Vitus Bering was the first Russian navigator to head purposeful geographical expedition. You can read his short biography here. If we draw historical parallels, then Bering's expeditions can be compared with the expeditions of James Cook, whose voyages were also an initiative of the Admiralty and the state.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe First Kamchatka expedition belongs to Peter I?

Peter was the first of the rulers of Russia to begin a systematic study of the country's geography, and above all, the instrumental compilation of "general" maps.

The search for Russia's access to the vastness of the world ocean has always been his "fix idea." But it was not possible to break through to the Black Sea. The domination in the Baltic was very relative - the Swedes or Danes at any moment could block the narrow mouth of the exit from the Baltic to the Atlantic expanses. The Northern Sea Route and the Far East remained: through the strait between Asia and America, Russian ships could break through to India and China. If there was a strait.

It is known that even at the beginning of Peter's independent reign, the first explorer of Kamchatka, Vladimir Atlasov, brought to Moscow a Japanese named Denbey, who was brought by a storm to the southern coast of the peninsula in 1695 and was held captive by the Kamchadals.

Tsar Peter, despite the endless wars in the west, did not forget about the eastern limits of his kingdom. In 1714-1716, at the direction of Peter, a sea communication (on boats) was established between Okhotsk and the western coast of Kamchatka. The next step was to search for the coast of North America, which, as he assumed, is located near Kamchatka or even merges with Asia. In 1720-1721, one of the expeditions, heading from Kamchatka to the south-west, even reached the middle of the Kuril ridge, but never found the American coast.

It must be said that the question "whether or not Asia and America are united" interested many in those years. For the first time, the Paris Academy of Sciences, of which Peter was formally a member, turned to Peter I with a question and a request to equip the expedition. The famous German scientist Leibniz had a great influence on Peter I in this matter. Leibniz was not only the initiator of the creation of the Russian (first Petersburg) Academy of Sciences, but also advised Peter on many issues state structure and had on him big influence... But the Dutch East India Company was especially zealous in finding new routes to the East, which brought Peter the Great to power in Russia. For her, the question is "Is Asia connecting with America?" was not idle at all. And in 1724, Peter did "dodavidi" before the decision was made. And from making a decision to incarnation, Peter, as you know, was a short distance.

On December 23, 1724, Peter instructed the Admiralty Board to equip an expedition to Kamchatka under the command of a worthy naval officer. The Admiralty Board proposed to put Captain Bering at the head of the expedition, since he "was in the East Indies and knows how to handle it." Peter I agreed with Bering's candidacy. (The Dutch do too.)

"Tsarev Mandate" of the Bering Expedition

On January 6, 1725, (just a few weeks before his death), Peter wrote with his own hand the instructions for the First Kamchatka Expedition. Bering and his comrades were ordered to build two deck ships in Kamchatka or in another suitable place.

1. It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or in another place there; 2. On these bots near the land that goes to the North and by aspiration (they never know the end of it), that land seems to be a part of America; 3. In order to look for where it met with America: and in order to get to which city of European possessions, or if they see which European ship, visit from him, as this bush is called and take in a letter and go ashore ourselves and take a genuine statement and, putting it on the line to come syudy. "

Bering Strait was discovered by Semyon Dezhnev

Some irony of the situation was that the strait between Asia and America was discovered 80 years ago by the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev. But the results of his campaign were not published. And neither Peter, nor the Admiralty Collegium, nor Vitus Bering himself, who was far in his duties from geographical discoveries... Historian Miller came across a "skask" about Dezhnev's campaign in Yakutsk, only in 1736, during the Great Northern Expedition.

Composition of the First Kamchatka Expedition

In addition to Bering, naval officers Alexei Chirikov, Martyn Shpanberg, surveyors, navigators, and shipbuilders were assigned to the expedition. In total, more than 30 people went on the trip from St. Petersburg.

On January 24, 1725 A. Chirikov left Petersburg with his team, on February 8 he arrived in Vologda. A week later, Bering joined him with other members of the expedition. The number of only regular members of the expedition, both sent from St. Petersburg and those who joined along the route, reached 20 specialists. In total, under the command of Vitus Bering, including the auxiliary staff (rowers, cooks, etc.), there were about 100 people.

From Vologda to Okhotsk

The expedition passed the distance from Vologda to Tobolsk in 43 days. After a month's rest, we set off again. The team spent most of the summer of 1725 on the road. The winter of 1725-26 was waited out in Ilimsk. On June 16, all the detachments of the expedition arrived in Yakutsk. And only on July 30, 1727, in the third year after leaving St. Petersburg, Bering and his team reached Okhotsk in separate groups. Legend has it that Bering himself, from Yakutsk to Okhotsk, spent 45 days in the saddle! Upon arrival in Okhotsk, without wasting time, they began to build the ship. In total, more than ten thousand miles were overcome by water, on horseback, on sleds, on foot ...

