Fyodor Petrovich Litke - one of the prominent geographers of the 19th century, admiral of the Russian fleet, known for his exploration of the Arctic and circumnavigation.

Fyodor Petrovich Litke - one of the prominent geographers of the 19th century, admiral of the Russian fleet, known for his exploration of the Arctic and circumnavigation. He was one of the initiators and founders of the Russian Geographical Society, its honorary member, and for 20 years led its work, holding the position of vice-chairman. From 1864 he was president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

F.P. Litke was born in St. Petersburg on September 17, 1797. His childhood was difficult and joyless. Mother died at his birth. The father soon married a young woman who disliked her five stepsons and stepdaughters. As a seven-year-old boy, he was sent to the boarding school of the German Meyer. After four years of study, he learned to babble in German, French, English, knew four arithmetic operations mediocrely and could name the main countries of the world and major cities with a sin in half.

In 1808 Litke's father died and the boy was left an orphan. He lived with his mother's brother, Engel, a member of the State Council. He remained without any supervision, did not have a single teacher from 11 to 15 years old. The boy's only consolation was his uncle's rich library. He read many books on history, astronomy, philosophy, geography. I was especially fond of reading travel books. Once he read a book that described the journey of the Dutch navigator V. Barents to Novaya Zemlya. The stubborn struggle of travelers with difficulties, the pictures of the harsh, peculiar beauty of the nature of the Arctic made an indelible impression on the little reader.

In 1810, changes took place in the boy's life. His sister Natalya married Lieutenant Commander I.S. Sulmenev. Often visiting his sister, he enthusiastically listened to stories about round-the-world travels, geographical discoveries and victories of the Russian navy. Frequent visits to his sister's apartment, weekly sailings along the Gulf of Finland to Kronstadt and back instilled in the boy a love for the sea.

The young man decided to devote his life to naval service and, at the request of Sulmenev, in 1812 he was accepted as a volunteer in the rowing flotilla. For resourcefulness and courage, he was soon promoted to midshipmen. In 1813, as a 16-year-old youth, Litke took part in battles three times against French units hiding in Danzig. His courage, self-control and exemplary performance of combat missions under enemy artillery fire were highly appreciated by the command. Litke was promoted to midshipman and awarded the Order of St. Anna IV degree.

He continued to persistently study astronomy, navigation, instructions on maritime practice, the complex structure of sailing ships and their management, read books about the circumnavigations of Russian and foreign sailors. Litke had an old dream to make the same trips that Vitus Bering, I.F. Kruzenshtern, Yu.F. Lisyansky.

In 1817, with the assistance of Sulmenev, a 20-year-old youth was appointed senior midshipman on the sloop-of-war Kamchatka, which circumnavigated the world under the command of Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin.

The voyage on the sloop "Kamchatka" lasted 2 years and 10 days. It brought great benefits to the young officer, expanding his knowledge in the field of oceanography, astronomy, physics, ethnography, navigation and determined his future activities as an explorer-traveler.

V.M. Golovnin highly appreciated Litke's abilities and, upon his return from the voyage, recommended him for the post of head of a hydrographic expedition to describe the shores of Novaya Zemlya.

In the annals of polar travels, a prominent place is occupied by Russian navigators and explorers, who discovered and described vast areas, made many discoveries, paved the way to the North and began its economic development.

Russian sailors visited Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea as early as the 15th century; there are suggestions that some Russian sailors visited these harsh hard-to-reach places as early as the 11th century.

Russia is rightly proud of the glorious names of Russian polar sailors.

However, the valuable information of the Pomors, obtained by great courage, severe trials and overcoming incredible difficulties, was not generalized, and by the beginning of the 19th century. Novaya Zemlya remained unexplored. In 1807, the single-masted ship "Bee" was equipped and sent under the command of navigator Pospelov. During this voyage, the shores from Kostin Shara to Matochkin Shara were described and put on a map. In 1819, a new expedition was equipped under the command of Lieutenant A.P. Lazarev, which ended in failure.

From the assessment of the work of all expeditions to Novaya Zemlya, a disappointing conclusion followed: information about it is scarce, fragmentary and vague.

It was necessary to carry out a large, painstaking research work.

For sailing to the Arctic, the Novaya Zemlya brig was built at the Arkhangelsk shipyard - a two-masted sailing vessel with straight sails, with a carrying capacity of 200 tons. F.P. Litke. At the direction of Litke, the living deck was freed from cargo and two cast-iron furnaces were installed on it, which maintained a normal temperature. This seemingly insignificant measure provided the crew of the brig, consisting of 43 people, with quite acceptable living conditions. There were no deaths during the voyage.

