Exploration of Siberia. Siberia in the 17th century The development of Eastern Siberia and the Far East by Russian explorers The development of Siberia and the Far East by the Cossacks

Back in the middle of the 16th century, after the annexation of the Kazan Khanate, Russia's eastern neighbor, the Siberian Khanate, entered into vassal dependence on the Russian sovereign for support in the fight against the Central Asian rulers. For the main wealth of Siberia - furs, Russian merchants organized expeditions and had the right to build fortresses on the Irtysh and in the lands along the Tobol. In the 70s, the Siberian khans organized attacks on Russian possessions, set up small nomadic feudal lords against Russia, and prevented the penetration of Russian merchants into Siberia. In 1581, the Stroganov merchants managed to organize a campaign of Yermak's Cossack squad against the troops of Khan Kuchum. The capital was taken and after stubborn battles the khanate was annexed to Russia - the first fortresses of Tyumen and Tobolsk were built, which became outposts for the penetration of Russian people into Siberia.

In the 17th century, Siberia was gradually mastered by detachments of Russian explorers. The government and merchants organized campaigns to explore the possibilities of fur trade and ore deposits. In 1648, the detachment of Semyon Dezhnev went to the shores of the Arctic Ocean and opened the strait between Asia and America, and at the turn of the 40-50s. Erofey Khabarov's detachment from Yakutsk reached the Amur and drew up a drawing of the Amur region - in this way Eastern Siberia and the Far East were mastered. The government, interested in the development of a rich region, organized peasant migrations to Siberia from Russian regions on preferential terms, supported "walking people" in acquiring farms in Siberia, and built small towns. Part of the runaway peasants rushed to the Siberian crafts. By the end of the 17th century, 150 thousand Russian families lived from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, most of them farmers who plowed "tithe arable land" in favor of the state, that is, they became state peasants. The indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East adopted some new tools from the Russians, plowed agriculture in the southern regions, but basically continued to pay taxes in kind - yasak, furs. Income from the sale of furs by the end of the 17th century accounted for a quarter of the income of the Russian state.

In the Amur region, the interests of Russia collided with the interests of China, where the Qing dynasty ruled. The main hostilities unfolded behind the fortress town of Albazin, which was destroyed by Chinese troops, and the Russians restored and defended it for a year. According to the Nerchinsk Peace Treaty of 1689 with China, Russian troops secured part of the occupied lands, but liberated the lands in the upper reaches of the Amur. Albazin Fortress was demolished.

Introduction 3

1. Prerequisites for the development of the Far East 5

2. The beginning of the development of the Far East 9

2.1. Development of the Far East under Peter I 9

2.2. Advance to the shores of North America 12

3. Kamchatka expedition 13

4. The first stage of development of the Far East 20

5. Expeditions of the 19th century 24

6. Significance of Russian expeditions 32

Conclusion 34

Literature 34

Introduction

Relevance of the topic. This topic was chosen in order to learn more about the history of the development and settlement of Siberia and the Far East.

In 1632, the centurion Peter Beketov penetrated from the mouth up the Lena and founded a prison, called Yakutsk, which soon became the center of the East Siberian Territory and a stronghold for further campaigns to the east and south.

In 1639, I. Moskvitin with a detachment of Cossacks went to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, laid a fence at the mouth of the Ulya River, and explored the coast for a considerable length. In 1643-1646, V. Poyarkov made a trip to the lower reaches of the Amur. In 1649-1652, E. Khabarov carried out two expeditions to the Amur lands and founded several cities there - Albazin, Achin, and others.

S. Dezhnev and F. Alekseev on kochs (boats) in 1648 reached the eastern tip of Asia. Departing from the Anadyr prison, the detachment of V. Atlasov reached Kamchatka. According to the “petitions” and “tales” of the pioneers, P.I. Godunov in 1667 compiled a map - “Drawing of the Siberian land”.

Active development of the Far East by Russia began under Peter 1 almost immediately after the Poltava victory and the end of the Northern War with the conclusion of peace with Sweden in 1721. Peter 1 was interested in sea routes to India and China, the spread of Russian influence in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, reaching the “unknown part” of North America, where the French and British had not yet managed to reach. New Russian lands with their inexhaustible wealth, fertile soils and forests became an integral part of the Russian state. The power of the state has increased markedly. “Amazed Europe, at the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Third, hardly even suspecting the existence of Muscovy, sandwiched between Lithuania and the Tatars, was stunned by the appearance of a huge empire on its eastern outskirts.”

And although this territory belonged to the Russian Empire, the way of life of the peoples who inhabited it from the Urals to Sakhalin remained at a level not far from the primitive communal one that existed among them even before they were colonized by Russia. Power was limited to the activities of the royal governors and the maintenance of small garrisons in any large settlements. The tsarist government saw in Siberia and the Far East primarily a source of cheap raw materials, and an excellent place for exile and prisons.

An important stage in the research of the Far East is associated with the famous Kamchatka expeditions under the command of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov (1725-1730 and 1733-1743), during which the outlines of the northern part of the Far East were determined, the Aleutian and Commander Islands were discovered, the issue of “converged whether Asia is with America”.

Geographical discoveries and surveys made in the 18th century prepared the historical voyages of Russian sailors around the world to the shores of the Far East: I.F. Kruzenshtern and Yu.F. Lisyansky (1803-1806), V.M. Golovin (1807- 1809 and 1817-1819), M.P. Lazarev (1813-1816 and 1822-1825), F.P. Litke (1826-1829) and others.

In 1849, the expedition of G.I. Nevelsky established the island position of Sakhalin and the possibility of exiting the mouth of the Amur into the sea. Strongholds were created in the Far East: Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Vladivostok.

The purpose of this work is the study of the history of the Far East in the period of the XVII-XIX centuries.

Work tasks include consideration of the prerequisites and the beginning of the development of the Far East. Description of the Kamchatka expedition, as well as other expeditions that were organized by Russian explorers in the 17th - 19th centuries.

1. Prerequisites for the development of the Far East

Demand for new goods and minerals. The advance of the Russians to the east was a natural result of the economic rise of Russia in the second third of the 17th century. The decisive factor in this process was the development of commodity-money relations. Furs, which were rich in the Far East, were required not only by the royal treasury, it contributed to the growth of incomes of merchants and fishermen-producers. The Yakut administration was interested in the availability of bread 1 .

Bread. The population of Eastern Siberia was not engaged in agriculture, and bread had to be imported from Western Siberia and even from beyond the Urals. The problem was quite serious. Bread was more expensive than gold, so the participants in the campaigns in the Amur region were required to conduct "experiments" to determine the yield, reporting the results to Yakutsk and Moscow that the land was suitable for arable farming.

Russian explorers have repeatedly tried to engage in arable farming in the newly discovered Far Eastern lands. However, in most cases they failed: the northern soils turned out to be of little use for growing bread. Only the southernmost regions, located in the upper and middle reaches of the Amur, were convenient for farming.

Sable. The need for precious furs was determined not only by the development of commodity-money relations in the country (a single all-Russian market was taking shape), but also by the need to strengthen its economy, undermined by the intervention of Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish feudal lords, Sultan Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. The terrible Time of Troubles was also devastating.

The state was just beginning to revive, gaining strength, and it needed money. Sable competed with gold. His furs were the main currency in overseas trade. Rus' supplied furs for almost the whole world.

Sable led industrialists (hunters), Cossacks, eager people to the north and east, forcing them to discover and develop new lands. Therefore, it was not blind disinterestedness and not simple curiosity that moved these people. Everyone sought to improve their financial situation, to get furs here or, as it was then called, “soft gold”, “soft junk”. Getting to the treasury yasak (tribute) "soft junk" from the indigenous people, as well as a tenth of the trappers' booty, was the main concern of the authorities. State income from sable fishing was quite large. Was it not on this "sable" money that the army was kept, covering the western and southern borders of the state?

Fish. Fish-rich rivers, lakes and coastal sea waters contributed to the development of fisheries. For a long time, for servicemen and "eager" people, fish remained almost the main food product, especially in winter. E. Khabarov wrote about this in 1652: “And the serfs of the sovereign, serving and free hunting Cossacks, lived in that city for the winter, and we Cossacks fed all winter in the Achan city with fish.”

In their reports on explored places, explorers always indicated which river was rich in fish. They were truly shocked by the abundance of fish in the Far Eastern rivers, especially during the salmon season. “And the fish is big, there is no such fish in Siberia,” reported the Cossack N.I. Kolobov, - according to their language, trout, char, chum salmon, hunchback, there are so many of them, just run net and do not drag it out with fish. And the river is fast, and that fish in that river quickly kills and sweeps ashore, and along its bank there is a lot that firewood, and that lying fish is eaten by a beast.