On August 22, 1727, the newly built ship - the galiot "Fortuna" and the accompanying small boat, which arrived from Kamchatka, left Okhotsk and headed east.

Galiot is a two-masted shallow seated vessel.

From Okhotsk to Nizhnekamchatsk

The journey from Okhotsk to the western coast of Kamchatka took a week and on August 29, 1727, the travelers were already sailing in view of the Kamchatka shores. What happened next is difficult to explain logically. Despite the fact that the Russians had already more or less settled in Kamchatka by that time, Bering had no idea about the size of the peninsula. There was even an opinion that Kamchatka is smoothly passing into Japan, and that there is no through route to the east ... Bering did not even suspect that very little remained to the southern point of Kamchatka.

Therefore, the commander of the expedition decided to land on the western coast and over the winter move to the eastern coast, to Nizhnekamchatsk. They decided to build there new ship and from there start the main research. (According to other sources, the hastily built "Fortune" gave a strong leak, and the expedition was forced to land). Be that as it may, Bering entered the mouth of the Bolshaya River and ordered to drag equipment and supplies to the shore.

Bering's journey through the Kamchatka Peninsula

In the Central Archives Navy Bering's reports to the Admiralty - Collegium about his crossing across Kamchatka have survived:

“... Upon arrival at the Bolsheretsky mouth, the materials and provisions were transported to the Bolsheretsky prison by water in small boats. There were 14 households under this prison of Russian dwelling. And he sent up the Bystraya River in small boats heavy materials and some of the provisions, which were brought by water to the Upper Kamchadal prison 120 miles away. And in the same winter, from the Bolsheretsk prison, to the Upper and Lower Kamchadal forts, they were transported by dogs according to the custom there. And every evening on the way for the night they raked their camps out of the snow, and covered them from above, even great blizzards live, which are called blizzards in the local language. "

Description of the expedition's passage through the Kamchatka ridge, dragging all the property, including materials for building ships, weapons, ammunition, food took more than two months. The expedition traveled more than 800 miles on foot, along the rivers and on dog sleds! A truly heroic feat.

To the Bering Strait in full sail

Upon arrival in Nizhnekamchatsk of all cargo and crew members, the new ship was solemnly laid down. This happened on April 4, 1728. Construction proceeded unusually quickly. On June 9, the ship was already finished. And exactly one month later, on July 9, 1728, the well-putty and equipped boat "Saint Gabriel" under full sail, with 44 crew members on board, left the mouth of the Kamchatka River and headed north-east.

The voyage north along the shores of Asia lasted just over a month. August 11, 1728 "Saint Gabriel" crossed the strait separating Asia from America. But at that time, the sailors could not know if it was a strait or something else. The next day, they noticed that the land, past which they were on the same course, was left behind on the left. On August 13, the ship, driven by a strong wind, crossed the Arctic Circle.

50 years later, Captain James Cook, during his time, passed this strait in search of the Northern Sea Route around America. He laid out his route according to the maps compiled by Vitus Bering. Struck by the accuracy of Russian sailing directions, James Cook proposed to name the strait between the continents after Bering. So, with the filing of this great sailor, one of the most significant straits on earth received the name of our, no less great compatriot.

Bering's expedition completed its task

On August 15, the expedition entered the open (Arctic) ocean and continued sailing to the north-north-east in complete fog. Many whales have appeared. An endless ocean spread all around. The Chukotka land no longer extended further to the north. There was no other land to be seen.

At this point, Bering decided that the expedition had completed its task. He found no line of sight of the American coast. There was no isthmus further north. Having passed a little more to the north to clear his conscience, to latitude 67 "18", Bering on August 16, 1728 gave the order to return to Kamchatka so as not to spend the winter on unfamiliar treeless shores "for no reason". Already on September 2, 1728, "Saint Gabriel" returned to the Nizhnekamchatka harbor. Here the expedition decided to spend the winter.

Bering understood that he had completed only part of the task. He did not find America. Therefore, in the summer of the following year, he and his associates made another attempt to break through to the American shores from the east. Having set out to sea in June 1729, the expedition proceeded strictly to the east for 200 miles and did not meet any signs of land.

Nothing to do, turned back. But on the way to Okhotsk, they bypassed Kamchatka from the south and established the exact southern tip of the peninsula. This discovery became extremely important and necessary for all subsequent expeditions. Eh, if they themselves knew the true dimensions of Kamchatka, they would not have had to drag the entire load hundreds of miles on dry land!

Vitus Bering. short biography... What did you discover?

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again travelers of the era of great geographical discoveries

dane navigator, captain-commander of the Russian fleet

He led the 1st and 2nd Kamchatka expeditions. Passed between the Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska, confirming the presence of a strait separating them (later the strait between Russia and the United States was named Bering Strait), reached North America and discovered a number of islands in the Aleutian ridge.

