Very little documentary evidence has survived about the very first explorers of the 17th century. But already from the middle of this “golden age” of Russian colonization of Siberia, “expedition leaders” compiled detailed “skats” (that is, descriptions), a kind of reports on the routes taken, the open lands and the peoples inhabiting them. Thanks to these "tales" the country knows its heroes and the main geographical discoveries that they made.

Chronological list of Russian explorers and their geographical discoveries in Siberia and the Far East

Fedor Kurbsky

In our historical mind, the first "conqueror" of Siberia is, of course, Yermak. It became a symbol of the Russian breakthrough to the eastern expanses. But it turns out that Yermak was not the first at all. 100 (!) years before Yermak, the Moscow governors Fyodor Kurbsky and Ivan Saltykov-Travin entered the same lands with troops. They followed a path that was well known to the Novgorod "guests" and industrialists.

In general, the entire Russian north, the Subpolar Urals and the lower reaches of the Ob were considered the Novgorod patrimony, from where the enterprising Novgorodians “pumped” precious junk for centuries. And the local peoples were formally considered Novgorod vassals. Control over the vast wealth of the Northern Territories was the economic basis for the military seizure of Novgorod by Moscow. After the conquest of Novgorod by Ivan III in 1477, not only the entire North, but also the so-called Yugra land, went to the Moscow principality.

The dots show the northern route that the Russians followed to Yermak

In the spring of 1483, the army of Prince Fyodor Kurbsky climbed the Vishera, crossed the Ural Mountains, went down the Tavda, where he defeated the troops of the Pelym principality - one of the largest Mansi tribal associations in the Tavda river basin. Going further to the Tobol, Kurbsky ended up in the "Siberian Land" - that was the name of a small area in the lower reaches of the Tobol, where the Ugric tribe "Sypyr" had long lived. From here, the Russian army passed along the Irtysh to the middle Ob, where the Ugric princes successfully “fought”. Having collected a large yasak, the Moscow detachment turned back, and on October 1, 1483, Kurbsky's squad returned to their homeland, having covered about 4.5 thousand kilometers during the campaign.

The results of the campaign were the recognition in 1484 by the "princes" of Western Siberia of dependence on the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the annual payment of tribute. Therefore, starting from Ivan III, the titles of the Grand Dukes of Moscow (later transferred to the royal title) included the words " Grand Duke Yugorsky, Prince Udorsky, Obdorsky and Kondinsky.

Vasily Suk And n

He founded the city of Tyumen in 1586. On his initiative, the city of Tobolsk was founded (1587). Ivan Suk And he was not a pioneer. He was a high-ranking Moscow rank, governor, sent with a military detachment to help Yermakov's army to "finish off" Khan Kuchum. He laid the foundation for the capital arrangement of Russians in Siberia.

Cossack Penda

Discoverer of the Lena River. Mangazeya and Turukhansky Cossack, a legendary figure. He made a detachment of 40 people from Mangazeya (a fortified prison and the most important trading point of Russians in North-Western Siberia (1600-1619) on the Taz River). This man made a campaign, unprecedented in its determination, thousands of miles across completely wild places. Legends about Penda were passed from mouth to mouth among the Mangazeya and Turukhansk Cossacks and fishermen, and came to historians in almost their original form.

Penda with like-minded people went up the Yenisei from Turukhansk to the Lower Tunguska, then for three years he walked to its upper reaches. I got to the Chechuy portage, where Lena comes very close to the Lower Tunguska. So what is next, crossed the portage, he sailed down the Lena River to the place where the city of Yakutsk was later built: from where he continued his way along the same river to the mouth of the Kulenga, then along the Buryat steppe to the Angara, where, having entered the ships, through the Yeniseisk, the packs arrived in Turukhansk».

Petr Beketov

Sovereign's service man, voivode, explorer of Siberia. Founder of a number of Siberian cities such as Yakutsk, Chita, Nerchinsk. He came to Siberia voluntarily (he asked to be sent to the Yenisei jail, where he was appointed a shooter centurion in 1627). Already in 1628-1629 he participated in the campaigns of the Yenisei service people up the Angara. He walked a lot along the tributaries of the Lena, collected yasak, brought the local population under Moscow's control. He founded several sovereign jails on the Yenisei, Lena and in Transbaikalia.

Ivan Moskvitin

The first of the Europeans went to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The first to visit Sakhalin. Moskvitin began his service in 1626 as an ordinary Cossack of the Tomsk prison. He probably participated in the campaigns of Ataman Dmitry Kopylov to the south of Siberia. In the spring of 1639 he set off from Yakutsk to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk with a detachment of 39 servicemen. The goal was the usual one - "the mine of new lands" and new obscure (that is, not yet taxed) people. Moskvitin's detachment went down the Aldan to the Mai River and seven weeks went up the Maya, six days went from Maya to the portage by a small river, they went one day by portage and reached the Ulya River, eight days went down the Ulya with a plow, then, having made a boat to the sea, sailed for five days.

Results of the campaign: The coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk was discovered and explored for 1300 km, the Uda Bay, Sakhalin Bay, the Amur Estuary, the mouth of the Amur and Sakhalin Island. In addition, they brought with them to Yakutsk a large prey in the form of fur yasak.

Ivan Stadukhin

The discoverer of the Kolyma River. He founded the Nizhnekolymsky prison. He explored the Chukotka Peninsula and was the first to enter the north of Kamchatka. Passed on the cochs along the coast and described one and a half thousand kilometers of the northern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. He kept records of his "circular" trip, described and drew up a drawing-map of the places of Yakutia and Chukotka, where he visited.

Semyon Dezhnev

Cossack chieftain, explorer, traveler, navigator, explorer of Northern and Eastern Siberia, as well as a fur trader. Participated in the opening of Kolyma as part of the detachment of Ivan Stadukhin. From Kolyma, on horseback, he traveled across the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of Chukotka. 80 years before Vitus Bering, the first European in 1648 crossed the (Bering) Strait separating Chukotka and Alaska. (It is noteworthy that V. Bering himself did not manage to go through the entire strait, but had to confine himself to only its southern part!

Vasily Poyarkov

Russian explorer, Cossack, explorer of Siberia and the Far East. The discoverer of the Middle and Lower Amur. In 1643 46 he led a detachment that was the first Russian to penetrate the Amur River basin and discover the Zeya River and the Zeya Plain. Gathered valuable information about the nature and population of the Amur region

1649-1653

Erofei Khabarov

A Russian industrialist and entrepreneur, he traded furs in Mangazeya, then moved to the upper reaches of the Lena, where from 1632 he was engaged in buying up furs. In 1639, he discovered salt springs on the Kut River and built a brewery, and then contributed to the development of agriculture there.

In 1649-53, with a detachment of eager people, he made a trip along the Amur from the confluence of the Urka River into it to the very lower reaches. As a result of his expedition, the Amur indigenous population accepted Russian citizenship. He often acted by force, which left a bad reputation among the indigenous population. Khabarov compiled a “Drawing on the Amur River”. The Khabarovka military post founded in 1858 (since 1893 - the city of Khabarovsk) and the railway station Erofey Pavlovich (1909) are named after Khabarov.

Vladimir Atlasov

Cossack Pentecostal, clerk of the Anadyr prison, "an experienced polar explorer", as they would say now. Kamchatka was, one might say, his goal and dream. The Russians already knew about the existence of this peninsula, but none of them had yet penetrated the territory of Kamchatka. Atlasov, using borrowed money, at his own risk organized an expedition to explore Kamchatka in early 1697. Taking an experienced Cossack Luka Morozko, who had already been in the north of the peninsula, into the detachment, he set out from the Anadyr prison to the south. The purpose of the campaign was traditional - furs and the accession of new "unclaimed" lands to the Russian state.

