To the North, to the future!
Official motto of Alaska
Down with the pernicious influence of the West!
The perfect slogan for Chukotka
The master of European postmodern philosophy, Jacques Derrida, has a small but rather revealing work called “The Other Cape. Delayed Democracy," at the beginning of which he suggests:
Old Europe seems to have exhausted all its possibilities, produced all possible discourses about its own identity.
This exhaustion looks very convincing, since further Derrida himself, instead of any intelligible description of this "other cape", habitually delves into the so characteristic of french theory verbal scholasticism. Where, according to the exact remark of one of the heroes of Viktor Pelevin, "it is impossible to change the meaning of the sentence by any operations."
This is a natural historical dead end of Eurocentric thinking, painfully immersed in itself, no matter how much it creates an image of “globally open” for itself. Although the discovery that the earth is round does not seem to touch him. This thinking still resides in a flat, two-dimensional coordinate system, until now “East” and “West” seem to him to be some kind of opposite vectors, diverging from Europe itself and measured by distance from it - “near” or “far” - although they themselves the inhabitants do not designate themselves that way and have a completely different picture of the world. And for "enlightened" Europeans it is difficult to conceive of a natural coincidence of "East" and "West" somewhere on the other side of the globe. It is no coincidence that it was in European mythology that the characteristic definition of “end of the world” arose, which migrated to postmodern philosophy in the form of some exotic “Other”.
In today's Russia, this Eurocentric thinking is also very common - giving rise to a humble recognition of its secondary and provincial nature. Although it is Russia that closely adjoins this most mysterious region of the “edge of the world”, and even includes this “other cape” in its own territory, from which all this “east-west” confrontation of the modern era looks like an absurd fantasy.
Political scientist Vladimir Wiedeman demonstrates how easy it is to grasp this evidence:
The belief that Russia "with its whole body" adjoins Europe is largely due to a purely optical illusion generated by the usual foreshortening of the Eurocentric map of the world, where the American continent is located on the left. If we move it to the right (as is done, for example, on Japanese geographical maps), then we will immediately make sure that Russia is “kissing” America in the east, and the length of the Russian-American maritime border is no less than the land border between Russia and the European bloc. Moreover, looking at the globe "from above", we find that the Arctic Ocean is, in fact, a large inland Russian-American sea.
The Chukchi Cape, from which you can see Alaska, has a very symbolic name - Providence. Figures of the modern era tried not to notice this "shocking" rapprochement between the Far East and the Far West - it completely destroyed their dualistic model of the world. Including even the border between day and night - in this region, day and night are polar and do not obey the “normal” daily rhythm. Therefore, they simply took this region out of the brackets of history, declaring it a "world reserve" for the most distant future and referring to the complete unsuitability of these frozen lands for life.
However, according to many historians who did not recognize this unspoken "taboo", it was this region that was globally leading about 30-40 thousand years ago, before the "great icing". Then, on the site of the current Bering Strait, there was a land isthmus, along which the "first Americans" came to their "promised land." The unique archaeological coincidences of ancient Siberian and ancient American cultures fully confirm this version. Close motifs in mythology, clothes, forms of dwellings, etc. are striking. peoples of Siberia and North America.
Probably, there were also reverse migrations of peoples. For example, Lev Gumilyov expressed the opinion that in the III-II millennium BC, the Indians crossed the Bering Strait and, getting into Siberia, reached the Urals. Even the etymology of such a “Eurasian” title as “khakan” (“kagan”, “khan”, “van”), which the princes of Ancient Rus' called themselves, he raises to the Dakota word waqan, which had the same meaning - a military leader and high priest.
Paleontologists "dig" even deeper - for example, A.V. Cher in his monograph "Mammals and Pleistocene Stratigraphy of the Extreme North-East of the USSR and North America" (1971) shows that over the past three and a half million years of the life of our planet, a land "bridge" between the Eurasian and American continents arose five, six, maybe more times! Some modern researchers even offer a name for this "virtual" land - Beringia. However, if we develop the mythological version in its entirety, then why not assume that this mysterious isthmus could be part of the original northern continent - Hyperborea?
Geographer Alexei Postnikov states:
In Beringia, contact between the old and the new world was constant, although, of course, the vast majority of the tribes and peoples that inhabited the western and eastern hemispheres did not suspect anything about this.
However, these "suspicions" themselves - in the existence of the "old" and "new" world, the "western and eastern hemisphere" - from the northern point of view look like absolute conventions. This holistic thinking was most clearly manifested precisely among the natives of this land, who, in response to the question of “civilized” newcomers, what kind of people they were, called themselves simply people. On the contrary, European cartographers, who think in separate hemispheres, seemed strange to them ...
Every story comes from a myth. Rational scientific tools turn out to be completely inapplicable to the analysis, for example, of the relationship between heroes and gods, with which all ancient manuscripts are full. In addition, modern (modernist) historiography, as a rule, adheres to a flat, linear concept of history, completely ignoring the traditional, cyclical one. Namely, according to cyclic logic, the most daring projects of the future turn out to be a direct reflection of the deepest antiquity.
* * *
For us, of greatest interest is the region where the "Far East" and "Far West" merge together, erasing this conditional border. Alexander Herzen, immensely surprising his Eurocentric contemporaries, back in the 19th century predicted the inevitable rapprochement between Russian and American civilizations in this very region, from where, as he believed, the construction of the "future world" would begin. And today it really becomes quite real - when the last "great icing" is replaced by no less great "global warming", which, according to climatologists, will bring the weather of these latitudes closer to that of Central Europe. Moreover, this will happen earlier than many people think - already in the coming century.
Much has been said lately about another kind of "thaw" - the establishment of friendly relations between Russia and America after decades of the "Iron Curtain". However, from the point of view of a broad historical perspective, it is hardly appropriate to call this friendship a "thaw" - the very word gives the impression of some kind of accident in the middle of the "winter" that is considered the norm. Whereas an unfortunate historical misunderstanding (“summer frost”) in Russian-American relations was, on the contrary, this very “curtain” of the second half of the 20th century. Throughout the previous history of their relationship, Russia and the United States not only never fought among themselves, but were constant allies - even despite the profound difference in their regimes. And in this it is impossible not to see, if you like, the "hands of Providence."