An island, a strait, an underwater canyon, a river, a lake, a glacier, two capes, a street in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the sea in the north are named after the great navigator The Pacific, as well as the Commander Islands. In archeology, the northeastern part of Siberia, Chukotka and Alaska (which are now believed to have been connected earlier by a strip of land) are often referred to as a general term. Beringia.

Brief chronology

1703 graduated from the Amsterdam Marine cadet corps

1704 in the rank of second lieutenant entered the service in Russian fleet, to the Baltic

1710-12 biennium transferred to the Azov fleet, participated in the war with Turkey

1715 promoted to captain of the 4th rank

1725-30 headed First Kamchatka expedition, surveyed and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia

1733-41 headed Second Kamchatka expedition, during which it was possible to map the northern and eastern coasts of Russia, the internal territories of Eastern Siberia, explored the routes to America and Japan, discovered the coast of North-West America, the islands of the Kuril and Aleutian ridges

In 1741, in difficult conditions of forced wintering on the island, later named after Bering, the captain-commander died. The great navigator was buried on the Bering Island in the Commander Bay.

The history of life

Bering Vitus Jonassen was born in 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens, graduated from the cadet corps in Amsterdam in 1703, in the same year he was admitted to Baltic Fleet in the rank of second lieutenant, in 1707 he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1710 he was transferred to the Azov fleet, promoted to lieutenant commander, commanded the shnyava "Munker". In 1712 he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet, in 1715 he was promoted to captain of the 4th rank.

In 1716 he commanded the Pearl ship. In 1717 he was promoted to captain of the 3rd rank. In 1719 he commanded the ship "Selafail". In 1720 he was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank, commanded the ship "Malburg", then - the ship "Lesnoye". In 1724 he was dismissed at the request of the service, and then again accepted into service as the commander of the "Selafail" with the rank of captain of the 1st rank.

From 1725 to 1730 - Chief First Kamchatka expedition... In the middle of the summer of 1728, he surveyed and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia. He discovered two peninsulas (Kamchatka and Ozerny), Kamchatka Bay, Karaginsky Bay with Karaginsky Island, Cross Bay, Provideniya Bay and St. Lawrence Island.

In the Chukchi Sea, passing the strait (later called the Bering Strait), the expedition reached 62 ° 24 ′ from. sh., but because of the fogana and the wind did not find the ground and turned back. The next year, Bering managed to move 200 kilometers east of Kamchatka, inspect part of the Kamchatka coast and identify Avacha Bay and Avacha Bay. The discoverer for the first time surveyed over 3,500 kilometers of the western coastline of the sea, later named Beringov.

In 1730 he was promoted to captain-commander.

After returning to St. Petersburg at the end of April 1730, Bering proposed a plan for exploring the northern coast of the continent and reaching the Amur estuary, the Japanese islands and America by sea.

Bering was appointed chief Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) ExpeditionA. Chirikov became his deputy. On June 4, 1741, Bering and Chirikov, commanding two packet boats, set off from the coast of Kamchatka to the southeast in search of the "land of Juan da Gama", which was located on some maps of the 18th century between 46 and 50 ° N. sh. For more than a week, the pioneers searched in vain for at least a piece of land in the North Pacific. Both ships headed north-east, but on June 20, due to thick fog, they parted forever. For three days Bering was looking for Chirikov: he went south for about 400 kilometers, then moved northeast and for the first time crossed the central water area of \u200b\u200bthe Gulf of Alaska. July 17 beyond 58 ° N sh. noticed the ridge (of St. Elijah), but did not feel the joy of discovering the American coast: I felt bad because of an aggravated heart disease.

In August - September, continuing to sail along the coast of America, Bering discovered the Tumanny Island (Chirikova), five islands (Evdokeevskie), snow mountains (Aleutian ridge) on the "mother coast" (the Alaska Peninsula), near the southwestern edge of which he discovered the Shumagin Islands and first met the Aleuts. Continuing to go west, sometimes in the north I saw land - separate aleutian ridge islands... On November 4, a wave nailed the ship to the ground, which turned out to be an island. Here the captain-commander died; 14 people from his squad died from scurvy. The island was later named after Bering.

Buried on Bering Island in the Commander Bay... There are four monuments at the site of Bering's death. Directly at the burial site today there is an iron cross 3.5 m high. At its foot there is a cast-iron plaque with the inscription: "1681-1741. To the great navigator Captain-Commander Vitus Bering from the inhabitants of Kamchatka, June 1966".

