Weekly magazine “Argumenty I Fakty” No. 22. Grandfather-hydromet? How to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts 02/06/2021
280 years ago, on June 4, 1741, two packet boats left the Avacha Bay, St. Peter the Apostle and St. Paul the Apostle. On the first one, the captain-commander raised his pennant.Vitus Bering.
By mid-July, the ships had reached the shores of America. The Russians have set foot on the newly discovered lands, thus claiming our right to these territories. Vitus Bering and Commander of St. Paul the Apostle, Lieutenant Commander Alexey Chirikov deservedly considered the discoverers of America from the Pacific Ocean.
But Bering’s true goal was not America. The captain-commander was in charge of the project, which received the name “Great Northern Expedition” in historiography. It lasted 10 years, from 1733 to 1743.a person. Seven detachments: 6 marine and onedry & shy;sensible, academic. Goals & nbsp; complete detailed mapping of the entire northern and eastern coast of Eurasia, from Arkhangelsk to Japan. Primary development of the future Northern Sea Route. Collecting information about the peoples, minerals, and other riches of those lands.
This project can be considered as one of the most serious and most successful applications for the Russian priority in the Arctic. This priority was once confirmed in the eyes of the world community by the messages of the famous Captain James Cook.
Missed opportunity
These indisputable facts made it possible for the Russian Foreign Minister to To Sergey Lavrov with full right to say: “We see lamentations about the fact that Russia is deploying military activity in the Arctic. Everyone has known for a long time that this is our territory, our land, ” the statement was made on the eve of Sergey Lavrov’s departure for the Arctic Council ministerial meeting, which was held in Reykjavik on 19-20May. Lavrov’s words caused a storm of protests among the activists of the Western public. So, one of the readers of the German newspaper Die Welt was indignant: “What did you say there? Does the Arctic belong to Russia? Not on this planet!”A reader of the British Daily Mail newspaper was more specific:” This is nothing more than another land grab for the sake of natural resources!»
To hear a reproach about “land grabbing for resources” from a representative of a nation that was once a colonial monster that had taken over India and Australia and was trying to take over North America is, to say the least, amusing. In general, these feelings were perfectly described Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, who said: “The most vulgar thing in the world is the sting of a missed opportunity.”
Map of Okhotsk in 1737. This is the first Russian city in the Far East. In 1740, the Bering expedition went from here to the shores of North America. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Our discoveries
The attitude to the fact that the Arctic belongs to the Russians has changed dramatically over the course of history, from the anxious to the calm and back to the anxious to the angry.
The fact is that only Russia seems to have been able to fully benefit from the Great Geographical Discoveries in the long term. We used to think that our country entered that race late and did not shine in anything special. While the “advanced peoples” were discovering America and making their first circumnavigations, the Russians, they say, could only quietly waddle to the Urals and there freeze for many years.
No! Already in the early XVI century. the first international application for the Russian Arctic was made. Then the Moscow diplomat Dmitry Gerasimov visited the Pope Clement VII. He boasted of the “barbarian” journey Magellan & nbsp;we have finally found a sea route to China around the world. To which Gerasimov calmly replied: “The ocean in the north has such a huge extent that, keeping to the right bank, you can reach the country of China from the White Sea by ship.” And he presented a hand-drawn map of the Arctic Ocean coast from the mouth of the Northern Dvina River to the Ob River.
In Europe, they immediately estimated that the “Russian way” is slightly shorter, almost three times. This caused alarm. The British and Dutch were eager to go north to outmaneuver the Russians and make such a tempting Northern Sea Route their own.
However, it quickly became clear that the Northern Sea Route, at least in its entirety, was impossible to pass on sailing ships of those times. The risk of losing both men and ships is too great. In addition, it was not known for certain whether Asia met America in the north, or whether there was a strait that allowed access to the Pacific Ocean and reached China. In general, progressive Europe calmed down and, putting on a look of “not very much” and “wanted”, began to colonize and plunder the New World, India and Africa.
Barren Siberia?
The strange Russians, who have been struggling for centuries in their attempts to master the Northern Sea Route, were treated with coolness, if not with a grin. The Northern Sea Route is obviously impassable. A & nbsp; Siberia & hellip; Yes that Siberia? Vast, cold expanses, rich in furs, bone, and sea animals. You can also send convicts there. Probably everything. Is the sheepskin worth the dressing? Especially when compared to the gold and silver that flowed into Europe from the New World?
Meanwhile, the Russians were quietly and modestly doing their job. It’s expensive. The same Great Northern Expedition for which Bering had originally estimated 12,000 men.& nbsp; rub., in the end cost & nbsp; fabulously & nbsp;word amount & nbsp; & nbsp; 360 thousand.rub. The case is extremely dangerous & ndash;the price of Russian success in the Arctic was human lives. The expedition leader Vitus Bering, who proved that there is a strait between Asia and America, died of scurvy and exhaustion. From a broken hip during a storm dies Vasily Pronchishchev, head of the Lensk-Yenisei detachment. On the grave of Pronchishchev, his wife dies Tatiana, the world’s first female polar explorer. Diseases and frosts are ruining the ordinary participants of the “no number”. What are all these sacrifices for? Are they not meaningless?
In the beginning of the XX century. it turns out that they are not meaningless. Russian Geologist Alexander Fersman it is possible to prove theoretically that, for example, the Kola Peninsula is rich in deposits of strategically important ores such as nickel, manganese and cobalt. And there is a high probability that other areas of the Arctic coast of Russia are also rich in them.
Post-mortem reconstruction of Vitus Jonassen Behring’s face. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Russia & nbsp; forever
This has not escaped the attention of Europe. One of the main goals of the Anglo-French intervention in the Russian North was just minerals. In 1922, the Khibiny ex-pedition of Fersman on its way more than once met a triangle daubed with red paint on the deposits. So the British in 1917 and 1919 marked promising objects.
By that time, it was clear to everyone that the power of the colonial empires was shaky. Gold and silver quickly run out, and former colonies tend to break away from the metropolitan areas. In general, the material bonuses of the age of Great Geographical Discoveries are rapidly turning into nothing.
All of them, except Russia, which in the end completely and completely mastered the Northern Sea Route, and also made Siberia and the Arctic its own. Not a colony, but a full-fledged Russia, which was reflected even in the folk lore: “What about Siberia? Siberia is not afraid, Siberia is also a Russian land!”It has made the usual Russian areas where in 100 years after Bering, gold will be discovered, then rare metals, then diamonds, and relatively recently oil and gas.”
Of course, the Russian officer Vitus Jonassen Behring could not have known any of this. But the instructions given to him contained the main thing that made Siberia and the Arctic Russia by law, and in fact, and in spirit: “If people are found, then treat them kindly and do not embitter them in any way.” Bude same people thoseif they voluntarily wish to become a citizen, then they will also accept citizenship. These are the ones who are most likely to be caressed and, if necessary, to repair the security, and not to burden them with anything, but those who are now experiencing the sting of a missed opportunity, should have thought first of all about this, and not about short-term profit.