Experiencing serious difficulties in the development of land, however, Russian settlers already in the first years of their life here achieved considerable success, developing land suitable for arable farming, cattle breeding and crafts. An important role was played by merchants in the grain trade. In addition to delivering bread, they themselves started arable land. By the 1680s, a new life was in full swing in the Amur region.

Minerals. There were searches for ore minerals. In the early 1970s, the pilot operation of lead and silver deposits began.

The money of that time was silver, and there were no open deposits in the country yet, and silver had to be purchased abroad. Hence, the interest of the tsarist administration in stories about silver ores and sables of the distant eastern outskirts grew.

Great importance was attached to the search for salt.

The explorers not only advanced the eastern border of Russia to the ocean and the Amur, but also financially helped to keep its western border.

The oppression of serfdom. A significant role in the development of the Far East was played by the Russian peasantry, which constituted the bulk of the settlers who were eager to get rid of serfdom, land free from the landowner. Migration flows were directed to previously undeveloped land. It was the peasant farmers who made the Amur region, like the whole of Siberia, Russian land with freedom-loving traditions of service people and peasants.

Among the settlers who arrived in the Far East, peasants prevailed - 69.1%, Cossacks were 30.2%. Peasants from 20 provinces and regions of European and Asian Russia took part in this movement to the east. Thus, the population of the Amur region increased due to peasants from the Astrakhan, Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, Yenisei, Orenburg, Perm, Poltava, Samara, Tomsk, Kharkov provinces and the Trans-Baikal region.

The Primorsky region was replenished with immigrants from the Astrakhan, Voronezh, Vyatka, Irkutsk, Kaluga, Tambov, Tobolsk and other provinces, as well as at the expense of the Amur and Trans-Baikal regions. Peasant colonization brought more advanced ways of farming to the Amur region.

Most of the newly acquired possessions of Russia, including those in the east, had a huge fund of land for colonization and at the same time had a very sparse population. The limited human resources and technical capabilities, as well as serfdom, which had been established since the middle of the 17th century, prevented a fairly wide and free settlement of residents, artificially detaining them in the ancient regions of the state.

At the same time, the needs of the economic development and defense of the annexed lands forced the government to somewhat weaken the feudal course and, in the final analysis, to recognize the displacement of the population, even unauthorized (“flights”).

These contradictions of feudal society stimulated migration 2:

The exploited sought to improve the conditions of their existence by moving to new lands. This explains the free-people character of the colonization of the eastern outskirts.

The abolition of serfdom in Russia opened the era of mass migrations from the European part of the country to Siberia and the Far East, where there were large areas for land development and there was no landownership.

On March 26, 1861, by decision of the Russian government, the Amur and Primorsky regions were declared open for settlement by "landless peasants and enterprising people of all classes who wish to move at their own expense." Settlers were given free use of a piece of land up to 100 acres for each family. They were forever exempted from the poll tax and for 10 years from recruitment duty. For a fee of 3 rubles per tithe, settlers could additionally acquire land for private ownership.

With minor changes, these Rules were valid until the beginning of the twentieth century. It was during this forty years, from 1861 to 1900, that the most prosperous stratum of the rural population of the Russian Far East, the old-timer peasants, formed.

Thus, although this territory ended up under the rule of the king of his deputies, she never recognized the serf yoke. Peasant workers also predetermined fundamentally different relations between indigenous peoples and Russians than those that took place in the colonial policy of the European powers.

2. The beginning of the development of the Far East

2.1. Development of the Far East under Peter I

Active development of the Far East by Russia began under Peter 1 almost immediately after the Poltava victory and the end of the northern war with the conclusion of peace with Sweden in 1721.

The opening of a sea route to Kamchatka would contribute to the study of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Peter 1 was interested in sea routes to India and China, the spread of Russian influence in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, reaching the “unknown part” of North America, where the French and British had not yet managed to reach.

Interest in India and China and the ways of penetration there in the world increased after Marco Polo in 1271-1295 went to China by land and returned back by sea, telling the world about the “kingdoms and wonders” of the East. In 1466, Afanasy Nikitin entered India, describing his journey. Later, in 1453, the land roads there were blocked by the Ottoman Turks, who captured Constantinople, and Europe was forced to look for sea routes.

Vasco da Gama managed to open this route (through southern Africa), but at the same time the search went in a southwestern direction. Columbus, Balboa, Cabral, Magellan - opened the New World to the world. Europe rushed to share this tasty morsel. Pope Alexander Bogia, having judged by arbitration, gave everything that lay to the west of the Azores to Spain, to the east - to Portugal, which was, in general, a fair decision ... for Spain and Portugal ... But, to the great chagrin of them at that time moment already existed and other maritime powers - England, France, Holland. The clarification of relations dragged on for centuries, from which, as we now know, England came out right in all respects, which declared itself the mistress of the seven seas 3 .

By that time, Russia had already managed to become a sea power and, naturally, could not cede half the world to the mighty, but still tiny England. Therefore, the issue of conquering the seas and penetrating China has always been relevant for the beginning to gain strength of the empire.

Somewhere there was still unknown to anyone "land da Gama", rich in furs.

Mastering the Far East, Russia thereby took part in world colonization. The gaze of such major powers as England and France was turned to the southern territories, where natural conditions were more favorable than in the north.

By the beginning of Russian colonization, the southern countries were mostly captured by European countries, so Russia had only to move east and north.

New Russian lands with their inexhaustible wealth, fertile soils and forests became an integral part of the Russian state.

The power of the state has increased markedly. “Amazed Europe, at the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Third, hardly even suspecting the existence of Muscovy, sandwiched between Lithuania and the Tatars, was stunned by the appearance of a huge empire on its eastern outskirts.”

The main difference between multinational Russia and the empires of the West was that it owed its emergence not only and perhaps even not so much to conquest as to peaceful peasant colonization and the voluntary annexation of non-Russian peoples to it. The main features of peasant colonization were preserved in the 16th and 17th-19th centuries. Not a single agricultural people, whether in the Volga region, on the shores of the Baltic, in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia, was not taken away.

Nowhere did the Russian settlers infringe on the vital interests of the nomadic population. Nowhere does the Russian community resemble an English colony, nowhere does it keep apart - arrogantly towards the "natives".

Everywhere it organically grows into the surrounding foreign environment, establishes economic, friendly and family ties with it, growing together with it everywhere, serving as a link between non-Russians and Russia. There was no "people-master" complex, on the one hand; there was no reaction to it - on the other hand, and therefore, instead of a wall of alienation, a link of communication was forged.

Russian settlers and the administration, for the most part, easily established fruitful contacts with the peoples of the Far East. No wonder the opposition to Russian migration was so negligible. Conflicts with the Russians, if they arose at first, were quickly settled and did not have serious consequences in the form of national hatred. The only practical consequence of the Russian presence for the natives was yasak (payment of one or two sables a year), which non-residents understood as a gift, a courtesy tribute to the “white king”. With huge fur resources, the tribute was negligible, at that time, having got into the lists of "yasash" non-residents, a local resident received firm guarantees from the central government for the protection of life and property.

No voivode had the right to execute a “yasash” nonresident: for any crimes, the case was sent to Moscow for consideration, and Moscow never approved death sentences for natives.

In a matter of decades, the Russian people have mastered the colossal, albeit sparsely populated, expanses in the east of Eurasia, while holding back the aggression of the West. The inclusion of vast territories into the Muscovite kingdom was carried out not through the extermination of the annexed peoples or violence against the traditions and faith of the natives, but through complimentary contacts between Russians and natives or the voluntary transfer of peoples under the hand of the Muscovite tsar.

Thus, the colonization of the Far East by the Russians was not like the extermination of North American Indians by the Anglo-Saxons, nor the slave trade carried out by French and Portuguese adventurers, nor the exploitation of the Javanese by Dutch merchants. But at the time of these "acts" and the Anglo-Saxons, and the French, and the Portuguese, and the Dutch have already survived the Age of Enlightenment and were proud of their "civilization".

2.2. Advance to the shores of North America

In January 1725, Peter 1 issued a decree on the preparation of an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to reach the shores of North America. The expedition was supposed to reach some “city of European possessions” in America:

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

On these boats (sail) near the land that goes to the north, and by hope (because they don’t know it) it seems that that land is part of America.

And in order to look for where it met with America, and in order to get to which city of European possessions; and if they see a European ship, check out from it what it is called, and take it on a letter and visit the shore yourself and take a genuine statement and put it on the map, come here.

3. Kamchatka expedition

The first Kamchatka expedition stopped somewhere off the coast of Kamchatka. In 1726 she reached Okhotsk, from there she reached Bolsheretsk and Nizhne-Kamchatsk. Only in 1728, Bering passed from the eastern coast of Kamchatka to Cape Dezhnev, but bad weather did not allow him to reach the final goal of the expedition - the coast of America.