On the brig Novaya Zemlya, Litke made four trips to the Arctic Ocean in 1821, 1822, 1823 and 1824.

The first voyage was reconnaissance. Only on August 10 did the brig reach the Gusinaya Zemlya Peninsula. Despite the impenetrable ice fields, the expedition managed to clarify the position of the coastline in the area of ​​Kanin Nos and Svyatoy Nos. This voyage made it possible for Litka to get acquainted with the conditions of navigation and the ice situation off the coast of Novaya Zemlya.

During the second voyage, an inventory of the coasts and many new geographical features of the Kola Peninsula was made. The officers made an inventory of the shores of Novaya Zemlya from the ship. The coordinates of the mouth of the Matochkin Shar have been determined.

The two-year research report submitted by Litke received a good rating in the Admiralty. He was instructed to make the third and then the fourth voyage to the Arctic Ocean.

Litke's four-year explorations in the Arctic Ocean greatly expanded geographic and hydrographic knowledge of the Arctic. The western shores of Novaya Zemlya, the coast of the mainland from the Yugorsky Shar Strait to Cape Russkiy Zavorot and from Svyatoy Nos on the Kola Peninsula to the Russian-Swedish border were described and mapped; sea ​​depths were measured, soil samples were taken, sea level fluctuations were recorded.

The result of Litke's voyages was his book "Four-fold trip to the Arctic Ocean on the military brig Novaya Zemlya in 1821-1824." He became known as a major explorer of the Arctic.

Shortly after this expedition, Litke was appointed commander of the Senyavin sloop, which was heading for a round-the-world voyage with tasks to carry out a number of works in the Bering Sea and in the Caroline Archipelago. This expedition took place in 1826-1829.

The expedition collected extensive geographical, hydrographic and geophysical materials. The coordinates of important points on the coast of Kamchatka north of Avacha Bay were determined, a number of islands of the Kuril chain were described, and the coast of Chukotka from Cape Dezhnev to Anadyr was described.

The expedition carried out a large amount of geographical work in the South Pacific Ocean, where the Caroline Islands were surveyed. 12 were rediscovered and 26 groups and individual islands were described, the Bonin Islands were found, the location of which was then not known exactly. For all these geographical objects, maps were compiled, inventories and drawings were made, and a separate atlas was compiled. The expedition collected extensive material on sea currents, water and air temperature, atmospheric pressure, etc.

An important part of the work was gravimetric and magnetic observations, which served as a valuable contribution to world science.

The expedition collected significant material on zoology (more than one and a half thousand specimens of various animals were collected), botany, geology, ethnography, etc.

All this huge amount of work was carried out with very modest means and a small number of employees. Litke had as assistants lieutenants Zavalishin and Aboleshev, 8 midshipmen and other junior commanders and three scientists - Mertens, Postels and Kitlitz and 48 sailors. We must not forget that the expedition was carried out on a sailing ship, requiring a lot of attention, work and skill of the entire team. The ship sailed both in the calm zone and in the most stormy regions of the ocean; in a wide variety of climatic conditions - from the equator to the Arctic Circle, from the tropics to the Arctic. For all three years of navigation, there were no accidents on the expedition, the expedition never fell into distress. No wonder this expedition is considered the happiest and most fruitful of all the numerous Russian circumnavigations of the first half of the 19th century, which our country has the right to be proud of.

Circumnavigation F.P. Litke on the Senyavin turned out to be his last journey. In 1832, Nicholas I appointed his son Konstantin as his tutor. For 16 years, Fedor Petrovich was forced to stay at the royal court. He did not like court life, was averse to vanity and lust for power, was far from court intrigues. In 1835, he wrote: "My service is in many ways contrary to my nature and spiritual needs." But even being at court, Fedor Petrovich managed to remain a scientist. He attended meetings of the Academy of Sciences, wrote an article on the tides in the Arctic Ocean, and kept in touch with his seafaring friends.

F.P. Litke proposed the need to unite all geographers, researchers and travelers in a scientific society and obtained permission to create the Russian Geographical Society. The founding members of the society were: Academician K.M. Baer is a famous naturalist, explorer of Russia; F.P. Wrangel is a famous polar explorer; Academician K.I. Arseniev - geographer, historian and statistician who played a prominent role in the development of the economic geography of Russia; V.Ya. Struve - an outstanding astronomer, founder and director of the Pulkovo Observatory; Admiral I.F. Kruzenshtern and others.

