Russo-Turkish War 1768–1774 P. A. Rumyantsev’s report to Catherine II about the increase in the number of shops in the border zone October 17, 1768, Glukhov Most merciful Empress! From day to day, the news received about the movements of the Ottoman Porte, my note is not

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711–1765), the first Russian natural scientist of world importance, was the largest geographer of Russia in the 18th century. Headed by him since 1758, the Geographic Department of the Academy of Sciences was the main organizer of natural science research on the vast territory of the Russian Empire. On the initiative of M.V. Lomonosov, “Geographical Inquiries” were compiled, which, like the questionnaires of V.N. Tatishchev, contained the following points: “Where are the noble and high mountains? Do they go out prolificly? What more cattle are kept? What trades do the townsfolk have? In what crafts do people practice more? What kind of factories or ore plants are there in cities or villages? Where are salts, how many salt pans? Along the great rivers and along the banks and islands seas and noble lakes where there are quitrent fishing and what fish are caught more? .. "(1).

Lomonosov developed a plan for the work of astronomical and geographical expeditions in Russia. In 1764, shortly before his death, the scientist compiled an "exemplary instruction" for participants in such expeditions. According to Lomonosov's plan, it was necessary to create three expeditionary detachments, each of which would get a route of 6,000 miles. The expedition had to carry out astronomical determinations of latitudes and longitudes. Lomonosov’s instructions for travelers also set other tasks: “When traveling from place to place, write down the nature of places, i.e., are they wooded, or field, or mountainous, etc. ...”, “Being in cities where observations should be repaired, describe everything what is required in geographic inquiries sent throughout the state ... "," All travel to contain a daily faithful log "(2).

The idea of ​​M. V. Lomonosov came true a few years after his death, when an academic expedition of 1768-1774 was organized by decree of Catherine II. Five detachments were created as part of the expedition: two "Astrakhan" and three "Orenburg", "Astrakhan" detachments were led by young naturalists S. G. Gmelin and I. A. Guldenshtedt. P. S. Pallas, I. I. Lepekhin and I. P. Falk were appointed leaders of the “Orenburg” detachments. The main goal of the expedition was to identify, describe and study the natural resources necessary for the further economic development of Russia.

Astrakhan and especially Orenburg provinces were of considerable interest to government circles. After all, just a few decades before this, the Kazakh lands were voluntarily annexed to Russia (1731) and the Orenburg expedition of I.K. Kirilov (1734) was organized.

The travelers received travel plans and instructions from the Academy of Sciences. The work program of the expeditions was imbued with the ideas of Lomonosov and his understanding of the national importance of geographical research in Russia.

The expeditionary detachments included academicians, adjuncts and students of the Academy, draftsmen, taxidermy, shooters. Almost all members of the expedition were very young. The leaders of the "Orenburg" detachments, I. I. Lepekhin, were 28, and P. S. Pallas, 27 years old. Among their assistants, young men from 15 to 17 years old prevailed, many of whom later became prominent scientists.

In the spring of 1768, all preparations were completed, and in June the convoys of the "Astrakhan" and "Orenburg" detachments left St. Petersburg one after another and set off on a long journey.

An outstanding role in the academic expeditions of 1768–1774 was played by Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811). He was born in Berlin. He studied in Germany, Holland, England and already in the 60s of the XVIII century gained European fame as a major naturalist. In 1767, at the invitation of the Academy, PS Pallas came to Russia and was soon appointed head of the first "Orenburg" detachment of the academic expedition.

Not a single expeditionary academic event had been prepared so carefully before as the expedition of 1768-1774. Pallas, with deep knowledge of the matter, developed the "Travel Plan" of the expedition. In addition, during the year of his stay in Russia, he studied the Russian language so deeply that he could independently use Russian sources.

On June 21, 1768, Pallas set off. In the autumn of the same year, he entered the Orenburg province, visited the village of Spassky near Bugulma - the estate of Pyotr Ivanovich Rychkov, from whom he received a lot of valuable advice. The traveler spent the winter of 1768–1769 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk).

Pallas began a detailed study of the nature of the Orenburg region in June 1769. His path lay along the Samara fortified line to Orenburg. Pallas could not remain indifferent to the nature of the Orenburg region. About the Buzuluk fortress, he writes: "It can be imagined as the most pleasant country: for in many places there is a forest of pine, aspen, birch, there are also hills and hay meadows beloved by herbs" (3).

Pallas describes Elshanskaya, Buzulukskaya, Totskaya, Sorchinskaya, Novosergievskaya and other fortresses of the Samara line. The information he provides is of great historical significance.

But Pallas' observations of the animal world of the region are especially valuable. So, he writes about the wide distribution of bears in the Western Orenburg region, "which have dens in valleys overgrown with shrubs." Data are given on the habitats of beavers, otters, wild boars, elks, badgers in the vicinity of the Buzuluk and Totsk fortresses. Everywhere he notes "many cranes and wild gray geese with cubs" (4).

Pallas gave one of the first descriptions of saigas, which at that time roamed in the Orenburg region in large herds and crossed to the right bank of the Samara River. Many saigas were seen by him in June 1769 near the Novosergievskaya fortress and in the steppes between the Platovsky redoubt and the Perevolotskaya fortress. "The saigas were not afraid of people here," Pallas concludes.

Very interesting reports about tarpans - small wild horses that lived in the past in the Russian steppes. So, in the spring of 1769, a tarpan foal was caught near the Totsk fortress. Large herds of tarpans were noted by Pallas in the steppes along the upper reaches of the Buzuluk, Chagan and Irtek, on the territory of modern Kurmanaevsky, Pervomaisky, Tashlinsky and Sorochinsky districts.

On July 1, 1769, P.S. Pallas, following through the Tatishchev and Chernorechensk fortresses, arrived in Orenburg, which he calls the "main haven" of the "Asian trade".

From Orenburg, Pallas made a trip to the Iletsk Salt "where he arrived on July 4, 1769. The researcher gives a detailed description of the salt mine and gives a plan map of the Iletsk Salt. Then on July 9 he goes to the Orsk fortress. On the way, he describes fortresses and a redoubt, natural attractions. 13 July arrived in Orsk, got acquainted with the city, visited the Jasper Mountain.

And on July 21, the scientist is already back in Orenburg and then makes his way down the Urals to the Caspian Sea.

Pallas describes in detail his route along the right bank of the Urals, characterizes the surroundings of the Nizhneozerskaya and Rassypnaya fortresses, the Iletsk town (Ilek village), the Kindelinsky and Irtek outposts. The experienced eye of a naturalist leaves nothing unnoticed. Pallas notes chalk outcrops near Chesnokovka, finds rare plants in overgrown ravines near Rassypnaya, describes sand dunes beyond Irtek, "on which wild oats grow" and "surprising curly steppe raspberries", that is, Kuzmichev grass, or ephedra.

The further path of Pallas runs along the Ural River. He makes big stops in Uralsk and the Kalmykova fortress. Here he studied the fishing trades of the Yaik Cossacks, which he then described in detail in his "Travels ...".

Pallas noted that fishing on Yaik took place four times a year. The first - the most important - in January, when sturgeon and beluga were mainly caught with hooks on yatovs or in wintering pits. The second catch was in May. At this time, the Cossacks were catching stellate sturgeon with nets from boats. Sturgeon and Beluga caught in nets in May were released back into the river. In October, the autumn flood followed, and in December local fish were caught on the wintering grounds for domestic use. Fisheries of the Yaik Cossacks were strictly regulated by local laws and customs. Violators of fishing rules were severely punished.

From the fortress of Kalmykova, Pallas makes small trips to Bogyrdai and to Inder Lake. On August 24, 1769, he reached Guryev. From here the traveler made a short excursion to the Ural delta and the Caspian coast. Here he drew attention to fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea depending on climatic conditions.