Thus, during the American War of Independence, Catherine II openly supported the American "separatists" in their struggle against the British metropolis - which caused unheard-of surprise among European monarchs. When these European monarchies fought the Crimean War of 1853-56 with Russia, many Americans, in turn, asked the Russian embassy in Washington to send them there as volunteers. And perhaps the outcome of this war, which was not very successful for Russia, would have been different ... But just a few years later, during the civil war in America, Russia itself sent two large squadrons to the American shores - as a sign of support for the government of Abraham Lincoln. These squadrons, anchored off the western and eastern coasts of America, played a significant role in preventing the possible intervention of European powers that sympathized with the slave-owning South. And Russia, which had just abolished serfdom itself, sided with the free northerners.
Exploring the differences between Europe and America, George Florovsky was surprised:
The face of the Far West - America is mysterious. In everyday life, this is a repetition and exaggeration of "Europe", a hypertrophy of the all-European democratism of the bourgeoisie. And it is all the more unexpected to find under this crust a definitely heterogeneous tradition of culture, leading from the first immigrants through Benjamin Franklin and Emerson to Jack London's self-made-man, the tradition of a radical rejection of philistinism and the path of life and the assertion of individual freedom.
He expressed this idea in his work “On non-historical peoples”. Publishing it in the first Eurasian collection of 1921, “Exodus to the East,” he, as we see, thought of the “East” much further than many of his colleagues ... But modern “neo-Eurasians” do not follow this distance. In their Eurocentric, modernist-dualistic thinking, they are practically no different from their favorite enemies - the "Atlantists". Unless those with “individual freedom” are a little better ...
The direct rapprochement of East and West "on the other side of Europe" has long generated an extremely interesting interaction between Russian and American utopian projects. Many Russian revolutionaries left for America, including the hero of Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?, the "special person" Rakhmetov. "New Russia", which Vera Pavlovna sees in her famous dreams, judging by the detailed geographical description, was somewhere in the Kansas region - which is mentioned in the novel and "in reality".
According to historian Maya Novinskaya,
in the first half of the 20th century. (mainly in 1900-1930) Russian utopian communal ideas, in particular those of Tolstoy and Kropotkin, were played out on American soil; moreover, we are talking not only about marginal communities of emigrants from Russia, but also about purely American utopian practices.
It is noteworthy that after 1917 this “interaction of utopias” not only did not stop, but acquired a new dimension:
The first Bolsheviks treated America with great respect: it served them as a real beacon of advanced industrial and even partly social experience. They dreamed of introducing the Taylor system in Russia, introduced American educational concepts, admired American efficiency, and sent many people to study in America. In Soviet Russia in the 1920s and early 1930s, an almost American cult of technology and industry was implanted, and when it came to industrialization, Soviet heavy industry was simply copied from the American one, and thousands of American engineers built it. In those years, going to America and then publishing your impressions of it was a matter of honor for any major Soviet writer: Yesenin, Mayakovsky, Boris Pilnyak, Ilf and Petrov created a relatively sympathetic image of America in their books. Criticizing American capitalism, as was customary, they did not hide their admiration for the technical genius of the American people, the might of American industry, and the breadth of American business scope. Nothing of the kind was written then about close Europe: on the contrary, Europe was perceived as a clear enemy and a future aggressor - it was to prepare for war with it that American engineers built Soviet tractor, automobile and chemical plants. (1)
And even when, after the Second World War, an “iron curtain” arose between Russia and America, it fell precisely over Europe. And the natives of Chukotka and Alaska continued to ride sleds to visit each other on the ice of the Bering Strait, surrounded by shamanic "invisibility" for the border guards of the two opposing empires...
* * *
In the fog of a narrow strait between Cape Provideniya in Chukotka and Resurrection in Alaska, space and time change. It is there that the illusory border between "East" and "West" disappears. This is where the date line passes. This is not just a sequential change of time zones in latitude - the time on both sides of this imaginary line remains the same, but the whole day changes at once. With the emergence of a direct connection between these points, the utopia of the time machine is actually embodied.
On European maps since the 16th century, i.e. long before Bering, this strait bore the mysterious name of Anian. The Soviet geographer A. Aleyner put forward a curious, but rather logical hypothesis of where this word comes from:
The Russian signature “sea-akian”, which goes back to the Latin “mare-oceanus”, could be read by some foreigners as “sea anian”, since the stylized Russian letter “k” in this name can easily be mistaken for “n”.
There is nothing surprising in such borrowing, since the Russian “drawings” of those places unknown to Europeans (for example, Dmitry Gerasimov) date back to 1525! Another confirmation of the fact that the Russian geographical outlook at that time immeasurably surpassed the European one is the fact that the legendary James Cook, who went to the Aleutian Islands in 1778 and believed that he had “discovered” them, unexpectedly discovered a Russian trading post there and was forced to correct its residents have their cards. As a token of gratitude, he presented the commander of the trading post, Izmailov, with his sword. Although, for sure, she would have been more useful to him himself - the next year he died in Hawaii, trying to "civilize" the natives there. Although there had been a Russian trading post there for a long time, none of its inhabitants were eaten...
In this mysterious, magnetic region, all the conventions of the Eurocentric picture of the world are revealed. It was here that the most passionate, active and free personalities sought from different sides in search of their own utopia. In America, which itself was originally a utopian country, the most advanced, in every sense of the word, utopianists were the pioneers of the Wild West, who no longer had enough freedom in the overly regulated Atlantic states. And at about the same time, a mass movement of Russian explorers and navigators to the East began, "meeting the Sun." This movement was also mainly composed of those forces that sought to escape from excessive state guardianship - free Cossacks and Pomors, who had never known either the yoke or serfdom. Such legendary personalities as Khabarov, Dezhnev, Poyarkov are representatives of this particular wave. The first ruler of Alaska, Alexander Baranov, was from Pomeranian Kargopol. Later, the Old Believers naturally joined this wave, leaving the “fallen Third Rome” to look for the magical Belovodye and the saving city of Kitezh.
