The Mystery of the Russian Islands (Belov Mikhail Ivanovich)

Belov Mikhail Ivanovich

Born in 1916. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor. Senior researcher at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the USSR Hydrometeorological Service. Participant of several Arctic expeditions. Author of many monographs, popular science and fiction books, articles, essays. Lives in Leningrad.

In the northern part of the Spitsbergen archipelago there are two small pebble islands called Russian. It is unknown who and when gave them this name, but this place is remote and inaccessible. Modern Norwegian fishing and hunting vessels are rarely seen there. Flocks of birds that usually nest in the Far North and herds of narwhals, the appearance of which has been noted even in the Pole region, are their more frequent guests.

In 1955, an archaeological expedition of Scandinavian scientists headed to Spitsbergen on a small motor-sailing vessel. They decided to find traces of an ancient civilization on the archipelago, as it was believed that intelligent beings could live on Spitsbergen, which was once connected to the mainland. advancing glacier, moving into Scandinavia.

The expedition did not find any traces of ancient man, but on one of the islands of the archipelago, in Rusekela Bay, a site of Russian Pomors of the 18th century was found. The expedition was led by Dr. Poul Simonsen, who, during a visit to Leningrad, introduced Soviet scientists to new interesting details of the archaeological excavations of the Norwegians. Simonsen reported that under the main floor of the Russian dwelling, which archaeologists date from a surviving inscription on one of the ceiling boards to the end of the 18th century, traces of an even earlier settlement were discovered. It also aroused interest that among the numerous Russian things there were handicrafts of Lapp or Nenets folk production. This confirmed the previously expressed idea about the participation of the indigenous population of the North in the distant Arctic campaigns of Russian industrialists.

Photographs of finds on one of the Russian Islands, donated to the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic in Leningrad, made it possible to compare them with Russian ancient fishing items discovered in 1940-1945 and 1968-1970. in the Soviet Arctic - on the Thaddeus Islands and Sims Bay and on the site of Mangazei. A comparison showed that objects from the Russian Islands are of earlier origin than Norwegian researchers assume; they can be dated back to the beginning of the 17th century, although the settlement itself, in a rebuilt and updated form, could date back to a later time. Consequently, traces of an older Russian winter hut, discovered under the floor of the dwelling, are of even earlier origin - the 16th century. In addition to the main dwelling, the winter hut included a forge, a bathhouse and other outbuildings. Not far from the main building there was a somewhat smaller building, closer to the coastal cliff - a cemetery, from which only wooden crosses have survived. Among the finds are fishing and hunting tools: wooden floats from nets, hooks, arrowheads, axes; various crafts - jugs, bronze lamps, chess pieces, bast shoes, etc.

The discoveries of Russian settlements by Scandinavian scientists did not end there. In 1957, a Swedish glaciological expedition worked on the archipelago. During a visit to the Spitsbergen archipelago, glaciologist Blake discovered a new Russian winter quarters on the islands called Russian. There are only three of them. At first, the find was mistakenly taken for a common shelter in those places. But soon they had to make sure that glaciologists had found the ruins of an old settlement and the remains of a Russian cross. But when and who built this dwelling could not be established without excavations. The ship went south and never returned there.

The discoveries of Scandinavian scientists put questions on a different plane that cannot be called new, since for many years they occupied the minds of researchers: who discovered Spitsbergen and when? who started hunting and mining there and when? When did the Russians first appear on Spitsbergen? what is their contribution to the development of its harsh nature?

Around the time of the remarkable discovery of Scandinavian scientists, Soviet and Western European documentary historians discovered previously unknown written evidence of Russian settlements on the archipelago in the archives and libraries of Western Europe. Before this, it was recognized “that the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the White, Barents, and Pechora seas - the Pomors - had long gone to Spitsbergen, which they called Grumant. At the end of the 17th century and subsequently, the Pomors were the only year-round inhabitants of the archipelago. Relatively recently, documents were found in the archives , speaking about quite frequent trips of Russians to Spitsbergen in the 17th century. Thus, when analyzing the archival files of the former highest naval institution of Russia - the Admiralty Collegium, the author of these lines managed to find a list of 700 Pomors - Grumalans and Novaya Zemlyas, called up for naval service in. 1714. From the case it is clear that recruitment into the Russian Navy was carried out by personal decree of Peter I. Young people from 17 to 20 years old, sailing “on Kochs to Grumant and to New Earth", formed the backbone of the Baltic sailors who defeated the vaunted Swedish fleet in the battles of Gangut and Grengam.

Among these recruits were representatives of ancient Pomeranian families who had long been involved in fishing on Grumant and Novaya Zemlya: the Starostins, the Farmers (with the funds of Eremey Farmers in 1743, an artel was equipped), the Inkovs (even modern map the Inca Nos is preserved, which means “Inca peninsula”), the Karmakulovs (two bays - lips - on Novaya Zemlya bear their names - Small and Large Karmakulovs), etc.

At the very beginning of the 20th century. Russian researcher A. Filippov published a Russian translation of what was found in the Danish archive interesting document. This is a letter from the Danish king Frederick II to his steward in Varde, Louis Munch, compiled in 1576, before the voyage of the Dutch expedition of V. Barents, which recognized the right to discover the archipelago. From the contents of this letter of instruction it is clear that at the Danish court in those years there was information about the Russian voyage to Grumant and that the industrialists who knew the route there better than others lived in the Russian village of Kola (later the city of Kola, now in the Murmansk region). Based on the information he had, the Danish king ordered Munch to hire a certain Pavel Nikich (distorted Nikitich, which means “son of Nikita”) into his service, so that he would undertake a voyage to Greenland - Grumant.