On August 31, the Pallas expedition leaves Guryev and returns back along the same road up the Urals. Before reaching Orenburg, at the Chernorechenskaya fortress, he turned to Kargala, drove through the Sakmarsky town, Imangulovo on Salmysh, Tugustemir, Sterlitamak and proceeded further to Ufa. Pallas spent the winter of 1769-1770 in Bashkiria. In February 1770, he sent student Nikita Sokolov from Ufa with a scarecrow to "spring" in Guryev to study the Yaik steppes and the Caspian fishery. Sokolov collected a lot of additional information about the nature of the Caspian region, visited Ryn-sands and brought to Pallas in Chelyabinsk a lot of interesting plants and animals, among which were species not yet known to science.

On the way to Chelyabinsk, the Pallas expedition for the first time crossed the mountains of the Southern Urals approximately along the parallel of 55 ° north latitude. Summarizing his observations in the Ural Mountains, Pallas then created his theory of the formation of mountain ranges. He first drew attention to meridional zoning in the structure of the Urals.

In 1771-1772, Pallas, together with his companions, traveled through Western Siberia, Altai and reached Transbaikalia. In the spring of 1773, making his way back, he again finds himself in the Ural basin.

On May 10, Pallas examines the area near the Irtek River, which flows along the General Syrt and flows into the Urals against the village of Burlin, Ural Region. “On the other side of the Irtek,” writes Pallas, “the steppe suddenly changes into dry, bare and full of wormwood-covered salt marshes” (5).

From the banks of the Irtek, Pallas heads down the Urals through the Yanvartsevo outpost (now the village of Yanvartsevo, Ural Region) to the city of Uralsk. From Uralsk, he sends student V. Zuev to the Inder Mountains.

On May 24, 1773, the Pallas expedition moved to the steppe to the southwest from the Ural River through the lower reaches of the Kushum to the Kamysh-Samarsky lakes. As a result, the first reliable information about Kushum and the features of its hydrological regime were obtained.

After Kushum, the Pallas expedition crosses the Ryn-sands and on June 8 reaches the banks of the Volga at Akhtuba. Travels along the Volga lead the scientist to final conclusions about the natural and historical development of the region, which he sets out in detail in his travel diary under the heading "Ancient Shores of the Caspian Sea" (6).

In the summer of 1774, having collected the richest geographical material, Pallas returned to St. Petersburg.

For the next 20 years, Pallas lives in the Russian capital. The results of the expedition were published by him in the three-volume work "Journeys through different provinces of the Russian state", published in 1773-1778. During the expeditions, the traveler collected extensive collections of natural history, which formed the basis of the museums of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the University of Berlin.

Pallas discovered and described many new species of mammals, birds, fish, and insects. He studied the remains of a buffalo, a hairy rhinoceros and a mammoth that lived in the pre-glacial period in the northern latitudes of Eurasia. He owns the fundamental work "Flora of Russia".

Thanks to his work, Pallas achieved great scientific authority, material wealth and a high rank of state councilor. But he dreams of leaving St. Petersburg closer to the rich nature of the southern latitudes, and in the spring of 1794 he moved with his family to the Crimea. Here he lived for about 15 years and completed work on the fundamental work "Russian-Asian zoogeography", studied the flora, fauna, geology, history and economy of the Crimean peninsula.

In 1810, having sold all the Crimean estates, Pallas returned to his homeland in Berlin, where he died a year later.

The scientific works of P. S. Pallas were highly appreciated during his lifetime. The results of the research of the scientist were published in Germany, England, France, Holland, Italy. Over the years, the contribution of the scientist to natural science began to be evaluated even higher, since his brilliant guesses and assumptions began to be supported by reliable scientific data. Speaking about the merits of P. S. Pallas, another well-known researcher of the nature of the Orenburg steppes, N. A. Severtsov, wrote: “There is no branch of the natural sciences in which Pallas would not pave a new path, would not leave a brilliant model for his followers ... He filed an example of accuracy unheard of before him in the scientific processing of the materials he collected. In its versatility, Pallas resembles the encyclopedic scientists of antiquity and the Middle Ages; in accuracy, this is a modern scientist, not an 18th century one." Severtsov's assessment remains true to this day.

Studying the features of the landscapes of the region, Pallas came to important physical and geographical conclusions. He established the boundary between the chernozem steppes and saline semi-deserts, noted the sharp differences between the landscapes of high watersheds and river valleys. So, descending from the elevated places of the Common Syrt, Pallas noted that the chernozem steppe with ordinary flora was being replaced by alkaline soils on dry yellowish clay.

Pallas explained most of the natural features of the Caspian lowland by its recent marine origin. He believed that the level of the Caspian is now below the level of the World Ocean, but in past times the waves of the Caspian basin reached the foot of the Common Syrt and Ergeni. The wide distribution of solonetzes, solonchaks and salt lakes, as well as the exceptional flatness of the relief and the abundance of sands in Western Kazakhstan, the scientist associated with the gradual drying up of the ancient sea (7).

Giving evidence in favor of his hypothesis, Pallas outlines the ancient shores of the Caspian Sea and puts them on the map. Then the scientist establishes the relationship of fish and mollusks of the Caspian and the Black Sea and develops a hypothesis about the connection of the ancient Caspian Sea through the Manych hollow with the Azov and Black Seas. Pallas connects the subsequent draining of the Manych Strait with a decrease in the level of the Black Sea as a result of its connection through the Bosporus Strait with the Mediterranean Sea.

Pallas' hypothesis about the ways of formation of the basins of the Aral, Caspian and Black Seas was largely confirmed in Soviet times. Geological studies have established that "the Caspian Sea separated from the Black Sea at the end of the Tertiary period, and the Caspian lowland (the Emba plateau and the northern Aral Sea region remained land) was three times covered by the waters of the Caspian Sea during the Quaternary glaciation (Baku, Khazar and Khvalyn transgressions). These transgressions occurred periodic connections through the Manych of the Caspian and Black Seas" 8.

Pallas thoroughly studied the region of the Inder Mountains. He explained the existence of karst in these mountains by leaching (dissolution) of salt-bearing and gypsum-bearing deposits. The researcher was the first to report the distribution of oil shale near Inder, which were rediscovered in the 20s of this century.

It is also noteworthy that of all the participants in academic expeditions, only Pallas noted the abundance of mosquitoes in the steppe far from water bodies.

The works of Pallas were not devoid of scientific foresight. At the first acquaintance with the nature of the Orenburg Territory, Pallas suggests the possibility of growing grapes here, but then there was no ordinary apple tree in the region. He wrote: “All the hills that make up the Samara River and its mountainous coast have such good and partly so capable land that it is impossible to find a better country in the Russian Empire for planting grapes, and of course it would be possible to plant vineyards, if skillful in In such a case, gardeners have made an experiment with grapes, which grow comfortably on muddy ground "(9).

Such skilful gardeners were found even today, and it is no coincidence that a stronghold of the Institute of Viticulture was created near Orenburg, which contributes to the wide dissemination of the culture of "northern grapes".

Pallas made only brief remarks about the minerals of the region (about the manifestations of copper ores, oil outcrops in the Trans-Volga region, Iletsk, Inder and Elton salt, Orsk jasper, chalk deposits, oil shale, etc.), but he predicted the broadest prospect for subsequent research : "... in the Orenburg province, the desert steppes across the Yaik River promise many interesting discoveries ... It is more than likely that the desert and mountainous terrain remaining between the roads ... conceals an infinite number of interesting discoveries in mineralogy and hides wealth destined for future centuries ..."

These timid allusions by Pallas to the natural wealth of the region were confirmed by the largest discoveries of the 20th century, when the Emben and Mangyshlak oil, Aktobe phosphorites, Orenburg gas, and South Ural metal ores were explored.