But the very first to cross the "end of the world" were the Novgorodians - the bearers of the great northern Russian tradition, brutally suppressed by the Tatar-Moscow yoke. The historian of Russian emigration in America Ivan Okuntsov writes about it this way:
There are some hints that the first Russian emigrants were some enterprising residents of Veliky Novgorod, who arrived in America 70 years later than Columbus. Residents of Veliky Novgorod visited Western Europe, the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Urals. Their migration to America took place after Tsar Ivan the Terrible defeated Novgorod in 1570. The energetic and enterprising part of the Novgorodians, instead of putting their heads under the axes of Moscow, moved on a distant and unknown path - to the East. They ended up in Siberia, stopped near some large river (Irtysh?), built several ships there, and went down to the ocean along this river. Then, for four years, the Novgorodians moved east along the northern coast of Siberia and sailed to some kind of “borderless river” (the Bering Strait). They decided that this river flows in Eastern Siberia, and having crossed it, they found themselves in Alaska... The Novgorodians quickly mixed with the native Indian tribes, and their traces were lost in the centuries of history. Recently, these traces have been found in the Russian-Church archives of Alaska, which ended up in the Library of Congress in Washington. From these archives it is clear that some Russian church parish informed its bishop from America about the construction of a chapel and called its place not America, but “Eastern Russia”. Obviously, the Russian settlers thought that they had established themselves on the eastern coast of Siberia ... In those early years, the Russians began to live closely under the royal heel, and they rushed to seek happiness in the other hemisphere. Columbus discovered America from the east, while the Novgorodians approached it from the northwest.
This sensational version is confirmed not only by church archives, but also by academic research. Thus, in 1944, the American historian Theodore Farrelly published a work about specifically Novgorod buildings that he discovered more than 300 years ago on the Yukon coast! (2)
Known for many centuries, the exploration activity of the Novgorod ushkuinikov(who were considered “robbers” (3) in the Horde and Moscow) makes this transcontinental transition quite probable. So, several centuries before the famous campaign of Yermak, who then “bowed” to Siberia to the Moscow Tsar, the Novgorod Chronicle of 1114 mentions the walking of the ushkuins “beyond the Stone (4), to the land of Yugra”. That is, they already then went to Northern Siberia! At the same time, the Novgorodians, although they separated themselves from the Muscovites, always used Russian place names (and the very word “Russian”) in their discoveries. This explains the unheard-of surprise of the later "discoverers" from Moscow and St. Petersburg, when local residents of distant lands reported that their settlement was called Russian Mouth (in Indigirka) or Russian Mission (in Alaska) ...
Petersburg writer Dmitry Andreev, working in the genre of "alternative history", reconstructs the chronology of this great Novgorod campaign:
At the end of the 15th century, the Novgorod Kochi reached Alaska by the Northern Sea Route and founded several trading posts there. In the 70s of the XVI century, after the defeat of Novgorod by Ivan the Terrible, several thousand Novgorodians sailed to the East and settled in the south of Alaska. Communication with the outside world is interrupted for a century and a half. The rediscovery of Alaska takes place at the beginning of the 18th century by Bering.
And he paints an equally great future for Independent Alaska. So, at the beginning of the XIX century there should have been:
Population - 500-600 thousand people, religion - Orthodoxy (pre-Nikonian), Indians and Aleuts mutually assimilate with the descendants of Russians. The political structure is a developed parliamentary democracy with periods of military dictatorship (during the war years). Alaska participated in the Crimean War on the side of Russia, starting from the 70s of the XIX century - gold mining, industrial growth, rapid immigration. By the beginning of the 20th century, 5-6 million people. Borders: r. Mackenzie, then coast to 50 degrees N. latitudes, Hawaii (admitted to the republic on a federal basis in 1892), Midway, an enclave in California ... Alaska, on the side of the Entente, took part in the First World War (patrols the Pacific Ocean, sending an expeditionary force to the Eastern Front), then helped the whites armies during the Civil War. In 1921-1931. accepted more than 500 thousand Russian emigrants, bought the Russian Fleet, interned in Bizerte ... The air group was partly fighters purchased in Japan, partly torpedo bombers of the Sikorsky-Sitkha company. Friendship with Japan prevented Alaska from participating in World War II in the Pacific Ocean, but since June 1940 Alaska has been at war with Germany, Italy and Portugal (due to the death of many of its citizens in France and on sunken ships) ... A nuclear power since 1982, launches satellites from spaceport in Hawaii since 1987. Population in 2000 - 25 million people. GNP - $ 300 billion.
The "Novgorod version" of the development of Alaska, not to mention the projects of its possible future, for some reason is especially fond of "refuting" Moscow historians. This reflects both a lack of historical imagination and a long-standing centralist dislike for "too free" discoverers of new lands. Although even if we assume that it was not the Novgorodians who landed first in Alaska, but, as the official version says, only two centuries later, members of the Bering-Chirikov expedition, then all the same, Moscow has nothing to do with them, since this expedition was formed in St. personal decree of Peter I. Moscow has always remained (and remains) a typical city of the Old World, which is interested in geographical discoveries not in themselves, and even more so not in the perspective of new historical creativity, but only purely utilitarian - in terms of joining "under the royal hand » regular disenfranchised colonies. Unfortunately, the St. Petersburg Empire in relation to Russian America in many respects continued this Horde-Muscovite tradition.
Russian America itself in those years was a kind of analogue of the "Wild West", or - avoiding this geographical convention - you can call it "Wild Utopia". Russian pioneers and settlers, of course, were not angels, however, unlike the British and Spaniards, they never set as their goal the displacement and extermination of the natives. The Aleuts, Eskimos, Tlingits and other inhabitants of this "end of the world" appreciated this, although they had absolutely no idea of the concept of "citizenship". Running a little ahead, it is appropriate to recall the claim of one Indian leader, expressed by him during the sale of Alaska in 1867: "We gave the Russians the opportunity to live on our land, but not the right to sell it to someone." This is really a different world, going beyond the European standards of "colonial property".
Russian America more and more resembled the original, multicultural Rus'. Pomors and Cossacks willingly married Indians, Aleuts, Hawaiians, and as a result, a completely new people arose, with a special mentality. Unlike South America, where colonization was accompanied by the rigid imposition of Spanish and Portuguese canons of religion, language and behavior, here, in the North, a real transculturation took place. Also, in contrast to the Horde invasion of Rus', which turned it into a totalitarian Muscovy, a unique synthesis of Novgorod and Indian love of freedom was established in Alaska. The locals learned the basics of Orthodoxy from the Russians and adopted many of the words, but in turn taught the Russians how to handle sleds and kayaks, and sometimes initiated them into their own mysteries. And it is no coincidence that many Russian settlers, even after the sale of Alaska, refused to leave it. This was not some kind of "national betrayal" - they just got so deeply involved in the rhythm of this new world that they already felt their heterogeneity with the metropolis. In many ways, this was similar to the behavior of those immigrants from England who recognized themselves as citizens of the New World and declared their independence. The only difference was that for the large-scale formation of a new ethnic group on the basis of the Russian-Indian synthesis, then there was simply not enough historical time ...