It was not by chance that I used this double name, which did not exist in those years. In geographical works and maps of that time, a single landmass was depicted to the north and northwest of the Scandinavian Peninsula, a giant island - Greenland, and the northern borders of the unexplored land were not known at that time. This gave rise to hypotheses and gave cartographers the right to depict Greenland in larger sizes than it actually is, including Spitsbergen, that is, Grumant. The existence of Spitsbergen-Grumant, separated from Greenland and forming an independent archipelago, was simply not suspected. This geographical error led to misunderstandings between states. In Denmark, it was believed, as can be seen from the letter of Frederick II to Munch, that the Russians sailed to Greenland, to their possessions, while in fact the Russians went to Spitsbergen - Grumant, which did not belong to the Danes and the existence of which they did not suspect. The Russian Pomors themselves claimed that they went to “Grumant”, “Gruland”, “Grunt”, “Grulandia”, “Gruland land”. By the way, on Western maps and in geographical works of that time, Greenland was also called differently. But each time these concepts had their own meaning: the Russians meant Spitsbergen, the Danes meant Greenland.

In the last quarter of the 15th century. Due to a number of political and intra-dynastic reasons, the Danish royal court interrupted its ties with Greenland, established back in the 11th century. Following this came a period of almost a century and a half when, one might say, Greenland was lost to the Danes. It is precisely during this period that the discovery of Spitsbergen by the Russians falls, named by analogy with Greenland Grumant or Grunlaid. For a completely understandable reason (in the 13th-14th centuries, Denmark waged wars first with Novgorod the Great, and then with the Moscow State for the possession of territories in northwestern Europe), the discoverers did not intend to widely publicize this. Rather, on the contrary, they sought to hide their successes in the development of the Arctic islands, where they immediately took up the profitable naval battle of walruses and whales and fishing - catching stoats and arctic foxes. In such a difficult situation, the Danish king turned to Louis Munch with a proposal to persuade one of the Russian feeders to show the Danes the road to Greenland.

The source discovered by A. Filippov, which confirmed that the Russians sailed to Spitsbergen before 1576, however, did not answer the question of how early these campaigns began. He only sowed doubts about the correctness of those who claimed that Spitsbergen was discovered in 1596 by the Dutch, the expedition of V. Barents.

For a long time it seemed that the dispute about who came first to Spitsbergen, the Russians or the Scandinavians, would remain unresolved. But in the 50-60s of our century, three more important documentary finds followed one after another in different parts of Europe. One of them, thanks to Soviet publication and decipherment, became widely known, the other two are still waiting to be made public. One way or another, they confirm the emergence of Russian settlements on Spitsbergen.

The report about the first documentary find appeared in print in 1957 in the Soviet yearbook "Chronicle of the North". It told about a letter from Hieronymus Müntzer to the famous Portuguese King João II, famous for that he “blessed” Columbus for the discovery of America. The letter is dated July 14, 1493, eight months after the discovery of America, and sets out a project for equipping a naval expedition to open routes to China. The famous Soviet geologist S.V. Obruchev, who visited Spitsbergen back in the 20s of our century, spent a lot of work to restore the historical situation in which one of the outstanding German humanists of the Renaissance, Hieronymus Münzer, wrote his work. Obruchev painted a convincing picture of the emergence and spread of geographical knowledge at the end of the 15th century, describing the Nuremberg doctor Münzer himself as a man of outstanding abilities, a traveler, geographer and cartographer, a friend and ally of the famous creator of the world globe, Martin Beheim.

The letter in question was of interest to S. V. Obruchev because it contains lines, as if said in passing, directly related to the discovery of Grumant by the Russians. The following phrase is stated. Münzer in the form of an address to Juan II:

“Oh, what glory you will achieve if you make the inhabited East known to your West: you are already being praised as a great sovereign by the Germans, Italians, Russians, Poles, Scythians and those who live under the harsh star of the Arctic Pole, just as (praise. - M.B.) and the Grand Duke of Muscovy, for a few years ago, under the severity of the said star, he recently discovered the small island of Grulanda, the coast of which stretches for 300 legua and on which is located the greatest settlement of people under the said dominion of the said lord prince.”

The question that arises immediately after reading this message is natural: where and in what ways did the Nuremberg doctor Hieronymus Münzer receive such important and accurate information about the discovery of Grumant by the Russians, made shortly before writing the letter? It is not difficult for historians to answer this question.

In the last quarter of the 15th century. Rus' had direct and immediate trade, political and diplomatic ties with German cities, in particular with the homeland of I. Münzer - Nuremberg. It is known that German Ambassador Nikolai Popel visited Moscow on a diplomatic mission. He arrived in Russia in 1486 and left three years later, without achieving the conclusion of a dynastic marriage and the signing of an alliance treaty against the Turks and Poles, which Emperor Frederick III insisted on. And, despite the failure of the mission, constant diplomatic relations were established between the Habsburg Empire and the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III: since 1489, the parties exchanged embassies annually. During these same years, several German mining masters arrived in Moscow and Russians became frequent guests of Nuremberg. In 1491, the Roman Emperor Maximilian I solemnly received the Russian ambassador, clerk Vasily Kuleshin, in Nuremberg. The noble citizen of Nuremberg, Hieronymus Münzer, and his friend Martin Beheim were acquainted with the Russian ambassadors and could obtain first-hand information about Russian discoveries in the Arctic.

Münzer’s letter reported not only about the discovery of Spitsbergen, but also about the founding of the first Russian settlement there. And this means a lot, since the two largest geographers of Western Europe - Hieronymus Münzer and Martin Beheim, associated with the diplomatic and political circles of Europe at that time, testified in fact high level one of greatest discoveries that time - the discovery by the Russians of Spitsbergen - Grumant.