The 28-year-old Doctor of Medicine Ivan Ivanovich Lepekhin (1740–1802), one of the talented students of the Academy of Sciences, a student of M. V. Lomonosov and S. P. Krasheninnikov, was appointed the head of the second Orenburg detachment of academic expeditions. He entered the academic gymnasium in 1751. The decree about the new student said: "He is ten years old, not from the nobility, a soldier's son, he is literate in Russia and is trained to write..." (10). In 1760-1762, Lepekhin studied at the university at the Academy, in 1762-1767 - at the University of Strasbourg, where he received a doctorate in medicine. In 1768 he was elected an adjunct of the Academy of Sciences, and three years later he became an academician. Three gymnasium students were included in the detachment of I. I. Lepekhin. N. Ozeretskovsky, T. Malgin and A. Lebedev, as well as a draftsman, a scarecrow and a shooter. Lepekhin's best student and assistant was 18-year-old Nikolai Ozeretskovsky, who later became an academician.

Before starting his research in the Orenburg region, I. I. Lepekhin visited P. I. Rychkov in his Spassky estate in order to take advantage of his advice and consultations. Lepekhin arrived in Spasskoye on September 5, 1768, and stayed there for four days. The traveler then described this meeting in his "Day Notes ...", presenting Rychkov as "a husband, famous for our excellent curious exercises." Rychkov's advice and his "Topography of the Orenburg province" served Lepekhin, as well as Pallas, in good service in the study of the region.

Lepekhin's detachment appeared in the Kazakh steppes in August 1769. Travelers from Astrakhan sent their survey by sea to Guryev, and they themselves began the transition from the Volga to Yaik from Krasny Yar, located above Astrakhan. This very difficult transition is expressively described in Lepekhin's Day Notes: “Our eyes saw an immeasurable field and an uninhabited desert. Our community consisted of only three people, and four armed Cossacks served as guards. who steer their ship by compass, for the compass also served as a guide for us in foggy times. Here we learned to recognize the true need for the road. Our hearth was a hole dug in the ground, our firewood was dried horse and cow dung, which we are no less degrees were collected with diligence, like any necessary thing; moreover, our small population forced us to keep watch at night and always have horses saddled ... "(11).

After 10 days, Lepekhin's detachment went to Yaik near the village of Yaman-Kala (now the village of Yamankhalinka, Guryev region). From here the travelers went down to Guryev-gorodok. This ten-day march brought great hardships to the detachment. It should be noted that Pallas, who was advancing at the same time into the Caspian deserts from the north, refused "for lack of water from a trip to the Usensky salt lakes and to the lake, far in the steppe ... overgrown with reeds, called Kamyshsamara ..." and was able to visit the deep regions of the western - Kazakhstani deserts only a few years later.

"We could hardly drag ourselves to Yaik and wash our salted lips with fresh water." But then Lepekhin concludes: "...how languid the Yaitskaya steppe was for us, so pleasant is its recollection" (12).

Lepekhin notes the main feature of the nature of the Northern Caspian: "The greatest excellence of this steppe is the abundance of salt, which, so to speak, is scattered throughout the steppe" (13). He keeps a record of all salt lakes encountered on the route, notes the presence of lenses of fresh groundwater. At the same time, Lepekhin expresses his assumptions about the origin of fresh and saline groundwater. In his opinion, fresh groundwater, which is found in the southern part of the Caspian lowland, was formed due to the mouths of the overflows of the Bolshaya and Malaya Uzen rivers, originating in the north in the steppe zone. Salty water, Lepekhin believed, is obtained when the latter seeps through saline soil strata, and, on the contrary, saline groundwater, after passing through sandy and silty places, can again be desalinated. (14) Lepekhin's assumption is shared by most modern scientists.

Lepekhin devotes more than 20 pages to the description of the "Yaitskaya steppe": he notes the birds met by travelers, characterizes the vegetation cover, lists plants, while drawing attention to the fact that some of them grow in sandy hollows, others fasten hilly sands with their roots, others occupy meadows. The scientist concludes, "that the entire steppe is proud of its salt herbs in its many salt lakes and salt licks." Lepekhin describes insects, snakes, lizards and other animals of the Caspian deserts. The traveler writes enthusiastically about saigas, then little known to European science: “The most pleasant disgrace” (spectacle. - A.Ch.) was presented to our eyes by saigas ... who, in countless herds, resorted to sea holes to quench their thirst. This steppe and greyhound animal runs so easily that it is difficult, I think, even for the best greyhound dog to overtake him. The funniest thing to watch is when they scatter across the steppe from a rifle shot and present a fair ballet. They, at this time, are already afraid of each other, and the closer one runs to the other, the more the front one makes a jump. I have never seen them lying down, but always in constant motion" (15).

There are in the "Day Notes ..." Lepekhin and many other data on the nature of the Caspian steppes and deserts. But still, in the study of Western Kazakhstan, the priority belongs to Pallas. The fact is that the routes of travelers along the Urals largely coincided. They visited the same objects, interviewed the same people. Pallas was somewhat ahead of Lepekhin in the pace of movement, and therefore the latter reduces his observations in the region and strives for complete independence of the work of his detachment so as not to duplicate Pallas's route and avoid misunderstandings. On August 23, 1769, Lepekhin's detachment leaves Guryev-gorodok, makes an 800-kilometer transition along the Urals to Orenburg. However, we do not find a detailed description of the route in the "Day Notes ...", but instead of them we read the following entry: "Although I drove about 800 miles from Guryev-Gorodok to Orenburg and had before my eyes many natural and civilian rarities, however, to mention I regard them as superfluous; for all of them, on the double journey of Mr. Professor Pallas, are adequately described, where I have nothing left to say that the aforementioned Mr. Pallas would not be noticed by a learned pen" (16).

The further route of the Lepekhin detachment passed through the Southern Urals. He spent the winter of 1769-1770 in the city of Tabynsk on the Belaya River south of Ufa. From here he paved an interesting route along the Belaya River, and then through the upper reaches of the Yaik to the Middle Urals and the north of European Russia. Lepekhin moved much slower than Pallas. This allowed him to examine in detail and describe the objects visited. I. I. Lepekhin described his travels in four volumes of the Day Notes, published in 1771-1780 and 1805.

In 1783, I. I. Lepekhin became the indispensable secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He owns progressive scientific ideas about constant changes in the earth's surface, about changes in the properties of animals and plants under the influence of the external environment, about the reasons for the formation of caves, etc.

A certain contribution to the study of the nature of the Orenburg region was made by the detachment of the academic expedition headed by Johann Peter Falk (1727–1774). He was invited to Russia by the Swedish Academy of Sciences on the recommendation of Carl Linnaeus.

His detachment traveled around Russia for about six years. Illness prevented Falk from systematizing the accumulated materials in a timely manner. In 1774, in a fit of illness, Falk shot himself in Kazan, leaving after his death a pile of papers, which were later processed by his companions I. I. Georgi and X. Bardanes.

In the summer of 1770, Falk's detachment crossed the Volga-Ural interfluves along the route Sarepta (near modern Volgograd) - Ryn-Sands, Kamysh-Samarsky floods - the lower reaches of the Big and Small Uzen - Uralsk. The further way of the detachment to Orenburg passed along the Urals. Here his detachment wintered. In 1771-1772 Falk's detachment visited the Southern Urals, Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan. He wrote a brief geographical outline of the Ishim steppe, which contains information about the relief, geology, soils and vegetation of the environs of Petropavlovsk.

Falk's detachment then visited the mountainous regions of the Dzungarian Alatau and the Northern Tien Shan. Falk's "News about the Kirghiz and Zyungar Steppes" (17), published after his death by X. Bardanes in 1825, contains a variety of information about the nature of East Kazakhstan.

