Who has studied even a little the official view of history on the development of Siberia, faced with such paradoxes, for example: how did A. Dubensky's troops get to the Yenisei? And why Yeniseisk, a more northern city, was founded earlier (1619) than Krasny Yar itself (1628). Why, long before this, the hordes of Genghis Khan could reach Muscovy by land, and all the development of Siberia went along rivers and portages?
My friend on LJ bskamalov expressed a version that Ermak's trip to Siberia ran exclusively along waterways. There was not a single land section. Thoughts in the text are designed in a peculiar way, but this makes them even more interesting to read. Recommend before reading further.
If we take into account only water movements, then indeed, from the Volga through the Caspian Sea, and then through the Ural River, one can get to the southern regions of the Ural Mountains. And then, after dragging the boats some distance to the Tobol River, get into the Irtysh River and the Ob River. But further - to the east, to the Yenisei along the waterways - in no way. The closest source of the river to the Yenisei, which communicates with the Ob river, is the Ket river.
You can trace this on the map:
This is where it gets interesting. This is where the answer lies: why is Yeniseisk older than Krasnoyarsk?
It turns out that in those days there was a canal (the ancient map can be viewed at the very end of the post) connecting the Ket River with the Yenisei. And it survived, and perhaps at the end of the 19th it was reconstructed, cleared, restored anew. Although history says it was built, not rebuilt.
Promotional video:
We are talking about the Ob-Yenisei Canal, a canal connecting the Ket River (Ob basin) with the Kas River (flowing into the Yenisei)
Looking ahead, I want to point out the following point. The Kas river flows into the Yenisei far downstream than the Yeniseysk. Until Yeniseisk, the Dubensky squad had to row upstream. It would be more convenient to put the prison right at the mouth of the Kas and Yenisei rivers. But these are details. The details are that: if this is really the path of A. Dubensky and the squad, then how did he know about it? Without ancient maps of the area, you cannot walk (swim) such a distance in one season. Get lost in the ducts.
So, let's see:
The Ob-Yenisei Connecting Waterway was recognized as a natural monument in 1991. in order to preserve this unique hydraulic engineering facility. In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, it is located on the territory of the Yeniseisky District and by right could become the largest architectural and engineering structure of the Russian Federation.
This is a kind of "Suez Canal" (162 km) of Russia, surpassing its famous counterpart in length by several tens of kilometers.
The Ob-Yenisei Canal begins near the village of Ust-Ozernoye on the Ket River and ends with the mouth of the Bolshoi Kas River, 40 kilometers from the village of Yartsevo in our region. It passes through the Central Siberian Lowland, crossing the watershed of the Ob and Yenisei rivers from west to east, the area of the object is 190 hectares. The water connection goes along the rivers Ket - Ozernaya (16 km) - Lomovataya (39 km) - Yazeva (35 km) - Lake. Bolshoye (Lake Vodorazdelnoe 5 km) - brook. Kazantsevsky (dug channel 7.8 km) - Maly Kas (70 km) - Bolshoi Kas (197 km).
The history of the Ob-Yenisei Canal began in 1800, when merchants organized surveys to connect two great Siberian rivers: the Ob and the Yenisei. For 12 years, the watersheds between the taiga rivers Tym and Sym, Vakh and Eloguy, Ket and Kem were examined in order to choose the most convenient connection route. But the work on the construction of the canal was never started.
In 1875. Yenisei merchant P. E. Funtusov equipped an expedition at his own expense, which determined the most convenient connection: the Ob - Ket tributary, and the Yenisei tributary - Bolshoi Kas, using the lake located on the watershed.
The expedition of the Ministry of Railways of Russia confirmed the results of the research of the Yenisei people, and in 1878. the project of the channel was drawn up. It provided for the clearing and expansion of rivers, as well as the construction of 18 dams and 29 locks. It was assumed that vessels with a length of 44 meters, a width of 7 meters and a carrying capacity of 300 tons could pass here. The estimate of the project was 7-8 million rubles.
But the ministry, in order to save money, decided to build a canal for ships with a length of 20 meters and a carrying capacity of about 80 tons. In this case, navigation was possible only in the spring, and in the summer only small barges up to 8 tons could pass. The cost of the project was estimated at 680 thousand rubles, and the project did not provide for locks.
The construction of the canal began in 1884, 1200 people worked here, who worked in the incredibly difficult conditions of the uninhabited rugged taiga. The construction of the facility was supervised by the head of the Tomsk District of Railways Baron B. A. Aminov.
With the construction of a canal from the Yenisei on barges, one could go to the Ob, and then get to Tomsk, Barnaul and other Siberian settlements. Until 1894 only 500 tons of cargo was transported via the water connection, excluding transportation for construction. Almost immediately it became clear that there was no way to do without sluicing, and by 1898. 14 locks were built on the canal to allow barges with small steamers to pass through. Half of the locks are located on the territory of the Krasnoyarsk Territory: Aleksandrovsky, Bezymyanny, Georgievsky, Mokryaki, Maryin, Nalimny and Kasovsky. At present, several families of Old Believers live near the Kasovsky gateway, and in the village of Aleksandrovsky gateway there is a house where the engineers who supervised the construction of the object lived: Aminov, Bobensky, Chentsov and others.
The cost of building the Ob-Yenisei compound amounted to about 2 million rubles. But the rivers Ozernaya and Bolshoi Kas adjacent to the canal were only cleared of the drifts and were in their natural state, which is why the ships in these places could only pass in the spring. The walls of the locks and the dug canal are striking in their quality even today. These are many meters long larch trees, tightly fitted to each other, they are fastened with hand-forged bolts that have not rusted yet.
Taking into account the fact that at the end of the 19th century in Siberia, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was actively underway, the built canal very soon became devoid of practical importance and was abandoned. It is possible that if it had been erected according to the original project, the canal would have been used today. Moreover, it takes place in the northern latitudes of the two regions. Currently, the "Ob-Yenisei Connecting Waterway" can be used for the development of cognitive and ethnographic tourism.
Marianna Dolgopolova.
PS (USSR) Siberia is rich in such interesting and mysterious places. Only an interesting thing happened to this very Ob-Yenisei Canal, the first mention of it dates back to 1796-97 as a project. But in the notes of medieval travelers it is said that a powerful state of Tartary existed in Siberia, presumably one of the names of the Third Russia - Arta, in which such channels were not uncommon. Since I was very interested in this, I decided to study the maps of those same travelers and what do I see? On de Lille's map of the 1706 edition, compiled even earlier, I find some strange structure on the site of this very Ob-Yenisei canal. In order not to be unfounded, I cite a fragment of that very map:
The very strange structure, which is very reminiscent of the hydraulic connection of two rivers, is actually circled in red.
So what is it really? Another "divorce"? Or merchants in tsarist times “laundered” budget money in this way - after all, if the channel already existed, then the money of that, bye-bye, settled in the bottomless pockets of their caftans. Or is this another proof of deception from the "Russian Orthodox historians"? Or??????
Well, what do you think about that?
Author: sibved