyr" had long lived. From here, the Russian army passed along the Irtysh to the middle Ob, where the Ugric princes successfully “fought”. Having collected a large yasak, the Moscow detachment turned back, and on October 1, 1483, Kurbsky's squad returned to their homeland, having covered about 4.5 thousand kilometers during the campaign.
The results of the campaign were the recognition in 1484 by the "princes" of Western Siberia of dependence on the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the annual payment of tribute. Therefore, starting from Ivan III, the titles of the Grand Dukes of Moscow (later transferred to the royal title) included the words “Grand Duke Yugorsky, Prince Udorsky, Obdorsky and Kondinsky.
1586
Vasily Sukin
He founded the city of Tyumen in 1586. On his initiative, the city of Tobolsk was founded (1587). Ivan Sukin was not a pioneer. He was a high-ranking Moscow rank, governor, sent with a military detachment to help Yermakov's army to "finish off" Khan Kuchum. He laid the foundation for the capital arrangement of Russians in Siberia.
1623
Cossack Penda
Discoverer of the Lena River. Mangazeya and Turukhansky Cossack, a legendary figure. He came out with a detachment of 40 people from Mangazeya (a fortified prison and the most important trading point of Russians in North-Western Siberia (1600-1619) on the Taz River). This man made a campaign, unprecedented in its determination, thousands of miles across completely wild places. Legends about Penda were passed from mouth to mouth among the Mangazeya and Turukhansk Cossacks and fishermen, and came to historians in almost their original form.
Penda with like-minded people went up the Yenisei from Turukhansk to the Lower Tunguska, then for three years he walked to its upper reaches. I got to the Chechuy portage, where Lena comes very close to the Lower Tunguska. And then, having crossed the portage, he sailed down the Lena River down to the place where the city of Yakutsk was later built: from where he continued his way along the same river to the mouth of the Kulenga, then along the Buryat steppe to the Angara, where, having entered the ships, through the Yeniseisk, the packs arrived in Turukhansk.
1628-1655
Petr Beketov
Sovereign's service man, voivode, explorer of Siberia. Founder of a number of Siberian cities such as Yakutsk, Chita, Nerchinsk. He came to Siberia voluntarily (he asked to be sent to the Yenisei jail, where he was appointed a shooter centurion in 1627). Already in 1628-1629 he participated in the campaigns of the Yenisei service people up the Angara. He walked a lot along the tributaries of the Lena, collected yasak, brought the local population under Moscow's control. He founded several sovereign jails on the Yenisei, Lena and in Transbaikalia.
1639-1640
Ivan Moskvitin
The first of the Europeans went to the Sea of Okhotsk. The first to visit Sakhalin. Moskvitin began his service in 1626 as an ordinary Cossack of the Tomsk prison. He probably participated in the campaigns of Ataman Dmitry Kopylov to the south of Siberia. In the spring of 1639 he set off from Yakutsk to the Sea of Okhotsk with a detachment of 39 servicemen. The goal was the usual one - "the mine of new lands" and new obscure (that is, not yet taxed) people. Moskvitin’s detachment descended the Aldan to the Mai River and seven weeks went up the May, from Mai to the portage they walked in a small river for six days, they walked one day and reached the Ulya river, they went down the Ulya with a plow for eight days, then, having made a boat to the sea, they sailed five days.
Results of the campaign: The coast of the Sea of Okhotsk was discovered and explored for 1300 km, the Uda Bay, Sakhalin Bay, the Amur Estuary, the mouth of the Amur and Sakhalin Island. In addition, they brought with them to Yakutsk a large prey in the form of fur yasak.
1641-1657
Ivan Stadukhin
The discoverer of the Kolyma River. He founded the Nizhnekolymsky prison. He explored the Chukotka Peninsula and was the first to enter the north of Kamchatka. Passed on the cochs along the coast and described one and a half thousand kilometers of the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. He kept records of his "circular" trip, described and drew up a drawing-map of the places of Yakutia and Chukotka, where he visited.