Atlasov was not the discoverer of Kamchatka, but he was the first Russian who traveled almost the entire peninsula from north to south and from west to east. He compiled a detailed "tale" and a map of his journey. His report contained detailed information about the climate, flora and fauna, as well as the amazing sources of the peninsula. He managed to persuade a significant part of the local population to come under the authority of the Moscow Tsar.

For the annexation of Kamchatka to Russia, Vladimir Atlasov, by decision of the government, was appointed there as a clerk. The campaigns of V. Atlasov and L. Morozko (1696-1699) were of great practical importance. These people discovered and annexed Kamchatka to the Russian state, laid the foundation for its development. The country's government, represented by Tsar Peter Alekseevich, already then understood the strategic importance of Kamchatka for the country and took measures to develop it and consolidate it on these lands.

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again Travelers of the Age of Discovery

Vladimir Atlasov occupies a prominent place among Russian explorers. In 1696, at the head of a detachment of Cossacks, he made a trip to Kamchatka and with this basically completed the discovery of Siberia by the Russians, for the first time reporting completely reliable information about the nature and population of the peninsula.

Like most of the brave Russian explorers, the Atlasovs came from the northern regions of European Russia. Not from a good life, the family of Vladimir Atlasov left Usolye Kamskoye and moved to live in Siberia. The harsh land met them inhospitably. Need and here drove the Atlasovs further and further into the depths of Siberia. Atlasov's young years were spent wandering around the cities and prisons located along the banks of the great Lena. Before entering "the sovereign's service" in the Yakut garrison, he hunted sable in the vicinity.

In the new field, the young Cossack was distinguished by endurance, courage, resourcefulness and ingenuity. These qualities, and besides, remarkable organizational skills, markedly distinguished Atlasov from among his associates. More than once he was sent to the capital of the Russian state, Moscow, to accompany the precious "sovereign's sable treasury." For this trip, in conditions of almost complete impassability, through mountain passes and along the rapids of the Yenisei and Ob, only the strongest and most enduring Cossacks were selected.

Atlasov also participated in campaigns east of Yakutsk, on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, served on the Maya River and along the southern borders of the Yakutsk Voivodeship, in Dauria, where he collected yasak from the peoples who inhabited this vast region.

The Yakut governor noticed Atlasov and, having awarded him the title of Pentecostal, in 1695 appointed him as a clerk in one of the most remote prisons - in the "backbone region" on the Anadyr River. The governor gave the new head of the Anadyr Territory the usual order in such cases: "to seek new lands."

At the head of a detachment, which consisted of only 13 Cossacks, at the end of the summer of 1695, Atlasov set out on a difficult and dangerous campaign to the extreme northeast, to Anadyrsk. The detachment arrived at its destination only eight months later, on April 29, 1696.

From the stories of experienced Cossacks, Atlasov learned that somewhere in the south lies a vast land. Then he collected among the local population of the Nymylans (Koryaks) and Yukagirs information about this large and rich in fur country, the first rumors about which were brought to Yakutsk by Dezhnev. To verify the conflicting information reported by the Cossacks who visited Kamchatka, a detachment of Cossacks was sent under the command of Luka Morozko, who, having reached Kamchatka and visited its northern part, collected yasak from the local population and soon returned to Anadyr. Morozko left a small detachment of Cossacks in Kamchatka and thus laid the foundation for permanent Russian settlements in this region.

Inspired by the success of Morozko's reconnaissance campaign, Atlasov gathered a detachment of 60 Cossacks, and even took the same number of Yukaghirs, and on December 14, 1696 set out on a campaign, with the goal of passing and finally annexing the Kamchatka lands to the Russian state. At that time, a detachment of 120 people for the sparsely populated extreme north-east of the country was a large military force. Taking with him most of the Cossacks, Atlasov put the Anadyr prison under the threat of attack by the Yukaghir and Chukchi. And only the success of Atlasov's Kamchatka campaign prevented an uprising of the yasak population.

Having crossed the Nalgim Range, the detachment reached the Penzhina River and soon reached its mouth. Large Nymylan villages met here, and olyutors lived a little further, who had never seen Russians before. Further, Atlasov's detachment went along the coast of Penzhinsky Bay along the road laid already by Morozko. At first, the Cossacks moved along the western coast of the peninsula, then part of them moved to the east and went to the Kamchatka River.

Having reached the Golygina River, Atlasov carefully examined the sea horizon to the south of Kamchatka and noticed that "beyond the overpasses, there seem to be islands." He saw, in all likelihood, the island of Alaid, one of the majestic volcanoes in the ridge of the Kuril Islands.

With difficulty overcoming numerous rivers, swamps and wooded mountains, Atlasov's detachment then went to the Kamchatka River. Here, in the river valley, there were villages whose inhabitants were at an extremely low cultural level. Atlasov told about them: “And their winter yurts are earthen, and summer ones are on poles, three sazhens high from the ground, paved with boards and covered with spruce bark, and they go to those yurts by stairs.” Atlasov founded a prison on the Kamchatka River, calling it Upper Kamchatka. Here he left 15 servicemen who, having lived in prison for about three years and without receiving any help from Anadyrsk, went north, but on the way, in battle with the Nymylans, they all died on the battlefield.

Returning to Anadyr, Atlasov soon went to Yakutsk, where he arrived in the summer of 1700, reporting to the governor about bringing the new land of Kamchatka "under the high sovereign's hand." The governor sent Atlasov, along with the expensive Kamchatka and Chukchi furs he had brought, to Moscow. Here, in the Siberian order, the significance of the Kamchatka campaign was appreciated: Atlasov was granted the title of Cossack centurion and was generously awarded.

In the Siberian order, Atlasov's colorful and reliable stories about the nature and wealth of new lands were recorded. Since Atlasov was a very observant person, these "tales" of his are not only of historical interest, but are also vivid geographical descriptions that are not devoid of artistry. Here is how, for example, he describes some of the features of the nature of Kamchatka: “And from the mouth to go up the Kamchatka river for a week there is a mountain - like a stack of bread, much large and high, and another near it is like a haystack and much high: from it in the afternoon there is smoke, and at night there are sparks and a glow. And the Kamchadals say: if a person ascends to half of that mountain, and there he hears a great noise and thunder, which is impossible for a person to endure: ... And the winter in the Kamchatka land is warm compared to Moscow, and the snows are small, and in the Kuril foreigners the snow is less. .. And the sun in Kamchatka lasts a long day, twice as close to Yakutsky ...

And in the Kamchatka and Kuril lands, berries - lingonberries, wild garlic, honeysuckle - are smaller in size than raisins and are sweet against raisins ... Yes, the berries grow on the grass a quarter from the ground, and the size of that berry is slightly smaller than a chicken egg, it looks like a mature green, and the taste is like raspberries, and the seeds in it are small, like in raspberries ... But I didn’t see any vegetables on the trees ...

And the trees grow small cedars, the size of a juniper, and there are nuts on them. And there are a lot of birch, larch, and spruce forests on the Kamchatka side, and on the Penzhina side, along the rivers, there are birch and aspen forests ...

The Koryaks are hollow-bearded, have a fair-haired face, are of medium height, and have no faith, but they have their own Sheman brothers - they beckon above what they need, beat a tambourine and shout ...

And in the Kamchadal and Kuril lands it is hard to plow bread, because the places are warm and the lands are black and soft, only there is no livestock, and there is nothing to plow on, and foreigners do not know how to sow anything.