The main results of the studies of Falk's detachment were prepared for publication by I. I. Georgi and published in the "Complete Works of Scientists Traveling in Russia ..." (18) in 1824.

In describing the nature of the Orenburg region, Falk, on the whole, did not go further than Rychkov's "Topography", which he studied in detail during his several months in Orenburg.

Falk's companion Georgi in 1773, on his way from Ufa to Irgiz, again visited Uralsk and described the steppes of the northwestern part of the modern Ural region in the basins of the Derkula, Chalykly and Irgiz rivers. Georgi's main merit is that he edited Falk's notes and compiled a map of the routes of all academic expeditions.

The works of other members of academic expeditions contain only fragmentary data on the nature of Western Kazakhstan and the Southern Urals. Thus, in Orsk and Guryev, H. L. Euler, the son of the famous Swiss physicist and mathematician, carried out meteorological and astronomical observations. X. L. Euler compiled the first handwritten map of the Ural River.

The western and southern regions of the Orenburg province were visited by the Astrakhan detachment of the academic expedition of S. G. Gmelin (1745–1774). In 1769 he explored a part of Ryn-Peskov, and in 1772-1773 he sailed along the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. S. G. Gmelin examined Mangyshlak (Cape Tyubkaragan) and collected collections there. But when returning from the expedition, S. G. Gmelin was captured near Derbent by the local khan and died six months later.

We have already mentioned that P. I. Rychkov sent his son Nikolai, who at that time had the rank of captain, to work in the Pallas detachment. Nikolai Rychkov (1746-1784) in 1769-1770 made several independent travels in the Trans-Volga and Ural regions, described by him in a work entitled "Journal or daily notes of Captain Rychkov's journey through various provinces of the Russian state, 1769 and 1770".

This voluminous work (it contains 322 pages) resembles in its content similar works by P. S. Pallas and I. I. Lepekhin. It describes in detail the route of the journey, notes the features of the relief, flora and fauna, contains detailed data on cities and factories, and collected rich ethnographic and archaeological material. The information contained in the diary of Nikolai Rychkov is now of great historical and geographical interest, as it makes it possible to compare the forest cover, the composition of the animal world of the region in the second half of the 18th century with the modern one.

N. Rychkov establishes an important regularity in the structure of the river valleys of the Urals, noting their unevenness. According to his observations, “all the rivers that emerge with their peaks from the midday (southern. - A. Ch.) country of the Orenburg province and tending to midnight (north. - A. Ch.), flow for the most part near the mountains. , are usually filled with steep and, moreover, wooded mountains, and those that lie on the western side are gentle and flat places, so that the waters that overflow in spring, flooding them, produce pleasant meadows here "(19). The reasons for this phenomenon, caused by the rotation of the Earth, were established in 1857 by the Russian scientist Karl Baer, ​​and within the Orenburg Territory were studied in detail at the beginning of the 20th century by S. S. Neustruev.

In April 1771, Nikolai Rychkov, together with his brother Andrei, took part in a campaign to the Kazakh steppe along the route Orsk - the Ulutau mountains (west of the modern Dzhezkazgan region) - / the Ust-Uyskaya fortress (at the confluence of the Uy and Tobol rivers). This journey lasted about two months and consisted of continuous grueling transitions. Nikolai Rychkov described his observations during the campaign in the Day Notes of Captain Rychkov's Journey in the Kirghiz-Kaisatskaya Steppe, published in 1772, 102 pages long.

The detachment's path passed from Orsk to the southeast, to the Irgiz and Ulkayak rivers (see Fig. 4). N. Rychkov notes the complete treelessness and dryness of the Turgai steppes. The traveler's notes contain a lot of information about the rocks and minerals of the region. In the basin of the Kamyshly River, he discovers gold and powerful deposits of marble, which, according to him, "is not inferior to white marble, located in Italy in the mountains of that land" (20). N. Rychkov describes a gypsum deposit in the Ulutau mountains.

Interesting information was collected by the scientist about the rivers and lakes of the Turgai Plain, for the first time noting the characteristic features of the river network of this region. The description of the Irgiz River is curious, which is “worthy of note in the discussion of its course; for for the most part it flows in the same way as lakes, like the Kamyshla River, which, hiding in the ground, makes up springs like lakes. Almost all rivers located in this part of the steppe" (21).

During his Turgai journey, despite the speed of movement, Rychkov manages to make observations of flora and fauna. He notes the abundance of wild boars in the floodplain of the Ori River, sees the "greatness of the herd of saigas" near the Kairakly River.

It is noteworthy that N. Rychkov reported that "many bears and foxes" lived in the Arakaragay forest to the north of the Ulkayak River. It is interesting because now there are no pine forests in the basins of Ulkayak, Irgiz and Turgay, only the name of one of the rivers - "Karagai" - pine, has been preserved. Even more surprising is the existence of bears in these parts in the past. True, it should be clarified which Arakaragay forest N. Rychkov had in mind. A large forest area with this name is now known to the east of the city of Kustanay.

The works of Nikolai Rychkov are practically not inferior in their scientific level to the well-known works of Pallas and Lepekhin, although he did not have a special natural education. This can be explained not only by his personal abilities, but also by the influence of his father, Pyotr Ivanovich Rychkov.

Unfortunately, the scientific activity of N.P. Rychkov ended in 1771. He was appointed chief director of the Akhtuba silk factories near Astrakhan and never returned to research until the end of his life.

Academic expeditions of 1768-1774 found out that to the east of the middle and lower Volga and to the southeast of the Ural Mountains there is a vast desert-steppe plain belonging to the drainless basins of the Caspian and Aral Seas. Travelers discovered here countless lakes of various sizes and established a sharp difference between the nature of this region and the nature of European Russia. All researchers were struck by the change in landscape. Instead of densely grassy steppes with rich black earth, they saw vast clay solonetz-saline semi-deserts with sparse vegetation, islands of sand dunes in the deltas of ancient rivers. Travelers noted the abundance of salt in the soils and waters of the region. They noticed that most of the lakes and even some rivers have salty or bitter-salty water. Travelers brought a huge number of previously unknown plants and animals from the Ural steppes and the Caspian semi-deserts. But, having appreciated the uniqueness of the steppe nature, none of the members of the academic detachments compiled a general geographical outline of the region, which was given by P.I. Rychkov, and no one, except Pallas, established the general patterns of formation of local landscapes.

For a long time after the end of the work of academic expeditions in the Orenburg region, no significant geographical research was undertaken. Only half a century later, in the early twenties of the XIX century, a new stage of lively research into the nature of the region began, associated with the activities of E. A. Eversmann, G. S. Karelin, A. I. Levshin and other naturalists.

In the 20-80s of the XVIII century. expeditionary research in Siberia and in the waters surrounding it (the Arctic and Pacific oceans) increased immeasurably in comparison with the 17th and early 18th centuries. At this time, the largest expeditions were carried out and great geographical discoveries were made. The study of the natural conditions and riches of Siberia, the population, its ethnic composition, culture, way of life and history by various central and local institutions has significantly expanded.

The most important in the history of Russian discoveries in the northeast was the expedition of 1725-1730, carried out on the initiative of Peter I and known in science as the First Kamchatka Expedition.

On January 6, 1725, three weeks before his death, Peter I wrote to Bering, who was appointed head of the expedition, a three-point instruction: “1) It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or elsewhere. 2) On these boats near the land that goes to the north and by expectation (they don’t know the end of it) it seems that that land is part of America. 3) And in order to look for where it met with America: and in order to get to which city of European possessions, or if they see a European ship, visit from it, as it is called, and take it on a letter and visit the shore themselves and take a genuine statement and, putting it on the map, come here. 112

July 14, 1728 boat "St. Gabriel", built in Nizhne-Kamchatsk, sailed to the northeast. Bering's assistants in swimming were A. I. Chirikov and M. P. Shpanberg. On August 11, an island was discovered, which received the name of the island of St. Lawrence. "St. Gabriel" passed through the strait, later named after Bering, into the Arctic Ocean and reached 67 ° 18 / s. sh. and approximately 162° W. d. 113

Although the expedition did not solve all the tasks assigned to it, it played a major role in the exploration of Siberia and the waters surrounding it. The members of the expedition discovered new islands, compiled tables of geographical coordinates of points along the expedition's route, and collected interesting ethnographic material. In 1729, P. A. Chaplin compiled a map showing the outlines and geographical coordinates of the eastern coast of Siberia from Cape Dezhnev to Cape Lopatka.

