The outstanding Russian explorer and traveler Ivan Moskvitin, having become one of the key figures in the development of the Far East and Siberia, left extremely scarce information about his life. Not only the details that draw the features of his appearance, but also many stages of his biography are hidden from us forever. And yet, his services to Russia are so great that a simple Tomsk Cossack - Ivan Moskvitin, whose contribution to geographical science is truly invaluable - entered the history of Russia forever.
The era of conquering new lands
In the thirties of the XVII century there was an active development of previously unknown lands lying behind the Great Ural Range. The starting point for explorers of that era was Yakutsk. It was from here that desperate travelers began their journey into the unknown. There were two main directions of movement of their detachments - north and south along the Lena River. It is known that in the remote taiga region, water arteries have long been used as natural communication routes.
Ivan Moskvitin, whose years of life fell exactly on this period, was one of those desperate heads who were intoxicated by the air of unknown lands. He also had a like-minded person - Tomsk ataman Dmitry Epifanovich Kopalov. Notgave them rest rumors that somewhere in the east there is a Warm Sea. It is difficult to say why it was called Warm - perhaps by association with the sun that rose from there every morning. But in order to reach this sea, it was necessary to move not along the surface of the river, but to break through the centuries-old, untrodden taiga.
Start of expedition
And in 1637, Kopalov moved east with a detachment of Cossacks, and his friend Ivan Moskvitin, a Tomsk Cossack, went with him. History has not preserved either the date of his birth or information about the ways in which the Lord brought him to Tomsk. One can only speculate based on his last name. In the old days, it was customary to call people by the place of their birth, or their immediate ancestors. So it is quite possible to assume that if not Ivan himself, then his father or grandfather was from Moscow lands.
Beginning their journey in Tomsk, the detachment reached Yakutsk, and continued moving east. Before going deeper into the taiga, they took advantage of the already explored waterway. In search of a “new land” (as they wrote in the documents of that era) and the Warm Sea, travelers went down in 1638 along the Lena River to its tributary Aldan, and climbed up it for five weeks, moving their plows with ropes and poles. Having made this most difficult path, the Cossacks reached the mouth of another taiga river, called May - the right tributary of the Aldan.
First information about the Amur River
Here, in the taiga wilderness, they met a shaman, a real one - in those days, such a meeting was in the order of things. WithWith the help of translator Semyon Petrov, who was specially taken into the detachment for such cases, Kopalov learned from a forest magician that to the south, immediately behind the ridge, a huge river flows, which the local tribes call Chirkol. But the main news was that, according to the shaman, many “sedentary”, that is, settled inhabitants who were engaged in livestock breeding and agriculture, lived on its banks. So for the first time the sovereign's people heard about the great Siberian river Amur.
But the main goal of the expedition - the Warm Sea, still called the Cossacks to the east. In May 1639, the ataman equipped an advanced detachment in search of a way to the coveted "sea-ocean", headed by Ivan Moskvitin. His biography, so incomplete and stingy with facts, nevertheless reproduces this episode in sufficient detail. It is known that under his command there were three dozen of the most proven and experienced Cossacks. In addition, guides, the Evenks, were hired to help them.
Up the Mae River
As his closest assistant, Ivan Moskvitin took a resident of Yakutsk, the Cossack Kolobov. His name has firmly gone down in history due to the fact that in 1646 he, like his boss, submitted to the sovereign a written report on his participation in the journey. This document, called "kask", became the most valuable historical evidence of the events associated with the discovery of the Sea of Okhotsk. The detachment also included a translator - the already mentioned Semyon Petrov.
The group formed in this way continued up the Mae on a flat-bottomed plank -spacious and spacious boat. But the trouble is that for about two hundred kilometers, most of the way it had to be dragged with a whip, pushing through dense coastal thickets. After six weeks of hard travel, the Cossacks reached another taiga river - the narrow and shallow Nyudym.
The path to the Dzhugdzhur ridge
Here I had to part with a spacious, but heavy and clumsy plank, and build several light plows. On them, travelers reached the upper reaches of the river. During the journey, Ivan Moskvitin briefly described all the tributaries of the Lena, Mai and Nyudym they saw, which subsequently served to compile geographical maps of that area.
Ahead of them was green, covered with a cedar forest, a low pass with a ridge, later named Dzhugdzhur. This was an important stage of the journey - the mountain range separated the rivers belonging to the Lena system from those that flowed to the "sea - ocean" they coveted. Ivan Moskvin and his detachment crossed the pass in a day, leaving the plows, and taking with them only the most necessary things.