But whether there are silver ores or any other, he doesn’t know, and he doesn’t know any ores ... "

Again, Atlasov appeared in Kamchatka only in 1707, when it was already firmly attached to Russia. He was appointed Kamchatka clerk.

For a long time Atlasov was considered the "discoverer of Kamchatka". It has only recently been established that Fedot Popov, one of Dezhnev's companions in his voyage around the northeastern tip of Asia, was in 1648 near the eastern coast of Kamchatka and that Popov wintered here. In addition, it has been established that later than Popov, but before Atlasov, Anadyr Cossacks, including the aforementioned Luka Morozko, visited Kamchatka.

This does not detract from the merits of Atlasov, who discovered Kamchatka to the fullest, assigning it to Russia and reporting his discovery to Moscow. By the way, Atlasov was the first to report the existence of the northern Kuril Islands.

Atlasov's merits lie not only in the annexation of the new Kamchatka lands to Russia, but also in the fact that he was the first explorer of the nature of this peculiar and rich region. According to L. S. Berg, “none of the Siberian explorers XVIIand start XVIIIcentury, not excluding Bering himself, does not give such meaningful reports as Vladimir Atlasov's "skats" are.

Source---

Domestic physical geographers and travelers. [Essays]. Ed. N. N. Baransky [and others] M., Uchpedgiz, 1959.

How Cossacks fought Kamchatka

The biography of the Cossack ataman Vladimir Atlasov, who conquered the Kamchatka Peninsula in heavy battles with the Itelmens and Koryaks, is capable of surpassing the most stormy biography of any of the conquistadors or conquerors of the Wild West in terms of plot dynamics. In just two and a half years, Atlasov annexed to the possessions of Muscovite Rus' the richest lands, two and a half times larger than the territory of modern France. The death of the “Kamchatka Yermak”, as the poet Alexander Pushkin called the Cossack pioneer, was predetermined not by his military defeat, but by the mediocre administration of the Yakut prison voivodship.

The feat of ataman Kamchaty

In St. Petersburg Russia throughout the 18th and half of the 19th centuries it was somehow not customary to study the national historical heritage of Siberia and the Far East. If they tried to do this noble deed, then, oddly enough, they did it either ethnic Germans, or Ukrainians (called Little Russians at that time), or Russian noblemen exiled to Siberia, who finally gained from being in the imperial shackles of the “Russian spirit” .

The situation with the study of the historical heritage of Russian Asia begins to change significantly in a positive direction only in the second half of the 19th century. It was during this period that colossal information from the documents of the Discharge and Siberian orders of Muscovy at the end of the 16th - the first half of the 17th centuries entered the scientific circulation.

A huge part of the work on the disclosure of authentic historical sources of late Muscovy for scientific thought was done by the historian-archivist Nikolai Nikolaevich Ogloblin, a descendant of the Zaporizhzhya colonel Stepan Oglobli. Having received an education at the Kyiv Theological Academy and the Archaeological Institute, Nikolai Ogloblin moved to Moscow and for almost a quarter of a century worked on compiling inventories-reviews of old documents of the Discharge and Siberian orders.

Mainly thanks to the works of Nikolai Ogloblin, who published in 1894 the book "On the biography of Vladimir Atlasov" - the first study of the difficult fate of the Kamchatka ataman, we have a more or less detailed idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhow the conquest of the "Kamchatka land" went on.

Little is known about the initial biography of Vladimir Atlasov. Different researchers name not only different dates of birth of the great Cossack, but also his different patronymics - Timofeevich, Vasilyevich and Vladimirovich. Apparently, only his Don Cossack origin can be recognized as a truly reliable fact. Atlasov was born near the Yakut prison, which was inhabited in the second half of the 17th century by Cossacks who came out mainly from the Don.

The Cossacks matured early: already at the age of twenty, Vladimir Atlasov began to go with Cossack detachments to tributary and fishing raids on the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk. From 1682 to 1688 the future pioneer of Kamchatka went on military expeditions several times.

Ataman qualities of Vladimir Atlasov also appeared early. Already in 1688, he was appointed clerk (practically governor) of the Anadyr prison. Here he stayed for six years, and in 1694 he returned to Yakutsk with a treasury. Immediately upon arrival at the prison, Atlasov began to convince the local governor Ivan Petrovich Gagarin to send a military expedition to conquer the lands lying along the coast of the Bering Sea south of Anadyr. Atlasov said that, according to the information he collected, twenty days' journey from Anadyr began some kind of large land, very rich in furs and fish, stretching far to the south.

Atlasov was not the first to tell the Yakut administrators about the wealth of Kamchatka. Back in the period from 1658 to 1659, the Don Cossack Ivan Ivanovich Kamchaty found a land route to this unknown country. From the Okhotsk Gizhiga, Kamchatka passed along the western coast of the peninsula to the Lesnaya River, which flows into the Shelikhov Bay. Along this river, the Cossacks of Kamchatny went up - up to the Sredinny Range, crossed onto its eastern slope and went down the Karage River to the Karaginsky Bay.

On the coast of this bay, Ataman Kamchatka did not find walrus haulouts (and it was walrus ivory that was searched for), but he received reliable information from local Koryak natives about the presence of some kind of abounding land in the south. Returning to Gizhiga, Ivan Kamchaty immediately began to collect a new expedition to the southeast.

In 1660-1661, going south along the slopes of the Sredinny Ridge, Ataman Kamchaty discovered a deep river, abundant in fish, with its upper reaches deep into the peninsula. The Cossacks, in memory of the successful atamanship of Ivan Kamchaty, called this river Kamchatka.

The uprising of the Lamut-Evens. Source: Nikolai Fomin / deviantart.com Lamut-Even uprising. Source: Nikolai Fomin / deviantart.com

The way to Kamchatka, it would seem, had already been found, but in the late winter of 1661, misfortune happened. Suppressing the armed uprising of the Lamuts-Evens (according to a common but erroneous opinion - the Yukaghirs), the entire detachment of Ivan Kamchaty was ambushed and was exterminated by the Lamuts. Opened, it was, the door to Kamchatka - again slammed shut.

“And you took a powder potion for bonded receipts ...”

Voivode Ivan Petrovich Gagarin was a bright man of his time: a stern disposition, but smart, immensely powerful, but able to appreciate the same powerful people of a lower social rank, an avid champion of the interests of his pocket, but well aware of the state interest. Having asked Vladimir Atlasov in detail about his "Kamchatka" plans, the Yakut governor promised the Cossack the widest possible assistance.

Unfortunately, government support did not follow. The Moscow administration unexpectedly changed the Yakut governor. The new governor, Mikhail Arsenyev, was a man of a completely different type: secretive, overcautious, secretly burdened by his new position in the Asian east and considering it only as a stepping stone to a further career.

Anticipating the undoubted danger of the Kamchatka campaign, the voivode Arseniev was constantly bustling, professionally playing for time, not forbidding, but not helping Atlasov's plan in any way. In principle, this was the traditional policy of relations between the Siberian voivodes and the Cossacks: if the Cossacks won and brought “new lands” and rich yasak to the authorities, the next voivode, of course, succumbed to this. If the Cossacks died in their military raids and there was a “loss in service people” - then the voivode, of course, had nothing to do with it, since the Cossacks are free people, sometimes they don’t even ask the voivode.

As a result, Mikhail Arseniev did not give any funds for Atlasov's military expedition.

The Cossack chieftain gathered people and equipment for a trip to Kamchatka at his own peril and risk. Already during the organization of this first campaign, Atlasov's tough style of raising money for organizing his raids began to be developed.