Almost simultaneously with the First Kamchatka expedition, the activities of the expedition of A.F. Shestakov-D. I. Pavlutsky. From Okhotsk, which was the base of the expedition, in 1729 and later three detachments were sent, acting independently. A.F. Shestakov on the ship "Vostochny Gabriel" in the fall of 1729 went to the mouth of the Penzhina. From here, his path went overland to Anadyr and Chukotka. March 14, 1730 in a skirmish with the Chukchi on the river. Egache Shestakov was killed. The remnants of his detachment returned to the Taui prison. Another detachment under the command of I. Shestakov in September 1729 set off from Okhotsk on the ship “St. Gabriel" to the south, in 1730 reached the Udsk prison and went east to the Shantar Islands. The ship entered the mouth of the Amur. A description of the southern part of the Okhotsk coast was compiled and, possibly, a drawing of this territory. The third detachment of V. A. Shestakov on the ship "Fortuna" visited four islands of the Kuril chain. Finally, in 1731, D. I. Pavlutsky from the Anadyr prison went to Chukotka. The result of his campaign, which was primarily of a military nature, was also new data on the geography of the Chukotka Peninsula.

The materials of the Shestakov-Pavlutsky expedition were reflected in the map of Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and the Penzhina (Okhotsk) Sea compiled in 1733 in Okhotsk. 114

The Shestakov-Pavlutsky expedition also included a detachment of I. Fedorov and M. S. Gvozdev, who in 1732 made a historic voyage to the shores of northwestern America on the boat “St. Gabriel". The path was made from the mouth of the river. Kamchatka to the Anadyr nose and further to the islands of Ratmanov, Kruzenshtern and to the shores of the "Great Land" (America).

On the way back, we passed by the island, which later (at the end of the 18th century) became known as King's Island. Fedorov and Gvozdev were the first Russians and other Europeans to reach northwestern America. In the map of G. F. Miller, published in 1758 and dedicated to Russian research in Siberia and the Pacific Ocean, the inscription was rightly placed against the American coast: “This one was discovered by the surveyor Gvozdev in 1730.” 115

In 1733, a new expedition was organized to Siberia and the northeast, which had the official name of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, also included in science under the name of the Great Northern Expedition (1733-1743). At the same time, some researchers (A.V. Efimov) consider the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions as two stages of the same expedition, calling it the Siberian-Pacific expedition. 116 Indeed, both expeditions were led from the same center (from the Admiralty Collegiums), were subordinate in Siberia to one chief (Bering) and had in many respects the most important tasks in common.

Four northern detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition sailed across the ocean in various areas from Arkhangelsk to Cape Bolshoi Baranov. 117 The first detachment (chiefs - Muraviev and Pavlov, later - Malygin and Skuratov) passed from Arkhangelsk to the mouth of the Ob in 1734-1737. The second detachment (chief - Ovtsyn) from the mouth of the Ob came to the mouth of the Yenisei in 1734-1737. An auxiliary detachment (headed by Pryanishnikov, Vykhodtsev) conducted route surveys on the Gydan Peninsula and in other areas of the lower reaches of the river. Obi. Later, in 1738-1742, under the command of Minin, the detachment reached Cape Sterlegov (75 ° 26 "N), named after one of the expedition members. The detachment collected valuable information about the coast east of the Yenisei, but reached the mouth 118 The third detachment (chiefs - Pronchishchev, Chelyuskin) sailed in 1735-1736 from the mouth of the Lena to the west in order to reach the mouth of the Yenisei.The detachment moved along the eastern shores of the Taimyr Peninsula and reached 77 ° 29 / N Pronchishchev and his wife died in difficult sailing conditions.The expedition returned in the summer of 1737. In 1739-1741, a detachment led by Laptev sailed off the eastern shores of the Taimyr Peninsula to Cape St. Thaddeus and made land expeditions along the peninsula.In the winter of 1742 "Chelyuskin went around the peninsula along the coast from the mouth of the Khatanga River to the N. Taimyr River, visiting for the first time the cape, which was later named after him. The fourth detachment operated east of the Lena. In 1735, the detachment, under the command of Lassenius, sailed to the mouth of the Kharaulakh River. Soon Lasse nius is dead. Under the command of Laptev, in 1736 the detachment reached Cape Buorkhaya. In 1739-1741. Laptev undertook a voyage from the mouth of the Lena to the east to Cape Bolshoi Baranov. He also examined the sea coast from the land from Indigirka east to Kolyma and west to Yana, and also studied the course of the river. Chromes and deltas of the Indigirka and Yana rivers. In 1741-1742. Laptev from the mouth of the Kolyma on sleds reached the Anadyr prison and on boats to the Gulf of Anadyr, described the river. Anadyr to the mouth, as well as its basin. A member of the detachment, Romanov, made his way from the Anadyr prison to Penzhina.

Sailing to the shores of America was carried out on the ships "St. Peter" and "St. Pavel" headed by Bering and Chirikov. Both ships left the Peter and Paul Harbor on June 4, 1741. On June 18, in heavy fog, the ships lost each other and continued their voyage separately. July 16 "St. Peter" reached the southwestern tip of about. Kayak off the coast of America. In difficult conditions of the return voyage (a strong storm), the crew of the ship was forced to land on the island, later named after Bering, and spent the winter on it. Bering died here on December 8. On August 13, 1742, the expedition members set out on a ship built from the remains of St. Peter", and arrived in Kamchatka on August 27. Chirikov at "St. Pavle" approached the shores of America (apparently, the islands of Forrester, Baker and Noyes) on July 15, 1741. On July 26, he sailed back and on October 11 of the same year returned to Peter and Paul Harbor. In June 1742, Chirikov made his second voyage to the St. Pavle" to the Aleutian Islands. 119 Sailings to Japan were carried out by Spanberg and Walton in 1738-1741. Both of them, independently of each other, reached Japan (Honshu Island) in 1739. Two other voyages were unsuccessful. Members of the Spanberg expedition (Shelting, Gvozdev, and others) also explored the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The result of these studies were descriptions of the western and northern shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, as well as the coast of Kamchatka.

The study of the nature and natural wealth of Siberia, the history and ethnography of the peoples of Siberia was entrusted to the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. It included professors Miller, Gmelin, students Krasheninnikov, Gorlanov, Tretyakov, L. Ivanov, Popov, surveyors Krasilnikov, A. Ivanov, Chekin, Ushakov, translator Yakhontov, painters Barkan and Lyursenius. Later the adjuncts Steller and Fischer, Lindenau's translator, took part in the work of the detachment.

The detachment left St. Petersburg in August 1733 along the following route: Ekaterinburg-Tobolsk-Tara-Omsk-Zhelezinskaya fortress-Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress-Kolyvan factories-Kuznetsk-Tomsk-Yeniseisk-Krasnoyarsk-Kansk-Udinsk-Irkutsk-Selenginsk-Kyakhta- Chita-Nerchinsk-Irkutsk-Ilimsk-Ust-Kuta-Yakutsk. Miller and Gmelin arrived in Yakutsk in August-September 1736, and returned to St. Petersburg in 1743.

