Like many Russian explorers, thanks to whom Russia has acquired vast territories up to the Amur and the Pacific Ocean, the dates of birth and death of Vasily Poyarkov are unknown. Documentary chronicles mention him from 1610 to 1667. Based on this, the time frame of his life is approximate.
Serving people of Siberia
It is known that Vasily Poyarkov was originally from the ancient city of Kashin, Tver province. He belonged to the service people, that is, to the group of persons who were obliged to carry out either military or administrative service in favor of the state. Service people had other names - military and sovereign people, free servants, servants (free servants) and just warriors.
Such names were in use from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Vasily Poyarkov was enlisted in Siberia in 1630. Here he rose to the rank of written head. What does it mean? This is an official who is part of the state at the voivode. Mostly this rankmet in Siberia and Astrakhan. On the right bank of the Lena River in 1632, the centurion Peter Beketov founded the Yakut prison. Over a decade, it has become the administrative center of the Yakut province and the starting point for a large number of commercial and industrial expeditions to the north, south and east of Asia. And the first governor there was the stolnik P. P. Golovin, under whom Vasily Poyarkov served as a written head.
Eligible Candidate
At that time, Vasily Danilovich was considered a very educated person, but he had a rather cool temper. Russia, having gained a foothold on the Lena River, was eyeing the southern and eastern, and even the northern territories. It was already known that the Amur region is rich in arable land, on which a lot of bread will be born, and it was brought to Yakutsk because of the Urals.
Therefore, when it was decided to send a detachment of Cossacks for reconnaissance to the Shilkar (Amur) region, Vasily Poyarkov was put in charge of them. He was suitable in all respects - it was necessary not only to find out as much as possible about fairy tale countries, but to write down everything as accurately as possible and draw up maps. Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov called his report on the expedition "Fairy Tale".
Equipment
The detachment, consisting of 133 people, was equipped with a cannon, a large number of squeakers (early firearms) and ammunition. In addition, the wagon train contained a lot of ship's tools and canvas for building boats, as well as a lot of various goods for gifts to local residents and for exchange with them - cloth andbeads, copper cauldrons and utensils. Most importantly, the detachment was strictly forbidden to offend or oppress the natives in any way. Before being sent to the Cossacks, about a dozen "eager people" (as the industrialists were called) and an interpreter joined the Cossacks. Semyon Petrov Chistoy became the winner.
Specific objectives of the expedition
In 1639, a detachment of foot Cossacks under the command of the explorer Ivan Yurievich Moskvitin already reached the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sakhalin Bay. Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov with his detachment initially went to the Amur, and the detachment did not set a goal to get to the seas of the Pacific Ocean. Their main task was to explore the Amur region. The Russians who settled in Yakutsk already had scattered data about the surrounding rivers and the peoples who lived along their banks.
Poyarkov was charged with the discovery and detailed description of natural resources, in particular, confirmation of rumors about huge reserves of various ores. We needed detailed information about the occupation of local residents, roads and portages to the already known rivers Ziya and Shilka. The route of Vasily Poyarkov was discussed in detail and all available information about the places where the detachment of foot Cossacks was to go was reported.
Dauria
The country that first lay on their path was called Dauria, and both the Cossack Maxim Perfilyev in 1636 and the industrialist Averkiev had already visited it. Both of them returned and told amazing stories about the we alth of these lands, and Perfilyev compiled a map that was used until the 19th century. ToDauria included part of the current Transbaikalia and the west of the Amur region. So that the reader can get at least some idea of how the expedition of Vasily Poyarkov was progressing, we have provided a map below. All the detachments that had previously been sent out for reconnaissance were small - 509 Cossacks went with Dmitry Kopylov, 32 with Ivan Moskvitin. And Pyotr Petrovich Golovin equipped a well-armed military expedition of 133 people, and he was waiting for the appropriate results.
Start hike
The most well-known years of Vasily Poyarkov's life are the time of his famous campaign, which began in 1643 and ended in 1646. In the month of July, a detachment led by Poyarkov, having left Yakutsk, on 6 planks (river non-self-propelled vessel with a flat bottom and deck, with a carrying capacity of 7 to 200 tons) went down the Lena to the place where the Aldan flows into it. Then along the Aldan and two rivers of its basin, Uchur and Gonam, they climbed to the place of the first stop.
The way to the moorings
It should be noted that the advance against the current did not go so quickly - from the mouth of the Aldan to the place where the Uchur flows into it, the detachment traveled for a month. The journey along the tributary of the Aldan to the mouth of the Gonam took another 10 days. It was possible to sail only 200 km along Gonam, then the rapids began, through which the planks had to be dragged. According to written testimonies, there were forty thresholds - all these difficulties took another 5 weeks.
Autumn has come, and the traveler Vasily Poyarkov decides to leave part of the detachment with cargo to spend the winter at the ships, andlight, accompanied by 90 people, go on sleds (long sledges) through the Gonama Sutam tributary and through the Sutama Nuam tributary further, to the Stanovoi Range (Outer Khingan mountain range).
