It would seem that the Russian cities of the 16th century are well known to us - Vladimir, Suzdal, Ryazan, Uglich, Pskov, Novgorod, Tver, Moscow … Almost all the ancient cities remained in their places. But there was still a mysterious Russian city at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, which seemed to evaporate. It was called Mangazeya …
"Gold-boiling" Mangazeya was ruined by internal strife
The Novgorodians, who owned the entire Russian North until the 15th century, made fur the main export item. Their north stretched to the Arctic Ocean and reached the Ural Mountains. Novgorod fur miners were sent to these lands, exchanging the goods necessary for the natives for the skins of squirrels, polar foxes and sables.
Behind the skins
Muscovites were prohibited from entering the fur-rich Novgorod lands. It is not surprising that Moscow sought to destroy Novgorod and take control of the production and sale of furs. In 1478 she succeeded. Novgorod fell, the whole north was in the hands of the Muscovites. And under Ivan the Terrible, the Cossack Ataman Ermak Timofeevich began the conquest of Siberia - he was attracted not only by the gold-ore riches of the Siberian khans, but also by furs. Following Yermak, new military detachments set off to explore Siberia. On the occupied territory, they began to set up forts - small fortresses, from which later Russian Siberian cities grew. However, under Grozny, the lower reaches of the great Siberian rivers had not yet been developed. Everyone knew that the beast was visible and invisible there. There were legends about the north there. The natives gave the skins almost for nothing. And in the capital they could be sold for a lot of money. So that,as soon as Siberia began to be considered Russian, not only merchants moved there, but also peasants fleeing poverty. The former went in conjunction with the troops, imposing an unequal exchange on the natives, the latter founded temporary settlements and beat the beast in the hope of getting rich. The former mastered the south and center of Siberia, the latter strove to where the military detachments did not advance - to the very north, beyond the Arctic Circle, away from all power. There, in harsh places for life, Mangazeya was built by the decree of Boris Godunov, who was tired of the fact that his peasants were fleeing from his state to the ends of the world and instead of sowing and plowing in their homeland, they make easy money for fur, and the conquered natives do not want voluntarily pay yasak.imposing an unequal exchange on the natives, the latter founded temporary settlements and beat the beast in the hope of getting rich. The former mastered the south and center of Siberia, the latter strove to where the military detachments did not advance - to the very north, beyond the Arctic Circle, away from all power. There, in harsh places for life, Mangazeya was built by the decree of Boris Godunov, who was tired of the fact that his peasants were fleeing from his state to the ends of the world and instead of sowing and plowing in their homeland, they make easy money for fur, and the conquered natives do not want voluntarily pay yasak.imposing an unequal exchange on the natives, the latter founded temporary settlements and beat the beast in the hope of getting rich. The former mastered the south and center of Siberia, the latter strove to where the military detachments did not advance - to the very north, beyond the Arctic Circle, away from all power. There, in harsh places for life, Mangazeya was built by the decree of Boris Godunov, who was tired of the fact that his peasants were fleeing from his state to the ends of the world and instead of sowing and plowing in their homeland, they make easy money for fur, and the conquered natives do not want voluntarily pay yasak. Mangazeya was built by decree of Boris Godunov, who was tired of the fact that his peasants flee from his state to the ends of the world and, instead of sowing and plowing in their homeland, make easy money for fur, and the conquered natives do not want to voluntarily pay yasak. Mangazeya was built by decree of Boris Godunov, who was tired of the fact that his peasants flee from his state to the ends of the world and, instead of sowing and plowing in their homeland, make easy money for fur, and the conquered natives do not want to voluntarily pay yasak.