Curious by nature and, like an enlightened monarch, preoccupied with the benefits for the country, the first Russian emperor was keenly interested in travel descriptions. The king and his advisers knew about the existence of Anian - that was the name of the strait between Asia and America - and hoped to use it for practical purposes. At the end of 1724 Peter I I remembered "... what I had been thinking about for a long time and that other things prevented me from undertaking, that is, about the road through the Arctic Sea to China and India ... Will we not be happier in researching such a path than the Dutch and the British? ..." , drew up an order for an expedition. Its chief was the captain of the 1st rank, later - the captain-commander, 44-year-old Vitus Jonassen (in Russian usage - Ivan Ivanovich) Bering, who had served in Russia for 21 years. The tsar handed him a secret instruction written with his own hand, according to which Bering was supposed to have a large land mass, supposedly stretching in the north-western direction near the coast of Kamchatka, to reach a large land mass, supposedly stretching in the north-western direction near the coast of Kamchatka, walk along the coast, find out if it connects with North America, and trace the coast of the mainland south to the possessions of European states. The official task was to resolve the issue of "whether America converged with Asia" and to open the Northern Sea Route.

Initially consisting of 34 people, it set off on the road from St. Petersburg on January 24, 1725. Moving through Siberia, they went to Okhotsk on horseback and on foot, on ships along the rivers. The last 500 km from the mouth of the Yudoma to Okhotsk, the heaviest loads were dragged, themselves harnessed to sledges. Terrible frosts and famine reduced the composition of the expedition by 15 people. The advance detachment led by V. Bering arrived in Okhotsk on October 1, 1726, and the group of Lieutenant Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg, a Dane in the Russian service, who closed the expedition, reached there only on January 6, 1727. To survive until the end of winter, people had to build several huts and sheds.

The road through the vastness of Russia took 2 years. Along this entire path, equal to a fourth of the length of the earth's equator, Lieutenant Alexei Ilyich Chirikov identified 28 astronomical points, which made it possible for the first time to reveal the true latitudinal extent of Siberia, and, consequently, the northern part of Eurasia.

The expedition members traveled from Okhotsk to Kamchatka on two small ships. For the continuation of the sea journey, it was necessary to build and equip the “St. Gabriel ", on which on July 14, 1728 the expedition went to sea.

As the authors of "Sketches on the History of Geographical Discoveries" note, V. Bering, having misunderstood the tsar's plan and violating the instructions that ordered first to go from Kamchatka to the south or east, headed north along the coast of the peninsula, and then north-east along the mainland ...

“As a result,” it says further in “Sketches ...”, “more than 600 km of the northern half of the eastern coast of the peninsula were filmed, kamchatsky Peninsulaand Ozernoy, and Karaginsky Bay with the island of the same name ... The sailors also put on the map 2500 km of the coastline of Northeast Asia. Along most of the coast, they noted high mountains, and in summer covered with snow, approaching in many places directly to the sea and rising above it like a wall. " In addition, they discovered bay of the cross (not knowing that it was already discovered by K. Ivanov), bay of Providence and st. Lawrence Island.

However, the desired part of the land was not shown. V. Bering, seeing neither the American coast nor the turn to the west of the Chukchi coast, ordered A. Chirikov and M. Shpanberg to state their opinions in writing, whether the presence of a strait between Asia and America can be considered proven, whether we should move further north and how far ... As a result of this "written meeting" Bering decided to go further north. On August 16, 1728, the sailors passed through the strait and ended up in the Chukchi Sea. Then Bering turned back, officially motivating his decision by the fact that everything was done according to the instructions, the coast does not extend further to the north, and "no one approached the Chukotsky, or Vostochny, corner of the earth." After spending another winter in Nizhnekamchatsk, in the summer of 1729, Bering again made an attempt to reach the American coast, but, having passed a little more than 200 km, due to strong wind and fog, he ordered to return.

The first expedition described the southern half of the eastern and a small part of the western coast of the peninsula for more than 1000 km between the mouths of Kamchatka and Bolshoi, revealing Kamchatka Bay and Avachinskaya lip... Together with Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov and warrant officer Peter Avraamovich Chaplin Bering drew up the final map of the voyage. Despite a number of errors, this map was much more accurate than the previous ones and was highly appreciated by D. Cook. A detailed description of the first Russian marine scientific expedition was preserved in the logbook, which was kept by Chirikov and Chaplin.

The Northern Expedition would not have achieved success without auxiliary campaigns led by Cossack Colonel Afanasy Fedotovich Shestakov, Captain Dmitry Ivanovich Pavlutsky, geodesist Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev and navigator Ivan Fedorov.

It was M. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov who completed the opening of the strait between Asia and America, begun by Dezhnev and Popov. They examined both sides of the strait, the islands located in it, and collected all the materials needed to put the strait on the map.

Returning from the expedition, Bering proposed to the government a plan for a new large expedition and expressed his readiness to take part in it. In 1733 he was appointed head of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. His assistant ("comrade") became A.I. Chirikov, by this time already the captain.

Their task was to explore the American coast from Kamchatka. At the same time, M. Shpanberg was supposed to sail to Japan and establish contact with it, and several detachments - to map the northern shores of Russia from Pechora to the extreme northeast and, if possible, to Kamchatka. An Academic Detachment was also formed, whose task was to explore the interior regions of Siberia. The northern detachments worked independently, but all their activities were controlled by V. Bering. The work of the expedition was calculated for 6 years.