G. F. Miller, having examined up to 20 archives of Siberian cities and prisons, collected the richest documentary material of the 17th-18th centuries. and a number of the most valuable Russian (including the Remezov chronicle), Tangut, Mongolian and other manuscripts. He also collected oral traditions of many Siberian peoples, described the rites and customs of the peoples, sketched ancient structures and inscriptions, examined ancient settlements and burial grounds, collected a collection of burial grounds, as well as a collection of clothes and various things.

The vast material collected by Miller during the expedition later formed the basis of a number of his works: “General Geography of Siberia”, “Special, or Special, Geography of Siberia”, “General Description of the Peoples of Siberia”, “Description of a Journey through Siberia”, “History of Siberia” , "Description of sea voyages in the Arctic and Eastern Seas", "History of the countries lying by the Amur River", "News of landcards relating to the Russian state with border lands", "Description of trading taking place in Siberia", etc. The first three Miller did not finish the work (they have not been published to date); many of his articles and materials were published in various editions of the 18th century. Of particular interest is the first volume of the History of Siberia. 120

Naturalist I. G. Gmelin studied the nature and flora of Siberia, kept a travel diary. The materials collected by him were processed in the works "Siberian flora" and "Journey through Siberia". 121 In the first work, Gmelin described 1178 plant species. This work was the most complete and fundamental botanical and geographical survey of Siberia for its time. The content of the second work is a description of the journey of the academic detachment, sketches of the life and culture of the Siberian peoples, materials on the trade and crafts of Siberia, as well as a number of valuable geological and natural science observations and archaeological material.

A significant contribution to the study of Siberia and Kamchatka was made by the student S. P. Krasheninnikov. In Buryatia, he studied the nature and life of peoples (Buryats and Evenks). In 1737, Krasheninnikov was sent to Kamchatka and stayed here until 1741, studying the nature of Kamchatka, its natural resources, the way of life and culture of peoples, their history and languages. The result of Krasheninnikov's selfless work under difficult conditions was his reports to Gmelin and Miller, as well as numerous descriptions and studies. Later they were summarized in the two-volume work "Description of the land of Kamchatka", which was a classic example of a comprehensive monograph on regional studies. 122

Krasheninnikov's work in Kamchatka was continued by G. Steller. He took part in Bering's voyage to St. Petre" and made a number of interesting observations on the flora and fauna of the islands off the coast of America. In Kamchatka, Steller studied nature, as well as the life and culture of the population.123

Significant work on the study of the geography and ethnography of the north-east of Siberia was carried out by J. Lindenau in 1741-1743. He compiled descriptions of Chukotka and the river. Anadyr, as well as ethnographic essays on the Yakuts, Tungus, Yukagirs, Koryaks and other peoples. Most of Lindenau's works, as well as the materials collected by I. E. Fisher (description of a journey through Yakutia, ethnographic notes about the Yakuts, etc.), remain unpublished.

The second Kamchatka expedition made a real revolution in the geography of Siberia. She made great geographical discoveries in the areas of "white spots" in the north of Siberia and in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. As a result of the study of Siberia and the islands of the seas washing it and the subsequent processing of data, descriptions of individual regions of Siberia, Kamchatka, the Kuril, Commander and Aleutian Islands were compiled. Exceptionally rich material was provided by the members of the expedition for cartography. They surveyed and mapped the shores of the Arctic Ocean from Arkhangelsk to Cape Bolshoy Baranov. Sixty-two maps were drawn up, showing many hard-to-reach and almost unexplored areas. The materials of the Second Kamchatka Expedition have been published and introduced into scientific circulation only partially. 124

Of great importance in the history of geographical discoveries were the voyages of industrialists in the 40-60s. For 1745-1764. 42 expeditions were made, including the expedition of Glotov and Ponomarev in 1758-1762. (discovery of the Fox Islands), swimming of Paikov, Polevoy and Shevyrin in 1758 (visiting the Andreyanovsky Islands group), swimming of Glotov on about. Kodiak in 1762-1763

In their reports, the participants of the expeditions described the natural conditions of the Pacific Islands and provided ethnographic information. Of particular interest are the news of A. Tolstykh about the Andreyanovsky Islands and the stories of the Cossacks Vasyutinskiy and Lazarev about the Aleuts.

Significant work was done during these years on the study of the north-east of Siberia. He carried out several expeditions in 1757-1763. Shalaurov (sailing from the mouth of the Yana to the Chaun Bay), two expeditions to the Bear Islands in 1763-1764. - S. Andreev. Leontiev, Lysov and Pushkarev also went there in 1769-1771. In 1759 (1760?) Yakut Eterikan traveled to the Lyakhovsky Islands and in 1770 - the merchant Lyakhov, who gave the first description of the islands (the islands got their name in honor of his). Kurkin's expedition to the Okhotsk coast in 1765 should also be noted. 125

Geodetic surveys and mapping of various regions of Siberia were of great importance for the geographical study of Siberia. The first geodetic surveys were organized at the beginning of the 18th century. and by the mid-40s were held in all Siberian districts. Geodetic surveys were also carried out in the 1950s and 1960s when performing various state works (establishing borders, building cities, etc.), as well as during the construction of the Tobolo-Ishimskaya (1752-1754) and Irtyshskaya (1747-1760) ) and Kolyvan (1747-1760) defensive lines. Based on geodetic surveys of southern Siberia, several maps of southern Siberia were compiled in the early 60s by F. I. Soymonov, I. Weimarn and K. Frauendorf.

Significant progress in the first half of the XVIII century. made cartography. Already in the 30-40s of the XVIII century. Siberia was displayed on the general maps of the Russian state. So, in 1731, the “New General Map of the All-Russian Empire and the Borders” was drawn up, in which the position of all the fortresses of the state was assigned. The map covered the entire territory of Russia, including Siberia. Up to 140 settlements were shown in Siberia. Along with accurate and correct data, incorrect names were also put on the map, such as “Cape Tabin”, “island. "Tatsata", "Lukomorye", etc. 126

In 1734, I.K. Kirilov compiled a general map of the Russian state, in which data from the First Kamchatka Expedition were used. In the “Russian Atlas”, published in 1745, consisting of 19 special maps representing the All-Russian Empire. ..” along with 13 maps of European Russia, there were 6 maps of Asian Russia, for which data from the Second Kamchatka Expedition were also used. Great work on compiling maps of the coasts of Siberia and sea voyages of the Second Kamchatka Expedition was carried out at the Naval Academy in the 40s. In 1746, the “General Map of the Russian Empire of the Northern and Eastern Siberian Coasts” was created. Chirikov, Malygin, D. Laptev, Kh. Laptev, Ovtsyn and others took part in the work. This summary map, which most accurately reflected the discoveries made during the Second Kamchatka Expedition, was secret and was published only in our time. In the same years, a number of other drawings and maps of the north-east of Siberia were made. Of these, one should name the most important drawings and maps of Chukotka by J. Lindenau (1742) and a participant in Pavlutsky's campaigns - T. Perevalov (1744 and 1754). Consolidated was the map of I. Shakhonsky in 1749. It covered the entire territory of Siberia east of the river. Lenas, including Chukotka, Kamchatka and the Okhotsk coast.

In the 60s, in connection with new expeditions to the northeast, maps of the voyage of Shalaurov (1769), a map of Eastern Siberia by Vertlyugov (1769), a map of the Aleutian Islands by Shishkin and Ponomarev, and others were created. Maps of the Chukotka Peninsula are of great interest. Daurkin, a Chukchi-Cossack in the Russian service.

Information about the discoveries made by the members of the Second Kamchatka Expedition became known abroad as well. They enriched Western European science with new data. Not always, however, in Western Europe material about Russian discoveries in Siberia and the Arctic and Pacific oceans was conscientiously presented. So, on the map of I. N. Delil presented to the French Academy and in his article about this map, material related to Russian discoveries was completely distorted. At the center of Delisle's "scientific publications" were fictitious news about the voyage of the Spanish admiral de Font to the shores of North America. Miller refuted Delisle's materials in the pamphlet Letter of an Officer of the Russian Fleet, published abroad. 127 In connection with this pamphlet, Miller prepared a map of Russian exploration in Siberia and the Pacific.