In 1732, the ship under the command M. Gvozdev came so close to the shores of America that the sailors were able to distinguish its shores, but the direct headwind again did not allow the “Archangel Gabriel” to get close to the cherished goal 4 .

The composition of the expedition. In 1733, the government decided to organize the second Kamchatka expedition, also called Great Siberian or Great Siberian-Pacific.

There were high hopes for this expedition. The expedition was supposed to find navigation routes in the Arctic Ocean, explore routes to America, Japan, carry out cartographic research (clarification of the location of the "land da Gama"), study the life and customs of the peoples inhabiting these lands.

The expedition included naturalists, geographers, historians. The future hero of this expedition George Steller got into it only thanks to his perseverance. Bering in every possible way refused to take a second physician on board, but the desire of the young naturalist ... for all sorts of difficulties and labors, as well as the desire to visit newly invented places, was so strong that he obtained from Bering permission to stay on the ship not as a scientist or physician, but on any conditions.

June 4, 1741 packet boats " Holy Apostle Peter"led by Bering and" Holy Apostle Paul” under the command of Chirikov went to the shores of America. Bering tried to find the notorious "Land of da Gama", and Chirikov wanted to prove that America is not very far from the Chukotka eastern corner.

Commander Bering ironed the Pacific Ocean in vain in vain attempts to find the lost land. It didn't exist then, and it doesn't exist now.

Storms battered the ships ... Bering's patience was running out (the team's patience, presumably, ended much earlier). And he gave the order to turn to the northeast... June 20, in heavy fog, the ships lost each other. Then they had to perform the task separately 5 .

Reaching America. On July 15, Chirikov and his "Holy Apostle Paul" reached the land near the coast of America, which now bears the name of the first ruler of Russian settlements in America - the land of Baranov. Two days later, having sent a boat with a dozen sailors under the command of navigator Dementyev to the land, and without waiting for their return within a week, he sends a second one with four sailors to search for comrades. Without waiting for the return of the second boat and not being able to approach the shore, Chirikov gave the order to continue sailing.

"The Holy Apostle Paul" visited some of the islands of the Aleutian ridge.

From the report of A. I. Chirikov on the voyage to the shores of America. 1741, December 7: “And on the land, under which we walked and examined about 400 miles, we saw whales, sea lions, walruses, pigs, birds ... a lot ... On the land of this, high mountains are everywhere and the coast to the sea is steep. .. and on the mountains near the place where they came to the land, as shown above, a forest of rather large growth ... Our shore turned out to be on the western side at a distance of 200 fathoms ... We came to us in 7 small leather trays, each with one person ... And in the afternoon ... they came to our ship in the same 14 trays, one person at a time.

After visiting the islands of the Aleutian ridge, "The Holy Apostle Paul" headed for Kamchatka and on October 12, 1741, arrived in the Peter and Paul Harbor.

The packet boat "Saint Apostle Peter" was looking for "Holy Apostle Paul" from the very first day of their separation, Bering did not suspect that he was next to a ridge of islands that Chirikov had already visited. The arguments of Georg Steller, who observed seagulls in the sea, that there should be land nearby and it is necessary to turn north had no effect on the captain-commander, who was concerned about the loss of the ship, and on the contrary, they annoyed the wise 60-year-old Bering.The commander wandered for another two months in the hope of finding the "St. "Land da Gama" was never found, the ship was lost ... It was impossible to pull further - the whole expedition was under a breakdown ... And on July 14, the naval master Sofron Khitrovo, after a long meeting, made the entry necessary for these cases in the ship's log:

And then, after we left the harbor, on the indicated course south-east-shadow-east, we had navigation not only up to 46, but also up to 45 degrees, but we didn’t see any land ... For this, they decided to change one rhumb, keep closer to the north, that is, to go east-north-east ...

The loss of hopes for finding the "land da Gama" and Chirikov's ship were not the only reasons that forced the commander to change course - only half of the 102 barrels of water remained, it was necessary to return to Petropavlovsk no later than the end of September if the coast of America was found. But he was not there ... On July 14, the packet ship "Saint Apostle Peter" went to the northern latitudes, and a day later Steller saw the outlines of the earth.

In the morning, with clear weather, all doubts disappeared. But due to the weakness of the wind, the packet boat was able to approach the shore only on July 20.

It was the American Northwest.

Several sailors, officer Sofron Khitrovo and naturalist Steller set foot on the long-awaited shore 6 .

Everyone can easily imagine how great was the joy of everyone when we finally saw the shore, congratulations poured in from all sides to the captain, to whom the honor of discovery most of all belonged, wrote Steller, excited by the event. Only Bering did not share the general rejoicing - he was already sick. The burden of responsibility for the expedition, failures at the very beginning of the journey - all this greatly depressed Vitus Bering. Everyone was jubilant about outright luck, reflections of future glory, but it was also necessary to return. Only wise with a long seafaring experience, elderly, striving for this goal for 9 years, and finally having received it, Bering realized this: How do we know if the trade winds will hold us here? The coast is unfamiliar to us, we do not have enough provisions for wintering.

According to the instructions of the Admiralty Board, it was necessary to look for the American coasts and islands with extreme diligence and diligence ... to visit them and find out for sure what peoples are on them, and how that place is called and whether those American coasts are truly.

Bering could not be denied diligence, but, probably, he faced the most difficult choice: to carry the “cross of the discoverer” to the end and explore the land found with such difficulty, or not to risk the expedition and immediately go back with a ghostly hope to return here with the “third expedition”. .. Later researchers will often reproach Bering for indecision, but great life experience, according to the same Steller (who was in very strained relations with the commander from the very beginning of the expedition) proved that Bering was more prudent than all his officers.

Already on July 20, looking at the top of Mount St. Elias, the captain-commander probably decided to follow another part of the instruction, which said: without waiting for the decree, to follow and in the end lead to another summer ...

And having made this decision, he was already adamant, ordering to linger exactly as long as necessary to replenish water supplies. For Russia, Bering did everything he could, he had no right to risk the lives of people anymore. I could not waste precious time on cartographic research, searching for European cities and studying the life of the natives.

But, probably, the general spirit of the expedition turned out to be so strong that fate was again favorable: the captain-commander was forced to give in to the pressure of the young scientist in his desire to explore the newly invented land and allowed Steller to join the group of sailors who were supposed to go ashore to replenish water supplies .

The naturalist Steller found himself in time trouble. And you can’t call it anything other than the will of Providence - what Bering achieved in 9 years, Steller managed to do in 10 hours.

The observations made by him, together with the data of the navigators, made it possible to draw an unmistakable conclusion - the coast of America was found.

While the team was preparing water, Steller was doing the work for which he was born into this world - he was researching.

Having come across a trodden path, he literally rushed headlong in search of people. The Cossack accompanying him Foma Lepekhin tried to hold him back: They will pile on in a gang, do not fight back. You see, how it is cut down (about an alder rod). Not otherwise with a knife or an axe. Come to yours. After all, they will kill here, or they will take it in full. Let's get lost. To which Steller reasonably replied Fool. There are people here, they need to be found... Perseverance was partly rewarded - they came across a fire of aborigines and Steller was ready to swear that this was a camp of Kamchadals, and if not for the landscape and vegetation, he could still swear. Another riddle awaited him when he came across a hole similar to those in which the Kamchadals fermented fish: four steps along, three across - two human heights. But... it didn't smell like fish rot. With the risk that sooner or later they would be discovered, Steller went down into the pit - it turned out to be an underground barn, in which there were birch bark vessels two cubits high, stuffed with smoked salmon, in others - pure sweet grass, piles of nettles, bundles of pine bark, ropes from sea grass of extraordinary strength, arrows that exceeded Kamchatka in length (well-planed and painted black). On their occasion, Lepekhin remarked: Not otherwise Tatar or Tungus. They walked another three versts, hoping to meet the inhabitants, until they saw a wisp of smoke. But they never managed to get to this fire - on the way, Steller saw a flock of birds, the breed of which he could not determine in any way. So he asked Lepekhin to shoot one of them. At the sound of a shot, a human scream was heard from the side where the shot was fired. Steller rushed there, but there was no one there, although the grass was flattened, as if someone was standing there. Probably, one of the locals accompanied them all the time or, in extreme cases, just ran into them and watched the uninvited guests in bewilderment. The shot startled him. This shot brought two more results - the shot bird turned out to be previously unknown to science and he was its discoverer - Georg Steller, and also a sailor sent in search of them came to the sound of this shot - it was time to return ... But in this short time he managed to collect 160 species of local plants, take samples of household utensils, get acquainted with abandoned dwellings.

The very next day, on another island in the Aleutian ridge, the expedition came across American Indians.