At first, the ataman tried verbally to interest the Yakut moneybags in the future "great profits" from the Kamchatka lands. Then he began to borrow money for gunpowder, lead and equipment. In his subsequent “reply” about the campaign, Atlasov pointed out: “... And many people in that country endured the needs - there was a great loss in gunpowder and lead, but shooting was necessary. And then you took a powder potion for bonded receipts.

In preparation for the campaign, the breadth of Atlasov's soul, the complete absence of stinginess and penny in his mentality, was clearly manifested. From the clerk Ivan Kharitonov, he borrowed 160 rubles on personal receipt (a very large amount for that time!), He bought gunpowder, lead and other necessary supplies with this money and distributed it all to his Cossacks free of charge. Then he borrowed more gunpowder and lead from the merchant Mikhail Ostafyev "in bondage for 120 red foxes", and again distributed this ammunition to his people. True, this time under the obligation of subsequent compensation with furs. During this period, Vladimir Atlasov developed, apparently, a persistent dislike for the Russian merchants, a desire, and a skill, appeared, according to the old Cossack custom, to forcefully "blown" their money and supplies for the common Cossack benefit.

Unblocking blow of the Cossack Morozko

At the beginning of 1697, Ataman Atlasov set out on deer towards the passes to the Penzhina River. By the standards of the then Cossack campaigns in the east of Russian Asia, this was a large detachment: about 125 people, of which about half were ancestral Cossacks, and the rest were Yukaghir reindeer mushers.

The Cossacks moved quickly - after two and a half weeks, having covered almost 700 kilometers of the way, Atlasov reached the Penzhinskaya Bay and here he took yasak from the local Koryaks "kindly and with greetings". Then the detachment moved south - to the "Kamchatka nose".

After some time, in the valley of the Tigil River, Atlasov divided his detachment into two parts: a slightly smaller one went with him along the western coast of Kamchatka, and the other, under the command of foreman Luka Morozko, having crossed the Sredinny Ridge, moved along the eastern coast of the peninsula.

The Koryaks from the surrounding camps immediately took advantage of the ataman's tactical mistake. On a dead winter night, they attacked Atlasov's camp, but the Cossack patrol managed to notice the movement of hundreds of teams across the tundra and the Cossacks met the onslaught of the Koryaks fully armed.

There was a fierce battle - three Cossacks were killed, several dozen, including Vladimir Atlasov himself, were injured.

Koryaks under a volley of Cossack muskets. Source: ganjobio.ru

In the morning, the detachment moved to a high ravine near the river and the besieged began to erect the walls of the defensive "walk-city" from the crusted snow. The Koryaks went on the attack several times, trying to interfere with the construction, but each time they rolled away with heavy losses. By evening, more than two thousand “non-peaceful foreigners” had gathered in the foreground of the “walk-city”. Part of Atlasov's Yukagirs, frightened by the large number of Koryaks, went over to their side.

At night, the Cossacks repelled another assault. Taking advantage of the hustle and bustle of the battle, Atlasov sent his faithful Yukaghir friend on a reindeer to find Luka Morozko's detachment.

In the darkness of the night, the Yukaghir managed to safely pass the line of the Koryak blockade. He rode non-stop for three days and finally saw Morozko's camp in the upper reaches of the Ivtygvayam River. For four more days, Luka Morozko went to the rescue of his comrades, struggling with an inner premonition that he would no longer see his brothers alive. Premonition deceived - Vladimir Atlasov held out.

On a full moon, in the bright dead light of the "Cossack sun", Morozko's detachment attacked the Koryak siege camp from two sides - from the sea and from the riverbed. Not expecting an attack, the Koryaks did not have reindeer teams ready at hand - the entire thousandth mass of Koryak warriors ran to the river and fell under a new volley of Cossack muskets. The defeat of the Koryaks was completed by the sortie of Atlasov himself from the “walk-town”.

Being a good diplomat, Vladimir Atlasov, in contrast to the "conquistador" methods of Ataman Mikhail Stadukhin, preferred to build relations with the Kamchatka natives on the basis of the policy of "kindness and greetings."

However, for the saber, in those cases when a peaceful policy did not give a result, the Cossack chieftain took up intrepidly.

In this campaign, Atlasov stormed, captured and burned four Itelmen "towns" - fortresses. And when the reindeer Koryaks stole his riding deer from him - “so that they, the Cossack Volodimer and his comrades, had nothing to serve the great sovereign,” he immediately chased the robbers. Already at the very coast of Okhotsk, he "tormented" the Koryaks. “We fought day and night,” the ataman later wrote in his report, “and by the grace of God and the sovereign happiness of them, a Koryak, a hundred and a half people were beaten and their deer were recaptured.”

The united Cossack detachment crossed the Sredinny Range and descended into the valley of the Kamchatka River, rounded the highest mountain peak in Russia (outside the Greater Caucasus) - the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano (4,835 m). The valley of Kamchatka amazed the Cossacks with the abundance and richness of the local settlements of the natives.

Vladimir Atlasov with a group of Cossacks set up a cross at the mouth of the Kanuch River as a sign of its accession to the Russian state. Source: kamlib.ru Vladimir Atlasov with a group of Cossacks set up a cross at the mouth of the Kanuch River as a sign of its accession to the Russian state. Source: kamlib.ru

At the mouth of the Kanuch River (another name is Krestovka), Atlasov's detachment erected a large wooden cross. This cross is still preserved after 40 years - it was seen by the famous explorer of Kamchatka Stepan Krasheninnikov. The Cossacks proudly wrote on the cross: "7205, on July 18, the Pentecostal Volodimer Atlasov with 65 comrades put this cross on the day." Only the Cossacks at that time could be in their worldview not "sovereign's lackeys", not "service people", but - "comrades".

Having completed the study of the Kamchatka River, Atlasov again crossed the Sredinny Ridge and moved along the coast of Okhotsk to the south. On the Icha River, he built a fortified prison and wintered there. He took a prisoner from the local Itelmens - the Japanese sailor Denbey, who ended up in Kamchatka as a result of a shipwreck.

“In the spring of 1698, taking Denbey with him,” historian Vladimir Dodonov tells about these events, “Atlasov moved south and met the first inhabitants of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin - the Ainu. There is no exact data on the southernmost point of the peninsula, which his expedition reached, but it is known that Atlasov managed to visit near Cape Lopatka, from where the first island of the Kuril ridge, Shumshu, is clearly visible.

The heartlessness of the royal satraps

In the late spring of 1699, leaving a detachment of Cossacks led by Potap Seryuk in the well-fortified Upper Kamchatka prison, Atlasov set off on his return journey. At the very beginning of July, he arrived with yasak, travel notes and maps of Kamchatka in the Anadyr prison.

The new Yakut governor Dorofey Traurniht, having received information about the results of Atlasov's expedition, immediately realized all their uniqueness and importance. The smart, energetic German decided to immediately send the Cossack ataman with a personal report to the Siberian Prikaz in Moscow.

At the beginning of February 1701, Atlasov arrived in Moscow and, after discussing his "tale" about Kamchatka in the Siberian order, on February 15 he received a personal audience with Peter I.

Young Peter, with his lively, albeit eccentric mind, became very interested in information about the new Kamchatka lands, saw the prospects for creating a naval base in Kamchatka for subsequent voyages to America. Atlasov received the rank of Cossack head (in fact, a colonel) and was appointed head of a new expedition to Kamchatka.