The second library find is also associated with Denmark, more precisely, with the Danish royal court, which at the beginning of the 16th century. resumed, albeit unsuccessfully, the search for sea routes to Greenland. These are two letters from the Danish admiral Severin Norby from the city of Wilda (Lithuania) to Vienna, where King Christian I, exiled from Denmark, lived at the court of the Roman Emperor Ferdinand. One letter was written on June 20, 1528, the other four days later. They were published in Denmark back in the 19th century, but on the issue of Greenland, researchers attracted them only recently. Perhaps the reason for this was complex shape a letter written in the Lower Middle Saxon dialect and sometimes in a rather vague form. It was possible to read them only after the involvement of major specialists in the Old German language with the assistance of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic.

The author of the letters is Severin Norby, famous in the 16th century. Danish naval officer, an ardent supporter of the deposed king Christian II. It is known that in 1515 he commanded the Danish fleet in Iceland, and in 1520, by order of the king, he began preparing an expedition to Greenland. In 1526, he headed to Russia on yachts and ships, wanting to find an experienced Russian feeder and obtain accurate information about Greenland. However, Norby's entire enterprise ended in failure. Convicted of some illegal trade frauds connected with Sweden and Lubeck, he lost his fleet, confiscated by order of the Russian authorities, worth, in his own estimation, one thousand guilders. Then, for obvious espionage, he was escorted across the Lithuanian-Russian border, from where he arrived, having lost all his property, to Vilda. As for his expedition, with which he visited Russia, it, in all likelihood, was disguised as a trade expedition, possibly a pirate expedition, one of those that were frequent in those years when Denmark traded with Russia.

In his first letter, Norby reports the following about Greenland: “The Russians captured the Danish possessions in the North, which I learned about during a visit to the border areas, where I talked with the Russians... God will please,” Norby continued, “when I arrive at your mercy, then I will tell your honor that Grand Duke(Basily III. - M. 25.) owns a piece of Norwegian land on Grum and Lande, belonging to two monasteries of episcopal subordination, which I, with God's help and to the best of my ability, will try to return to you and your grace the children, for I spoke in Russia with people from those places, that’s why I know everything about this matter thoroughly.”

In the second letter, Norby dwells on the question of ways to return Greenland to the Danish crown and writes: “Greenland and other lands are dependent on the Grand Duke. I also know this, for I talked with people from those places.”

What is interesting in all these letters is not what Norby was trying to prove - the alleged Russian seizure of Danish Greenland. This, of course, was a clear mistake, caused by confusion in geographical names. It is worth emphasizing the passage in Norby's letters where it is stated that the Russians had two settlements on Spitsbergen. Consequently, from the time when Münzer wrote about Greenland, that is, from 1498, the Russians not only did not lose, but, on the contrary, were able to strengthen their position in Spitsbergen. One thing remains unclear: which Russian monasteries owned these lands on Grumant, although, of course, Solovetsky was one of them.

The third documentary find, chronologically continuing the previous two, tells, as it were, about the further development of events around Spitsbergen. It's about about documents discovered in the Danish archive back in 1909, but for historians of the North for the first time introduced into scientific circulation - about a letter from the head of the Bergen Fortress, Christopher Volkensdorf, to the Danish King Christian III. The letter was sent to Copenhagen and dated July 25, 1557. Attached to it are German and Latin copies of the agreement concluded between Bergen resident Antonias Nilauson and the Englishman Emund Robertus on joint trade with Russia across the White Sea. The agreement was sent to the king for approval, but was rejected by him. However, this agreement is not of great value to us from the point of view of the issue under consideration. In a letter to Christian III, Volkensdorf characterizes the persons who signed the treaty and provides information that is of some interest to us.

The English merchant Robertus, according to information collected by Volkensdorf, is not new to trade with Russia. He began to sail his ships at the mouth of the Northern Dvina following the English expedition of Chancellor (1553). He traveled to Moscow and often met with Russians, including residents of the North. In 1557, he visited Bergen, where he concluded the aforementioned trade agreement with one of the largest and most noble merchants of the city, Tonius Clauson, who, for a well-known reason, wished to remain in the agreement under the name of Antonias Nylauson. During his stay in Bergen, Volkensdorff met with Robertus and had a long and interesting conversation with him about Russia and Greenland, the contents of which he told King Christian III in the mentioned letter.

Well aware of the keen interest of the Danish court in Greenland, Volkensdorff paid special attention to this issue and reported to the king: “The Englishman confidentially told me that “he ate and drank with people who were born in Greenland and who every year make trips to Rus' and back. These people bring tribute to the Grand Duke across the ice." They introduced him (the Englishman - M.B.) to their boss, who told him that there was ice between Greenland and Russia in winter and summer, so you could ride on a sleigh. The trip lasted a month. There are polynyas in the ice, and then they travel for no longer than a month."

Christian III's reaction to this message is unknown, but it is not that important. Another thing is important - 29 years after Norby’s letters, Denmark still has not stopped collecting information about Greenland - Grumant in every way and, apparently, this time had some success. The source was the story of an informed English merchant who personally met with some Russian Grumanlans. Not everything in Robertus's story is credible; perhaps not everything was understood correctly by himself and Volkensdorff. For example, Pomors could not go to Spitsbergen by sleigh. Most likely, when talking with the Russians, the Englishman did not understand that in this case we were talking about sleigh vessels of the Ranchhin type, which were widely used in the White Sea fisheries in conditions of thin ice and clearings. His message about the annual tribute collected by the Grand Duke of Rus' from the Grumanlans is unclear. We must assume that this was a trade duty. But one thing is indisputable - Russian Grumanlans often went to Spitsbergen and during the first half-century of their stay there they turned Grumanlan crafts into an important branch of folk Pomeranian production.