There weren't enough people either. Due to the rigidity of the laws of the Russian Empire, which limited the right of movement for many estates, it was much more difficult for a Russian to get into the Alaskan Novo-Arkhangelsk than for an Englishman to New York. The rulers of Russian America have repeatedly appealed to city officials, the Senate and even the royal court with a request to allow the resettlement of at least a few peasant communities in Alaska and Californian Fort Ross, vital for the economic independence of Russian settlements. But - invariably met with a categorical refusal. Officials feared (and not in vain - judging by the precedents that still existed) that these several hundred peasants, having mastered the farming type of farming characteristic of America, would have a revolutionary impact on the then economic system of the Russian Empire. Perhaps that is why Alaska was quickly sold almost immediately after the abolition of serfdom - in order to prevent the mass resettlement of freed peasants there.
Another version of such a hasty sale of Alaska is that the Russian government was concerned about the protection of "national identity" from the transatlantic "mixture" that frightened it. However, the paradox here is that the true Russian identity in this case was embodied precisely by those who mixed with Indians and white Americans and thereby gave rise to a new people. The Russians themselves at one time arose precisely as an ethnic synthesis of the Varangians and Slavs. The "patriots" of the Horde-imperial persuasion demonstrate by this only their provincial ignorance in the Russian tradition, which initially has a global character. Petersburg philosopher Alexei Ivanenko clearly explained this in his work Russian Chaos:
Our antiquity is not original. Surprisingly, according to etymological analysis, such ancient words as bread, hut, well And prince are of German origin. Old borrowings are being replaced by new ones. Where is the real face of Russia? The secret is that it doesn't exist. Byzantine icons, gilded minaret bulbs, Tatar balalaikas, Chinese dumplings are all imported.
* * *
Russian pioneers did not know the word "Alaska" at all and simply called it "Great Land". Alaska really could become a "Utopia incarnate" - like America, mastered by Europeans from the Atlantic. In 1799, the Russian-American Company was founded and the Pacific exploration of America had its famous "founding fathers" - Grigory Shelikhov, Alexander Baranov, Nikolai Rezanov ... But unfortunately, they did not have time to proclaim their Declaration of Independence, and therefore the project of the Russian America was eventually overwhelmed by the Eurocentric mother country.
The California base of Russian America - Fort Ross - was founded in 1812. If we perceive history creatively, from the point of view of new opportunities, and not the endless redistribution of the Old World, then this event looks much more important than the war with Napoleon. Even if Napoleon had stayed in Moscow, it would hardly have changed anything in Russia, where the nobility spoke French better than Russian. Whereas the transfer of public attention to the development of the New World could set a completely different scale for Russian self-consciousness, at the same time saving Russia from the shameful label of “gendarme of Europe”.
Even while performing these "gendarmerie" functions to save the European monarchies from revolution, the Russians vainly counted on some kind of gratitude from these thrones. Moreover, for example, the Spaniards, who then made up the majority in California, repeatedly tried to liquidate Fort Ross - either by a show of force, or by bombarding official Petersburg with angry diplomatic notes for "invading their territory", although their legal rights to it were very conditional. and rather shaky. On the contrary, the local Indians supported Fort Ross, hoping that the Russians, with their authority and extraterritorial status of a “third force,” would save them from complete civilizational destruction in the millstones between the Yankees and the Spaniards. And repeatedly, with weapons in their hands, they defended the Russian fortress from both!
The Russian government meanwhile behaved more than strange. In response to the Spanish notes, it did not stand up for the Russian settlement, but ... assigned the role of the respondent to the Russian-American Company itself. However, the Company had almost no real international rights - and according to a long Russian tradition, it was obliged to coordinate all its decisions with the capital's officials. Representatives of the Company simply got tired of explaining the obvious to them - what colossal historical advantages the existence and development of the Russian settlement in California promises. But they ran into a blank wall, or even stabs in the back - like the statement of Foreign Minister Nesselrode that he himself advocates the closure of Fort Ross, since this settlement causes "fear and envy of the Gishpans." This apotheosis of "old-world" narrow-mindedness and real national betrayal, perhaps, has nothing to even compare with! The opposite, "mirror" situation - for the Spanish conquistadors to convince Madrid of the productivity of their American developments, and for this they would be condemned and demanded to curtail their activities under the pretext of "fear and envy" of other nations - is simply impossible to imagine...
However, this is not the end of the stupidity of Russian centralism - in the 20s of the XIX century, the government tried to prohibit the settlers of Russian America (which included the Indians) to conduct direct trade with the Americans. This actually meant an economic blockade and indeed, a real "pernicious influence of the West" - given that in relation to the Old World Alaska is the "Ultra-Far East".
The board of the Russian-American Company in Alaska, to the best of its ability and diplomatic skill, reduced these contradictions between the free development of Russian America and the crazy demands of the distant metropolis. The most prominent role in this reconciliation process undoubtedly belonged to the first "ruler of Alaska" (official title) Alexander Baranov. During the years of his reign, this great, but alas, almost unknown figure in Russia, actually turned the entire northern part of the Pacific Ocean into a “Russian lake”, having built a new civilization on the American coast, equal to half of European Russia and developed much higher than Siberia of that time. Alaskan Novo-Arkhangelsk (the city is clearly named Pomors) as the center of the most important fur trade at that time, it was the first port (!) in the North Pacific Ocean, leaving Spanish San Francisco far behind. Moreover, it was not only an economic and military, but also a cultural center: several thousand books were stored in its library - a very impressive number for those times and compared with the more southern colonies of the "Wild West".