Of great importance for the study of Siberia in the first half of the XVIII century. had the works of I. K. Kirilov, V. de Gennin, and especially V. N. Tatishchev and M. V. Lomonosov.

I. K. Kirilov in 1727 completed his work “The Blooming State of the All-Russian State ...”, the material for which was the personal information requested by the Senate under Peter I. Among other provinces, Kirilov described the Siberian one. The work included articles “On the Kingdom of Siberia”, “On the Kings of Siberia”, “Kamchatka”, “On the Kamchatka people”, etc. Kirilov’s work contained a lot of data on the population, cities, industry, and administrative institutions. 128

In the 30s of the XVIII century. the manager of the Ural state-owned factories V. de Gennin created the fundamental work “Description of the Ural and Siberian factories”. This was the first work on the factories of the Urals and Siberia. It examined the history of factories, their technology, economic condition, etc. Of the Siberian factories, de Gennin described in detail Kolyvano-Voskresensky and Nerchinsky. 129

V. N. Tatishchev worked a lot on questions of the geography of Siberia. In 1734, he sent out a questionnaire containing 92 questions to Siberian cities. It raised not only questions on geography, but also on other branches of knowledge - ethnography, archeology, history.

Tatishchev prepared the work "General geographical description of all Siberia" (12 chapters have come down to us). In 1737, he prepared the second edition of the questionnaire "Proposal for writing Russian history and geography", which already contained 198 questions. 130 As a result of collecting data on Tatishchev's questionnaires, an extensive fund of descriptions of cities and districts of Western and Eastern Siberia, as well as Altai, was compiled, unpublished and almost unused by researchers to date. Interesting material on the geography and ethnography of Siberia is also contained in the Russian Lexicon ... by Tatishchev. 131

The studies of M. V. Lomonosov were of great importance for the study of Siberia. In particular, he studied the phenomena of subsoil permafrost in northern Siberia. In the “Brief description of various travels in the northern seas and an indication of the possible passage of the Siberian Ocean to East India,” Lomonosov gave a historical outline of attempts to pass the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific (including Russian voyages) and substantiated the possibility of this. In the same work, he gave a rationale for the possible location of the Central Polar Basin and formulated his theory of the origin of ice, devoting a special work to this topic, Discourse on the Origin of Ice Mountains in the Northern Seas. 132

According to the projects of Lomonosov, two sea expeditions to the northern waters were organized (P. I. Krenitsyna and M. D. Levashova in 1764 to survey the "unknown islands" and V. Ya. Chichagov in 1765 to find "the sea passage of the Northern Ocean to Kamchatka and beyond). Chichagov's expedition of 1765-1766, sent from Kola in the direction of Svalbard, reached 80 ° 30 "N. Thick ice blocked the further path.

In 1760, Lomonosov developed a questionnaire for studying the geography and economy of the Russian state, which was sent out by the Academy of Sciences. At the same time, Miller compiled a questionnaire for the same purposes (it was sent out by the land gentry cadet corps). The materials sent from Siberia in response to these questionnaires were not published either in the 18th century or later. At the same time, they were partially used in their writings by members of the academic expeditions of 1768-1774. Pallas, Georgi, Lepekhin and others.

Successes in the exploration and study of Siberia by the middle of the XVIII century. were so great and obvious that they gave Miller the right to proudly declare that "this remote land in the discussion of all its circumstances became more famous than the very middle of the German land to the inhabitants there." 133

Second half of the 18th century was not marked by the organization of such grandiose expeditions as the Second Kamchatka. However, the number of expeditions steadily increased, and the study of Siberia at that time made new progress. At that time, the Academy of Sciences was developing energetic work on organizing new expeditions.

In 1768-1774. a large expedition of Academician PS Pallas to the Orenburg Territory and Siberia took place. In 1770-1773. Pallas traveled through Western Siberia, was in Altai, Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia. He collected materials on geography, studied nature, studied the life, culture and languages ​​of the peoples of Siberia. 134

A member of the Pallas expedition, student VF Zuev, made an independent trip to the mouth of the Ob and to the coast of the Arctic Ocean to study the life and culture of the Khanty and Nenets. He prepared the work "Description of the peoples of other faiths Ostyaks and Samoyeds living in the Siberian province in the Berezovsky district." 135

In 1768-1773. the expedition of I. I. Lepekhin took place. Basically, the route of the expedition covered the European North, but it was partially continued in Western Siberia. Travel materials were published in four volumes of diary entries. 136

A great deal of work on the study of Siberia was carried out by the expedition of I. P. Falk in 1769-1773, which also included H. Bardanes and I. I. Georgi. The routes of Falk and Bardanes covered Western Siberia and Altai. Georgi in 1772-1774 traveled in the Urals, Altai, Baikal. It was especially important to study the lake. Baikal (shore structure, fauna, flora), as well as nature and minerals of the Baikal region. They made a map of Baikal. The materials of the expedition were presented in the work "Bemerkungen einer Reise im russischen Reiche in den Jahren 1772-1774" (2 volumes, S.-Pb., 1775).

Of great importance for the study of the ethnography of Siberia was the work of Georgi "Description of all the peoples living in the Russian state ...". (Chch. 1-3, St. Petersburg, 1776-1778). In this work, rich material was collected on the life, social relations and culture of the peoples of Siberia.

The academic expeditions of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition of the 1930s and 1940s, carried out complex work on the study of Siberia. Members of the expeditions described minerals and minerals, carried out geographical observations, studied mines and factories, studied the life and culture of peoples, and collected historical materials.

The Billings Northeast Expedition of 1785-1793, organized by the Senate, played a great role in the study of Siberia. The expedition had extensive tasks. Along with the political goals of protecting Russian possessions in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, the expedition also set important scientific goals to clarify information about the northeast of Siberia. In 1787, the expedition set off on two ships ("Pallas" and "Yasashna") from the mouth of the Kolyma to the east, but, having passed Cape Bolshoi Baranov Kamen, could not move further because of the ice. In 1789-1790. on the ship "Glory to Russia" a voyage was made from Okhotsk to Kamchatka and later to the western shores of North America. The expedition reached the islands of Umnak, Unalaska and Kodiak. Swimming in 1791 under the leadership of G. A. Sarychev passed along the ridge of the Aleutian Islands. The expedition visited the islands of Unalaska and Matveya, later passed the Bering Strait and anchored in St. Lawrence Bay. Billings at that time made an overland journey through Chukotka, with him were Dr. K. Merck and artist L. Voronin. In the history of the geographical exploration of Chukotka and the ethnographic study of the Chukchi, this journey was of outstanding importance. The work of K. Merck “Beschreibung der

and Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten fiber die Mongolische Volkerschaften, Bd. 1-2, S.-Pb. 1776-1806. The linguistic material collected by Pallas and the members of his expedition according to a specially developed program is published in the publication: Comparative Dictionaries of All Languages ​​and Dialects, vols. 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1787-1789. This included material collected by receiving answers to questions sent out by the Academy of Sciences. Tschuctschie" was the first serious study about the Chukchi that has not been published to date). Of great interest are the ethnographic drawings of L. Voronin.