Wilful and unprofessional behavior
Having overcome this path in two weeks, V. D. Poyarkov gets to the Amur region, and after the same period of time, along the tributary of the Mulmage, he goes to the big river Zeya and, in fact, penetrates into Dauria. In some sources, information about the course of this expedition differs. Some focus on Poyarkov's tough temper, whose favorite method was the capture of noble natives and further extortion of gifts and coercion to cooperate. Others say that the "writer's head", although he was cool, he remembered the order - not to offend the local population.
And Petrov is considered the culprit of further rejection of the Cossacks by the natives. He, allegedly sent at the head of a detachment of 40 people for reconnaissance to the Amur, stopped at a large settlement. Daurs sent great gifts, but Petrov, on his own initiative, attacked the village, and the foot Cossacks of his detachment were defeated by horse daurs. And further along the Amur, Russian travelers were not allowed to approach the shores and attacked them wherever possible.
The first terrible wintering
However, the more common version says that personally Vasily Poyarkov, explorer and navigator, discoverer of new lands, ordered to take representatives of the Dahurian nobility hostage by amanats and keep them in a built fortified prison with the aim ofcompulsion to pay dues not to the Manchus, but to the Russian Tsar. Ostrozhek was well fortified, and the Cossacks knew a lot about the war, and all the attacks made by the local population were repulsed. But from the beginning of January 1644 until the spring, the prison was under blockade. A severe famine began, and, according to written evidence, both Vasily Poyarkov himself, whose biography would otherwise have ended here, and the Cossacks "ate corpses." The actions of the Russian aliens, taken into the ring, disgusted the well-fed Daurs. News of this shameful fact carried ahead of the expedition.
Descent along the Amur
In the spring, when for some reason the ring of the besiegers fell apart, V. D. Poyarkov sent for those who had wintered on the banks of the Gonam, while the rest, under the control of the aforementioned Petrov, went further to the Amur for reconnaissance. The returning detachment of Petrov was badly battered, as a result, with the reinforcements that arrived, the total number of Cossacks under the command of V. Poyarkov amounted to 70 people. They built new boats and sailed along the Zeya to the Amur. Everywhere the Russians met with rejection and resistance and were forced to descend to the mouth of this great river.
New unknown tribes
The next people after the Daurs, met by the Cossacks in the middle reaches of the Amur, were the tillers of the Duchers. The news of the evil "cannibals" reached their ears. The militia of the Duchers destroyed a reconnaissance detachment of Cossacks, consisting of 20 people. This extermination of explorers sent for reconnaissance took place at the mouth of a large tributary of the Amur - the Sungari River. The next two tribes that metdetachment of V. D. Poyarkov, were not tillers or hunters - they caught fish. They fed on it, and dressed in the painted skins of large fish. The first tribe was called the Golds, and the second, who lived at the mouth of the Amur, was called the Gilyaks.
Unjustified actions
According to the surviving chronicles, V. D. Poyarkov had no clashes with either the first or second peoples, and the Gilyaks immediately willingly swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar and even paid the first tribute - yasak. Here, at the mouth of the Amur, the Cossacks camped for their second winter quarters. And again they happened to experience severe hunger and eat carrion. Maybe that's why, or maybe because of tyranny (we, unfortunately, will never know the truth today), Vasily Poyarkov, who discovered the Amur Estuary and the Tatar Strait this winter and found out about the "hairy people" living on Sakhalin, before Departing on a further journey, he attacked peaceful Gilyaks. As a result of this battle, the Cossack detachment was halved.
Return
The ice broke up, and Vasily Poyarkov went to the Amur estuary. In the future, for three months, he climbed along the southwestern shores of the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk (everything is confirmed by documents). The navigator advanced from the mouth of the Amur to the place where the Ulya River flows into the Sea of Okhotsk (Lamskoye). Here, after a storm, in which a severely depleted detachment fell, the Cossacks began their third winter quarters. But these lands were already visited by Ivan Yurievich Moskvitin in 1639, and the locals paid tribute to the Russian Tsar. After wintering, the detachment (according to various sources, it consisted of 20 to 50 people) along the Maya River began its return to Yakutsk, where it arrived inmid June 1646.
Merits and miscalculations of the expedition
The main goal of V. Poyarkov's campaign was to discover deposits of lead, copper and silver ores, but it was not achieved. In addition, the explorer violated the original plan of the expedition and killed many people with wrong decisions. But still, Vasily Poyarkov (what this man discovered, you now know) gave Russia a new path to the Pacific Ocean and vast areas of new rich lands, and was also the first to penetrate the Amur basin and went down in the history of the country as a great pioneer, whose name is given to villages, and rivers, and steamboats. In 2001, the Bank of Russia issued a 50-ruble coin "V. Poyarkov's Expedition". It is part of the "Development and exploration of Siberia" series.
It should be noted that a lot is written about the cruelty of V. Poyarkov - and he did not disdain torture of prisoners, and burned wheat fields in order to sell the surplus of bread that was available at the beginning more profitably. But the most important thing that V. Poyarkov achieved with such behavior is the sharp rejection by the indigenous population of the participants in subsequent Russian expeditions, for example, E. P. Khabarova. But at the same time, Poyarkov managed to complete the expedition and deliver official information about the new lands. The last years of Vasily Poyarkov's life were spent in Moscow, in peace and prosperity. In Siberia, he served until 1648 in his former position.