However, bureaucratic envy and its true weapon - slander - brought down this giant. Bringing millions to the Russian treasury every year, but content with a penny salary himself, Baranov was dismissed without explanation and recalled to Russia. Where he never sailed, he fell seriously ill and died on the way. A strange repetition of this route turned out to be the fate of another commander of Russian America - Nikolai Rezanov, who also ended his days on his way back to Russia, never again seeing his New World along with the daughter of the California governor in love with him. This is not just sad romance - the utopian Cape of Providence really does not let its discoverers go to "ordinary land".
Indeed, over all the Russian pioneers of this "edge of the world", from the point of view of its "middle", some kind of evil fate prevails. Starting with the disappeared Novgorodians and Bering, who died on his expedition, up to a wave of unexplained deaths in Russia itself of almost all the descendants and followers of Baranov ... However, if we perceive this situation less mystically, one can also discern quite “earthly” motives behind it - the harsh anti-utopianism of the Russian authorities, which is extremely jealous and negative towards the "dreamers" who dream of creating a new civilization. After all, this creation inevitably means the collapse of the old.
Fort Ross was the clearest evidence that Russian life could be different. Once its ruler was an energetic 22-year-old "Russian Swede" Karl Schmidt. And on the scale of a small garrison, a real "youth revolution" in the Petrine style began - with a new design of the fortress itself, the construction of its own fleet, the opening of new schools and even a theater! "Troublemaker" was soon removed ...
The Decembrists, many of whom collaborated with the Russian-American Company, suffered much more seriously. Konstantin Ryleev, who developed the project for the independence of Russian America, was hanged. Another Decembrist, Dmitry Zavalishin, was not a separatist. On the contrary, he developed the ideas of massive and intensive Russian penetration into California and encouraged the local Spaniards to accept Russian citizenship. He called his mission the "Order of the Restoration" and tried to convince the tsar of the grandiose prospects for the "Russification of America." However, the Russian authorities rightly considered that they would no longer be “the same Russians” who could be easily controlled. But Zavalishin with his petitions remained "the same", and was sent to Siberian penal servitude.
Thus, the project of Russian America actually turned out to be destroyed not by some external enemies or circumstances, but from within - by the authorities of the Russian Empire itself, which considered it "excessively expensive." But Providence is ironic - shortly after Fort Ross was sold literally for a penny in 1841, it was from the mill of its new owner, John Sutter, that the famous American "gold rush" began. So the Russian authorities, without waiting for the golden egg, slaughtered their chicken-ryaba. And in this river, which was originally called the Slavyanka, and then the Russian river, patient Americans are still washing gold ...
* * *
After the sale of Fort Ross, all of Russian America shrank to the borders of Alaska - although still grandiose, but already pushed far to the North - and already without a regular and practically free food supply from California. In fact, it was the last bastion before the final retreat to the Old World.
However, history has also preserved significant examples of a much more southern than even California, Russian development of this mysterious date line, "the end of the world." Preserved in different meanings - as a memory of the "lost paradise" and the mediocrity of the "old-world" government. And also, perhaps, and as a hint for the future - utopia knows no historical boundaries ...
Ivan Okuntsov cites facts no less striking than the landing of the Novgorodians in Alaska. Jules Verne and Stevenson are resting:
During long-distance voyages in the Pacific Ocean, the current and winds of Russian navigators even brought them to the equator. Once they got to New Zealand, east of Australia. At that time, there was one monk on the Russian ship, who had lost hope for a successful outcome of the voyage. The monk escaped from the ship at night to the island, where he took power into his own hands and declared himself king of New Zealand. The Russian flag was raised on the island. Then the monk-king turned to Peter the Great with a request for help and for the acceptance of all Maori - residents of New Zealand - into Russian citizenship. But for some reason, help from St. Petersburg was not provided, and the monk died and "royally" was burned on a "sacred fire."
And here is an extensive testimony from the Kamchatka journal "Northern Pacifica" (5), little known to anyone in the flat world of "Eurasian-Atlantic" showdowns:
Once the Bering fishing ship was blown far to the south by a storm. Having lost count, the sailors did not even notice how spikes of island corals grew through the bubbling foam. The ship was smashed to pieces, and the people were carried to the fertile shores. After drying off and eating bananas, they soon discovered that they had landed on a desert island. For about a month, Russian sailors wandered through the tropical forests, eating exotic fruits. They pretty much dressed themselves, but did not lose heart and prayed for salvation. One of the sailors from Alaska, passing by the island on a ship, noticed six tanned men who rushed along the shore and expressed themselves in “strong Russian”. Of course, the Robinsons were picked up. Soon they were taken to the capital of Russian America - Novo-Arkhangelsk, where they told Baranov in detail about the island with "milk rivers and jelly banks."
Thus began the great saga of the Russian discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1806, with the light hand of Baranov, the navigator Sysoy Slobodchikov reached Hawaii. He brought expensive furs, from which the local leaders, despite the wild heat, did not crawl out. The king of the Hawaiian Islands, Tamehamea the Great, heard about the generosity of the "new whites". He himself dressed in furs and expressed a great desire to trade with Baranov's people. Gradually, the flame of sincere friendship began to flare up.
Slobodchikov "and his comrades" spent the whole winter under the canopy of palm trees. They saw that the islanders live in white semi-circular huts, love to sing and wear bright clothes. They value friendship and are ready to give even their girlfriends to please a white guest. Under the words of Hawaiian songs and inexhaustible supplies of Russian vodka, three months of winter flew by like one day. Our sailors liked the land of eternal summer so much that they concluded the first trade agreement with the Kanaks for the supply of breadfruit, sandalwood and pearls from Hawaii to Alaska. Tamehamea sent Baranov royal clothes as a gift - a cloak made of peacock feathers and a rare breed of parrots. In addition, the king himself wanted to come to Alaska for negotiations, but was afraid to leave the islands in the face of the growing maritime activity of "other whites."
This turn of events made Baranov very happy. He sent his friend Timofey Tarakanov to the islands, who stayed there for three whole years, studying the life of the islanders. Together with the Russians, the closest servant of the king, Tamehamea, also lived, who taught white travelers how to hunt sharks and told local legends. One of them says: when the ocean covered the earth, a huge bird landed on the waves and laid an egg. There was a strong storm, the egg broke and turned into islands. Soon a boat from Tahiti moored to one of them. On the boat were a husband, a wife, a pig, a dog, hens and a rooster. They settled in Hawaii - this is how life on the islands began.