European sources, in particular Dutch geographical maps XVI-XVII centuries, they also answer the question about the places of Russian settlements. Gerardus Mercator's 1569 map north of the Scandinavian Peninsula shows a group of islands he called the "Russian Saints". It is possible that the southern part of the Spitsbergen archipelago or Bear Island, which became the first objects of Pomor activity, were depicted. On the Dutch map "Spitsbergen 1614", compiled several times at the end of the 16th century. Captain Ioris Carolis, who sailed to the archipelago, showed an “unknown land” to the east of Western Spitsbergen, which, in all likelihood, meant Edge Island, in Russian - Maly Berun. Even further east of Berun, Marfin Island is indicated at the latitude of modern King Charles Land or the island of North-Eastern Land. This is already the region of the Russian islands, on one of which Scandinavian scientists discovered an ancient winter hut. Thus, the mystery of the Russian Islands essentially ceases to be such. Now, based on new documents, we can say with more or less firm confidence that from the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. Russians settled on the Spitsbergen archipelago and that some of the Russian industrialists located winter quarters in its northeastern part.

Of particular interest is the study of the routes of the Pomors to Spitsbergen. Since Russian industrialists back in the 16th century. had their camps in the Kola Bay, the majority believes that it was from here that these distant sea voyages took place. Moreover, between Kola and Spitsbergen the sea freezes for a relatively short period, since the warm Gulf Stream flows here. Undoubtedly, such voyages took place. However, studying Russian archival documents showed that main path to Spitsbergen passed significantly east and north of the route from Kola to Grumant. This route can be called Novaya Zemlya, since all those Russian industrialists who went to Spitsbergen necessarily visited Novaya Zemlya, the other largest archipelago in the Arctic. From Novaya Zemlya, approximately from Cape Cherny ( northern island Novaya Zemlya - 75 ° 08 "N), the Pomors moved west, keeping to the perennial autumn and spring ice edge of the Barents Sea, approached Bear Island and from there reached Grumant. The existence of this route is confirmed by the Dutch map of the Barents Sea, compiled in 1619 The Novaya Zemlya road to Spitsbergen was considered the most reliable and less dangerous than the path from Kola to Grumant, where Pomors could always meet strong winds and disturbances for which their ships - kochi and boats - were not adapted.

The final solution to the problem of the discovery of Spitsbergen may come from an archaeological survey of the archipelago.

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In the publications of newspapers and magazines you can find information about Russian ethnic groups - about the Cossacks, Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians and Rusyns. But very little is said about the ancient Russian people - the Pomors. The people living on the outskirts of the legendary Hyperborea and on the territory of the disappeared country of Biarmia. But the Pomors have done and are doing a lot for the Russian state. Such famous people as the scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, Admiral of the Fleet, came from the Pomors Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov, sculptor Fyodor Shubin, as well as Ermak Timofeevich (some regions of Russia dispute the Pomeranian origin of Ermak), Semyon Dezhnev, Erofei Khabarov, Atlasov and many other explorers who, long before the Cossacks, penetrated the Urals and developed the Siberian lands, and later led the development Far East and Alaska. The permanent ruler of Alaska, Alexander Baranov, also came from Pomors. For information, the current city of Sitka (Alaska) was previously called Novoarkhangelsk.

The Pomors were largely isolated from the bulk of the Russian people - so much so that many researchers consider them a separate subethnic group and even an ethnic group.

We will not go into these disputes, we will simply state a fact: long distances, religious differences (most Pomors were Old Believers, and they formed a separate branch among other countless Old Believer movements - the Pomorian consent), a different way of life (the Pomors knew neither serfdom nor ruinous raids and wars from which the southern regions of the country suffered for centuries) and the proximity to those nationalities that the inhabitants of other Russian regions did not encounter - all this left a significant imprint on Pomeranian culture.

BIARMIA AND ZAVOLOCHE

In the 9th - 13th centuries, Scandinavian sailors called the north of the European part of Russia Biarmia (1222 - last year mentions of Biarmia in Scandinavian chronicles). The Slovenians - Ilmen (Novgorodians) called these lands Zavolochye, or Dvina land. Zavolochye lay to the east of the system of portages connecting the basins of the Neva, Volga, Northern Dvina and Onega rivers in the area of ​​the White and Kubenskoye lakes.

The specifics of human life in the conditions of the North also formed a special type of population. Pomors are a distinctive self-name (ethnonym) of the indigenous ethnic community of the European North of Russia (Pomerania), the eastern neighbors of the Norwegians, living along the banks of the North Russian rivers and seas. They are the northernmost East Slavic people in the world, anthropologically belonging to the North European type.

Pomors can be considered one of the most ancient subethnic groups in Russia in terms of the time of their origin. The ethnonym “Pomors” arose no later than the 12th century on the southwestern (Pomeranian) coast of the White Sea, and during the 14-16th centuries it spread far to the south and east from its place of origin . Note that Russia did not yet exist at that time, and the name “Great Russians” arose only in the 19th century.

What influenced the formation of the Pomor ethnic group?

The ethnogenesis of the Pomors was determined by the fusion of the cultures of the Protopomorian, predominantly Finno-Ugric (Chud) tribes of the White Sea region and the first ancient Russian colonists, the Slovenian Ilmen people, who actively populated the territories of Zavolochye. Written sources, archaeological finds, toponymy, and folklore legends testify to the cohabitation of the Chuds and the first Slovenian settlers.

Slovenian-Ilmenians, immigrants from Veliky Novgorod, who, having come to the lands inhabited by the Chud, Finno-Ugric and other tribes, mixed with them and assimilated the latter.

The indigenous inhabitants of Biarmia were finally conquered by the Novgorodians in the 11th century, says the Dvina chronicler, but back in the 9th century, the merchants of Veliky Novgorod dotted all the main rivers of Biarmia with their trading posts, and stubborn pagans from other places of what was then Russia, having fled to the north with their gods, strengthened the area even more. Slavic element. After the baptism of Rus' in 988, Russians who did not accept Christianity went here. Until the 19th century, there were settlements in Pomerania where they professed the pre-Christian faith.