In September 1845, at a meeting of the founders F.P. Litke was elected vice-chairman of the Russian Geographical Society (by position, the chairman was a member of the imperial family).

F.P. Litke led the Russian Geographical Society for over 20 years in 1845-1850 and in 1857-1873.

From 1850 to 1853, Litke was the chief commander and governor of the Revel port, and during the Crimean War - the chief commander and military governor of the Kronstadt port, he was awarded the rank of full admiral.

Litke actively participated in the work of the Academy of Sciences. From 1864 to 1882 Litke was president of the Academy of Sciences. And in this work, he develops vigorous activity, contributes to the development of scientific societies and institutions. The activities of the Pulkovo Observatory, opened in 1839, were expanded. The Pulkovo Observatory gained worldwide fame and for several decades was the "astronomical capital" of the world. In 1849, the world's first climatological center, the Main Physical Observatory, was established in Russia. Litke contributed to the further expansion of the activities of the Pavlovsk Magnetic Meteorological Observatory.

Litke's name is immortalized on the world map. 15 geographical features on the maps of the Arctic and the Pacific bear his name.

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About his stay on one of the Koralin Islands, Litke wrote: “... Our three-week stay on Yualan not only did not cost a single drop of human blood, but ... we could leave the good islanders with the same incomplete information about the operation of our firearms, which they consider to be intended only for killing birds ... I don’t know if there is a similar example in the annals of early travels to the South Sea ”(F.P. Litke. Traveling around the world on the Senyavin military sloop in 1826-1829).

In the first half of the XIX century. Russian navigators made more than 20 round-the-world voyages, which significantly exceeded the number of such expeditions undertaken by the British and French combined. And some Russian navigators circumnavigated the world twice and thrice. In the first Russian circumnavigation of the world, Bellingshausen was the midshipman on Kruzenshtern's sloop Nadezhda, who after some time would be the first to approach the shores of Antarctica. On the same ship, O. Kotzebue made his first voyage, who later led two round-the-world trips: in 1815-1818 and in 1823-1826.

In 1817, Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin, who had already completed his legendary circumnavigation on the sloop Diana, was about to embark on his second circumnavigation. To get into the team of the famous navigator was considered a great honor. On the recommendation of the captain of the 2nd rank I. S. Sulmenev, later admiral, Golovnin took on board his pupil, 19-year-old midshipman Fyodor Litke, who had already managed to take part in naval battles with the French and earn an order as head of the hydrographic service.

On the sloop "Kamchatka", which was preparing to sail around the world, a wonderful company gathered - the future of the Russian fleet. Litke met here with volunteer Fyodor Matyushkin, a former lyceum student and classmate of Pushkin, a future admiral and senator, and with junior watch officer Ferdinand Wrangel, later a famous explorer of the Arctic, admiral. The team also included a very young midshipman Theopempt Lutkovsky, who at first would be carried away by the ideas of the Decembrists, and then become a rear admiral and a naval writer. In the course of a two-year voyage, the Kamchatka passed the Atlantic from north to south, rounded Cape Horn, reached Kamchatka across the Pacific Ocean, visited Russian America, Hawaii, the Marianas and the Moluccas, then crossed the Indian Ocean and, bypassing Africa, September 5, 1819. returned to Kronstadt.

In 1821, on the recommendation of Golovnin, Litke, who had already become a lieutenant, was appointed head of the Arctic expedition on the Novaya Zemlya brig. The expedition explored the Murmansk coast, the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, the Matochkin Shar Strait, and the northern coast of Kolguev Island. Astronomical observations were made. Having processed the expedition materials, Litke published the book "Four-fold trip to the Arctic Ocean on the military brig Novaya Zemlya in 1821-1824." This work was translated into several languages ​​and brought the author well-deserved recognition in the scientific world. The maps compiled by the expedition served sailors for a century.

In 1826, Lieutenant Commander Litke, who at that time was not even 29 years old, took command of the Senyavin sloop, built specifically for the new circumnavigation. In August of the same year, the ship left Kronstadt, accompanied by the second sloop Moller, commanded by M. N. Stanyukovich (father of the famous writer). According to the instructions, the expedition was to make an inventory of the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, as well as the Shantar Islands, and carry out research in Russian America. In winter, she had to conduct scientific research in the tropics.

Stanyukovich's sloop turned out to be much faster than the Senyavin (for some reason, in most Russian round-the-world expeditions, pairs were completed from ships with significantly different driving characteristics), and the second had to catch up with the first all the time, mainly in ports. Almost immediately, the ships separated and then sailed mostly separately.