At the beginning of 1734 V. Bering gathered all the participants of the expedition in Tobolsk. From here came several land-based parties of surveyors to study the ocean coast. Bering himself went to Yakutskwhere he had to spend three years. There, under his leadership, an iron factory and a rope workshop were built, resin collection, rigging for ships and equipment and food supplies for M. Shpanberg's detachment were sent to Okhotsk.

In total, about 800 members of the expeditionary teams gathered in Yakutsk. The local administration, which was annoyed by Bering's incorruptibility and exactingness, obstructed the procurement of food and equipment, wrote denunciations to St. Petersburg against the stubborn "German". However, V. Bering left Yakutsk, only after making sure that the team was fully provided with provisions. In Okhotsk, he also had to face disorder and corruption. local authorities... The capital's bosses, as is usual in Russia, trusted the denunciations of idlers and bribe-takers, and not the reports of the honest and pedantic Bering.

Finally, in early September 1740, V. Bering sailed from Okhotsk on two 200-ton ships with 75 crews. The ships were named after the apostles of Christ - “St. Peter "and" St. Pavel". The expedition spent the winter on the eastern coast of Kamchatka, near Avacha Bay. And on June 4, 1741, eight years after leaving Petersburg, bering ships and Chirikova came to the shores of America. The expedition included the young scientist Georg Wilhelm Steller and Sven (Xavier) Lavrentievich Waxel, who left interesting descriptions this voyage.

As mentioned above, a mythical land was plotted on the German map used by Bering. In search of this nonexistent land, V. Bering went first to the southeast, to the coordinates indicated on this map. Having lost more than a week in vain and making sure that there was no land in this part of the ocean, the ships headed north-east. But on June 20, a thick fog fell on the sea, and the ships were forever parted. From that day on, “St. Peter "and" St. Pavel "made voyages in autonomous mode.

"St. Peter "finally reached the American coast on July 17, 1741. From the deck of the ship one could see the coast and - in the distance - the snow ridge of St. Elijah almost merging with the clouds with the summit - Mount St. Elijah, 5488 m high. The goal set by the emperor 17 years ago was achieved. But the sixty-year-old captain-commander did not share the joy and triumph of the team. He suffered from scurvy, did not know exactly the coordinates of the ship's location; acutely experiencing losses and setbacks, the seasoned navigator saw the future in a gloomy light.

Without approaching the mainland, V. Bering moved westward along the coast for 4 days. On July 21, he sent people for fresh water and, without even filling all the barrels, despite the stormy weather, headed west to the shores of Asia.

Scurvy has already knocked over a third of the crew. On August 10, desperate to move forward because of a strong headwind, V. Bering decided to go straight to Kamchatka. On August 29, sailors discovered "treeless and deserted islands" off the southwestern tip of Alaska. The captain-commander named them "Shumagin Islands" - in memory of a sailor buried on one of them. Moving all the time to the west in the open sea, the sailors periodically saw land in the north - it was the Aleutian chain. There the Russians met for the first time with local residents - Aleuts.

When on November 4, high mountains covered with snow appeared in the distance, the sailors mistakenly decided that they had approached Kamchatka. Having landed on the shore, they dug rectangular holes in the sand. To adapt them for living, roofs were made from sails. Many suffered from scurvy. 20 people have died. Only 10 sailors were still on their feet. Sick Bering lay without getting up. As S.N. Markov, “… everyone knows what happened next. Arctic foxes gnawed at Bering's boots when he was still alive. In his death throes, Bering buried himself in the sand in order to warm himself a little. " After lying like this for a whole month, on December 6, 1741, he died.

The land to which his ship nailed was later given his name and is called Bering Island, and the whole group was christened in honor of the deceased captain-commander Commander Islands... “The sea discovered by F. Popov and S. Dezhnev, on which V. Bering sailed so little in 1728, was called Bering, the strait through which he was not the first to pass, but the same F. Popov and S. Dezhnev, made at stake not by them, but by M. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov, named at the suggestion of D. Cook the Bering Strait. To the unhappy captain-commander Vitus Bering ... exceptional posthumous glory has come "

The command was accepted Sven Waxel as a senior crew officer. Bypassing new land, the sailors made sure they were on the island. The wintering was difficult: frequent storms, hurricanes, unexpected earthquakes, scurvy ... By the summer of 1742, 46 people remained alive, including the ten-year-old son of K.L. Vaksel Lorenz, future officer of the Russian fleet Lavrenty Ksaveryevich Vaksel.

The ship "St. Peter ”was badly destroyed, and it had to be dismantled in order to build a small ship of the same name from its parts. Since all three ship carpenters died of scurvy, krasnoyarsk Cossack Savva Starodubtsev and successfully completed the construction of a new vessel. On August 13, the travelers set out to sea and, due to the calm, moving mostly on oars, on August 26, 1742, they reached Petropavlovsk.