Promotional video:
Russian city beyond the Arctic circle
The reason why Godunov decided to establish a permanent trading post in the Far North was simple. Sly peasants, in order not to cross the Urals and not be exposed to unnecessary danger, acted the same way as the Pomors who discovered this fertile land of fur - they went along the Northern Sea Route. The task for the troops of Godunov was set as follows: to forever block this sea route. There will be troops - no one will dare to run for a better life. In 1600, the tsar sent a detachment from the Tobolsk prison to the lower reaches of the Taz River, consisting of the sovereign archers and Cossacks. With heavy losses, the detachment reached the river and erected a wooden fortress with an Orthodox church there. The next year, another military detachment was sent there under the command of Savluk Pushkin and Vasily Mosalsky. Around the prison a posad grew. Two years later, when things in Muscovy itself were going nowhere worse,Voivode Yuri Bulgakov set up a guest house for foreign merchants and brought with him a priest for the local church. And in 1606, after the death of Boris and False Dmitry, the new Moscow Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent there two governors - Zherebtsov and Davydov. It would seem that the Russian government was firmly established there and for centuries. The trading post turned from a temporary Ltrozhka into a regular town, built following the example of all the domestic ones on the other side of the Urals.built following the example of all domestic ones on the other side of the Urals.built following the example of all domestic ones on the other side of the Urals
For the region, where the natives had neither villages nor cities, only temporary camps, the settlement in the lower reaches of the Taz River was huge. The center of the trading post was occupied by a wooden Kremlin, surrounded by wooden walls, it housed the most important buildings of the city - the courtyard of the governor, the then executive authority - a hut, a prison and, of course, the temple of God. Around the Kremlin there was a posad: in its privileged part there were a gostiny dvor, merchant houses, a customs house for foreign guests and several churches with a chapel, and in the unprivileged part there were craft workshops and craftsmen's houses. The city grew rapidly, as the fur trade brought unprecedented income to the treasury. Among the foreign merchants were the English, the Dutch, and the Germans, who were also eager to get rich quick. About 100 thousand sable skins were exported to Europe per year. Everyone hunted the beast - the natives, the archers with the Cossacks, and the eager people from the fugitive peasants. The trading post seemed to have a great future. It was not for nothing that the town, which received the incomprehensible name of Mangazeya, was called "golden boiling" at that time.
With one stroke of the pen
Mangazeya was a paradise for enterprising people. After its foundation, it immediately got on the geographic maps of that time. Inhabitants of those places in the signatures to the Big Drawing of the Russian land are called Molgonzees. The ancestral name of the Enets, who previously belonged to this territory, was Mongkasi, so the trading station was named simply by the self-name of the native inhabitants. But to the Russian ear, the name of the city sounded fabulously enticing. It is no wonder that legends immediately began to circulate about this place. Fish, they said, there you can scoop out of the water with your hands. The animals there do not know what weapons are, and they themselves go into hands. There is no shortage of people there. In Russian folklore, Mangazeya has been preserved under the name Lukomorye. An absolutely fabulous land. The people populated it with miracles, planted lush-leaved trees there, covered with fruit all year round.
Although in fact the living conditions in Mangazeya were monstrous. The city, although it had no shortage of meat and fish, had neither its own bread nor its vegetables. Products to Mangazeya had to be imported from agricultural areas. Sometimes, due to lack of food, there would be famine. Since 1620, there was no longer any hope for the help of foreign merchants. Mikhail Romanov, unexpectedly for the Mangazeans, led a complete ban on the use of the Northern Sea Route. So he, apparently, wanted to eliminate foreign competition and force foreigners to trade not directly with the trading post, but through Moscow. In addition, by this decree, he blocked access to Mangazeya for Pomors and fugitives from the European part of the country. So now, if there was hunger, there was nowhere to wait for help.
But Mangazeya was not only threatened by hunger. Beasts that were not previously afraid of people with weapons have now become secretive. They became less and less every year, since they were killed in such numbers that they could not restore their numbers. The recent paradise became hell - incomes began to fall, living conditions only worsened. Local residents began to respond to Russian violence with disobedience and rebellions.
Dig up the past
Ordinary Mangazeans, who did not have fabulous fur incomes, felt deceived. Moreover, between the voivods, who were assigned to the trading post in two, a terrible squabble began, which reached an armed confrontation. The Mangazeyans endured, endured and could not endure: they removed both governors from managing the trading post and began to self-govern. It is not known for certain, but just after the “single recording” that deprived the governor of power, a monstrous fire broke out in Mangazeya, which destroyed most of the city. And in 1642 - another fire that burned what was left. Only those who had nowhere to go were left in Mangazeya. But they could not survive the hardships of the polar life. 20 years later, not a single inhabitant remained in the "golden-boiling" Mangazeya. The desolation was complete. Realizing that the trading post cannot be restored, and given the fact that the beast for which it was settled,practically exterminated, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich abolished the city with one stroke of the pen. It happened in 1672. Thus, Mangazeya existed for exactly 72 years.
Until the end of the 19th century, Mangazeya was considered a mythical city. In 1862-1863, Kushelevsky's expedition managed to determine the approximate location of the “lost city”. In the summer of 1914, on the eve of the war, the biologist Shutov managed to bring some archaeological material from Tagarev settlement. The systematic study of Mangazeya began only in 1968. Archaeologist Belov has excavated Mangazeya for four archaeological seasons. It is thanks to these excavations that we know how it looked in the 17th century.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 17, Nikolay Kotomkin