The king of the Hawaiian Islands liked the Russians so much that after a year of their stay he presented the king with one of the islands. The local leader Tamari received Baranov's envoys favorably. To the sound of the surf on the island of Kanai, a Russian fortress-fort of St. Elizabeth was being built. Domestic ships arriving at the fortress were no longer met by half-naked savages, but by people dressed in a hat and a loincloth, in a sailor's pea jacket, and in shoes. Tamari himself, like King Tamehamea, began to flaunt in sable furs.
Life on the island went on as usual. Soon the first Russian-Hawaiian dictionary was compiled. Ships loaded with Hawaiian salt, sandalwood, tropical fruits, coffee, and sugar went to Alaska. The Russians mined salt near Honolulu, from a dry lake in the crater of an old volcano. The children of local leaders studied in St. Petersburg, studied not only the Russian language, but also studied the exact sciences. King Tamehamea also grew rich. Baranov presented him with a fur coat made of selected fur of Siberian foxes, a mirror, and a squeaker made by Tula gunsmiths. Under the green palm trees of the coral islands, the Russian flag fluttered for many years. And ukuleles got along quite well with Russian harmonicas.
* * *
Alas, the Russian tsars were too different from the Hawaiian kings... They, as usual, were preoccupied with strengthening their "vertical of power", which did not fit into this utopia in the Pacific expanses. On the board of the Russian-American Company, free explorers, seafarers and merchants were gradually completely replaced by gray officials who understood little, and did not want to understand anything in particular in the specifics of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean. For their centralist thinking, this space was nothing more than the "farthest province" of the Russian Empire, moreover, dangerously "torn off" from the metropolis. Therefore, from the middle of the 19th century, ideas about the sale of Alaska began to circulate in Russian circles around the authorities.
Note that the issue of granting independence to Alaska never came up. Although the example of how England nevertheless ceded to its American settlers the right to independently own the territory of the New World mastered by them was still fresh. What prevented Russia from doing exactly the same with the part of America mastered by the Russians? Having established with them a strategic transpacifist partnership like transatlantic relations between England and the United States.
The realization of this possibility was prevented by the fact that Russia belonged to the civilization of the Old World to a much greater extent than England. And in continental Europe of those years, it was still not at all customary to abandon their overseas colonies. This was considered a "sign of weakness", although historical experience shows just the opposite - England has not lost a single European war since then, and the Commonwealth it created turned out to be much more durable than many Eurocentric projects. But it was Eurocentrism that won in Russia.
Of course, the sale of Alaska has its own share of guilt and its direct inhabitants of that time. They, unfortunately, learned little from the other, eastern, part of America, the experience of civil self-organization, and, for the most part, silently obeyed the sale of their land, for many already native. The heavy totalitarian legacy of the centralized Russian state manifested itself even among the descendants of those who once fled from it ...
However, even after the “Russian capitulation” in Alaska in 1867, this land did not lose its special, free character. Only now he was already resisting American centralism. To this day, the most winning campaign slogan in Alaska is: "We are Alaskans first, then Americans." Modern Alaska has its own unique flag, invented by its children and made official - the golden constellation Ursa Major against the dark blue background of the northern winter sky. And the official motto: "To the North, to the future!" Finally, the Alaska Independence Party operates quite legally there and nominates its political leaders.
As for Russia's sale of its New World, there was also a symbolic sign of Providence. Money for Alaska never got to the noble "sellers". The agreed sum of 7.2 million dollars was paid in gold, which was transported from New York to St. Petersburg. However, the ship sank in the Baltic Sea...
Russian America was buried in the musical "Juno and Avos":
Bring Discovery Cards
In a haze of gold, like pollen.
And, pouring moonshine, burn
At the haughty doors of the palace!
* * *
A mirror reflection of the development of Alaska was the landing of Americans in the Russian North during the Russian Civil War. Formally, they arrived there to support their Russian allies in the First World War in the face of a possible German offensive. But suddenly a closer alliance arose. General Wilds Richardson in his memoirs "America's War in the North of Russia" wrote:
On August 1, 1918, the inhabitants of Arkhangelsk, having heard about our expedition, themselves rebelled against the local Bolshevik authorities, overthrew it and established the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region.
This department was headed by Nikolai Tchaikovsky - a very interesting historical figure, known for the implementation of his utopian projects in America itself. For a brief historical moment in Arkhangelsk, the Alaskan Novo-Arkhangelsk seemed to be embodied - at a time when Chekist terror raged in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Russian North was an extraterritorial island of the world, where a free economy, culture, and the press were preserved. But alas, the Americans, in a strange way, soon discovered the same logic as the Russians during the development of Alaska - "far and expensive." Although if they had stayed, then there would have been no "cold war", and indeed the Soviet Union!
Moreover, for this they did not need to undertake any aggression at all - the Bolsheviks at that time were themselves ready to give up all the territories they did not control, if only to maintain their power over the Russian capitals. In 1919, Lenin proposed to William Bullitt, who had arrived in Moscow on a semi-official mission from President Wilson, that he recognize Bolshevik Russia, and in exchange for diplomatic recognition, he agreed to record the results of the Civil War as they were at that time. That is, the power of the Bolsheviks would be limited to a few central provinces. But Woodrow Wilson, who believed that the Bolsheviks would soon fall without that, and therefore refused this deal, turned out to be a poor visionary ...
* * *
The 21st century again gives a chance to embody the historical subjectivity of the Cape of Providence. According to Kenichi Ohmae's forecasts, Chukotka and Alaska can indeed turn into a special sovereign region, much more strongly connected internally than with their mother countries. There are all economic and cultural prerequisites for this. Moreover, such a formation, at least at first, will not in any way contradict the political centralism of the Russian Federation and the United States. Chukotka and Alaska may well remain associated subjects of these states, but the very logic of the glocalization process will lead to a civilizational convergence of these regions and a weakening of centralized control over them. It is this utopian the earth will become the most real criterion that the declared "strategic partnership" between Russia and America is not only declarative.
Vladimir Videman, in his keynote article "Orientation - North or a Window to America" (6), draws grandiose prospects for future Russian-American rapprochement. He predicts the creation of a "strategic transpolar alliance" that will inevitably dominate world politics and economics. However, this is a view from the standpoint of some kind of global monopoly, strange for this author, who publishes many “anti-globalist” manifestos on his website.