Return trip. The return trip, as Bering had expected, was difficult. Fogs and storms hindered the movement of ships. Water and supplies were running out. Scurvy plagued people. On November 4, the expedition came across an unknown land. On November 7, Bering ordered to land. Then no one could have guessed that they were a few days' journey from Kamchatka. The hard winter season has arrived. On December 8, 1741, the leader of the expedition, Captain-Commander Vitus Jonassen Bering, died. Command passed to Lieutenant S. Waxel. People were losing strength. Of the 76 people who landed on the island, 45 survived. All who could stand on their feet hunted sea animals and birds, strengthened crumbling dugouts.

From the report of Lieutenant S. Waxel with the Admiralty Board on the voyage with V. Bering to the shores of America. 1742, November 15.

This island, on which my team and I wintered... about 130 versts long, 10 versts across. On the island they lived very poor, because our dwellings were in pits dug in the sand and covered with sails. And in collecting firewood they had an extraordinary burden, for they were forced to look for and collect firewood along the seashore and carry 10 and 12 versts on their shoulders with straps.

We were obsessed with a cruel scurvy disease ... Through this winter, for lack of provisions, our livelihood was, one might say, the poorest and most laborious, besides, it was contrary to human nature, for they were forced to walk along the seashore and an exile from their dwelling 20 miles and 30 each and the elder about killing what kind of animal for food, namely a beaver, a sea lion or a seal ... which, having killed, they sewed on themselves through such a distance ...

Among them were Russians, Danes, Swedes, Germans - and they all fought to complete the expedition with dignity. Georg Steller found something to his liking here too - during his stay on the island, which later received the name of Bering, he described 220 species of plants, observed fur seals, sea lions. His great merit was the description of a sea cow - an animal from the order of sirens, which was subsequently completely exterminated and remained only in Steller's description. Having survived a difficult winter, the crew built a small boat from the remains of the St. Peter's wrecked by a storm, on which, on August 26, 1742, they returned to the Peter and Paul harbor. This completed the second Kamchatka expedition.

In 1743 the Senate suspended the work of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The results of both expeditions were significant: the American coast was discovered, the strait between Asia and America was explored, the Kuril Islands, the coast of America, the Aleutian Islands were studied, ideas about the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Kamchatka, and Japan were refined.

4. The first stage of the development of the Far East

Expedition of Moskvitin I.Yu. In 1639, a detachment of Tomsk Cossacks led by I.Yu. Moskvitin went to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk (Lamskoye) near the mouth of the Ulya River. The first prison was set up at the mouth of the Ulya River. Having settled here, I.Yu. Moskvitin explored the coast to the north and south of the river. During trips to the south, I.Yu. Moskvitin's companions heard from local residents about the rich Amur River. These stories, largely embellished and supplemented, became the property of the authorities and residents of Yakutsk, and served as an impetus for the Russian campaigns against the Amur, which began somewhat later.

Expedition Perfiliev M.P. In 1639 - 1640, the detachment of M.P. Perfiliev sailed up the Vitim River to the Tsypir River. In 1641, a detachment of Cossacks and industrial people headed by the written head E. Bekhteyarov walked along the path of MP Perfilyev.

Expedition Poyarkov V.D. On June 15, 1643, under the leadership of the Yakut writing head V.D. Poyarkov, a large expedition of 132 people began its long journey. Along the Lena, Aldan, Uchur, Gonam, through the Stanovoy Ridge pass, V.D. Poyarkov and his comrades went to the sources of the Bryant - a tributary of the Zeya, and along it to the large Amur River. From the mouth of the Zeya, V.D. Poyarkov's campaign along the Amur began, ending at the mouth of this river. For the first time in history, the Amur was passed all the way.

V.D. Poyarkov declared local residents to be subjects of the Russian Tsar and collected yasak from them. At the mouth of the Amur, the detachment wintered, and in the spring of 1645 went to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. They wintered for the second time near the mouth of the Ulya River. And only in the middle of June 1646 V.D. Poyarkov returns to Yakutsk.

V.D. Poyarkov gave a detailed description of his campaign, made a “drawing” of the rivers he visited, spoke about the life and customs of the peoples he met, whom he brought into the citizenship of the Russian Tsar. The most difficult voyage along the Amur - the first voyage along this river in the history of Russia, puts the name of V.D. Poyarkov on a par with the names of outstanding travelers. In the mid-1940s, the Amur River was discovered and initially developed by the Russians. The Russians wintered twice on its banks, including at the mouth of the river. During this voyage, the Russians discovered the island of Sakhalin 9 .

Expeditions of Shedkovnikov S. and Khabarov E.P. In 1647, Semyon Shelkovnikov founded the Okhotsk prison.

A very special, exceptional place in the history of the Amur region is occupied by the activities of E.P. Khabarov, whose campaigns to the Amur took place during 1649-1658.

As a result of the campaigns of E.P. Khabarov, the Amur population accepted Russian citizenship, and the Amur region began to quickly be mastered by the Russians.

Russian prisons, fortresses, winter huts appeared there, and among them Albazinsky (1651), Achinsky (1652), Kumarsky (1654), Kosogorsky (1655) and others. In the Amur region, the Albazinsky voivodeship (county) was formed. It, along with the Nerchinsk district, became the main center of Russian activity on the Amur.

The documents of that time mention Russian villages - settlements: Soldatovo, Pokrovskaya, Ignashino, Monastyrsshchina, Ozernaya, Panovo, Andryushkino. The Albazinsky district quickly took a leading position in arable farming, and in the 70s of the 17th century it supplied all of Transbaikalia and other regions of Eastern Siberia.

Before the appearance of the Russians, the tribes of Daurs, Evenks, Natks, Gilyaks and others lived on the Amur - about 30 thousand people. They did not belong to any political unions, they did not pay yasak to anyone, they were independent. The first expeditions to the Amur were instructed to bring the local population into Russian citizenship “not by force”, but “by kindness” and promise them protection. Only in case of "disobedience" was it allowed to use force ("military custom"). Daurs tried to resist. But soon their "princes" agreed to pay yasak.

“Questioning speeches” by V.D. Poyarkov and “Replies” by E.P. Khabarov are unique sources for describing natural wealth, life and customs of the indigenous inhabitants of the region. Let us also note another significance of their campaigns. Thus, “the Qing government,” as S.L. Tikhvinsky notes, “did not have any satisfactory information either about the geography of these outer territories, or about the local tribes inhabiting them.” The Russians knew the Amur, they knew the people who inhabited its shores, they knew where the Amur flows into, they knew the path along it.

V.D. Poyarkov and E.P. Khabarov left drawings (maps) of the places visited. It was with the campaigns of these remarkable explorers that the scientific study of the Amur and the Amur region began.

The entire Amur to the Tatar Strait and the territory east of the Argun to the Greater Khingan became part of Russia. Nerchinsk uyezd and Albazin voivodeship were formed. They became centers of Russian activity on the Amur 10 .

Break in research due to the aggression of the Qing Empire. However, the process of development of the region was interrupted due to the aggression of the Qing Empire. From the beginning of the 80s of the 17th century, the Manchus entered into open conflict with the Russian state. Military operations were conducted in Transbaikalia and on the Amur. Russia was not going to cede the Far Eastern borders. Convinced that all attempts for almost thirty years to seize the Amur, to take away the lands they had mastered from the Russians, were failing, the Qing rulers for several years were preparing a major military operation against Albazin.

Along with the heroic defense of Albazin (in 1685-1686), attempts were made to resolve the issue through negotiations. The embassy of F.A. Golovin went to Beijing. But, not being able to transfer large military forces to the Amur region, Russia was forced to sign the Nerchinsk Treaty imposed on it (1689). According to the territorial articles, Russian subjects left the left bank of the Amur region. The exact border between the two states was not established. The huge region, which had been successfully developed for almost 40 years, turned into a deserted strip that belonged to no one. The long defense of Albazin went down forever in the history of the heroic deeds of the Russian people 11 .

Russia, busy solving the Black Sea problem, as well as internal affairs, was forced to negotiate and sign, imposed by force, an agreement known as the Nerchinsk Treaty (August 27, 1689).

But even under these conditions, when the treaty was imposed on the Russians, F.A. Golovin managed to defend the subsequent rights of the Muscovite state in the Amur region and Primorye. The territory lying below the Uda River remained undelimited, the Nerchinsk Treaty was only the beginning in establishing a border line between the two states. The forced territorial concession by Russia could only be temporary.

Russia managed to defend the right to Transbaikalia and the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In the 18th century, Okhotsk was the main Pacific port of the country. The development of the northern shores of the Pacific Ocean, the exploration of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin prepared the foundations for the return of the Amur region. For almost a century and a half, it remained undemarcated and deserted. The basis for posing the Amur question was also the intensive settlement of Eastern Siberia.