A number of geographical expeditions undertaken by Russian sailors along the Arctic coast of Siberia, to the shores of North America and Japan in the second quarter of the 18th century.

Background

After the end of the First Kamchatka Expedition, he proposed to the Admiralty Board a project for a new expedition to the shores of North America and Japan. In addition, his project included a description of the Arctic coast of Siberia.

Bering's project was warmly supported by the Chief Secretary of the Senate Ivan Kirillovich Kirilov and the President of the Admiralty Board Nikolai Fedorovich Golovin. On their initiative, the project was expanded and revised.

The main task of the expedition was the study of the north of Russia from Pechora to Chukotka and the compilation of its geographical, geological, botanical, zoological and ethnographic description. In addition, sea voyages to the shores of Japan and North America were planned.

On December 28, 1732, the decree on the organization of the expedition was presented by the Senate for the highest approval.

Training

It was intended to conduct research in several detachments, each of which, in fact, represented a separate expedition.

The coast of the Arctic Ocean was divided into five sections:

• the westernmost section of the coast from Pechora to the Ob was to be explored by a detachment under the command of Muravyov (later replaced by Malygin), subordinate directly to the Admiralty College. All other detachments were under the general leadership of Vitus Bering.

• the section of the Arctic coast of Russia from the Ob to the Yenisei was examined by the detachment of Ovtsin and Sterlegov.
• to the east of the Yenisei, Minin's detachment worked.
• a section of the coast to the west of the Lena was entrusted to the detachment of Pronchishchev, Khariton Laptev and Chelyuskin.
• a section of the coast to the east of the Lena was examined by a detachment of Lassnius and Dmitry Laptev.

On Far East there were two naval detachments:

• the Bering-Chirikov detachment was to explore the path to North America.
• spanberg's detachment was supposed to compile an inventory of the Kuril Islands, the shores of the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk and, if possible, reach the shores of Japan.

In addition, there were two land units:

• academic - composed of scholarly members Russian Academy sciences, whose tasks included the study of the interior regions of Eastern Siberia, in particular Kamchatka; initially Ludovic Delisle and I.G. Gmelin were appointed to it, and then G.F. Miller was added.
• the detachment of Pyotr Skobeltsyn and Vasily Shatilov, who was tasked with finding a convenient river route from Verkhneudinsk to Okhotsk.

The cost of the expedition was more than 360 thousand rubles. Several thousand people were involved in the work of the main and auxiliary detachments, directly scientific research more than 550 people were engaged. Several special ships were built for the expedition in Arkhangelsk, Tobolsk, Yakutsk and Okhotsk. To provide the expedition with iron products, the Tamginsky ironworks was built near Yakutsk.

Unit activities

Dvinsko-Obsk detachment

The first to begin its activities was the westernmost detachment of the expedition, which was directly subordinate to the Admiralty Collegium. He had to describe the area of \u200b\u200bthe Arctic coast of Russia, which had been developed long ago by the Pomors. They had to find a sea passage to the Ob.

In July 1734, the detachment left Arkhangelsk on the "Expedition" and "Ob" kochi under the command of S. V. Muravyov and M. S. Pavlov. However, within two years, the detachment was unable to advance eastward beyond Bely Island, and by the decision of the Admiralty Board, Muravyov and Pavlov were removed from leadership. The detachment was headed by S.G. Malygin. To help him from Arkhangelsk were sent two bots under the command of A. Skuratov and I. Sukhotin. The detachment consisting of two bots and a koch "Expedition" managed to reach only the western coast of Yamal and, due to the solid ice, was forced to return to winter.

In July 1737, the detachment sailed again and in August reached the passage to the Gulf of Ob from the strait between the Yamal Peninsula and Bely Island (now the Malygin Strait). Climbing the Ob, the ships arrived at Berezov on October 2.

As a result of the six-year activity of the detachment, maps were drawn up of the southeastern part of the Barents Sea and the Ob region of the Kara Sea.

Ob-Yenisei detachment

The task of the detachment was to explore the coast between the Ob and Yenisei rivers.

In January 1734 in Tobolsk was built a 24-rowed dinghy "Tobol", on which, under the command of D. L. Ovtsyn, in May of the same year, the detachment went to sea. However, the campaigns of 1734-1736 were short-lived, since due to powerful ice in the Ob Bay it was necessary to return to Tobolsk.

By order of the Admiralty Board, a new expedition ship was built - the Ob-Postman boat, which arrived in Obdorsk in June 1737, where Ovtsin's detachment spent the winter. Ovtsyn became the commander of the ship and in August 1737 the detachment managed to reach the Yenisei Gulf on two ships across the ice-free sea, having completed its task.

Following the instructions of the Admiralty Board, Ovtsyn handed the Ob-Postman bot to F.A.Minin and instructed him to compile an inventory of the shores from the Yenisei Bay to the Khatanga River around the Taimyr Peninsula. At the end of July 1738, Minin, with his assistant, D. V. Sterlegov, set out to sea and on August 16 reached the cape, located at 73 ° 29 ′ north latitude, and returned to the wintering site.