In general, in the very title of this article, an allusion to Heydar Dzhemal's metaphysical poem "Orientation - North" is obvious. But if Dzhemal is talking about "the transformation of the fundamental disharmony of reality into a fantastic transobjective being", then Wiedemann's "transpolar alliance" looks too mundane against this background. All its goals come down, in essence, to a kind of mechanical connection of the real states of the Russian Federation and the United States - without the emergence of some new, special civilization.
The problem here is that this author still thinks in modernist categories of centralized nation-states and, apparently, does not notice that the world has already moved into a completely different era, when the regions themselves become the main subjects of politics, especially those located on the borders of these states. Their direct cooperation is becoming more significant and effective than the diplomatic protocols of the central authorities. And the more "distant" from each other the political centers of these nation-states consider themselves, the more interesting and promising - in terms of creating a new civilization - is the interaction of their border regions. This is generally an ontological law of “combination of opposites” – the more radical they are, the more unique is the result of their synthesis.
After the Eurocentric era of modernity, Europe itself seems to be experiencing a “second youth” today - the flowering of regionalism in the Old World is already such that it casts doubt on whether there are still nation-states there, recalling the times when they did not exist at all. However, today's Russia, with its hypercentralism and Eurocentrism, still remains in a state of modernity. It can only be overcome by the northern regions reaching the level of direct transnational and transcontinental cooperation with the northerners of other countries. But so far it is being hampered by the central authorities, who are reasonably afraid that the independent North will simply cease to support them.
The North and Siberia, occupying 2/3 of the territory of the Russian Federation, give this state more than 70% of export profits, however, due to its total economic centralism, they have a reputation as “subsidized”. And the "donor" is Moscow, which controls the oil and gas pipelines. A less contrasting but similar situation is observed in North America. Under these conditions, no "strategic transpolar alliance" between the officials of the two countries will change anything for the northerners.
This “fundamental disharmony of reality” can only be corrected with the transition to a “fantastic transobjective being” - when power in the North moves from isolated and centralized state machines to networked, transnational civil self-government. It was then that “unipolar” America and hypercentralized Russia would go down in history and give way to the global North.
The Russian, Siberian North is closer in its mentality to Alaska than to Muscovy. Similarly, Alaska is much more similar to the Russian North than to the "down states", as the Alaskans call the main territory of the United States. Oleg Moiseenko, a Russian American who came to Alaska as a tourist, shares interesting observations on this subject on the Internet:
Alaska is a country of real men and real men's work: builders, lumberjacks, oil workers, hunters, drivers, fishermen, captains and pilots (surprisingly, but the fact is that women do this kind of work here too!). Alaska is a world outside the media, secular news and other products of civilization. This is an opportunity to belong to yourself. Be free from police surveillance (outside of Anchorage). And finally (please just look at it as a fact) - it's still a white man's corner.
It is understandable why a white man from the “lower states” is especially impressive about the latter. Unlike them, Alaska really does not have that painful political correctness, which is increasingly turning into racism inside out. There is just a healthy, natural, northern multiculturalism, where no one bothers anyone to be themselves and does not make anyone feel ashamed of not belonging to one or another aggressive minority. It is this "ability to belong to oneself" that is the most amazing feature of Alaskans in the eyes of the carriers of intrusive media standards.
However, it would be inaccurate to depict Alaska as some kind of archaic industrial appendage of the post-industrial world. There are proportionally no less representatives of creative, "post-economic" professions than in the "lower states" - but their worldview is significantly different. The majestic, beautiful, and still carefully preserved nature of Alaska, as well as the reputation of the "edge of the earth" brings up the mentality of pioneers, and not passive consumers of global pop music. And this will become more and more noticeable against the backdrop of ideological, demographic and regional conflicts in the "lower states" fighting for a place under the fading sun of the outgoing world...
It is noteworthy that one of the Siberian Old Believer communities, which fate brought to China and then to South America in the 20th century, eventually found its place in Alaska. Their town Nikolaevsk quite organically blended into the Alaskan nature and toponymy, where many Russian names have been preserved. Although their psychology, of course, has changed significantly - there is no more fearful suspicion of strangers and technology. But, however, there is also no overly prudent “Americanism”… Exploring the whole phenomenon of this special culture emerging on the Russian-American border, Mikhail Epstein foresees their future unique synthesis:
In its potency, this is a great culture that does not fit entirely into either the American or Russian tradition, but belongs to some fantastic cultures of the future, like the Amerossia that is depicted in the novel by Vl. Nabokov "Hell". Russian-American culture is not reducible to its separate components, but outgrows them, like a crown, in which the far-spread branches of the once single Indo-European tree will re-intertwine, recognize their kinship, just as the kinship of Indo-European roots is vaguely recognized. in Russian "sam" and English "same". United in their deepest roots, these cultures may turn out to be united in their distant shoots and offshoots, and Russian-American culture may be one of the forerunners, prototypes of such a future unity.
When I think of a Russian American, I am presented with an image of intellectual and emotional breadth that could combine analytical subtlety and practicality of the American mind and synthetic inclinations, the mystical talent of the Russian soul. To combine the Russian culture of brooding melancholy, heartfelt anguish, bright sadness - and the American culture of courageous optimism, active participation and compassion, faith in oneself and in others...
It is on this "Bering bridge" that the symbolic handshake of Semyon Dezhnev and Jack London will take place. Those who often recall Kipling's lines "The West is the West, the East is the East, and they cannot come together" for some reason forget the prophetic ending of this poem:
But there is no East, and there is no West,
What does tribe, homeland, clan mean,
When strong with strong shoulder to shoulder
Standing at the edge of the earth?
(1) Profile magazine, No. 19, 2002.
(2) Farrelli, Theodor. Lost colony of Novgorod in Alaska // Slavonic and East European Review, V. 22, 1944.
(3) An interesting parallel with the "northern barbarians" in Roman history!
(4) I.e. Ural Range
(5) № 7, 1999.
(6) Network log
The Chukotka Peninsula is replete with bays and bays, but one of them stands apart - Providence Bay. The name fully corresponds to the bay because of the constant fogs that cover it almost all year round and the local waters of the bay are covered with a dense veil, through which it is difficult to see anything. Local residents have long been accustomed to this, but to a visiting guest it will seem like a big curiosity. However, it is not named because of the fogs, but more on that later.