Russian statesmen, outstanding travelers and explorers of the Far East took measures to return the Amur region to Russia.

As a result of the voyages of J.F. Laperouse (1785 - 1788) and W.R. Brauton (1793 - 1796), the Amur River became again an unknown river. This is a classic example of how disordered political affairs caused by geographic ignorance affected the state of geographical knowledge of a given area of ​​the globe. Despite the fact that the Russians always knew about the island of Sakhalin and the accessibility of the mouth of the Amur, through the efforts of J.F. Laperouse and W.R. Broughton, the Amur was “closed” to the entry and exit of ships, and Sakhalin was turned into a peninsula.

With the conclusion of the Nerchinsk treatise imposed on Russia, the Amur problem arose in a political aspect, and in connection with the erroneous studies of J.F. Laperouse and W.R. Brauton, the geographical Amur and Sakhalin problems arose. The first Russian circumnavigator I.F. Kruzenshtern, who was instructed to verify the conclusions of J.F. Laperouse and W.R. Brauton, essentially confirmed them and, thereby, shook to some extent the determination of the Russian government in the need to fight for the return of the Amur .

But the idea that the ancestors swam down the Amur to the mouth and repeatedly went out to sea never left the Russian people 12 .

5. Expeditions of the 19th century

Russian-American companies. On August 10, 1808, the presentation of the Russian-American Company on the settlement of Sakhalin was approved. The following year, in Okhotsk, everything was ready for the expedition led by Lieutenant N.A. Podushkin, and only the news of the capture of V.M. Golovnin in Japan violated the plans of the Russian-American company.

Despite the uncertainty that took place on the Amur, the Russian people repeatedly swam on the river. The tradesman Kudryavtsev in 1817-1821 visited the lower reaches of the Amur, and Vasiliev in 1826 descended the Amur to the mouth and from there arrived in the Udsky prison.

In 1825-1826, the well-known Russian explorer, sailor and scientist F.P. Litke, was instructed to describe the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Shantar Islands and Sakhalin Island. For a number of reasons beyond the control of the navigators, this program remained unfulfilled.

In 1828, the Siberian Governor-General A. Lavinsky collected all the information regarding the Amur River and the possibility of sailing along it. He proposed to carry out a scientific expedition. The solution of the Amur issue was brewing.

The Russian government was afraid to damage the extensive Kakhta trade. But the number of foreign whalers in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Sea of ​​Japan increased. The attempts of more and more active penetration into the Far Eastern seas of England, France and the USA could not but cause alarm. The difficulties of supplying food to Russian settlements in the Far East and North America were growing.

All this, as well as information about the intensive penetration of foreigners into China, forced the Russian government to look for the right solution to the issues that arose in the Far East.

There was only one way out, which would immediately solve all the problems in this region of the globe for Russia - the return of Amur. The policy of the Russian government in the Far East was cautious and positive. In such a policy, a special role was assigned to the Russian-American Company 13 .

The government has already decided to take the most active measures for the return of the Amur and the Amur region. But for this it was necessary to first resolve the finally tangled question of the navigability of the mouth and estuary of the Amur River, the possibility of entering it from the north or south, or from both directions at once, and the position of Sakhalin.

But it was no longer possible to undertake an open study of these areas. England, which had just won a number of privileges from China as a result of the first "opium" war, could, in the event of Russia's open actions in the Amur region, go to new provocations and demands in China. “But the further offensive of England on China was not at all included in the calculations of the tsarist government, on the other hand, the period following the Opium War was the most convenient for China to return the Amur Territory to Russia by peaceful means.”

Under these conditions, the Russian-American Company, acting on its own behalf, at the same time carried out all the orders of the government. And in 1844, the Russian-American Company took up the study of Amur.

So, in the first half of the 19th century, persistent attempts by the Russian government to search for ways to return the Amur region to Russia continued.

Expeditions of Menshikov A.S., Nevelsky G.I. and Muravyova N.N. Despite the fact that the Amur expedition was formed in 1851, its history must begin with the voyage of the Baikal military transport in 1848-1849. The commander of the transport G.I. Nevelskoy, who had long been interested in the Amur problem, voluntarily asked F.P. Litke and A.S. Menshikov to go on this voyage. At the cost of great difficulties, he achieved the early arrival of transport in Petropavlovsk and managed to resolve important geographical problems during the summer of 1849. The Amur was reopened to seafarers, its mouth was accessible to ships of all ranks, both from the north and from the south, and, consequently, Sakhalin was an island.

Energetic steps towards the return of the Amur region to Russia were taken by N.N. Muravyov, who was newly appointed governor-general of Eastern Siberia in 1847. He owns the words: "Whoever owns the mouths of the Amur, he will own Siberia." He energetically supported the request of G.I. Nevelsky to carry out proper research.

Menshikov, at the request of N.N. Muravyov, obtained from the king the approval of instructions for the production of relevant studies in the estuary.

N.N. Muravyov undertook in 1849 travel across Yakutia and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to Kamchatka. He moved the Russian Pacific port from Okhotsk to Petropavlovsk.

The voyage of G.I. Nevelsky on the military transport "Baikal" in 1848 - 1849 marks the resumption of active actions by the Russian government to determine the Russian-Chinese border on the ground in the area of ​​the Amur River. The initiative actions of G.I. Nevelsky led to the most important geographical discoveries, which provided the Russian government with the opportunity to develop the right political course in relations with China. The materials collected as a result of the Baikal voyage were of exceptional importance for historical cartography and historical geography. They allow you to recreate the true historical and geographical situation of events, which is of great importance for the history of Russia. On June 29, 1850, G.I. Nevelskoy raised the Russian flag in the lower reaches of the Amur and founded the Nikolaevsky post (Nikolaevsk-on-Amur) on Cape Kuegda, which since 1855 has become the country's main naval base in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1854-1856, rafting of troops and Cossacks along the Amur was carried out. This made it possible to set up new posts, villages, villages: Mariinsky, Uspenskoye, Bogorodskoye, Irkutsk and others. Russian settlements arose on the lower Amur in the Bay of Schastya. The number of Russians in the region has increased markedly. The expedition officers made trips around the Amur region. Expanded trade relations with local residents who did not know any foreign power. The peaceful policy of the Russian government, pursued in relations with China on the Amur issue, has borne fruit.

The activities of D.I. Orlov, N.M. Chikhachev, G.D. Razgradsky, A.I. Petrov, A.I. Voronin, A.P. Berezin, N.K. parts of the Ussuri Territory, as well as the northern part of Sakhalin. They compiled a map of the Amur Region, the lower Amur, part of the Ussuri Territory, as well as the northern part of Sakhalin. The inaccuracy of drawing mountain ranges on the maps was corrected and their directions were clarified, the inaccuracy of the maps of I.F. Kruzenshtern and J.F. Laperouse for the Tatar Strait was established. Coal deposits were discovered on Sakhalin, the entire northern Sakhalin was described and crossed in the direction of the Tysh River, and the Imperial (Soviet) Harbor was discovered. During the two years of the expedition, the mysterious Amur region became known.

Through the efforts of G.I. Nevelsky and his associates, military posts were set up in all the main places of the Amur region. Where this was not done, written statements by G.I. Nevelsky on behalf of the Russian government about the belonging of these places to Russia were left to the elders of the villages.

Thanks to the efforts of the members of the Amur expedition, the paths leading from the Ussuri River to the sea were clarified, it became possible to spread Russian influence to areas that, left without protection, could easily become the prey of foreigners. These were the Amur Russian lands, which had not been demarcated since the 17th century, when the Nerchinsk treaty was signed 14 .

The energetic activity of G.I. Nevelsky and his associates created the necessary prerequisites for intensifying government actions. This was largely facilitated by the aggravation of the international situation in the Pacific Ocean. News was received about the forthcoming two expeditions of the North American states to the Far East.

England, France, and the USA showed particular interest in China, Japan, and the Russian Far East. In 1842, England seized Hong Kong from China, so China was opened to trade. In 1848, England imposed on China an additional agreement on the right of British extraterritoriality in China. In 1844 China entered into such unequal treaties with the United States and France.

When the first information was received in Russia in May 1852 about the preparations for the expedition of M. Perry and K. Ringold (USA), and about their supposed entry into the sea as early as November of the same year, preparations immediately began in Russia to counter the United States and other states in the area. An expedition of Vice-Admiral E.V. Putyatin was sent to the Far East to establish Russian posts in South Sakhalin. G.I. Nevelskoy also received a government order for an expedition to Sakhalin. He made two voyages from the Petrovsky post to the Tatar Strait around Sakhalin, during the first of them a reconnaissance of the area was made, and during the second, posts were set up in Aniva Bay (Muravyovsky), at the mouth of the Kusunnay River (Ilyinsky) and in the Imperial Harbor (Konstantinovsky) .