Down the Hive River
On the opposite slope they again met the river - unhurried and shallow, making wide loops on its way before joining the Ulya - one of the rivers of the Okhotsk Sea basin. I had to take up the axes again and get on with the plows again. But now the river itself helped travelers. Until now, going upstream, they had to drag their boats on themselves, now, going downstream, they could take advantage of a short rest.
Eight days later, a characteristic noise was heard ahead, warning of the approach of steep and dangerous rapids, about which the guides, the Evenks, had told them. These stones that filled the river bed stretched for a long distance, and again I had to, throwing the recently made plows, and, shouldering the luggage, wade through the impenetrable taiga. To top it off, the Cossacks had run out of food by that time, and it was not possible to replenish its stocks at the expense of natural resources - the river was without fish, and along its banks it was possible to collect only a few handfuls of berries.
The long-awaited exit to the ocean
But the Cossacks did not lose heart, and Ivan Moskvitin was an example for them. The years of life spent in the taiga region taught him to be strong. Having passed the dangerous section of the river, they again took up their usual business - the construction of boats. This time they built a kayak for the advance group, and for everyone else, a large and heavy transport boat capable of holding thirty people and the entire cargo of the expedition. Soon they reached the full-flowing and rich in fish river Lama. If before the Cossacks had to eat tree bark, grass and roots, now it's time for hearty fish meals.
Five days later, an event occurred that went down in the history of Russian geography - Ivan Moskvitin and his detachment reached the Sea of Okhotsk. The entire journey from the mouth of the May River to the "sea-ocean" was covered in two months. It should be taken into account that it ran through previously unexplored territory, and various circumstances required travelers to frequentstops. As a result, in August 1639, Russian explorers for the first time in history reached the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean - the Sea of Okhotsk.
Begin exploration of the coast
Autumn has arrived. From the winter hut set up on the Ulya River, a group of Cossacks went north in order to study and describe the coast of the sea. All management of their actions was carried out by Ivan Moskvitin. The contribution to geographical science made by this party was enormous. They covered a distance of more than five hundred kilometers, during which records were kept. Much of the journey was made by sea on a boat.
The experience of this trip showed the need to build larger and more reliable ships, and for further travels the Cossacks built two small but strong kochas equipped with masts and sails. Thus, in the winter of 1639-1640, the symbolic beginning of the construction of the Pacific Fleet was laid.
In the summer, the entire detachment sailed south by sea and reached the Sakhalin Bay. The sea route of Ivan Moskvitin and his team was also described in detail, as well as their overland wanderings. The mainland coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, for a distance of one thousand seven hundred kilometers, for the first time in history, was passed and studied by Russian people.
On the approaches to the great Siberian river
In his voyage, Ivan Moskvitin came close to the mouth of the Amur, but he failed to enter it. There were two reasons for this - hunger, which forced the brave explorers to turn back, and the stories of the guides about the extremely aggressive disposition of the inhabitantscoastal areas. Trying to make contact with them and thus replenish food supplies was extremely risky, as a result, they decided to return back. In the spring of 1641, the Cossacks crossed the Dzhugdzhur ridge for the second time and reached one of the tributaries of the May River. In July of the same year, the entire detachment returned safely to Yakutsk.
From the taiga wilderness to Moscow
Documents of those years report that Ivan Moskvitin, whose discoveries received a well-deserved assessment of the Yakut authorities, was promoted to Pentecost, and his Cossacks received awards for all four years of hard work and deprivation - from two to five rubles. The most distinguished were, in addition, given a piece of cloth. In 1646, Moskvitin was seconded to Moscow to report to the sovereign himself. So for the first time in the capital it became known about the campaign to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. The brave traveler returned home already in the rank of chieftain.
To further conquer open lands, he recommended sending a large armed detachment there, numbering at least a thousand people with ten guns and enough food. According to him, those regions were unusually rich in fish and fur-bearing animals, which could bring significant income to the treasury.
Here, perhaps, is all the information that Ivan Moskvitin left about himself. The years of life and death of this man remained unknown, but his name and the contribution that he made to the development of the Far East went down in history forever. His work was continued by other travelers, among whom one of the most famousbecame V. D. Poyarkov. Without a doubt, the motto of Ivan Moskvitin and his followers could be expressed by the words of Christ: "Seek and you will find." And they went in search of the unknown both to the taiga distances and to the boundless sea expanses.