In the anthropological type of “Northern Russian” Pomors, some Finnish traits are observed that arose from mixed marriages. Much later, immigrants from the Vladimir-Rostov-Suzdal lands added a share of their blood, and even later the Normans - Vikings or simply Norwegians - Scandinavians.

Everything taken together led to the emergence of the Pomeranian language (“Pomeranian speaking”), which was different from the rest of Rus'.

Due to the close connection of the Pomors with Norway and the fact that the Pomors lived in northern Norway and on the Grumant Islands (Spitsbergen), the Rusnorg language was formed (70% Pomor words, the rest - Norwegian). Rusnorg was banned for use by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Anthropologically, Pomors are distinguished by their above average height, blond hair and eye color.

VIKINGS

Since the 12th century, Zavolochye has become a bone of contention. According to the legends of local residents, fights took place not only between the Russians and Chud, but also between the Novgorod boyars and the Rostov-Suzdal princes. They regularly had to “deal” with the Vikings. The Novgorod Chronicle mentions that the Normans (Murmans) repeatedly raided Zavolochye (Dvina land) belonging to Veliky Novgorod. Clashes between Russians and Normans mainly occurred over fisheries in the northern seas.

It should be noted that starting from the 10th century, Viking trips to the White Sea for the purpose of robbery and robbery were commonplace. Norwegian sagas tell in detail about the “exploits” on the White Sea coast and at the mouth of the Northern Dvina of many sea robbers who bore characteristic names, such as Eirik the Red Axe, Harald the Gray Cloak, Thorer the Dog and others. The warriors of the Norwegian kings, and subsequently the Swedes, did not disdain raids on the rich region, since they did not receive serious resistance from the disorganized indigenous Chud population.

But things changed completely when Russians appeared in the region. They not only successfully repelled attacks from overseas aliens, but often went on the offensive themselves, making campaigns against Norway. To protect their territory, the Norwegians were forced to build the Vardehus fortress in the north of the country in 1307, which in the old days was called by the Pomors Vargaev (the present city of Varde) ...

About one of the episodes of this long struggle in the Dvina Chronicle it is said this way: “The Nikolaev Korelsky Monastery Murmane (Norwegians) came in number 600 from the sea in beads and augers (small sailing and rowing Scandinavian ships), in 1419 they burned and flogged the Chernets.” .

Residents of Zavolochye even paid tribute to Norway, and sometimes they themselves raided Norwegian lands (1349, 1411, 1419 and 1425), plundered Norwegian settlements, captured girls and married women(sometimes with children) and taken to Pomorie. This is where the Pomors get their Scandinavian genes.

After the split of the Orthodox Church in the 17th century, people who did not accept Nikon’s innovations moved here. Moreover, a powerful Old Believer movement developed in Pomorie. The Solovetsky monastery resisted the tsarist troops for more than 7.5 years. Over time, these factors formed the Old Russian Pomeranian Orthodox Church. The next condition that influenced the formation of the Pomor ethnic group was that the Pomors did not know serfdom and the Horde yoke. The following facts speak about the love of freedom and independence of the Pomors: tsarist officials addressed the Pomors only by name and patronymic, while in the rest of Russia people were called by diminutive nicknames. Even Ivan the Terrible did not dare to cancel the decisions of the “Pomeranian World” (something like the Cossack Circle, but with greater powers). And in 1589, in contrast to the Code of Laws of 1550, designed for serfdom, the “Pomeranian Code of Laws” was developed, in which a special place was given to the “Articles on Dishonor”.

Pomors - a people of Arctic seafarers, hunters and fishermen - are the only (!) indigenous sea people in the West Siberian part of the Arctic. No other indigenous people of North-West Russia - neither the Sami, nor the Nenets, nor the Karelians, nor the Komi - went to sea or engaged in long-distance sea trades.

Many maritime terms of the Pomors do not belong to either the Slavic or Finno-Ugric languages.

Like the Norwegians, the Pomors are a sea people. But, unlike the long and narrow ships of the Norwegians (which sailed in narrow fjords and along open water), the ships of the Pomors were adapted to sailing among the ice. Therefore, for a long time the Norwegians had no idea about the spaces and lands that lie behind the Arctic ice east of the White Sea.

Since ancient times, the only owners of these Arctic spaces were the Pomors.

Many centuries before the Barents, the Pomors discovered and developed the entire eastern part of the Barents Sea - Novaya Zemlya (which the Pomors call “Matka”). Pomors have long mastered Spitsbergen (in Pomeranian “Grumant”), and made months-long voyages along the northern sea route to Siberia and even to Far East- to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk (in Pomeranian “Lama Sea”).

Thus, the Pomors played a special role in the development of northern sea routes and the development of shipbuilding. The famous Russian admiral Litke aptly dubbed them “Eternal Sailors.”

Writer Mikhail Prishvin, during his trip to the North, was surprised to learn that “until now Russian sailors do not take into account the scientific description of the Arctic Ocean. They have their own sailing directions... the Pomors' description of the sailing directions is almost a work of art. On one side is reason, on the other is faith. While signs are visible on the shore, the Pomor reads one side of the book; when the signs disappear and a storm is about to break the ship, the Pomor turns the pages and turns to Nikolai Ugodnik.

Nikola - Sea God. This is what the Pomors called St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, who is recognized throughout the world as the patron saint of sailors.

However, even though he is a holy healer and liberator, in the Pomeranian view he is vengeful and touchy, like a pagan god.

Pomeranian Kochi covered 150-200 kilometers per day, while English merchant ships - about 120 kilometers, and Dutch frigates - only up to 80-90 kilometers.