After stops in Copenhagen, Portsmouth and Tenerife, the Senyavin crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Rio de Janeiro at the end of December, where the Moller was already moored. In January 1827, the sloops headed for Cape Horn together. Rounding it, they fell into a fierce storm - one of those that seem to be specially waiting for ships entering the Pacific Ocean - and again lost each other. In search of the Moller, Litke went to Concepción Bay, and then to Valparaiso. Here the ships met, but Stanyukovich was already leaving for Kamchatka, in transit through the Hawaiian Islands.

Litke stopped at Valparaiso. There he carried out magnetic and astronomical observations, and the naturalists of the expedition made excursions in the surroundings and collected collections. In early April, the Senyavin went to Alaska. We reached Novoarkhangelsk on June 11 and stayed there for more than a month, repairing the sloop, collecting collections, and doing ethnographic research. Then the expedition explored the Pribylov Islands and surveyed the island of St. Matthew. In mid-September, "Senyavin" came to Kamchatka, where the expedition, waiting for mail, remained until October 29, studying the surroundings.

Moving south, Litke reached the Caroline Islands at the end of November. At the very beginning of 1828, the expedition discovered a hitherto unknown part of this vast archipelago, naming it the Senyavin Islands after their ship. Then the sloop went to Guam and other Mariana Islands. Hydrographic work was constantly carried out; Litke, moreover, performed astronomical, magnetic and gravimetric measurements. On the islands, naturalists continued to add to their collections. At the end of March, the sloop went north to the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara). The sailors examined them and picked up two Englishmen who had been wrecked. In early May, Litke headed for Kamchatka.

They stood in Petropavlovsk for three weeks, and in mid-June, Litke's second northern campaign began. "Senyavin" carried out hydrographic surveys in the Bering Sea. Moving north, the expedition determined the coordinates of points on the Kamchatka coast, described Karaginsky Island, then headed for the Bering Strait and determined the coordinates of Cape Vostochny (now Cape Dezhnev). Work on the inventory of the southern coast of Chukotka had to be interrupted due to unfavorable weather. At the end of September, the Senyavin returned to Kamchatka, and a month later, together with the Moller, they entered the Pacific Ocean.

In early November, the ships were again separated by a storm. The agreed meeting place was in Manila. Before moving to the Philippines, Litke decided to once again go to the Caroline Islands. And again, successfully: he managed to discover several coral atolls. After that, he headed west and approached Manila on 31 December. Moller was already there. In mid-January 1829, the sloops moved home, passed through the Sunda Strait, and on February 11 ended up in the Indian Ocean. Then their paths parted again: "Moller" went to South Africa, and "Senyavin" to the island of St. Helena. There, at the end of April, the sloops were reunited, and on June 30 they reached Le Havre together. From here, Stanyukovich headed straight for Kronstadt, and Litke also went to England to check the instruments at the Greenwich Observatory.

Finally, on August 25, 1829, the Senyavin arrived at the Kronstadt raid. He was greeted with a cannon salute. Immediately after returning, Litke was promoted to captain of the 1st rank.

This expedition, which lasted three years, became one of the most fruitful in the history of navigation, and not only in Russia. 12 islands were discovered, the Asian coast of the Bering Sea and a number of islands were explored for a considerable extent, the richest materials on oceanography, biology, ethnography were collected, an atlas was compiled from several dozen maps and plans. Of great interest to physicists were Litke's experiments with a permanent pendulum, as a result of which the magnitude of the polar compression of the Earth was determined, and measurements of magnetic declination at various points in the world's oceans. In 1835-1836. Litke published a three-volume "Journey around the world on the sloop-of-war "Senyavin" in 1826-1829", translated into several languages. It was awarded the academic Demidov Prize, and Litke was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

However, Litke's journey on the Senyavin was his last - against his own will. In 1832, Emperor Nicholas I appointed an officer and scientist as the educator of his second son Konstantin. Litke remained at court as an educator for 16 years. He was not happy with this highest mercy, but he did not dare to disobey. It was during these years that Fyodor Petrovich Litke became one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society (along with the sailor Wrangel and academicians Arseniev and Baer) and was elected its vice-chairman, while Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, a pupil of Litke, became the honorary chairman. By the way, he was an intelligent naval officer and rose to the rank of admiral, played a prominent role in carrying out liberal reforms in Russia, and in 1861 became chairman of the State Council. Good upbringing.