Semyon Dezhnev
Cossack chieftain, explorer, traveler, navigator, explorer of Northern and Eastern Siberia, as well as a fur trader. Participated in the opening of Kolyma as part of the detachment of Ivan Stadukhin. From Kolyma, on horseback, he traveled across the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of Chukotka. 80 years before Vitus Bering, the first European in 1648 crossed the (Bering) Strait separating Chukotka and Alaska. (It is noteworthy that V. Bering himself did not manage to go through the entire strait, but had to limit himself to only its southern part!
1643-1646
Vasily Poyarkov
Russian explorer, Cossack, explorer of Siberia and the Far East. The discoverer of the Middle and Lower Amur. In 1643 46 he led a detachment that was the first Russian to penetrate the Amur River basin and discover the Zeya River and the Zeya Plain. Gathered valuable information about the nature and population of the Amur region
1649-1653
Erofey Khabarov
A Russian industrialist and entrepreneur, he traded furs in Mangazeya, then moved to the upper reaches of the Lena, where from 1632 he was engaged in buying up furs. In 1639, he discovered salt springs on the Kut River and built a vat, and then contributed to the development of agriculture there.
In 1649-53, with a detachment of eager people, he made a trip along the Amur from the confluence of the Urka River into it to the very lower reaches. As a result of his expedition, the Amur indigenous population accepted Russian citizenship. He often acted by force, which left a bad reputation among the indigenous population. Khabarov compiled a "Drawing of the Amur River". The military post of Khabarovka, founded in 1858 (since 1893 - the city of Khabarovsk) and the railway station Yerofey Pavlovich (1909), were named after Khabarov.
1696-1697
Vladimir Atlasov
Cossack Pentecostal, clerk of the Anadyr prison, "an experienced polar explorer", as they would say now. Kamchatka was, one might say, his goal and dream. The Russians already knew about the existence of this peninsula, but none of them had yet penetrated the territory of Kamchatka.
Atlasov, using borrowed money, at his own risk organized an expedition to explore Kamchatka in early 1697. Taking an experienced Cossack Luka Morozko, who had already been in the north of the peninsula, into the detachment, he set out from the Anadyr prison to the south. The purpose of the campaign was traditional - furs and the accession of new "unclaimed" lands to the Russian state.
Atlasov was not the discoverer of Kamchatka, but he was the first Russian who traveled almost the entire peninsula from north to south and from west to east. He compiled a detailed "tale" and a map of his journey. His report contained detailed information about the climate, flora and fauna, as well as the amazing sources of the peninsula. He managed to persuade a significant part of the local population to come under the authority of the Moscow Tsar.
For the annexation of Kamchatka to Russia, Vladimir Atlasov, by decision of the government, was appointed there as a clerk. The campaigns of V. Atlasov and L. Morozko (1696-1699) were of great practical importance. These people discovered and annexed Kamchatka to the Russian state, laid the foundation for its development. The government of the country, represented by Tsar Peter Alekseevich, already then understood the strategic importance of Kamchatka for the country and took measures to develop it and consolidate it on these lands.
Russian explorers
Four centuries ago, east of the Stone Belt - the Ural Mountains lay unknown, unexplored lands. Few people knew about them. And so, to the east, to the expanses of Siberia and the Far East, Russian people went, "capable of any work and military deed." These brave, courageous people who discovered new lands beyond the Ural Range were called explorers.
Many of them were descendants of free Novgorodians, who back in the 14th century. reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the foothills of the Urals. Among the explorers were Pomors who lived on the shores of the White Sea, as well as people from the northern city of Veliky Ustyug.
At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. The main route to Siberia was the road crossing the Urals, opened by Yermak's retinue, from the city of Solikamsk to the upper reaches of the Tura River. The city of Verkhoturye was founded here, which played a huge role in the promotion of the Russian population to Siberia and the Far East. A paved road was laid between these cities. A warehouse was built in Verkhoturye, from the stocks of which servicemen were supplied with bread
The spaces beyond the Urals were quickly mastered: in 1586 the city of Tyumen was founded, in 1587 - Tobolsk, in 1604 - Tomsk, in 1619 - Yeniseisk. The rapid, unstoppable advance of ordinary Russian Cossacks and industrialists - glorious explorers to the east and northeast of Asia - to the new "abundant lands" begins. Through their labors, the border of the Russian state was pushed further and further to the northeast.