On these unique ships, the Pomors reached such Arctic latitudes that were inaccessible to any other ships with a metal hull and mechanical engines. They were unique not only for their protective “fur coat”, but also for their egg-shaped body. The bottom of the hull was rounded, resembling a half nut shell. If the ice squeezed such a ship, its hull was not crushed, but squeezed outward. These ships, reputed to be the most durable for five centuries, acquired, thanks to the skill and inquisitive mind of the Pomeranian craftsmen, another unusual feature: the stern and bow had almost the same shape and were cut at an angle of 30 degrees, which made it easy to pull them ashore.

A certain number of nomads survived until the beginning of the twentieth century, when they were noticed and appreciated by F. Nansen, who by that time had planned a difficult expedition to North Pole. When choosing a prototype for the construction of the ship "Fram", which, according to the plan, was supposed to drift in the ice, he abandoned all the newest types of steel ships and decided to build the ship based on the experience of nomadic craftsmen, from best breeds wood, with an egg-shaped hull, which ensured the successful completion of the expedition.

Admiral S.O. Makarov, when developing a model of the world's first icebreaker, took Nansen's advice and also opted for an egg-shaped hull and, following the example of the Pomeranian Kochi, cut off the bow and stern. These ingenious inventions of the ancient Pomeranian craftsmen turned out to be so successful that even today, a century after the creation of the world’s first Makarov icebreaker “Ermak”, they are considered unsurpassed for the construction of ice-going ships.

...And today the great-grandsons of the ancient Pomeranian ships ply the icy northern seas - the nuclear-powered ships "Sibir", "Arktika", "Russia", so strikingly similar to their undeservedly forgotten, beautiful, technically perfect ancestor - the ancient Koch.

By the will of fate, they became a worthy monument to him.

The Pomors have not disappeared today. Stereotypes of behavior, self-designation, ethnic self-awareness and a sense of “specialness” have been preserved. The Pomeranian spirit and Pomeranian character are the values ​​that our ancestors forged over the centuries, fighting for self-survival and existence in the harsh conditions of the North and the development of the Arctic. It is these values ​​that continue to define the essence of modern Pomors.

Unfortunately, Pomorie is gradually emptying out. The high mortality rate and outflow of population are caused by the fact that the center, using barbaric methods, pumps oil, gas, diamonds and timber from the region, and does not want to give anything in return.

Since the 10th century, Russian Slavs who came here have settled on the coast of the North and Barents Seas. They mix with the local Finno-Ugric population and begin to live on the cold and inhospitable northern shores. Pomors, that’s what the descendants of these people call themselves. They played a key role in the development of the northern coast of Russia, the development of the islands of the Arctic Ocean, and were the first to come to the north of Siberia. The life of this people was inextricably linked with the sea. They fed on the sea, mined furs on the islands and on the coast, and mastered salt production. Pomors dared to enter clogged with ice Kara Sea and reached the mouth of the Yenisei. On their sailing ships they visited the islands of Novaya Zemlya, reached the Spitsbergen archipelago, and founded the city of Mangazeya in the north of eastern Siberia. The harsh living conditions also shaped the character of these “plowmen” of the northern seas - they are trusting, hospitable, friendly and try to live in harmony with nature.

Modern replicas of ancient Pomeranian sailing ships (koches) made several outstanding voyages in the North, following in the footsteps of ancient sailors

Sailing ships of the Pomors

The first vessels of the Pomors were boats. On these sailing ships they walked along rivers and carried out coastal voyages. The boats had sails, but mostly they used oars. The boats reached twenty meters in length and three meters in width. The type of ancient Russian boat underwent changes over time and was adapted for northern conditions. “Overseas” boats were built for long voyages in the Baltic and North Seas, while “ordinary” boats were built for sailing White Sea. The vessels had a shallow draft and varied in size. “Overseas” boats in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries reached a length of 25 and a width of 8 meters.

The sailing armament of the Pomeranian nomads differed from the armament of the boats

The boats had a solid deck, so water did not get inside the ship. The difficult conditions of northern navigation also formed a unique type of ship - the Pomeranian koch. These ships were a further development of the boat design. They were egg-shaped, and when they hit the ice, the Pomor ships were simply squeezed upward without damaging the hull. The design of the koches was more complex than that of the boats, and the sailing armament also differed. Researchers had to collect information about Kochs bit by bit, but many fragments of ships were found this decade. And now we can reliably say that the Kochi had a second skin in the area of ​​the waterline made of oak or larch. This helped when swimming in broken ice. The ship had large, heavy anchors. They were used for portage, including on ice. The anchors were strengthened in the ice and then, choosing ropes, they pulled the ship up, looking for clean water. The stern of the koch was almost vertical. The nose was very slanted. The vessel's draft was small, one and a half meters, which made it easier for the vessel to enter river mouths and shallow waters. The bottom was reinforced with overhead boards. The sides were sheathed with boards using staples, they were required huge amount- several thousand. The carrying capacity of the ships reached 40 tons.

Nansen's "Fram", built similar to the Pomeranian Kochis, drifted in the ice for a long time

It was on the Kochs that the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev walked across the Arctic Ocean in 1648 to extreme point mainland, passed the "Big Stone Nose" (now Cape Dezhnev), where several nomads were defeated, and the sailors entered the mouth of the Anadyr River.