The summer campaign of 1739 was delayed through the fault of the local administration and did not bring noticeable results.

By order of Minin, in January 1740 Sterlegov set off on a land expedition east of the Yenisei. He managed to pass northeast from the Pyasina River and describe the coast from Cape Northeast to 75 ° 29 ′ north latitude.

In 1740 and 1742, Minin tried to sail to the mouth of the Khatanga on the Ob-Pochtalion boat, but solid ice prevented this. In 1743, the activities of the Ob-Yenisei detachment were completed.

Lena-Yenisei detachment

Lensko-Yeniseisky (also Lensko-Khatangsky or West-Lensky) the detachment began its work in the summer of 1735. In Yakutsk, a double-dinghy "Yakutsk" was built, which, under the command of Vasily Pronchishchev, reached the mouth of the Olenek River on August 25, where it hibernated due to a leak.

In August 1736, a new voyage began and the ship reached the Khatanga Bay, and then headed along the eastern coast of Taimyr to the north. Having reached the cape, which later received his name and the northernmost point (77 ° 25 '), Pronchishchev was forced to go on the opposite course. On August 29, Pronchishchev died, and on September 2, "Yakutsk" entered the mouth of the Olenek River, where, a few days later, Pronchishchev's wife, Tatiana, the first woman - a polar explorer, also died.

In December 1737, the Admiralty Board appointed Kh. P. Laptev as the new leader of the detachment.

In June 1739, "Yakutsk" from the mouth of the Lena moved northwest to Begichev Island, and then along the eastern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula. Having reached latitude 76 ° 47 ′ on August 22, the vessel turned back and wintered on Khatanga.

The summer campaign of 1740 lasted only a month and ended with the double-dinghy being crushed by ice. Having lost several people dead, the detachment on foot reached the place of last year's wintering.

Having received permission from the Admiralty Board, Kh. P. Laptev divided the detachment into three parties and began describing the Taimyr coasts from land. Chelyuskin's group managed to reach the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent, which now bears his name.

Lena-Kolyma detachment

In Yakutsk, a dinghy Irkutsk was built for the detachment. In 1735, having descended to the mouth of the Lena River together with the Yakutsk double-dinghy of the Lensko-Yenisei detachment, on August 18 the detachment reached the Kharaulakh River, where it hibernated. During the wintering, 37 people died from scurvy and the commander of the detachment P. Lassinius, the boat "Irkutsk" demanded repair.

The new commander D. Ya. Laptev, having arrived at the wintering site, continued work in August 1736. But only in June 1739, in difficult ice conditions, the boat managed to enter the East Siberian Sea. With a favorable wind, moving quickly to the east, the bot at the end of August reached the mouth of the Indigirka River, where it hibernated.

In 1740-41, D. Laptev made two unsuccessful attempts to break through the solid ice to the east, but managed to get only to Cape Baranov Kamen.

In the summer of 1742, the detachment was working in the Anadyr River basin, where its actions ended.

Bering-Chirikov squad

The expedition of the detachment, led by Vitus Bering, is often called directly "the second Kamchatka expedition." This detachment was tasked with finding a way to North America and the islands in the North Pacific.

By the summer of 1740, in Okhotsk, under the leadership of ship craftsmen Kozmin and Rogachev, two packet boats ("St. Peter" and "St. Paul") were built, intended for the detachment.

In September of the same year, ships under the command of Vitus Bering ("St. Peter") and Alexei Chirikov ("St. Paul") crossed over to the shores of Kamchatka, losing part of their food during the voyage during a storm. In Avacha Bay on Kamchatka, members of the detachment founded a prison, which later grew into the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

On June 4, 1741, the packet boats "St. Peter" and "St. Paul" under the command of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov set sail for the shores of America. At the very beginning of the voyage, the ships lost each other in a heavy fog and operated separately. "St. Peter" under the command of Bering reached Kodiak Island off the west coast of America. On the way back, the expedition spent the winter on a small island, where Bering died during the winter.

"St. Paul" under the command of Chirikov on July 15 reached the shores of America, in addition, having visited individual islands, and on October 11 of the same year returned to the Peter and Paul prison.

Southern squad

In the summer of 1738, Spanberg's detachment on three ships - the brigantine "Archangel Michael", the double-sloop "Hope" and the boat "Saint Gabriel" - went to the shores of Japan. In the thick fog, the ships lost each other and each of them made further voyages separately. Spanberg on the "Archangel Mikhail" passed along the Kuril ridge, but due to bad weather and lack of food returned to Bolsheretsk.