The Cossack ataman, finally seeing the sincere interest of the Russian state in acquiring the “Kamchatka land”, submitted an expeditionary petition to Peter I. “It is necessary to give for this campaign,” Atlasov wrote to the king, “100 Cossack children: 50 from Tobolsk, and 50 from Yeniseisk and Yakutsk; if there are not enough Cossack children, then take Russian industrial people - hunters and into captivity. In addition, Atlasov asked for “100 squeakers, 4 small cannons, 10 poods of gunpowder and the same amount of lead for bullets, 500 iron cores, 5 poods of wick, a regimental banner, and for gifts to foreigners a pood of azure beads and 100 knives.”

Map of Vladimir Atlasov's campaign against Kamchatka in 1696-1699. Source: kamlib.ru

As you can see, Atlasov's wishes for the material support of the expedition to a distant, still unconquered country were the most minimal.

Having familiarized themselves with Atlasov’s petition, the clerks of the Siberian order acted as the central Russian authorities had done for centuries: having approved the idea of ​​the expedition in principle, the royal nobles decided to shift its actual supply, as they would say now, to the regional authorities. Letters were sent to the Tobolsk, Yenisei and Yakut governors with instructions to assist the new expedition of the Cossack head Atlasov. After that, both Atlasov and Kamchatka were completely forgotten.

Such an order of the Siberian order actually made Atlasov a hostage to the goodwill or, conversely, the arbitrariness of the local royal satraps. Atlasov had no doubts about the help of the German Traurnicht, however, in order to get to Yakutsk, it was necessary to safely pass the “zone of responsibility” of the Tobolsk and Yenisei governors.

In Tobolsk, Atlasov was lucky - the local governor Mikhail Cherkassky was an enlightened, easy-going person, and besides, capital Moscow was not too far from Western Siberia. Cherkassky quickly allocated Atlasov the necessary quota of provisions, equipment, allowed him to quickly recruit eager Cossacks into the expedition, and provided transport.

Having quickly reached Yeniseisk at the beginning of the short northern summer, Atlasov met a completely different reception here. The local governor, Bogdan Glebov, was an old (over 60 years old), sophisticated official of the old Moscow batch. He instantly hated the energetic, resolute, full of health Atlasov and, with truly Byzantine cynicism, began to put "spokes in the wheels" of the Cossack chieftain.

To begin with, governor Glebov actually boycotted the recruitment of local Cossacks for the expedition, offering in return some kind of eternally drunk dud. Then the expedition was left without equipment - in Yeniseisk for Atlasov there was not a single extra squeak and not a pound of gunpowder. All summer the Yenisei satrap “marinated” Atlasov under various pretexts and only by the yellow foliage of the trees finally singled out plank ships for the further expedition to Yakutsk.

The Yeniseisk-Yakutsk stage was the most difficult stage of the expedition's movement to the place of its final formation. The Cossacks had to go up the Yenisei to the Angara, then - again against the current - go through the entire Angara to Ilimsk, from there cross over to the Lena River and go down to the Yakut prison.

Having started sailing along the Yenisei, the Cossacks soon discovered that the planks allocated by the voivode Glebov were thoroughly rotten. One boat had to constantly bail out water. There was not enough provisions, it was necessary to conserve gunpowder, since nothing was received in Yeniseisk. It became obvious that Glebov clearly hoped that the Cossacks would not have time to reach Yakutsk before freezing, they would be forced to spend the winter somewhere on a deaf coast, and then frost, hunger and scurvy would forcefully draw a line under the ambitious dreams of the restless ataman.

It is possible that all this would have happened, but at the mouth of the Angara, Ataman Atlasov met a merchant transport convoy, which included a large, solid plank of the eminent Moscow guest Login Dobrynin. The merchant clerk Belozerov commanded the plank worker.

Wishing to save his people and ensure a quick advance to Yakutsk, Atlasov ordered (or the Cossacks arbitrarily, perhaps did it) to rob the clerk Belozerov and transplant him onto that rotten plank that “generously” allocated the expedition of the voivode Glebov. This, of course, is seen as a clear desire of the ataman to give an absentee slap in the face to the vile governor.

When Belozerov, constantly bailing out the cold water, finally swam to Yeniseisk, Governor Glebov probably devoutly crossed himself. Still would! An exceptional opportunity presented itself to quickly concoct a detective case for the failed Kamchatka "hero". A slander about a robbery immediately flew to the Siberian Prikaz, and all governors of the Asian East were immediately sent detective installations for "Tatya Volodimera."

The detective case was quickly promoted: in Moscow, the eminent guests of Dobrynina went where they needed and with what they needed, and in Yeniseisk, the old rogue Glebov raged in detective activity. What new Kamchatka expedition is there?! The case needs to be untwisted - a criminal case! So soulless state machine late Muscovy enthusiastically crushed into the trash a valuable idea, both from a material and geopolitical point of view.

"I was questioned with great predilection"

The man who gave Russia a territory of two and a half France - in fact, a whole country abounding in sable, fish, forests, valuable minerals - was arrested for a dozen scrolls of Chinese cloth and a flimsy plank hewn with an axe. In Moscow, in the Investigative Order, the heirs of the merchant Dobrynin obtained an order to investigate the crime of the Cossack chieftain "without any stretching and pretense", that is, through a rack, a whip, stretching on a wheel.

At the shoulders of the masters, that is, in a modern way - investigators, Atlasov's case was going poorly. The investigation showed that from the mouth of the Angara Ataman Atlasov paid with Chinese goods requisitioned from the clerk Belozerov for the supply of provisions for his Cossacks, for carts and horses. The goals of personal enrichment in the "acts" of Atlasov were not visible. Therefore, it was necessary to find these goals after all. And for some reason, no one thought to rear up the governor Bogdan Glebov - for sending Orthodox fellow believers through the wilds of the north on a rotten boat without provisions, which means - to starvation.

Koryak archers. Photo: rt-assorty.ruKoryak archers. Photo: rt-assorty.ru

The arrested researcher of Kamchatka was hung up in a musty torture chamber. “And Volodimer Otlasov,” Dorofei Traurnicht, who instantly changed mercy to anger, reported to Moscow, “was questioned with great predilection, and put in a belt [torture by suffocation. - N.L.], and raised [on the rack. - N.L.], and on the temple was for a long time [compression of the temples with a special torture device resembling a hole punch. - N.L).

Torture, in the end, gave nothing. Atlasov continued to stand his ground, claiming that he had robbed the merchant solely for the purpose of organizing meals and quickly advancing the expedition.

"Kamchatsky Ermak" spent more than four years in a Russian prison. How much of his health, hitherto indestructible, was destroyed by the prison - only the great God knows. Ataman was constantly fussing about reviewing his case. At first, no one paid attention to his petitions, but in 1707 Atlasov was unexpectedly released. The reason was not in the mercy of the unexpectedly enlightened Russian Themis, but in the fact that things in Kamchatka went very badly - the mediocrely organized colonization of the region caused a fierce interethnic war and the flourishing of criminality on the peninsula.

“They caught him sleeping and stabbed him to death!”

The colonization of Kamchatka, which Atlasov successfully launched, simply collapsed in his absence. The Cossack Potap Seryuk, left by Atlasov in the Upper Kamchatka prison, patiently waited for his ataman for three years, but never did. He practically ran out of gunpowder, which means that he inevitably had to take people to Anadyr.

Seryuk had few military forces: 15 Cossacks and 13 Yukagirs. In the area of ​​the Tymlat River, this small detachment was attacked by more than a thousand Koryak warriors. Potap Seryuk, having taken up all-round defense, successfully fought back for two days, but gunpowder ran out - and all the Cossacks were killed. This disaster was the first result of the "detective case" against Vladimir Atlasov.