In 1850-1857. there was a break in Litke's geographical activity. At this time, he was the commander of the Revel port, and then of Kronstadt. On his shoulders lay the organization of the defense of the Gulf of Finland from the British and French during the Crimean War (1854-1855). For the brilliant performance of this task, Litke received the rank of admiral and was appointed a member of the State Council, and in 1866 received the title of count. In 1857, Litke was again elected vice-chairman of the Society; Petr Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky became his deputy. The achievements of national geography are largely connected with the activities of the Society, and not least with the ability of Litke and his successors to attract talented young people to their enterprises. In 1864, Litke took over as president of the Academy of Sciences and continued to lead the Geographical Society until 1873.

NUMBERS AND FACTS

The protagonist

Fedor Petrovich Litke, Russian navigator, geographer

Other actors

Sailors V. M. Golovnin, M. N. Stanyukovich, F. P. Wrangel; Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich; geographers K. I. Arseniev, K. M. Baer, ​​P. P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky

Time of action

Route

Around the world from east to west

Goals

Description of the Far Eastern coast of Russia, research in Russian America and in the tropical region of the Pacific Ocean

On September 28 (September 17, old style), 1797, Fyodor Petrovich Litke was born in St. Petersburg. Admiral, count - not by inheritance, but by merit. Navigator, geographer, politician. The man who proposed the idea of ​​creating the Russian Geographical Society and largely determined its appearance.

Fyodor Petrovich is the first count in the Litke family. He received the title in 1866 "for long-term service, especially important assignments and scientific works that have gained European fame."

It was Fyodor Petrovich who instilled a love for navigation and geographical science in his pupil - Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, son of Nicholas I and younger brother of Alexander ΙΙ. And without him, would the project of the Geographic and Statistical Society, created by a group of the best scientists and thinkers of the country, be highly approved?

Our fatherland, stretching in longitude more than the semicircle of the Earth, is in itself a special part of the world with all the differences in climates, phenomena of organic nature, etc., inherent in such a huge stretch, and such completely special conditions indicate directly that the main subject of the Russian geographical Society should be cultivation of the geography of Russia.

(F.P. Litke, speech at the first meeting of the Council of the Russian Geographical Society, 1845)

When Konstantin Nikolaevich becomes chairman of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (IRGO), his assistant, then vice-president - that is, the actual head of the Society - will be Litke. In this post, the navigator will receive both the admiral's rank, and the count's title, and the post of president of the Academy of Sciences.

But at first it was difficult - without a mother, and then without a father - childhood, in which only numerous books were an outlet. And youth dedicated to the sea: Fyodor Petrovich's elder friend and mentor was his sister's husband, captain (and then admiral) Ivan Sulmenev. It was Sulmenev who arranged for his nephew, who had already served (and was awarded the St. George Cross) under his command, to circumnavigate the world on the sloop Kamchatka.

The voyage lasted two years - from August 1817 to September 1819. The travelers crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn, walked along the entire coast of both Americas, reached Kamchatka and from there, across the Indian Ocean, around Africa, returned to Kronstadt. Fyodor Litke was responsible for hydrographic surveys on this expedition and returned home like a real sea dog. Note - and a fiery patriot.

Who would have thought that the first ship that we met upon leaving Rio Janeiro was Russian; so that in the southern reaches of the world they see their compatriots, hear their native language! I don’t know if Columbus was more happy when he found the New World, how we rejoiced at this meeting!

(from the diary of F.P. Litke during his voyage on the sloop "Kamchatka")

And then there was the North - from 1821 to 1824, on the sixteen-gun brig "Novaya Zemlya" Fyodor Litke explores the White Sea, Novaya Zemlya and the adjacent regions of the Arctic Ocean. It is here that Fyodor Petrovich gains fame not only as a navigator, but also as a serious scientist - the book "Four-fold trip to the Arctic Ocean on the Novaya Zemlya military brig" was published in 1828 and brought fame to Litka.

The patriotism of the traveler is also changing: the place of ardent youthful enthusiasm is occupied by fundamental evidence. In his writings, Litke convincingly proves the priority of the Russians in the development of the Arctic.

But to what time should the beginning of Russian navigation on the Northern Ocean be attributed? When exactly did Novaya Zemlya become known to them? - questions that are likely to remain forever unresolved, and for very natural reasons. Even now we cannot boast of the multitude of writers who devoted themselves to the commendable work of passing on to posterity the individual deeds and exploits of their compatriots. Could they exist in the unenlightened centuries preceding the 16th, when the art of writing was still known to a few? The history of the first attempts of the Russians in the Arctic Sea and the gradual discoveries of all the places washed by it would, of course, present no less surprise and curiosity than a similar history of the Normans; but all this is hidden from us by an impenetrable veil of obscurity.