To the east, the Pomors discovered the Kanin Peninsula. In the 13th century Pomors sailed along the Kola Peninsula, reaching Norwegian lands. Since the voyages of the Pomors were not always peaceful, the Norwegians kept guards to protect the eastern sea borders. To the east, the Pomors discovered the Kanin Peninsula, and then the islands of Kolguev and Vaygach. It is believed that at the same time, northern sailors visited Novaya Zemlya for the first time. Around the 13th century. the first Pomors could reach the island of Grumant (Spitsbergen). By the 14th century include the voyages of Amos Korovinich around the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Baltic. For long-distance sea voyages, a new type of vessel was gradually created - the koch. Apparently around the 14th century. The Pomors invented a wind thrower for navigation at sea and began to use it widely. This simple device was a wooden disk into which wooden rods were inserted: one in the middle and 32 around the circumference. The main rhumbas were called: siver, vetok, poludennik, zapadnik. Taking the bearing of specially installed signs on the shore with a wind blower (their side coincided with the north-south line), the Pomors determined the course of the ship. Far from the coast, the course was determined at noon by the sun, and at night by the North Star. Improvement technical means navigation continued actively in subsequent centuries. In 1462-1505. under the Grand Duke of Moscow and All Rus' Ivan III, the unification of the Russian principalities into a single state was completed. In 1480, the Russian lands were finally liberated from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Victories over the Livonian, Lithuanian and Polish conquerors contributed to the recognition of Rus' by other European states.

In the 15th century The Russians launched several expeditions from the White Sea in eastern and western directions. The sea directions of Ivan Novgorodets are known along the White, Barents, Kara Seas and the Baltic.
In the second half of the 15th century. Pomors, engaged in fishing and sea animals, went further and further to the east. Having reached Vaygach Island, industrial sailors entered the Kara Sea through the Kara Gate and Yugorsky Shar straits, and then, moving along the rivers of the Yamal Peninsula, reached the Ob Bay, where they traded with the Nenets and Khanty. At the mouth of the Taz River, the Pomors founded small trading posts. It can be assumed that in the 15th century. sea ​​routes along the White Sea and along the coast of the Kara Sea to the Ob Bay were reliably developed.
In 1466-1473. The famous journey to India of the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin took place. A significant part of the journey took place on ships in the Caspian Sea and Indian Ocean. On the way back from India to Russia, the traveler crossed the Black Sea on a merchant ship. Afanasy Nikitin’s travel notes “Walking across Three Seas” had great scientific value for that time. In 1496, the Russian ambassador Grigory Istoma sailed from Arkhangelsk to the shores of the Scandinavian Peninsula to Denmark. With his comrades, he left Arkhangelsk on four ships, passed the White Sea*, circled the Kola Peninsula, and from Trondheim continued his journey overland. Gregory Istoma compiled detailed description peoples of the Kola Peninsula, spoke about sailing conditions and the nature of tidal currents in this area of ​​the Arctic Ocean. Thus, he was significantly ahead of the “discovery” of these areas by the British and Dutch, which was made only in the sixteenth century.
In the middle of the 15th century. Türkiye conquered the shores of the Azov, Black and eastern Mediterranean Seas, which significantly complicated trade relations between European states and the countries of the East. Trade routes to India and China were in the hands of the Turks, who imposed huge trade duties. Trade with the East through Syria and Egypt became extremely unprofitable. Venice and Genoa are the largest shopping centers in southern Europe - gradually fell into decline. There was an urgent need to find new ways to trade with eastern countries. Portugal turned out to be the most prepared to carry out these searches. In 1471 Portuguese sailors reached and crossed the equator. In 1487 An expedition led by Bartolomeu Diaz (c. 1450-1500) passed along the western coast of Africa and on February 3, 1488 reached the southern part of the African continent, later called the Cape of Good Hope. The outstanding navigator Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa. From 1476 to 1485 he lived in Portugal and participated in several sea expeditions. Columbus composed bold project sailing to Asia via the western route, but the Portuguese king recognized the project as untenable. Then Columbus went to Spain, where his persistence was crowned with success: he achieved the organization of a sea expedition to reach India and China across the Atlantic; if successful, he was promised the title of admiral and vice-king of all lands that would be discovered during the voyage.
On August 3, 1492, the caravels “Santa Maria” with a displacement of up to 130 tons, “Nina” - up to 60 tons and “Pinta” - up to 90 tons left Palos. The total crew of all three caravels was 90 people. The expedition safely crossed the Atlantic and at dawn on October 12 discovered an island named San Salvador (Bahamas), which meant “savior.” The main interest for travelers was gold. Following the instructions of local residents, the navigators discovered and explored several more islands, and on October 28 the flotilla reached the island of Cuba. Continuing his voyage, Columbus after some time reached the island, which he named Hispaniola (Haiti), and founded a colony there. Three months later, Columbus set out on his return journey on January 16, 1493 and returned to Spain on March 15. The expedition did not bring the expected fabulous wealth, and Columbus had to show a lot of resourcefulness in order to appropriately embellish the commercial results of his voyage and awaken interest in the further development and consolidation of open lands, which he took to be part of East Asia.

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Grumant- Russian (Pomeranian) name for the Spitsbergen archipelago. The earliest settlements of Russian hunters on Spitsbergen date back to the 16th century.

Spitsbergen is an Arctic archipelago in the western part of the Arctic Ocean. It includes more than a thousand islands and the waters of the Greenland and Barents Seas. The area of ​​the archipelago is 63 thousand km2. According to the Treaty of Paris, from August 14, the Svalbard archipelago is under the limited sovereignty of the Kingdom of Norway and is separated into a separate administrative unit under the control of the governor. Natural resources - oil, gas, coal, polymetallic ores, barites, gold, quartz, marble, gypsum, jasper. The surrounding waters contain large reserves of valuable fish, shrimp, algae and seafood. The economy is based on mining coal(1.5 million tons per year), geological exploration and scientific activity, as well as tourism. The archipelago includes the seaports of Barentsburg, Pyramid (Russia), Longyearbyen, Sveagruva, Ny-Ålesund (Norway), and Longyearbyen International Airport. The archipelago is permanently inhabited by 1,600 people (Russian and Norwegian miners, as well as several dozen scientists from different countries).