The second sad result was the complete arbitrariness in relation to foreigners, who began to be repaired on the peninsula by gangs of all sorts of rabble, coming along the route of Vladimir Atlasov from Okhotsk, Gizhiga and even Anadyr. In 1705-1706, a real rebel war broke out in Kamchatka, which was started by "foreigners" plundered from different sides. In October 1706, none of the 29 yasak collectors returned to Gizhiga - they were all killed by the rebellious Koryaks. Further south, in the Kamchatka River basin, the Itelmens burned the Verkhnekamchatsky prison to the ground, killing all its inhabitants, including women.

Under these conditions, the Yakut voivodeship again needed the tough hand of a smart chieftain in Kamchatka, who knew well where to use “kindness and greetings”, and where only a saber was needed.

The release of Atlasov was the height of cynicism: it suddenly turned out that the chieftain on the Angara had not done anything reprehensible. He was returned the title of the Cossack head, approved as the clerk of Kamchatka, compensated for financial losses during the years of hard, senseless stay in prison.

In 1707, Atlasov again and for the last time reached the once blessed Kamchatka. A real war of all against all was blazing on the peninsula - against the background of the excesses of Kamchatka, the terry criminality of cowboys in the Wild West would have seemed like child's play.

With the inherent rigidity of Atlasov, the ataman began to restore order. His guarantor, Cossack Ivan Taratin, with a detachment of 70 people, passed the eastern coast of the peninsula with fire and sword. Everyone got it: both the foreigners who killed the yasak collectors, and the local Cossacks, who became a fiend of evil for the foreigners.

Atlasov's rigidity was not liked by the Cossack freemen, accustomed over the years to complete impunity. In December 1707, the Cossacks gathered the Circle, on which Atlasov was dismissed from the post of ataman and taken into custody. In Yakutsk, wanting to justify their actions, the Cossacks sent a messenger with a “reply” in which they spared no black paint to describe Atlasov’s “atrocities”.

Vladimir Atlasov did not stay long in the new prison with the rebels, he escaped from there and appeared in the Nizhnekamchatsky prison.

The voivodship authorities in Yakutsk, meanwhile, against the background of disturbing news constantly coming from Kamchatka, completely lost their heads. In 1709, the Yakut voivode sent a new clerk, Pyotr Chirikov, to replace Atlasov, and the very next year, instead of Chirikov, another clerk, Osip Lipin, was appointed. At the same time, the powers of neither Atlasov nor Chirikov were officially terminated. So there were three clerks on the peninsula at the same time, which, of course, only aggravated the chaos that broke out.

Pyotr Chirikov turned out to be a mediocre military leader. Even on the way to Kamchatka, he lost 13 Cossacks and all military supplies in battles with the Koryaks. Finally arriving on the peninsula, he sent 40 Cossacks to the Bolshaya River to pacify the Itelmens. The Cossacks set off without any reconnaissance, were ambushed, immediately lost eight people killed. After that, a whole month of joy sat in the siege and only with great difficulty, wounded to the last man, barely managed to carry his legs.

The military failures of Pyotr Chirikov had an extremely negative impact on the reputation of his successor Osip Lipin. In the local Cossack milieu, the idea of ​​putting an end to the management of clerks altogether, and then creating a kind of military republic with an elected Cossack ataman, was gaining more and more popularity.

In January 1711, a riot broke out in the Verkhnekamchatsky prison: the Cossacks killed Lipin, and the unlucky Pyotr Chirikov, tied up, was thrown into the hole. The rebels were well aware that their victory was unlikely to be lasting if Vladimir Atlasov found out about their atrocities. It was decided to kill Atlasov, who had a reputation as a fierce and skilled fighter, with the help of deception.

Before reaching half a verst to the Nizhnekamchatsky prison, the rebels sent three Cossacks to Atlasov, who were supposed to introduce themselves as couriers from the Yakut governor. At the moment when the ataman would begin to read the letter, he should have been struck with a treacherous blow with a dagger.

This is how B.P. describes the death of the great pioneer in his study. Field: Atlasov, having opened the letter, turned to the candle and at that moment received a fatal blow to the back.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who collected material for a book about the conquest of Kamchatka, claims in his notes that Vladimir Atlasov was caught sleeping by the killers and immediately stabbed to death in his sleep.

Finally, the "replies" of the rebels themselves have been preserved, apparently compiled by their ringleaders - Danila Antsyferov and Semyon Kozyrevsky. “Volodimer in his house began to fight with service people,” repentant Cossacks wrote to the Yakut authorities, “and grabbed a broadsword from the knitting needle, and with that broadsword he rushed at the service people; and the service people, fighting from themselves, killed Volodimer in his house, from our Cossack advice, for this: they feared that Volodimer would be killed from him.

This description is more like the truth. It is unlikely that an experienced military leader in the conditions of intra-Cossack turmoil could be found in deep sleepy oblivion. Equally dubious is the version of Atlasov's naivety, as if he immediately "bought" the trick with the voivodship letter. On the contrary, knowing from historical sources about the strong-willed, adamant character of the great Cossack ataman, it is easy to imagine that this person could have died in this way:

(c. 1661 - 1664 - 1711)

Russian explorer, Siberian Cossack. In 1697-1699 he made campaigns in Kamchatka. He gave the first information about Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. Killed during a riot of service people.

The second discovery of Kamchatka was made at the very end of the 17th century by the new clerk of the Anadyr prison, the Yakut Cossack Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov.

He was originally from Veliky Ustyug. From a bad life he fled to Siberia. In Yakutsk, a poor Ustyug peasant quickly rose to the rank of Pentecostal, and in 1695 he was appointed clerk of the Anadyr prison. He was no longer young, but he was bold and enterprising.

In 1695, Atlasov was sent from Yakutsk to the Anadyr prison with a hundred Cossacks to collect yasak from the local Koryaks and Yukaghirs. At that time, they said about Kamchatka that it was vast, rich in fur-bearing animals, that the winter there was much warmer, and the rivers were full of fish. There were Russian service people in Kamchatka, and on the "Drawing of the Siberian Land", compiled back in 1667 by order of the Tobolsk governor Peter Godunov, the Kamchatka River is clearly marked. Apparently, having heard about this land, Atlasov no longer parted with the idea of ​​finding his way into it.

In 1696, being the clerk of the Anadyr prison, he sent a small detachment (16 people) under the command of the Yakut Cossack Luka Morozko to the south to the coastal Koryaks living on the Apuk River. The inhabitants of this river, which flows into the Olyutorsky Gulf, apparently knew well about their neighbors from the Kamchatka Peninsula and told Morozko about them. Morozko, a resolute and courageous man, penetrated the Kamchatka Peninsula and reached the Tigil River, which runs down from the Sredinny Ridge into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, where he found the first Kamchadal settlement. Returning, he reported a lot of interesting information about the new rich land and the people inhabiting it. The explorers learned from the population of the peninsula that behind the new open land in the ocean there is a whole range of inhabited islands (the Kuril Islands). Morozko brought with him "unknown letters" given to him by the inhabitants of Kamchatka. Modern scholars suggest that these were Japanese documents picked up by Kamchadals from a wrecked Japanese ship. He finally convinced Atlasov of the need to equip a strong detachment and go to those desired lands himself.

Atlasov was going to at his own peril and risk. The Yakut governor Mikhail Arseniev, foreseeing the undoubted danger of such an enterprise, gave Atlasov the go-ahead in words - no written orders, instructions. The governor also did not give money for equipment, and Atlasov got them - where by persuasion and promises to return a hundredfold, and where under bonded records.