(F.P. Litke, "Four trips to the Arctic Ocean on the military brig Novaya Zemlya")

The next voyage is even more ambitious: Litke leads a trip around the world on the sloop "Senyavin" lasting three years (1826 - 1829). The Bering Sea was explored and previously unknown islands were discovered, the coasts of Kamchatka were studied. Fyodor Petrovich returns from the voyage famous - the sloop is greeted in Kronstadt with a cannon salute - in the same year he receives the extraordinary rank of captain of the 1st rank and becomes a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Shortly thereafter, in 1832, the 16-year history of his mentorship began. Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich was only five years old when his father determined his fate - to be a sailor in command of the Russian fleet. With this sight, the most learned of the navigators was chosen as a teacher - in deed, and in word, who proved his devotion to the country.

It was during these years, together with friends and like-minded people - Ferdinand Wrangel, Karl Baer, ​​Konstantin Arseniev - Litke thinks about creating a geographical and statistical society in Russia on the model of those that already existed at that time in Great Britain and France. In 1845, the highest permission was received: the Russian Geographical Society was created, five years later it acquired the status of the Imperial Society.

The main goal of the Russian Geographical Society in its first Charter was recognized as "the collection and dissemination of geographical information in general and, in particular, about Russia, as well as the dissemination of reliable information about our fatherland in other lands."

Further in the life of Fyodor Petrovich Litke were the successful defense of the Gulf of Finland in the Crimean War, and the governor-general in Revel (now Tallinn), and the leadership of the Academy of Sciences. The Geographical Society remained, however, the navigator's favorite brainchild: if only Litke was in St. Petersburg, he delved into projects for new research and travel, fussed about allocating funds and publishing scientific papers.

When in 1873 the IRGS saw Fyodor Petrovich off to rest, his colleagues prepared him an "eternal" gift - the honorary gold medal of the Society was named after Litke, which is still awarded for "new and important geographical discoveries in the oceans and polar countries".

Fedor Petrovich lived a long century, leaving our world only in 1882. Having raised two sons, one of them is also a traveler and a naval officer. Unfortunately, Konstantin Fedorovich Litke outlived his father by only 10 years. But another child of the great navigator - the Russian Geographical Society - turned out to be really durable and has been living for more than 170 years. So, his labors were not in vain.

Fyodor Petrovich Litke - one of the prominent geographers of the 19th century, admiral of the Russian fleet, known for his exploration of the Arctic and circumnavigation. He was one of the initiators and founders of the Russian Geographical Society, its honorary member, and for 20 years led its work, holding the position of vice-chairman. Since 1864 - President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. F.P. Litke was born in St. Petersburg on September 17 (28), 1797. His childhood was difficult and joyless. Mother died at his birth. The father soon married a young woman who disliked her five stepsons and stepdaughters. At the age of seven, Fedor was sent to the boarding school of the German Meyer. After four years of study, he learned to speak German, French and English, knew arithmetic, could name the main countries of the world and major cities.

In 1808, F.P.'s father died. Litke and the boy remained an orphan. He lived with his mother's brother, a member of the State Council of Senator F.I. Engel. From 11 to 15 years old, Fedor remained without any supervision and did not have a single teacher. The boy's only consolation was his uncle's rich library. He read many books on history, astronomy, philosophy, geography. I was especially fond of reading travel books. Once he read a book that described the journey of the Dutch navigator V. Barents to Novaya Zemlya. The stubborn struggle of travelers with difficulties, the pictures of the harsh, peculiar beauty of the nature of the Arctic made an indelible impression on the little reader.

In 1810, in the life of F.P. Litke has changed. His sister Natalya married Lieutenant Commander I.S. Sulmenev. Often visiting his sister, he enthusiastically listened to stories about round-the-world travels, geographical discoveries and victories of the Russian navy. Frequent visits to his sister's apartment, weekly sailings along the Gulf of Finland to Kronstadt and back instilled in the boy a love for the sea. The young man decided to devote his life to naval service and, at the request of his sister's husband, in 1812 he was accepted as a volunteer in the rowing flotilla. For resourcefulness and courage, he was soon promoted to midshipmen.

