Dezhnev Semyon Ivanovich (about 1605 - death of 1673) - Russian polar explorer, navigator-discoverer, Cossack chieftain, explorer of North and East Siberia, North America. The first of the famous European navigators, in 1648, 80 years earlier than Vitus Bering, discovered the strait between Asia and North America (now the Bering Strait) and founded the first Russian settlement in Chukotka - the Anadyr prison. A cape, which is the northeastern tip of Eurasia, an island in the Laptev Sea, islands in the Nordenskjold archipelago (Kara Sea) and other geographical objects, are named after Dezhnev.
early years
Information about Dezhnev is available only from 1638 to 1671. A native of Pomor peasants, he was born in Veliky Ustyug; when Semyon Ivanovich came to Siberia is unknown. In Siberia, he first served in Tobolsk, and then in Yeniseisk, from where in 1638 he moved to the Yakutsk prison, just founded in the neighborhood of the still unconquered tribes of foreigners.
Cossack service
The service in Yakutsk was difficult for the first couple of years. Semyon Dezhnev was an ordinary Cossack, a modest salary was not paid for years. The servicemen had nothing to buy a dress and shoes for. Dezhnev began to engage in fur business and acquired a farm. Soon he married a Yakut Abakayada Syuchu. From this marriage, his son Lyubim was born, who over time will also begin to carry out the Cossack service in Yakutsk.
Collection of yasak by the Cossacks.
Promotional video:
Beginning in 1640, Semyon repeatedly took part in campaigns in Eastern Siberia. On these campaigns, he most often was a yasak collector (tax collector mainly with furs), while he often had the opportunity to reconcile tribes that were at war with each other. Dezhnev's entire service in Yakutsk was often associated with danger to life; for 20 years of service here, he was wounded 9 times.
1641 - Semyon Ivanovich, with a party of 15 people, collected a tribute on the Yana River and was able to deliver it to Yakutsk, having withstood a fight with a gang of 40 people on the way. 1642 - he, together with Stadukhin, was sent to collect tribute on the Oyemokon River (now Oymyakon), from where he descended into the Indigirka River, and along it went into the Arctic Ocean, then reached the Alazeya and Kolyma rivers. So in the summer of 1643, Dezhnev, as part of a detachment of explorers under the command of Mikhail Stadukhin, discovered the Kolyma River.
Discovery of the Bering Strait
In Kolyma, Semyon served until the summer of 1647, and after that he was included as a yasak collector in Fedot Popov's fishing expedition. 1648, summer - Popov and Dezhnev went to sea on 7 kochi.
The expedition went to sea with 90 people. Part of it soon separated, but the three kochas, with Dezhnev and Popov, continued to head east, turned south in August, and entered the Bering Strait in early September. Then they had a chance to go around the "Big Stone Nose", where one of the kochis was smashed, and on September 20, some circumstances forced them to land ashore, where F. Popov was wounded in the battle with the Chukchi and Dezhnev remained the only chief.
Having passed the strait and, of course, not even understanding the full significance of his discovery, Dezhnev went with his companions further south, along the coast; but the storms broke the last two koch and carried Dezhnev across the sea until he was washed ashore.
Under the "Big Stone Nose" Dezhnev should mean Cape Chukotsky, as the only one whose location fits the description of the sailor. This circumstance, together with the indication of Semyon Ivanovich (in a petition in 1662) that his koch was thrown "beyond the Anadyr River", confirms for Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev the honor of the first explorer of the strait, named by James Cook the Bering Strait only out of ignorance of Dezhnev's feat.
Foundation of the Anadyr prison
Having suffered a wreck, Dezhnev for ten weeks walked with 25 companions to the mouth of the Anadyr River, where another 13 people died, and with the rest he overwintered here and in the summer of 1649, on newly built boats, climbed the river 600 kilometers, to the first settlements foreigners whom he explained. Here, on the middle reaches of the Anadyr River, a winter hut was set up, later called the Anadyr prison. 1650 - a party of Russians from Nizhne-Kolymsk arrived here by dry route; Dezhnev (1653) also used this route, which was more convenient than the sea route, to send the walrus bone and "soft junk" he collected to Yakutsk.
The further fate of the sailor. Death
1659 - Semyon Ivanovich surrendered the command over the Anadyr prison and servicemen, but did not leave the region until 1662, when he returned to Yakutsk. In Yakutsk, he delivered a large cargo of "bone treasury". With this luggage the sailor was sent to Moscow, he arrived there in January 1664. In Moscow, in the Siberian order, Dezhnev was able to procure his salary for many years of service in Eastern Siberia. By decree of the tsar, it was decided: "… for Eve, Senkina, service and for the mine of a fish tooth, for bone and for wounds to turn into chieftains."
Returning to Eastern Siberia, the explorer served for some time in winter huts on the Olenek, Vilyui and Yana rivers.
1671, December - for the second time he came from Yakutsk to Moscow, this time with a "sable treasury." In the capital, he lingered, apparently, fell ill. He died in Moscow in 1673.
Monument to S. I. Dezhnev.
The value of discoveries
The main merit of the polar explorer is that he opened the passage from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The sailor described this route and made a detailed drawing of it. Despite the fact that the maps developed by Semyon Ivanovich were very simplified, with approximate distances, they were of great practical importance. The strait, discovered by Semyon Ivanovich, became an accurate evidence that Asia and America are separated by the sea. In addition, the expedition led by Semyon Dezhnev first reached the mouth of the Anadyr River, where walrus deposits were discovered.
1736 - Dezhnev's forgotten reports were first discovered in Yakutsk. It is clear from them that the navigator did not see the shores of America. It should be noted that 80 years after Dezhnev, Bering's expedition visited the southern part of the strait, which confirmed the discovery of Semyon Ivanovich. 1778 - James Cook visited these parts, who knew, as mentioned above, only about Bering's expedition of the first half of the 18th century. It was at Cook's suggestion that this strait was named Bering.