The Billings-Sarychev expedition provided much valuable information about the northeast of Asia. The chief cartographer of the expedition, the outstanding researcher G. A. Sarychev, compiled a number of maps based on the materials of the expedition. Already in 1802, his map was published, summing up the mapping of northeast Asia and northwest America in the 18th century. 137

In the 1980s, in connection with the division of Siberia into governorates, work began on compiling topographic descriptions of governorates. In 1784, the “Topographic Description of the Tobolsk Viceroyalty” was compiled (remained in the manuscript), on the basis of which I.F. German compiled a “Brief Description of the Tobolsk Viceroyalty” (published in the Monthly Historical and Geographic Book for 1786). Herman's work provides information on geography (mountains, plains, rivers, lakes), natural resources (minerals), flora and fauna, and the economy (agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts, trade, etc.). Work on compiling a topographical description of the Irkutsk governorate, begun in the 80s, was completed only in the 90s. In 1789, Langans, one of the members of the topographical description commission, compiled the work “Collection of news about the beginning of the origin of various tribes in the Irkutsk province, about their legends, main events and customs” (unpublished).

Materials on Siberia (data on geography, economics, ethnography, etc.) were reflected in the 70-80s both in general maps of the Russian state and in general works on geography, statistics, and the economy of Russia. Thus, a large cartographic work carried out in all regions of the Russian Empire, including Siberia, was summarized in two general maps published in the 80s. In 1785, a general map of the Russian Empire was published, prepared by the geographical department of the Senate, and in 1786, a general map prepared by the geographical department of the Academy of Sciences. The last card is especially important. It sums up the cartographic work of the 18th century. regarding Siberia. On this map, for the first time, the paths of the northern detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition were marked.

Summing up, it should be said that the study of Siberia in the 20-80s was a qualitatively new stage. Great geographical discoveries in Siberia and its surrounding waters in the 17th century. were committed by ordinary Russian people - "explorers" - Cossacks and service people. In the 18th century, the leading role in the great geographical discoveries (the study of the Northern Sea Route, the discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, the development of the route to America) belongs to naval officers who have undergone special training, geodesists, and scientists. State institutions (the Senate, the Maritime Department, etc.) and the Academy of Sciences also played an important role in organizing the expeditions. In the survey and study of Siberia in the XVIII century. complex expeditions (the Second Kamchatka expedition, academic expeditions of the 60-80s) were of great importance. In their scope and results, these expeditions are among the most outstanding scientific enterprises in the history of world science. This is especially true for the Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition. Already contemporaries recognized it as "the most distant and difficult and never before been." 138 A. Middendorf wrote about it as "the majestic chain of the expedition." 139

It achieved outstanding success in the 18th century. cartography of Siberia. She took one of the first places in world cartographic science. It can rightfully be attributed to Euler's characterization of the Russian Atlas. ..” 1745. The maps of the atlas, - Euler noted, - “not only are much better than all previous Russian maps, but many German maps are far superior.” To this he added that "except for France, there is almost no land that would have the best maps." 140

The works of Krasheninnikov, Miller, Gmelin, Pallas and other explorers of Siberia became widely known in world science. Krasheninnikov's work "Description of the land of Kamchatka" was translated into French, English, German and Dutch. Gmelin's work on the plants of Siberia has become a reference book for botanists around the world. K. Linnaeus wrote that Gmelin "one discovered as many plants as all other botanists together." The works of Pallas, translated into French and English, were highly appreciated in world science.

The study by Russian scientists in the XVIII century. geography and nature of Siberia, life, culture and history of its peoples constituted a remarkable chapter in the history of world science.

107 Ibid., p. 31.

108 N. Ya. Saveliev. Kozma Dmitrievich Frolov...

109 N. Ya. Savel'ev. 1) In old Salair. From the history of the origin of industry in Kuzbass. Kemerovo, 1957, p. 17; 2) Altai is the birthplace of outstanding inventors. Barnaul, 1951, p. 57.

110 GAAK, f. Office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining authorities, op. 1 D. 323, fol. 257; N. Ya. S avel'ev. In old Salair, pp. 25, 26.

111 N. Ya. Savel'ev. In old Salair, pp. 21, 22.

112 L. S. Bering. The discovery of Kamchatka and the Bering expedition. M.-L., 1946, p. 83.

113 V.I. Grekov. Essays from the history of Russian geographical research in 1725-1765. M., 1960, pp. 19-44; A. I. ANDREEV Bering expeditions. Izv. VGO, vol. 75, no. 2, 1943.

114 V. I. Grekov. Essays from the history of Russian geographical research, pp. 45-54.

115 The year is not exactly indicated in the inscription. Swimming took place in 1732. See: A.V. Efimov. From the history of the great Russian geographical discoveries in the North and Pacific Oceans. M., 1950, pp. 195-197.

116 Atlas of geographical discoveries in Siberia and Northwest America. Ed. and with input. A. V. Efimova. M., 1964, p. X.

117 G. V. Yanikov and N. N. Zubov, following G. A. Sarychev, propose that only these northern detachments be called the Great Northern Expedition, but this point of view is disputed by D. M. Lebedev.

118 In the literature, sometimes this detachment of Minin is considered a separate detachment of the Great Northern Expedition, as a result of which the number of northern detachments is increased to five.

119 D. M. Lebedev. Swimming A. I. Chirikov on the packet boat “St. Pavel" to the coasts of America. M., 1951

120 G. F. Miller. Description of the Siberian kingdom and all the affairs that took place in it ... St. Petersburg, 1750. In 1937 and 1941. came out tt. I and II "History of Siberia". The publication, however, is not completed.

121 I. G Gmelin. Flora sibirica, sive historia plantarum Sibiriae. T. 1-4. Petropoli, 1747-1769, 2) Reise durch Sibirien. Tr. 1-4. Gottingen, 1751-1752.

122 S. P. Krasheninnikov. Description of the land of Kamchatka. SPb., 1755. Krasheninnikov's works and some of his other works are published only in 1 in the appendix to the new edition of Description of the Kamchatka Land.

123 The result of Steller's work was a series of capital works: G. W. Stel

1) De bestii marinis. Novi commentarii Academiae Scientiarum imp. Petropolitanae, t. 11. Petropoli, 1751; 2) Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka. Frankfurt-Leipzig, 1774, etc.

124 For an overview of the handwritten materials of the expedition members, see the book: VF Gnuchev. Materials for the history of expeditions of the Academy of Sciences in the 18th and 19th centuries. M.-L., 1940.

125 V. I. Grekov. Essays from the history of Russian geographical research. . ., Ch. V, VI; Archive of Admiral P. V. Chichagov, vol. I. St. Petersburg, 1885.

126 V. I. Grekov. Essays from the history of Russian geographical research. ... page

127 Lettre d "un oficier de la marine russienne. Paris, 1753 (the author's name was not indicated).

130 See: V. N. Tatishchev. Selected works on the geography of Russia. M., 1950.

131 N. Tatishchev. Lexicon of the Russian historical, geographical, political and civil ..., vols. 1-3. SPb., 1793. (Lexicon brought up to the letter K).

132 M. V. Lomonosov. Poly. coll. soch., vol. 6, M., 1952. A brief description of various journeys along the unfaithful seas ...; Ibid., vol. 3. Discourse on the origin of ice mountains.

133 Materials for the history of the Academy of Sciences, vol. VIII, St. Petersburg, 1895, p. 186.

136 I. I. Lepekhin. Daily notes of travel in different provinces of the Russian state, hch. 1-4. SPb., 1771-1805.

137 It came out as an appendix to the classic work of G. A. Sarychev “Journey of the fleet of Captain Sarychev through the north-eastern part of Siberia, the Arctic Sea and the Eastern Ocean for eight years, during a geographical and astronomical marine expedition, which was under the command of the fleet of Captain Billings with 178z to 1793", hch. 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1802.

138 PSZ, vol. VIII, p. 1011.

139 A. F. Middendorf. Journey to the north and east of Siberia, part I. St. Petersburg, 1o60, p. 50.

140 V. F. Gnuchev. Geographic Department of the Academy of Sciences - XVIII century. M.-L., 1946, p. 57.