In 1813, the 16-year-old boy F.P. Litke, as part of the landing force from the ship "Aglaya", took part in battles against the French units hiding in Danzig three times. His courage, self-control and exemplary performance of combat missions under enemy artillery fire were highly appreciated by the command. F.P. Litke was promoted to midshipman and awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree.

He continued to persistently study astronomy, navigation, instructions on maritime practice, the complex structure of sailing ships and their management, read books about the circumnavigations of Russian and foreign sailors. Litke's old dream was growing stronger to make the same trips that V. Bering, I.F. Kruzenshtern, Yu.F. Lisyansky.

In 1817, with the assistance of I.S. Sulmenev, a 20-year-old youth was appointed senior warrant officer on the sloop-of-war "Kamchatka", which circumnavigated the world under the command of V.M. Golovnin. Swimming continued for more than two years. It brought great benefits to the young officer, expanding his knowledge in the field of oceanography, astronomy, physics, ethnography, navigation and determined his future activities as an explorer-traveler. V.M. Golovnin highly appreciated the abilities of F.P. Litke and upon his return from the voyage recommended him for the post of head of the hydrographic expedition to describe the shores of Novaya Zemlya.

In the annals of polar travels, a prominent place is occupied by Russian navigators and explorers, who discovered and described vast areas, made many discoveries, paved the way to the North and began its economic development. Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea were already visited by Russian sailors in the 15th century. There are suggestions that some Russian sailors visited these harsh hard-to-reach places as early as the 11th century. Russia is rightly proud of the glorious names of Russian polar sailors.

However, the valuable information of the Pomors, obtained by great courage, severe trials and overcoming incredible difficulties, was not generalized, and by the beginning of the 19th century. Novaya Zemlya remained unexplored. In 1807, the single-masted ship “Bee” was sent to the shores of the archipelago under the command of navigator G.I. Pospelov. During this voyage, the shores from Kostin Shara to Matochkin Shara were described and put on a map. In 1819, a new expedition was equipped under the command of Lieutenant A.P. Lazarev, which ended in failure. From the assessment of the work of all expeditions to Novaya Zemlya, a disappointing conclusion followed: information about it is scarce, fragmentary and vague.

It was necessary to carry out a large, painstaking research work. The Novaya Zemlya brig was built at the Arkhangelsk shipyard for sailing to the Arctic. It was a sailing two-masted ship with straight sails, with a carrying capacity of 200 tons. F.P. Litke. At his direction, the living deck was freed from cargo and two cast-iron stoves were installed on it, which maintained a normal temperature. This seemingly insignificant measure provided the crew of the brig, consisting of 43 people, with quite acceptable living conditions. There were no deaths during the voyage. On the brig "Novaya Zemlya" F.P. Litke made four trips to the Arctic Ocean in 1821, 1822, 1823 and 1824.

The first voyage was reconnaissance. Only on August 10 did the brig reach the Gusinaya Zemlya Peninsula. Despite the impenetrable ice fields, the expedition managed to clarify the position of the coastline in the area of ​​Kanin Nos and Svyatoy Nos. This voyage made it possible for F.P. Litke to get acquainted with the conditions of navigation and the ice situation off the coast of Novaya Zemlya. During the second voyage, a description of the coast and many new geographical features of the Kola Peninsula was made. The coordinates of the mouth of the Matochkin Shar were determined.

Presented by F.P. Litke's report on two years of research received a good rating in the Admiralty. He was instructed to make the third and then the fourth voyage to the Arctic Ocean. F.P. Litke in the Arctic Ocean greatly expanded geographic and hydrographic knowledge of the Arctic. The western shores of Novaya Zemlya, the coast of the mainland from the Yugorsky Shar Strait to Cape Russkiy Zavorot and from Svyatoy Nos on the Kola Peninsula to the Russian-Swedish border were described and mapped; sea ​​depths were measured, soil samples were taken, sea level fluctuations were recorded.

Sloop "Senyavin". Hood. E.V. Voishillo, B.M. Starodubtsev.

The result of the voyages of F.P. Litke received his book “Four-time trip to the Arctic Ocean on the military brig Novaya Zemlya in 1821-1824”. He became known as a major explorer of the Arctic. Shortly after this expedition, F.P. Litke was appointed commander of the Senyavin sloop, which was heading for a round-the-world voyage with tasks to carry out a number of works in the Bering Sea and in the Caroline Archipelago. This expedition took place in 1826 - 1829. She collected extensive geographical, hydrographic and geophysical materials. The coordinates of important points on the coast of Kamchatka north of Avacha Bay were determined, a number of islands of the Kuril chain were described, and the coast of Chukotka from Cape Dezhnev to Anadyr was described.