The beginning of economic development of the Spitsbergen archipelago, according to modern archaeological research, dates back to the middle of the 16th century. It was the result of the activities of the inhabitants of the Russian North - the Pomors, who developed a variety of fisheries on its shores, mainly walrus hunting.

In a house on the shore of the lagoon, about fifteen kilometers from Stubbelva, they found a text carved on a wooden object: “Resigned from the city” (“A resident of the city has died”). This five-wall structure was built by the Pomors even earlier, in 1552. In Belsund Bay they read an inscription scratched on a whale vertebra and the name “Ondrej”. Much success awaited researchers in Russekaila Bay, where the “patriarch” of Spitsbergen Ivan Starostin lived for about forty years: nineteen inscriptions were found during excavations, and a third of them are dated to the 16th century, the rest are later.

In total, Soviet archaeological expeditions identified about a hundred Pomeranian settlements between 78 and 80 degrees north latitude. The villages were located along the entire coast, ten to fourteen kilometers from one another, and included residential, utility and utility buildings, places of worship, and navigational signs in the form of crosses.

According to V. Yu. Wiese, compiled on the basis of various historical sources, there were a total of 39 ancient Russian settlements on Spitsbergen.

From now on, an expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences worked on the archipelago, which discovered many Russian settlements, burials and large Pomeranian crosses, household items and inscriptions in Russian. Thus, on the shore of the island of Western Spitsbergen, the remains of a Russian house were found near the Stubbalva River, cut down in the city. 6 of the 19 inscriptions found date back to the 16th century.

There is a known list of Pomors-Grumantlans and Novaya Zemlya, called up for naval service in 1714 by personal decree of Peter I, who later formed the backbone of the Baltic sailors and won more than one battle.

In the 17th century, Russian crafts on Spitsbergen expanded. This was facilitated by the abundance of fish and animals, the development of the sea route, and, to some extent, an established way of life. Although the icy desert was reluctant to let aliens into its possessions.

In 1743, Alexey Khimkov, a feedman from Mezen, came to Edge Island (the Pomors called it Maly Berun) on a regular voyage with his twelve-year-old son Ivan and comrades Stepan Sharapov and Fedor Verigin. They did not save their boat; it was torn away from the shore and destroyed by the raging sea. The path home was cut off. But the Pomors did not lose heart. They adapted to get food and warm shelter without any special equipment, and when, after six years and three months of forced captivity, they were taken off by another ship, they were loaded aboard large number furs they obtained, a lot of meat.

Since 1747, the capital's commercial board regularly requested information from its Arkhangelsk office about fishing on Grumant and its intensity.

Vasily Dorofeev Lomonosov, father, spent the winter on Spitsbergen several times outstanding figure Russian science M.V. Lomonosov. The great Russian scientist subsequently organized a expedition to Spitsbergen in 1765-1766. two marine scientific expeditions under the leadership of V. Ya. Chichagov. The “Patriarch” of Spitsbergen is called industrialist Ivan Starostin, who spent a total of about 36 years on the island.

Mikhail Lomonosov, however, never learned the results of the first Russian scientific expedition, which was headed by Vasily Yakovlevich Chichagov, since it went to sea a few days after Lomonosov’s death. Chichagov conducted serious research on Grumant, where a special base had been created a year before, and even tried to go further - he reached 80 degrees 26 minutes north latitude. IN next year he rose even higher for four minutes.

The Spitsbergen problem forced the Russian government to take measures to protect its interests in the archipelago. The Russians believed that Grumant was discovered by Russian Pomors long before Barents. Sidorov's activities in the 1870s. contributed to strengthening this point of view in public opinion, and although the government accepted the status of Spitsbergen as “terra nulius,” that is, “no man’s land,” in the Russian press of the first decade of the 20th century. the archipelago was considered a “lost Russian possession” that needed to be returned.

Russian authorities begin to register ships that sailed to Grumant and issue “pass tickets.” Thanks to these statistics, we know today that at the end of the last century, seven to ten ships with 120-150 industrialists were sent annually from Arkhangelsk alone to Grumant. Camps arose on Bear Island, and on Grumant the number of Russian winterers reaches two thousand.

Russia's priority for Grumant was never in doubt. But more far-sighted Russian people, in order to avoid complications with rights in the future, proposed that the tsarist government populate the archipelago with a permanent population. The archives have preserved the petitions of Pomor Chumakov (g.), merchant Antonov (g.), and ensign Frolov (g.). Starostin made such requests many times. However, no one in the capital was seriously worried about their concerns.

At the end of the 50s of the 19th century, Russian crafts on the archipelago gradually fell into disrepair. In 1854, during the Crimean War (-), the English corvette Miranda destroyed the city of Kola, one of the most important Pomeranian centers.

In the city, Russia founded a meteorological observatory on Spitsbergen, and a year later the icebreaker Ermak set out for that area.

As a result of the indecisiveness and laziness of the kings, the archipelago, rich in marine resources and coal, went to Norway, although they began to develop the archipelago later than the Russians: only in 1793 did the first Norwegian fishing vessel sail from Tromsø to Spitsbergen, and even then half with a Russian crew, and it only reached Bear Island.

In fact, in the last third of the 19th century, the Norwegians almost exclusively dominated the “eastern ice”. The growth of Norwegian expansion was also facilitated by the lack of means of protecting and defending the northern coast of Russia from the encroachments of foreigners, caused by the abolition of the Arkhangelsk military port and the White Sea flotilla in the city.

In 1871, the Swedish-Norwegian envoy to Russia, Biorstiern, addressed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country with a note in which he announced that Sweden and Norway, united by a union at that time, intended to annex Spitsbergen to their possessions. But this time the tsarist government did not take a serious step to consolidate Russia’s rights over Spitsbergen. On the contrary, it offered the status of “no man's land” and thereby effectively opened the way to the archipelago for other countries.