Pathfinders in Siberia walked not along roads that did not exist then, but through the taiga, along rivers, either descending almost to the Arctic Ocean, or moving along the tributaries of large Siberian rivers to their sources, and then moving over the ridges from one river basin to another . Here, on the opposite slope of the ridge, having found a new river, explorers built boats and went downstream in them.
An important entry point for Russians in the Baikal region was the Yenisei prison (wooden fortress). From here they went to the Lena and Angara rivers and to Lake Baikal. In 1631, the pioneer Cossacks founded the Bratsk and Ust-Kutsk prisons, and a year later - Lensky, later called Yakutsky. It became the main center of the region. From here, the Russian people began to advance towards the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. They examined the basins of the Yana, Indigirka, Alazeya, and Kolyma rivers. Daredevils went on difficult campaigns, discovering new rivers, capes, mountains.
Tomsk Cossack Ivan Moskvitin with a detachment of 32 people walked along the rivers of the Lena basin and dragged across to the Ulya River, which led to the Sea of Okhotsk. Thus the Pacific Ocean was opened from the west. It was in 1639. In the spring, the Cossacks set off on sledges through the snow to the south and reached the mouth of the Amur River.
In 1643, an expedition of 132 people headed by Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov set off to the Amur from Yakutsk. He had to find a way to the Amur and the "arable land" Dauria. He found this path. Reached the Amur and the Ussuri River. Poyarkovtsy went to the Sea of Okhotsk and saw the island of Sakhalin on the horizon. This difficult and dangerous journey lasted three years. The explorers traveled 8,000 km across the new lands.
The most successful was the campaign of the Cossacks under the leadership of a native of the Vologda village Yerofey Pavlovich Khabarov in the Amur region. During the campaign, he strictly followed the discipline of his people. Russian people settled in new places in a businesslike manner, which attracted migrants from beyond the Urals, from Transbaikalia and Yakutia to the regions of the Far East. Thanks to agriculture and handicrafts, trade relations with the local population were established. Together they built cities, towns, paved the way, which contributed to the strengthening of friendly ties between the peoples of the Russian state. By his actions on the Amur, Khabarov accomplished a glorious feat and earned deep respect and memory. The huge region of the Far East and the large city of Khabarovsk, which is the center of this region, are named after Khabarov.
Russian explorers in the 17th century. penetrated not only to the south-east of Siberia. The paths laid from the Ob River to the Yenisei and Lena Rivers reached the extreme northeast of the Asian continent. Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev, a native of the Vologda peasants, also proved to be a brave explorer. In 1642, together with Mikhail Stadukhin, he set off from Yakutsk to the Indigirka River. And in 1648 he joined the expedition of the merchant F. A. Popov. On six ships - koches they left the mouth of the Kolyma River and moved east along the sea coast. The sailors were caught in a storm several times. They only have three kochas left. But they nevertheless reached the northeastern ledge of Asia, went around it and passed through the strait, now bearing the name of V. Bering, and proved the existence of a passage from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific. Thus, one of the largest geographical discoveries of the 17th century was made. Later, the extreme northeastern tip of the Eurasian continent was called Cape Dezhnev.
The next step towards the development of the outskirts of Siberia was made by the Cossack Luka Morozko and the Anadyr clerk Vladimir Atlasov, who equipped an expedition to Kamchatka (1697). Based on his report, a drawing map of Kamchatka was compiled, which became one of the first and oldest maps of the Chukotka Peninsula, Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.
Having discovered Kamchatka and laid the foundation for its development, Russian travelers penetrated the nearest islands of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Kuriles. The Russians gave them such a name for the constantly smoking volcanoes there. Discovering new "earthlands", Russian explorers built fortresses throughout Siberia, drew up maps, drawings, and left records of their campaigns. More and more people learned about the distant land, and accurate information helped them to better master it. In this they were also assisted by local residents, who often voluntarily supplied the pioneers with “leaders” (guides). Of course, there were clashes between the Russian detachments and the indigenous inhabitants of the region. But in Siberia, military people more often died from hunger and disease. And yet, the Russian explorers did not retreat, but with hard work they transformed the desert and cold land, infecting the local population with their energy, knowledge and ability to manage the economy.
For the preparation of this work, materials from the site lib.rin.ru were used.
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