The expedition carried out a large amount of geographical work in the South Pacific Ocean, where the Caroline Islands were surveyed. 12 were rediscovered and 26 groups and individual islands were described, the Bonin Islands were found, the location of which was then not known exactly. For all these geographical objects, maps were drawn up, inventories and drawings were made, and a separate atlas was compiled. The expedition collected extensive material on sea currents, water and air temperature, and atmospheric pressure. An important part of the work was gravimetric and magnetic observations, which served as a valuable contribution to world science. The expedition collected significant material on zoology (more than one and a half thousand specimens of various animals were collected), botany, geology, ethnography, etc.

All this huge amount of work was carried out with very modest means and a small number of employees. F.P. Litke had lieutenants N.I. as assistants. Zavalishina and A.N. Aboleshev, eight midshipmen and other junior commanders, three scientists - A.G. Mertens, A.F. Postels, F.G. Kitlitsa and 48 sailors. We must not forget that the expedition was carried out on a sailing ship, requiring a lot of attention, work and skill of the entire team. The ship sailed both in the calm zone and in the most stormy regions of the ocean; in a wide variety of climatic conditions - from the equator to the Arctic Circle, from the tropics to the Arctic. For all three years of navigation, there were no accidents on the expedition, the expedition never fell into distress. No wonder she is considered the happiest and most fruitful of all the numerous Russian circumnavigations of the first half of the 19th century, which our country has the right to be proud of.

Circumnavigation F.P. Litke on the "Senyavin" was the last for him. In 1832, Nicholas I appointed his son Konstantin as his tutor. For 16 years, Fedor Petrovich was forced to stay at the royal court. He did not like court life, was averse to vanity and lust for power, was far from court intrigues. In 1835, he wrote: "My service is in many ways contrary to my nature and spiritual needs." But even being at court, Fedor Petrovich managed to remain a scientist. He attended meetings of the Academy of Sciences, wrote an article on the tides in the Arctic Ocean, and kept in touch with his seafaring friends.

F.P. Litke proposed the need to unite all geographers, researchers and travelers in the scientific community and obtained permission to create the Russian Geographical Society. The founding members of the society were: the famous naturalist, explorer of Russia, academician K.M. Baer, ​​the famous polar explorer F.P. Wrangel, geographer, historian and statistician academician K.I. Arseniev, an outstanding astronomer, founder and director of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Ya. Struve, Admiral I.F. Kruzenshtern and others. In September 1845, at a meeting of the founders F.P. Litke was elected vice-chairman of the Russian Geographical Society (by position, the chairman was a member of the imperial family). F.P. Litke led the Russian Geographical Society for over 20 years in the period 1845-1850. and 1857 - 1873

From 1850 to 1853 F.P. Litke was the chief commander and governor of the Revel port, and during the Crimean War - the chief commander and military governor of the Kronstadt port. He was given the rank of admiral.

F.P. Litke actively participated in the work of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1864 to 1882 he was its president. In this capacity, he contributed to the development of learned societies and institutions. The activities of the Pulkovo Observatory, opened in 1839, were expanded. The Pulkovo Observatory gained worldwide fame and for several decades was the "astronomical capital" of the world. In 1849, the world's first climatological center, the Main Physical Observatory, was established in Russia. F.P. Litke contributed to the further expansion of the activities of the Pavlovsk Magnetic Meteorological Observatory.

Oceanographic research vessel "Fedor Litke"

Fyodor Petrovich Litke died on October 8, 1882 at the age of 85. His name was worthy immortalized on the world map. 15 geographical features on the maps of the Arctic and the Pacific bear the name of F.P. Litke. The memory of the great geographer is reflected in the names of streets and ships. It is deeply symbolic that the first ship to make a through passage from the Far East to Murmansk in one navigation was the ice cutter Fedor Litke. In the second half of the 20th century, the icebreaker "Fedor Litke" and the oceanographic research vessel "Fedor Litke" took over the watch at sea.

Even after the death of Fyodor Petrovich Litke, his name continued to serve the cause of the development of geographical science. In 1873, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society established the Litke gold medal, awarded for outstanding geographical research. In 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR passed a resolution on the restoration of the F.P. Litke Gold Medal to encourage work in the field of geographical sciences.

Medal of the Russian Geographical Society named after F.P. Litke

Major Vladimir Pryamitsin,
Deputy Head of the Research Department
Institute of Military History VAGSh Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Military Sciences