Expeditions to Sakhalin. Under the command of N.V. Busse, in South Sakhalin, members of the expedition explored the island and compiled maps of South and Middle Sakhalin.

Russian naval officers of the Amur expedition for three years of its existence, without a single shot, without meeting any resistance from anyone or from anywhere, based in the Amur region and throughout Sakhalin.

To strengthen the defense capability of the Far East and assert its position on the Amur, the Russian government carried out the rafting of goods and people along the river along its entire length. The alloy was commanded by P.V. Kazakevich.

The expedition was headed by N.N. Muravyov. Ahead of a large number of floating ships, built in Sretensk, was the first steamship "Argun", commanded by A.S. Sgibnev. The date of May 15, 1854 (the beginning of the rafting) is considered the date of foundation of the Amur Shipping Company.

In the summer of 1858, the schooner "Vostok" for the first time passed through the open G.I. Nevelsky Strait from the Tatar Strait to the estuary and the mouth of the Amur. During this voyage, she used coal, discovered, at one time, on Sakhalin by N.K. Boshnyak.

An important event in 1854 was the expansion of the Crimean War in the Far East. The glorious victory won by the valiant defenders of Petropavlovsk echoed throughout Russia and echoed the heroic defense of Sevastopol. All actions of the Amur expedition are now subordinated to a single goal - to ensure the combat operations of the Russian squadron. Especially a lot of work appeared in the spring and summer of 1855, when the Petropavlovsk port was removed, and the entire garrison was transferred to the Nikolaevsky post, at the mouth of the Amur. At this time, the correctness of the actions of G.I. Nevelsky was confirmed by life. The entire garrison of the Petropavlovsk port through the Chikhachev Bay (De-Kastri) was sent to the Mariinsky post. Russian ships entered the Amur estuary and Nikolaevsk; sung by the writer I.A. Goncharov, the frigate Pallada was sunk in the Imperial Harbor so that the enemy would not get it.

The actions of the Amur expedition were of decisive importance for the Siberian flotilla during the war. Timely preparation of the estuary and the mouth of the Amur ensured the transfer of the base of the Siberian flotilla from Petropavlovsk to Nikolaevsk at the most difficult time of hostilities in the Far East.

In 1854 - 1855, the Amur expedition actively participated in repulsing the Anglo-French attack. At that time, it was decided to liquidate the Amur expedition, as it completed the tasks assigned to it.

What are the results of the Amur expedition? Finally, the prevailing misconception about the peninsular position of Sakhalin, that Sakhalin is an island, was refuted. It turned out that the Amur is navigable throughout its entire length, the entrance to it is possible both from the north and from the south, in the Amur estuary there are fairways (G.I. Nevelskoy, Yuzhny and Sakhalin), along which, with proper navigation courts. The Amur expedition explored the Lower Amur basin, made a topographic survey of this part of the Amur, and compiled the first map of the Amur. Science has been enriched with information about the inhabitants, flora and fauna of the Amur region, Primorye, about inland waterways and land roads in this region.

The regular communication of Russian steamships and rowboats was opened along the Amur. Inaccuracies in the maps of previous navigators were corrected and for the first time the mainland coast of the Tatar Strait was correctly mapped, opening there an important bay for the fleet - the Imperial Harbor. The Amur expedition did a great deal of research work on Sakhalin, discovered deposits of coal, made a marine inventory of the northern part of the island, crossed the island in a latitudinal direction with the production of route surveys, compiled a map of the southern and middle parts of the island, made the first census of the population of the island, investigated the internal routes of communication, organized the first meteorological observations.

The actions of the Amur expedition caused an influx of scientific forces in the Amur region, Primorye and Sakhalin (expeditions of L.I. Schrenk, K. Ditmar, G.I. Radde, K.I. Maksimovich, F.B. Schmidt and others), as a result of the work who compiled the first detailed and modern map of the Amur country.

In the Sea of ​​Japan and the Amur estuary, V.M. Babkin's hydrographic expedition began to operate, which in the shortest possible time described and mapped the entire coast of the Tatar Strait from Vladivostok to the Amur estuary. These are the historical and geographical results of the Amur expedition.

All of the above made it possible to resolve important political problems and was of great importance for the defense of the Far East. On March 17, 1851, the regulation on the Trans-Baikal Cossack Host was published. On June 20, 1851, the Trans-Baikal Region was formed. The Amur region began to be populated by Russian people. The Siberian Flotilla was created in the Far East.

The actions of the Amur expedition put an end to the uncertainty in the border issue, served as the basis for the active diplomatic activity of Russia. In May 1853, an agreement was signed with China in Aigun. The beginning of the actual return of the Amur region has gained legal force.

The border issue was finally resolved in 1860 with the conclusion of the Beijing Treaty. The long dispute about the Amur region and undelimited lands was over. Prerequisites were created for a comprehensive study and economic development of the Far Eastern Territory.

This is the greatest merit of the officers and all participants of the Amur expedition, headed by G.I. Nevelskoy, and whose names are forever inscribed in golden letters in Russian history, in the history of the Far East

6. Significance of Russian expeditions

The discovery and development of the northeastern regions of Eurasia by the Russian people and Russian geographical discoveries belong to the outstanding phenomena of world history. The components of the concept of "development" are the geographical characteristics of the territory and composition of the population, the state of the economy. Development already begins when people discover new land, when people begin to use its nature, live there for a more or less long time, when permanent settlements appear on this land, agriculture develops and crafts are carried out.

The situation in the Far East in the era of capitalism was in the center of attention of the Russian government. The settlement and development of northeast Asia, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the Lower Amur by Russian people made it necessary to strengthen local authorities here. By the decision of the State Council of November 14, 1856, the Primorsky Region was formed, which included the territory of the Lower Amur, Kamchatka and Sakhalin. The residence of the governor of the region was the Nikolaevsky post, renamed Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.

The final reunification of the Amur territories with Russia (the Aigun and Beijing treaties of 1858 and 1860) necessitated further territorial transformations. By decree of the Senate of December 8, 1858, a new region was formed - Amur. She united all the lands on the left bank of the Amur. Its administrative center was the village of Blagoveshchenskaya (the former Ust-Zeya post), which received the status of a city. All three regions of the Far East region: Trans-Baikal, Amur, Primorskaya were subordinate to the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov, who was subsequently granted the title of Amur.

In 1858, Khabarovka, Sofiysk, Innokentievka, Korsakovo, Kazakevichevo and other strongholds were founded. Khabarovka was called the most convenient place for a residence. But this idea was realized only more than twenty years later 16 .

Conclusion

By the end of the sixties of the nineteenth century, the Far East was already largely settled and mastered by immigrants from Siberia and European Russia.

Significant success was achieved in the Amur region, where the vast majority of migrants rushed and where the fertile lands of the Amur-Zeya Plain were successfully developed.

Already by 1869, the Amur Region had become the granary of the entire Far Eastern Territory and not only fully provided itself with bread and vegetables, but also had large surpluses. On the territory of Primorye, the proportion and size of the peasant population at the end of the nineteenth century were smaller than in the Amur region, but even here the scope of the settlers inspired respect and recognition of the masculinity of the pioneers. The number of local residents in spite of, and perhaps precisely because of this, has sharply decreased.

Stable trade relations with China were established, which in turn brought a constant income to the Russian treasury. Many Chinese, seeing that there are prosperous places nearby in Russia, began to move to the Russian land now. They were driven from their homeland by crop failures, lack of land and extortions from officials. Even the Koreans, despite the strict laws in their country, even providing for the death penalty for unauthorized resettlement, risked their lives to get to Russian territories.

In general, the exploration and development of the Far East, which reached its apogee in the middle of the nineteenth century, by its end acquired a rather calm and systematic character.

And the study of the territories of the Far East for the presence of minerals brings success in our time. There are still a lot of secrets kept by the Far Eastern land.

Literature

Alekseev A.I. Amur expedition 1849-1855 M., 1974. 191 p.

Alekseev A.I., Morozov B.N. Development of the Russian people of the Far East (the end of the 19th century - 1917). M. 1989. 320 p.

History of the Far East of the USSR in the era of feudalism and capitalism / Ed. A.I. Krushanova. M., 1991. 472 p.

Explorers and travelers. / Edited by Almazov B.A. Publishing house "Diamant", 1999, 79 p.

Kabuzan V.I. How the Far East was Settled (Second Half of the 17th – Early 20th Centuries). Khabarovsk, 1973. 192 p.

Nikitin N.I. Russian explorers in Siberia. M., 1998. 64 p.