At the beginning of 1697, on a winter campaign against the Kamchadals, Vladimir Atlasov himself set out on deer with a detachment of 125 people, half Russian, half Yukaghir.

For two and a half weeks, the detachment went on reindeer to the Koryaks living in the Penzhina Bay. Collecting yasak from them with red foxes, Atlasov got acquainted with the life and life of the population, which he described as follows: "hollow-bearded, fair-haired face, medium height." Subsequently, he gave information about the weapons, dwellings, food, footwear, clothing and crafts of the Koryaks.

He passed along the eastern shore of the Penzhina Bay and turned east "through a high mountain" (the southern part of the Koryak Highlands), to the mouth of one of the rivers flowing into the Olyutorsky Gulf of the Bering Sea, where "with caress and greetings" he overlaid yasak on the Olyutorsky Koryaks and led them under "High Tsar's hand" .

Here the detachment was divided into two parties: Luka Morozko and "30 servicemen and 30 Yukagirs" went south along the eastern coast of Kamchatka, Atlasov and the other half returned to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and moved along the western coast of the peninsula.

Everything went well at first - calmly and peacefully, but one day the Koryaks opposed paying yasak, approached from different sides, threatening with weapons. The Yukaghirs, sensing a dangerous force, betrayed the Cossacks and, united with the Koryaks, suddenly attacked. In a fierce battle, three Cossacks died, fifteen were injured, Atlasov himself was wounded in six places.

The detachment, having chosen a convenient place, sat down in the "siege". Atlasov sent a faithful Yukaghir to inform Morozko of what had happened. "And those servicemen came to us and rescued us from the siege," he reports about the arrival of Morozko, who, having received the news, interrupted his campaign and hurried to the rescue of his comrades.

The united detachment went up the Tigil River to the Sredinny Range, crossed it and penetrated the Kamchatka River in the area of ​​Klyuchevskaya Sopka. At the exit to the Kamchatka River, at the mouth of the Kanuch River, in memory of the exit, the detachment put up a cross. This cross at the mouth of the Krestovka River, as the Kanuch River later became known, was seen 40 years later by the explorer of Kamchatka, Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov. He also reported the inscription on the cross: "7205, on July 18, the Pentecostal Volodimer Atlasov put this cross with his comrades 65 people." This was in 1697.

According to Atlasov, the Kamchadals, with whom he first met here, “they wear clothes of sable, and fox, and deer, and they push that dress with dogs. and covered with spruce bark, but they go up the stairs to those yurts. And the yurts are not far from the yurts, and in one place there are a hundred [hundreds] of yurts, two and three and four each. And they eat fish and beasts, but they eat raw, frozen fish. And in winter they store raw fish: they put it in pits and cover it with earth, and that fish will wear out. and they drink. And a stinking spirit comes from that fish ... And their guns are whale bows, stone and bone arrows, and iron will not be born to them.

But the collection of yasak among the Itelmens did not go well - "they did not store animals in reserve", and they had a difficult time, because they fought with their neighbors. They saw strong allies in the Cossacks and asked for support in this war. Atlasov decided to support them, hoping that things would go better with yasak in the lower reaches of Kamchatka.

The people of Atlasov and the Kamchadals got into boats and sailed down Kamchatka, the valley of which was then densely populated: "And how they sailed along Kamchatka - there are many foreigners on both sides of the river, great settlements." Three days later, the allies approached the prisons of Kamchadals, who refused to pay yasak: there were more than 400 yurts. "And he de Volodimer with their servants, Kamchadals, smashed and beat small people and burned their settlements."

Down the Kamchatka River to the sea, Atlasov sent one Cossack for reconnaissance, and he counted from the mouth of the Elovka River to the sea - in a section of about 150 kilometers - 160 prisons. Atlasov says that 150-200 people live in each prison in one or two winter yurts. In winter, Kamchadals lived in large ancestral dugouts. "Summer yurts near prisons on poles - every person has his own yurt". The valley of lower Kamchatka during the campaign was relatively densely populated: the distance from one great "posad" to another was often less than one kilometer. According to the most conservative estimate, about 25 thousand people lived in the lower reaches of Kamchatka. "And from the mouth to go up the Kamchatka River for a week, there is a mountain - like a stack of bread, great and much high, and another near it - like a haystack and much high - smoke comes out of it during the day, and at night sparks and a glow ". This is the first news about the two largest volcanoes in Kamchatka - Klyuchevskoy Sopka and Tolbachik - and about Kamchatka volcanoes in general.

The richness of the rivers amazed Atlasov: “And the fish in those rivers in Kamchatka is marine, a special breed, it looks like salmon and is red in summer, and larger than salmon, and foreigners call it sheep. fish do not resemble. And that fish goes from the sea along those rivers much more, and that fish does not return to the sea in the sea, but dies in those rivers and in the factories. And for that fish, the keeper along those rivers is a beast - sables, foxes, vidras. "

Having collected information about the lower reaches of the Kamchatka River, Atlasov turned back. Beyond the pass across the Sredinny Ridge, he began to pursue the reindeer Koryaks, who had stolen his reindeer, and caught them near the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. "And they fought day and night, and a hundred and a half of their Koryaks were killed, and the deer were beaten off, and they fed on it. And other Koryaks fled through the forests." Then Atlasov turned south again and walked for six weeks along the western coast of Kamchatka, collecting yasak "with caress and greetings" from the oncoming Kamchadals. Even further south, the Russians met the first "Kuril men [Ainu], six prisons, and there were a lot of people in them ..." didn’t touch, it turned out that the Ainu “have no belly [property] and nothing to take yasak; and there are a lot of sables and foxes in their land, only they don’t hunt them, because sables and foxes won’t get anywhere from them”, i.e. There is no one to sell them to.

Atlasov walked along the western coast of Kamchatka to the Ichi River and built an ostrog here. From the Kamchadals, he learned that there was a prisoner on the Nana River, and ordered him to be brought to him. This prisoner, whom the Pentecostal incorrectly called an Indian from the Uzakin state, as it turned out later, turned out to be a Japanese named Denbey from the city of Osaka, thrown out during a shipwreck to Kamchatka.

"But the polonenik, whom the sea brought by the sea on a bus, does not know what language he speaks. But if a Greek would do: lean, his mustache is small, his hair is black." Nevertheless, Atlasov managed to find a common language with him. He found out and recorded in the most detailed way a lot of interesting and extremely important information for the Russian state: “They don’t use sable and nikakova beast. And they wear clothes woven with all kinds of brocade, quilted on cotton paper ... they take seals and kalan fat from foreigners, and whether they bring them to them - foreigners do not know how to say.

Peter the Great, apparently having learned from Atlasov about Denbey, gave a personal instruction to quickly deliver the Japanese to Moscow. Through the Siberian Order, a "mandate memory" was sent to Yakutsk - an instruction to service people accompanying Denbey. Arriving at the end of December 1701, the "foreigner Denbey" - the first Japanese in Moscow - was introduced to Peter in Preobrazhensky on January 8, 1702. Of course, there were no translators who knew Japanese in Moscow, but Denbey, who lived among the servicemen for two years, spoke a little Russian.

After a conversation with a Japanese, on the same day, the tsar's "nominal decree" followed, which said: "... evo, Denbey, in Moscow to teach Russian literacy, where decently, but as soon as he gets used to the Russian language and literacy, and he, Denbey, to give three or four people out of the Russians to teach - to teach them the Japanese language and literacy ... How will he get used to the Russian language and literacy and teach the Russians to rob their language and literacy - and let them go to the Japanese land ". Denbey's students subsequently participated in the Kamchatka expeditions of Bering and Chirikov as translators.