In May 1739, the detachment, replenished with the sloop "Bolsheretsk", again went to sea and reached the Kuril Islands. On June 16, 1739, the sailors first saw the northeastern coast of the island of Honshu and headed south. On June 22, a meeting with the Japanese took place. On June 24, the Archangel Michael again approached Japan off the island of Hokkaido and soon headed back. V. Walton, who commanded the boat "Saint Gabriel" in this voyage, lagged behind Spanberg and on June 16 approached the island of Honshu and on June 19 landed on it. On July 24, "Saint Gabriel" went on a return course.

In May 1742, the ships set out on a new voyage - to the Kuril Islands, the inventory of which was kept until the end of July.

Academic detachment

The academic detachment was headed by a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Professor Gerhard Friedrich Miller, who was heading for Siberia as the historiographer of the expedition.

At the beginning of August 1733, the detachment left Petersburg and at the end of October arrived in Kazan, where it began organizing meteorological observations. At the end of December 1733, the detachment arrived in Yekaterinburg, where it also monitored air temperature and pressure, wind, atmospheric phenomena, auroras (A. Tatishchev, surveyor N. Karkadinov, teacher of arithmetic F. Sannikov).

In January 1734, the academic detachment arrived in Tobolsk, from there Professor Delacroer set off with Chirikov's wagon train to the east. The head of the expedition, Bering, allowed Miller and Gmelin to continue the journey on their own.

From Tobolsk, the detachment along the Irtysh reached Omsk, then visited the Yamyshevskaya fortress, Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk. Miller, in addition to archival work, was engaged in archaeological excavations, Gmelin - in the organization of meteorological observations. On the way, the travelers studied the flora and fauna, collected collections of rare plants, and conducted geological research. In the winter and spring of 1735, scientists visited Yeniseisk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, crossed Lake Baikal and visited Selenginsk, Kyakhta. In the summer of the same year, the detachment visited the Chita prison and Nerchinsk, where they examined ancient monuments, burial mounds and ore mines.

In the fall of 1735, the detachment returned to Irkutsk.

In January 1738, Krasheninnikov, accompanied by two Cossacks and a clerk Osip Argunov, set off to explore the warm springs on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Bolshaya Banya River, and then to Avachinskaya Sopka. In mid-January 1739, a detachment on sledges arrived in Nizhnekamchatsk, where the scientists organized meteorological observations. In 1740 Krasheninnikov on a dog sled made a circular journey through the northern part of Kamchatka.

In 1740, Johann Fischer, together with Jacob Lindenau, traveled from Surgut to Okhotsk, where he examined the local archive. On the way, he compiled a detailed historical and geographical description of the road to Okhotsk. After that, Fischer worked for more than a year in Yakutsk, where in 1742 he was arrested on false charges, but was soon acquitted and released. Until the beginning of 1746, Fischer lived in Tomsk, and in December 1746 he returned to St. Petersburg.

Fischer's partner on the way to Okhotsk, Jacob Lindenau, made an independent trip across Siberia. In 1741 he compiled a description of the route along the Lena River, and then returned to Okhotsk. In 1742-1744, he undertook a number of trips along the Siberian rivers, compiling descriptions of the Udsky fort, the Uda river, the Bear and Shantarsky islands. In August 1746 Lindenau returned to St. Petersburg.

Research Squadron, also called I Academic expedition, lasted 13 years. The works of G. F. Miller, I. G. Gmelin, S. P. Krasheninnikov, G. V. Steler, A. D. Krasilnikov, I. E. Fisher and others laid the foundation for the scientific study of Siberia, its history and nature.

Verkhneudinsk-Okhotsk expedition

According to the assignment received, the detachment of Pyotr Skobeltsyn and Vasily Shatilov had to find an easier and shorter route from Verkhneudinsk to Okhotsk, in comparison with the existing route through Yakutsk. Moreover, according to a special instruction of Vitus Bering, the detachment's path should not have passed along the Amur River, due to the danger of possible complications with the Qing Empire.

In 1735-36, the detachment left Nerchinsk and went down the Shilka to the Gorbitsa River, and then along the tributaries of the Upper Amur, along the Nyukzha and Olekma rivers, went to the Lena River and along it reached Yakutsk.

In 1737 Skobeltsyn and Shatilov adopted another unsuccessful attempt find a way to Okhotsk. They passed along the Gilyui River to its confluence with the Zeya, followed it up, but soon turned back and returned to Nerchinsk.

The main reason for the detachment's failures was the low discipline among the guides from local residents, some of whom simply fled, and the other part, instead of completing the assignment, was engaged, for the most part, in hunting sable. Despite the failure in completing the main task of the detachment, the researchers managed to carry out geodetic and ethnographic research in the vast territory of Siberia.

Expedition results

As a result of the activities of the Great Northern Expedition, for the first time, an inventory of individual sections of the coast of the Arctic Ocean was made, the American coast was discovered and the presence of a strait between Asia and America was confirmed, the South Kuril Islands were discovered and mapped, the absence of any lands between Kamchatka and North America was proved, the coast of Kamchatka, the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk and some parts of the coast of Japan.