Podalko P.E. Japan in the fate of Russians. Essays on the history of tsarist diplomacy and the Russian diaspora in Japan in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Kraft+ Publishing House, 2004, 352 p.

Russian expeditions to explore the northern part of the Pacific Ocean in the first half of the 18th century. M., 1984. 320 p.

Sergeev O.I. Cossacks in the Russian Far East in the XVII-XIX centuries. M., 1983. 127 p.

1. Shepotov K.A. To the shores of the Pacific Ocean. M. 1989. 64 p.

   East. Scientific research stories Siberia has achieved this .... 2. Course content" Story development Siberia" 2.1. Theoretical and methodological foundations of the course " Story development Siberia". Object, subject ...

Behind the great Stone Belt, the Urals, lie the vast expanses of Siberia. This territory occupies almost three-quarters of the entire area of ​​our country. Siberia is larger than the second largest (after Russia) country in the world - Canada. More than twelve million square kilometers store in their bowels inexhaustible reserves of natural resources, with reasonable use, sufficient for the life and prosperity of many generations of people.

Stone Belt Hike

The beginning of the development of Siberia falls on the last years of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The most convenient outpost for moving deep into this wild and uninhabited region at that time was the middle Urals, the undivided owner of which was the Stroganov family of merchants. Taking advantage of the patronage of the Moscow tsars, they owned vast land areas, on which there were thirty-nine villages and the city of Solvychegodsk with a monastery. They also owned a chain of prisons, stretching along the border with the possessions of Khan Kuchum.

The history of Siberia, or rather, its conquest by Russian Cossacks, began with the fact that the tribes inhabiting it refused to pay the Russian Tsar yasyk - a tribute that they had been subject to for many years. Moreover, the nephew of their ruler - Khan Kuchum - with a large detachment of cavalry made a number of raids on the villages belonging to the Stroganovs. To protect against such unwanted guests, wealthy merchants hired Cossacks, led by ataman Vasily Timofeevich Alenin, nicknamed Yermak. Under this name, he entered Russian history.

First steps in an unknown land

In September 1582, a detachment of seven hundred and fifty people began their legendary campaign for the Urals. It was a kind of discovery of Siberia. On the whole route, the Cossacks were lucky. The Tatars who inhabited those regions, although they outnumbered them, were inferior militarily. They practically did not know the firearms, so widespread by that time in Russia, and fled in a panic every time they heard a volley.

To meet the Russians, the khan sent his nephew Mametkul with ten thousand troops. The battle took place near the Tobol River. Despite their numerical superiority, the Tatars suffered a crushing defeat. The Cossacks, building on their success, came close to the Khan's capital, Kashlyk, and here they finally crushed the enemies. The former ruler of the region fled, and his warlike nephew was captured. From that day on, the khanate practically ceased to exist. The history of Siberia is making a new turn.

Struggles with aliens

In those days, the Tatars were subject to a large number of tribes that were conquered by them and were their tributaries. They did not know money and paid their yasyk with the skins of fur-bearing animals. From the moment of the defeat of Kuchum, these peoples came under the rule of the Russian Tsar, and carts with sables and martens were pulled to distant Moscow. This valuable product has always and everywhere been in great demand, and especially in the European market.

However, not all tribes resigned themselves to the inevitable. Some of them continued to resist, although it weakened every year. The Cossack detachments continued their march. In 1584, their legendary ataman Ermak Timofeevich died. This happened, as often happens in Russia, due to negligence and oversight - at one of the halts, sentries were not posted. It so happened that a prisoner who had escaped a few days before brought an enemy detachment at night. Taking advantage of the oversight of the Cossacks, they suddenly attacked and began to cut the sleeping people. Yermak, trying to escape, jumped into the river, but a massive shell - a personal gift from Ivan the Terrible - carried him to the bottom.

Life in the conquered land

Since that time, active development began. Following the Cossack detachments, hunters, peasants, clergy and, of course, officials were drawn into the taiga wilderness. All those who found themselves behind the Ural Range became free people. There was neither serfdom nor landlordism here. They paid only the tax established by the state. The local tribes, as mentioned above, were taxed with a fur yasyk. During this period, the income from the receipt of Siberian furs to the treasury was a significant contribution to the Russian budget.

The history of Siberia is inextricably linked with the creation of a system of forts - defensive fortifications (around which, by the way, many cities subsequently grew up), which served as outposts for the further conquest of the region. So, in 1604, the city of Tomsk was founded, which later became the largest economic and cultural center. After a short time, the Kuznetsk and Yenisei prisons appeared. They housed military garrisons and the administration that controlled the collection of yasyk.

Documents of those years testify to many facts of corruption of the authorities. Despite the fact that, according to the law, all furs had to go to the treasury, some officials, as well as Cossacks directly involved in the collection of tribute, overstated the established norms, appropriating the difference in their favor. Even then, such lawlessness was severely punished, and there are many cases when covetous men paid for their deeds with freedom and even with their lives.

Further penetration into new lands

The process of colonization became especially intensive after the end of the Time of Troubles. The goal of all those who dared to seek happiness in new, unexplored lands, this time was Eastern Siberia. This process proceeded at a very fast pace, and by the end of the 17th century, the Russians had reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. By this time, a new government structure appeared - the Siberian order. His duties included the establishment of new procedures for the administration of controlled territories and the nomination of governors, who were locally authorized representatives of the tsarist government.

In addition to the yassy collection of furs, furs were also purchased, the payment for which was carried out not in money, but in all kinds of goods: axes, saws, various tools, as well as fabrics. History, unfortunately, has preserved many cases of abuse. Often, the arbitrariness of officials and Cossack foremen ended in riots by local residents, who had to be pacified by force.

The main directions of colonization

Eastern Siberia was developed in two main directions: to the north along the coast of the seas, and to the south along the border line with the states adjacent to it. At the beginning of the 17th century, the banks of the Irtysh and the Ob were settled by Russians, and after them, significant areas adjacent to the Yenisei. Cities such as Tyumen, Tobolsk and Krasnoyarsk were founded and began to be built. All of them were to eventually become major industrial and cultural centers.

The further advance of the Russian colonists was carried out mainly along the Lena River. Here in 1632 a prison was founded, which gave rise to the city of Yakutsk, the most important stronghold at that time in the further development of the northern and eastern territories. Largely due to this, two years later, the Cossacks, led by, managed to reach the Pacific coast, and soon saw the Kuriles and Sakhalin for the first time.

Conquerors of the Wild

The history of Siberia and the Far East keeps the memory of another outstanding traveler - the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev. In 1648, he and the detachment he led on several ships for the first time rounded the coast of North Asia and proved the existence of a strait separating Siberia from America. At the same time, another traveler, Poyarov, having passed along the southern border of Siberia and climbed up the Amur, reached the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Some time later, Nerchinsk was founded. Its significance is largely determined by the fact that as a result of moving to the east, the Cossacks approached China, which also claimed these territories. By that time, the Russian Empire had reached its natural borders. Over the next century, there was a steady process of consolidating the results achieved during colonization.

Legislative acts related to the new territories

The history of Siberia in the 19th century is characterized mainly by the abundance of administrative innovations introduced into the life of the region. One of the earliest was the division of this vast territory into two general governments approved in 1822 by personal decree of Alexander I. Tobolsk became the center of the West, and Irkutsk became the center of the East. They, in turn, were subdivided into provinces, and those into volost and foreign councils. This transformation was the result of a well-known reform

In the same year, ten legislative acts signed by the tsar and regulating all aspects of administrative, economic and legal life saw the light of day. Much attention in this document was paid to issues related to the arrangement of places of deprivation of liberty and the procedure for serving sentences. By the 19th century, hard labor and prisons had become an integral part of this region.

Siberia on the map of those years is replete with the names of mines, work in which was carried out exclusively by the convicts. This is Nerchinsky, and Zabaikalsky, and Blagodatny and many others. As a result of a large influx of exiles from among the Decembrists and participants in the Polish rebellion of 1831, the government even united all Siberian provinces under the supervision of a specially formed gendarme district.

The beginning of the industrialization of the region

Of the main ones that received wide development during this period, it should be noted first of all the extraction of gold. By the middle of the century, it accounted for most of the total volume of the precious metal mined in the country. Also, large revenues to the state treasury came from the mining industry, which had significantly increased by this time the volume of mining. Many others have grown as well.

In the new century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the impetus for the further development of the region was the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The history of Siberia in the post-revolutionary period is full of drama. A fratricidal war, monstrous in its scale, swept through its expanses, ending with the liquidation of the White movement and the establishment of Soviet power. During the Great Patriotic War, many industrial and military enterprises were evacuated to this region. As a result, the population of many cities is increasing sharply.