Even before the conversation with the tsar, Denbey's "tale" was also recorded in the Siberian order. In addition to the adventures of Denbey himself, it contained a lot of valuable information on the geography and ethnography of Japan, data on the social life of the Japanese.

But Atlasov did not recognize all this. From the shore of Icha, he went steeply south and entered the land of the Ainu, completely unknown to the Russians: "... they are similar to Kamchadals, only they are blacker in appearance, and their beards are no less."

In the places where the Ainu lived, it was much warmer, and there were much more fur-bearing animals - it seemed that a good yasak could be collected here. However, having taken possession of the village fenced with a palisade, the Cossacks found only dried fish in it. The people here did not store furs.

It is difficult to say exactly how far south of Kamchatka Atlasov climbed. He himself calls the river Bobrovaya, but already at the beginning of the next century, no one knew a river with that name. It is assumed that Atlasov spoke about the Ozernaya River, where sea otters - sea beavers - often came from the sea. But he went further than Ozernaya - to the Golygina River and wrote in his "tales" that "against her in the sea there is, as it were, an island." Indeed, from the mouth of this river one can clearly see the first island of the Kuril chain with the highest of all the Kuril volcanoes. Next was the ocean.

They returned to their winter hut on Icha in late autumn. The deer, on which Atlasov counted very much, fell, and food was scarce for people. Fearing hunger, Atlasov sent twenty-eight people to the west - to the Kamchatka River, to the Itelmens, recent allies, hoping that they would remember the help of the Cossacks and would not let them die of hunger. With the onset of warm weather, he himself moved north - back to Anadyr. The Cossacks were tired of long wanderings, of half-starving life and of the expectation of hidden danger. They spoke more insistently about the return. And although Atlasov was not a gentle man, he yielded. I understood how right the Cossacks were.

Atlasov left 15 Cossacks in the Upper Kamchatka prison, headed by Potap Seryukov, a cautious and not greedy man who traded peacefully with the Kamchadals and did not collect yasak. He spent three years among them, but after his shift, on the way back to the Anadyr jail, he and his people were killed by the rebellious Koryaks. Atlasov himself set off on the return journey.

On July 2, 1699, only 15 Cossacks and 4 Yukagirs returned to Anadyr. The addition to the sovereign's treasury was not too large: 330 sables, 191 red foxes, 10 gray-scented foxes, "yes, Kamchadal sea beavers, called sea otters, 10, and those beavers have never been exported to Moscow," he said in one of his replies to the Yakut governor Anadyr clerk Kobylev. But before that he wrote: "... Pentecostal Volodimer Otlasov came to the Anadyr winter hut from the newly found Kamchadal land, from the new rivers of Kamchatka ..."

For five years (1695-1700) Atlasov traveled more than eleven thousand kilometers.

From Yakutsk, Atlasov went with a report to Moscow. On the way, in Tobolsk, he showed his materials to S. U. Remezov, who with his help compiled one of the detailed drawings of the Kamchatka Peninsula. In Moscow, Atlasov lived from the end of January to February 1701 and presented a number of "tales", fully or partially published several times . They contained the first information about the relief and climate of Kamchatka, about its flora and fauna, about the seas surrounding the peninsula, and about their ice regime. In "skats" Atlasov reported some information about the Kuril Islands, quite detailed news about Japan and brief information about the "Great Land" (North-West America).

He also gave a detailed ethnographic description of the population of Kamchatka. Academician L. S. Berg wrote about Atlasov: “A poorly educated man, he ... had a remarkable mind and great powers of observation, and his testimony ... contains a lot of valuable ethnographic and geographical data. None of the Siberian explorers of the 17th and early 18th centuries. ..does not provide such meaningful reports."

"Skaski" Atlasov fell into the hands of the king. Peter I highly appreciated the information obtained: new distant lands and seas adjacent to them opened up new roads to the eastern countries, to America, and Russia needed these roads.

In Moscow, Atlasov was appointed head of the Cossacks and again sent to Kamchatka. On the way, at the Angara, he seized the goods of a deceased Russian merchant. If you do not know all the circumstances, the word "robbery" could be applied to this case. However, in reality, Atlasov took away the goods, having compiled their inventory, only for 100 rubles - exactly the amount that was provided to him by the leadership of the Siberian order as a reward for the trip to Kamchatka. The heirs filed a complaint, and the "Kamchatka Yermak", as the poet A. S. Pushkin called him, after interrogation under the supervision of a bailiff, was sent to the Lena River to return the goods that he had sold for his own benefit. A few years later, after the successful completion of the investigation, Atlasov was left with the same rank of the Cossack head.

In those days, several more groups of Cossacks and "eager people" penetrated Kamchatka, built the Bolsheretsky and Nizhnekamchatsky prisons there and began to rob and kill Kamchadals.

When information about the Kamchatka atrocities reached Moscow, Atlasov was instructed to restore order in Kamchatka and "deserve the former guilt." He was given full power over the Cossacks. Under the threat of the death penalty, he was ordered to act "against foreigners with kindness and greetings" and not to offend anyone. But Atlasov had not yet reached the Anadyr prison, when denunciations rained down on him: the Cossacks complained about his autocracy and cruelty.

He arrived in Kamchatka in July 1707. And in December, the Cossacks, accustomed to free life, rebelled, removed him from power, chose a new boss and, in order to justify themselves, sent new petitions to Yakutsk with complaints about Atlasov’s insults and the crimes allegedly committed by him. The rebels put Atlasov in a "kazenka" (prison), and his property was taken away to the treasury. Atlasov escaped from prison and appeared in Nizhnekamchatsk. He demanded from the local clerk to surrender to him the command over the prison; he refused, but left Atlasov at will.

Meanwhile, the Yakut governor, having reported to Moscow about road complaints against Atlasov, sent in 1709 to Kamchatka as a clerk Peter Chirikov with a detachment of 50 people. On the way, Chirikov lost 13 Cossacks and military supplies in clashes with the Koryaks. Arriving in Kamchatka, he sent 40 Cossacks to the Bolshaya River to pacify the southern Kamchadals. But those large forces attacked the Russians; eight people were killed, the rest almost all were injured. For a whole month they sat in a siege and with difficulty escaped. Chirikov himself with 50 Cossacks pacified the eastern Kamchadals and again imposed tribute on them. By the autumn of 1710, Osip Mironovich Lipin arrived from Yakutsk to replace Chirikov with a detachment of 40 people.

So there were three clerks in Kamchatka at once: Atlasov, who had not yet been formally removed from his post, Chirikov and the newly appointed Lipin. Chirikov surrendered Verkhnekamchatsk to Lipin, and in October he sailed in boats with his people to Nizhnekamchatsk, where he wanted to spend the winter Lipin also arrived in Nizhnekamchatsk on business in December.

In January 1711, both returned to Verkhnekamchatsk. On the way, the rebellious Cossacks killed Lipin. They gave Chirikov time to repent, while they themselves rushed to Nizhnekamchatsk to kill Atlasov. "Before reaching half a verst, they sent three Cossacks to him with a letter, instructing them to kill him when he began to read it ... But they found him sleeping and stabbed him to death."

So the Kamchatka Yermak perished. According to one version, the Cossacks came to V. Atlasov at night; he leaned over the candle to read the false charter they had brought, and was stabbed in the back.

Two "Skaski" by Vladimir Atlasov have been preserved. These first written reports about Kamchatka are outstanding for their time in terms of accuracy, clarity and versatility of the description of the peninsula.