It is known that only for the period 1941-1942. more than a million people have come here. In the post-war period, when numerous giant factories, power plants and railway lines were being built, there was also a significant influx of visitors - all those for whom Siberia became a new homeland. On the map of this vast region, names appeared that became symbols of the era - the Baikal-Amur Mainline, the Novosibirsk Academgorodok and much more.

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Professional Lyceum №27

Examination essay on the history of Russia

Subject: “Development of Siberia and the Far East”

Performed:

Student 496 group

Kovalenko Julia

Checked:

Prokopova L.V.

Blagoveshchensk 2002

Introduction. 3

The campaign of Ermak Timofeevich and his death .. 4

Accession of Siberia: goals, realities, results... 5

Ivan Moskvitin's campaign to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.... 6

Poyarkov on the Amur and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.. 6

Erofei Pavlovich Khabarov. 7

Distant past.. 7

Pioneers of the Far East of the 17th century.. 8

Erofey Pavlovich Khabarov.. 9

Russian explorers in the Pacific Ocean (18th - early 19th centuries) 9

Khabarovsk Amur region in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century 10

Expedition Popov-Dezhenev.. 10

Campaigns of Vladimir Atlasov to Kamchatka.. 11

The first Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering.. 11

Captain Nevelskoy. 12

N.N. Muravyov-Amursky.. 12

Settlement of the Amur.. 15

Early 19th century in the Far East.. 16

Russia's interests in research in the East.. 16

Continued research and development of territories.. 17

What gave the development of the Far East of Russia.. 18

BAM - construction of the century. 18

Conclusion.. 19

List of used literature... 20

“After the overthrow of the Tatar yoke and before Peter the Great, there was nothing in the fate of Russia more huge and important, happier and more historical than the annexation of Siberia, on the expanses of which old Russia could be laid several times.”

I chose this topic in order to learn more about how the development and settlement of Siberia and the Far East took place. For me, this topic is relevant today, since I grew up and live in the Far East and really love my small homeland for its beauty. I really liked the book “Russian Explorers” by N.I. Nikitin, in it I learned a lot about the explorers of that time. In the book by A.P. Okladnikov, I got acquainted with how the discovery of Siberia took place. The computer network Internet also helped me in compiling the abstract.

The Russian Empire had a colossal territory. Thanks to the energy and courage of explorers of the 16th-18th centuries (Ermak, Nevelskoy, Dezhnev, Wrangel, Bering, etc.), the border of Russia was advanced far to the east, to the very coast of the Pacific Ocean. 60 years later, after Yermak's detachment crossed the Ural ridge, their sons and grandsons were already cutting down the first winter quarters on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The first to reach the harsh coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk were the Cossacks of Ivan Moskvitin in 1639. Active development of the Far East by Russia began under Peter 1 almost immediately after the Poltava victory and the end of the Northern War with the conclusion of peace with Sweden in 1721. Peter 1 was interested in sea routes to India and China, the spread of Russian influence in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, reaching the “unknown part” of North America, where the French and British had not yet managed to reach. New Russian lands with their inexhaustible wealth, fertile soils and forests became an integral part of the Russian state. The power of the state has increased markedly. “Amazed Europe, at the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Third, hardly even suspecting the existence of Muscovy, sandwiched between Lithuania and the Tatars, was stunned by the appearance of a huge empire on its eastern outskirts.” And although this territory belonged to the Russian Empire, the way of life of the peoples who inhabited it from the Urals to Sakhalin remained at a level not far from the primitive communal one that existed among them even before they were colonized by Russia. Power was limited to the activities of the royal governors and the maintenance of small garrisons in any large settlements. The tsarist government saw in Siberia and the Far East primarily a source of cheap raw materials, and an excellent place for exile and prisons.

Only in the 19th century, when Russia entered the era of capitalist development, did intensive development of vast areas begin.

The patron of the Siberian kingdom was probably called Yermolai, but he went down in history under the name Yermak.

In 1581, in the summer, among many regiments, the Cossack squad of ataman Ermak took part in the campaign against Mogilev. After the conclusion of the truce (beginning of 1582), at the behest of Ivan IV, his detachment was relocated to the east, to the sovereign fortresses of Cherdyn, located near the Kolva River, a tributary of the Vishera, and Sol-Kamskaya, on the Kama River. The Cossacks of Ataman Ivan Yuryevich Koltso also broke through there. In August 1581, near the Samara River, they almost completely destroyed the escort of the Nogai mission, which was heading to Moscow, accompanied by the tsarist ambassador, and then sacked Saraichik, the capital of the Nogai Horde. For this, Ivan Koltso and his associates were declared "thieves", i.e. state criminals and sentenced to death.

Probably, in the summer of 1582, M. Stroganov concluded a final agreement with the ataman on a campaign against the “Siberian Saltan”. To 540 Cossacks, he joined his people with “leaders” (guides) who knew “that Siberian path”. The Cossacks built large ships, raising 20 people each. with supplies. The flotilla consisted of more than 30 ships. River trip of a detachment of about 600 people. Yermak began on September 1, 1582. The guides quickly led the plows up the Chusovaya, then along its tributary Serebryanka (at 57 50 N), the shipping yards of which began from the rafting river. Baranchi (Tobol system). The Cossacks were in a hurry. Having dragged all supplies and small vessels through a short and even (10 versts) trail, Yermak went down the Barancha, Tagib and Tura to about 58 north latitude. Here, near Turinsk, they first encountered Kuchum's advanced detachment and dispersed it.

By December 1582, a vast area along the Tobol and the lower Irtysh had submitted to Yermak. But there were few Cossacks. Yermak, bypassing the Stroganovs, decided to communicate with Moscow. Undoubtedly, Yermak and his Cossack advisers correctly calculated that the winners were not judged and that the tsar would send them help and forgiveness for their previous “theft”.

Yermak and his chieftains and Cossacks beat the Great Sovereign Ivan Vasilievich with the Siberian kingdom they had conquered with a chape and asked for forgiveness for previous crimes. On December 22, 1582, I. Cherkas with a detachment moved up the Tavda, Lozva and one of its tributaries. "Stone". Along the Vishera valley, the Cossacks descended to Cherdyn, and from there down the Kama to Perm and arrived in Moscow before the spring of 1583.

The date of Yermak's death was controversial: according to one traditional version, he died in 1584, according to another, in 1585.

In the spring of 1584, Moscow intended to send three hundred soldiers to help Yermak, but the death of Ivan the Terrible (March 18, 1584) disrupted all plans. In November 1584, a mass uprising of the Tatars broke out in Siberia. People with false reports were sent to Yermak in order to attack Yermak somewhere. So it happened on August 5, 1585, Yermak's detachment stopped for the night. It was a dark night, pouring rain, then Kuchum attacked Yermak's camp at midnight. Waking up, Yermak jumped through the crowd of enemies to the shore. He jumped into a plow standing near the shore, one of Kuchum's soldiers rushed after him. In the battle, the ataman overcame the Tatar, but he received a blow in the throat and died.

When the Cossacks took possession of the "royal city" of the Siberian Khanate and finally defeated Kuchum's army, they had to think about how to organize the management of the conquered land.

Nothing prevented Yermak from establishing his own order in Siberia ... Instead, the Cossacks, having become power, began to rule in the name of the king, swore the local population to the sovereign's name and imposed a state tax - yasak.

Is there an explanation for this? - First of all, Yermak and his atamans were guided, apparently, by military considerations. They were well aware that they could not hold Siberia without direct support from the armed forces of the Russian state. Having made decisions on the annexation of Siberia, they immediately asked Moscow for help. The appeal to Ivan IV for help determined all their next steps.

Tsar Ivan IV shed a lot of blood of his subjects. He brought the curse of the nobility on his head. But neither executions nor defeats could destroy the popularity he gained during the years of the “Kazan capture” and the Adashev reforms.

The decision of the Yermakovites to turn to Moscow testified to the popularity of Ivan IV both among the servicemen and, to a certain extent, among the "thieves" Cossacks. Some of the outlawed chieftains hoped to cover up their past guilt with the "Siberian war".

With the onset of the spring of 1583, the Cossack circle sent messengers to Moscow with the news of the conquest of Siberia. The tsar appreciated the importance of the news and ordered to send the governor of Balkhovsky with a detachment to help Yermak. But in the spring of 1584 great changes took place in Moscow. Ivan IV died, and unrest broke out in the capital. In the general confusion, the Siberian expedition was forgotten for a while.

Ermak survived because behind the shoulders of the free Cossacks in cunning, deceit, Kuchum humbled the recalcitrantTatars skikhmurz (princes) imposed tribute on the Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. Having lived himself in the guards of the Nogai and Kirghiz, he consolidated his power. But military failures immediately led to the resumption of internecine struggle among the Tatar nobility. Tribal to the death