Such an amazing phenomenon is formed due to the elongated shape of the bay. It is stretched for 34 kilometers in length, while only 4 km wide, while steep and steep banks, reaching a height of 800 meters, surround Providence Bay. The result is a kind of natural pipe, due to which permanent fogs form here. But despite this, this place is of great importance on the northern sea route due to the fact that here the sea is ice-free longer than in other places, from May to October.
Discovery history
The first who visited these places was Kurbat Ivanov, who was considered the successor of Semyon Dezhnev in the development of these places. Ivanov's expedition reached these places in 1660, however, like many of Dezhnev's discoveries, this event was not given due importance, although the bay was an ideal place for the construction of a northern port and a reference point on the northern trade route. The bay received its name only two centuries later, in 1848. That year, a ship cruised in this area in search of the Franklin expedition and in October it was decided to winter in these places, the deep bay was an ideal place for overwintering and, as a result, the British called it the bay of St. Providence. For the next hundred years, a covert trade war was waged in the region. Russia fought for its monopolies in the trade in local goods and defended as best it could from visiting American guest performers who exchanged furs and walrus ivory for whiskey. Light clippers periodically entered the bay and arrested American merchants, but this did not stop anyone, because trading expeditions were super-profitable.
The bay began to really develop only at the end of the 30s. In 1933, a commission came here and developed a project for the construction of the port. Construction proceeded at an accelerated pace, and after the Second World War there was already a small town of two thousand inhabitants, and the population of all the villages of the bay reached 5 thousand people. Currently, these places are empty and only the local population remains here for the most part.
Settlement Providence
The Chukchi have chosen these places for a very long time, but they thought about a full-fledged city on the shores of Providence Bay only in the 30s. A very small stronghold appeared in 1928, and it was only a warehouse with coal for passing ships. Starting from 1933, houses and a port were gradually built, and four years later, in the 37th, mass construction began here. The village began to fully function after the war, and its population reached 2 thousand people.
The village experienced another leap in the 50s and 60s, when the confrontation with America gained maximum momentum. Military units were relocated to these places, which led to a sharp jump in population and there was even a plan to build a city for 12 thousand people, but it was never destined to come true. But even despite this, the population exceeded 5 thousand people, and the village of Conduct became one of the largest in Chukotka.
With the collapse of the union, the collapse of the village also occurred. The military left, leaving mostly locals. From 1994 to 2002, no construction was carried out at all, and the local population gradually left for the “mainland” and it seemed that the village would soon disappear from the map of Russia, but this was not destined to happen and for the last ten years the village has been gradually restored, major repairs have been completely carried out everywhere , new buildings are being erected. But the village of Ghosts is unlikely to ever become as big as before, but will only remain an important support port on the northern sea route and a place for fishing.
Tourism
As a military point on the map of Russia, the village is unlikely to recover, but as an exotic tourist point it may well be. Recently, tourists have been increasingly attracted to the most unusual places on the planet, for example, an excursion to the North Pole costs a lot of money, while you need to stand in a long line to get the coveted flight ticket. Providence Bay is also the edge of the earth with untouched northern nature, a real natural museum, almost like another planet. The village itself is still unsuitable for tourism, it has a small museum of the history of the region and that's all, but it can be developed as an unusual tourist destination in the world.
Source: rus-globus.ru
Through the mountains to the sea with a light backpack. Route 30 passes through the famous Fisht - this is one of the most grandiose and significant natural monuments in Russia, the highest mountains closest to Moscow. Tourists travel lightly through all the landscape and climatic zones of the country from the foothills to the subtropics, spending the night in shelters.
Provideniya Bay (Chukotka Autonomous District, Russia) - detailed description, location, reviews, photos and video.
- Hot tours in Russia
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One of the most beautiful places in Chukotka with one of the best local history museums in the region - perhaps a worthy reason to visit Providence Bay during your romantic journey through the harsh but beautiful peninsula. Yes, and the name of the bay - to match, beckons with ancient secrets and riddles. It was here that they got up for the winter, fearing raging storms, ships, and received reliable protection, shelter and shelter.
How to get there
There is a very small, but international airport in Provideniya Bay, located near the village of Ureliki, which is on the southern (that is, opposite from the village) coast. The airport receives regular flights from Anadyr of Chukotavia Airlines, as well as charters from American Nome (Alaska). You can get to the center of Provideniya Bay by bus, which also runs around the village.
According to the legend, a bizarrely indented bay in the Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea was discovered in 1660 during a scientific expedition to Cape Chukotsky. However, the name of this picturesque place appeared almost two centuries later.
History paragraph
According to the legend, a bizarrely indented bay in the Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea was discovered in 1660 during a scientific expedition by Kurbat Ivanov to Cape Chukotsky. However, the name of this picturesque place appeared almost two centuries later, when in 1848-1849. the English ship "Plover" under the command of Captain Thomas Moore had to anchor here and wait out the harsh local winter.
The ship set sail from British Plymouth in January 1848, and cruised the Bering Sea in search of the lost Franklin expedition.
The bay became their salvation, because the storm wind and bad weather crept up quickly and unexpectedly, and only by Providence itself this quiet and comfortable harbor was sent to them literally in a matter of days from death. The name, which is understandable, was supported by the entire team - Providence Bay has acquired its new name.
And further from this very moment, whalers and merchants periodically stopped here for wintering, for meetings or short-term rest throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Alas, not everyone treated the local population, let's say, neatly. In 1875, the Russian clipper ship Gaidamak, under the command of Sergei Tyrtov, deliberately anchored in the bay in order to secure a state monopoly on coastal trade. He distributed leaflets among the local Chukchi in the name of foreign merchants, after which he headed north to the Gulf of Laurentia, where he found the merchant ship "Timandra" from the United States, which was engaged in the exchange of walrus bone for alcohol from the local population.
The village of the same name in the bay appeared much later, only in 1937 it was decided to build a port. Only three years later, the safe harbor was already open and ready to receive cargo at the wall of the first berth.
During its heyday, when the port did not stop working literally for a minute, and the water surface opposite the village was full of huge dry cargo ships, more than 7 thousand people lived in Providence Bay. Not even half of it today.
Geography and climate
The width of Provideniya Bay reaches an impressive 8 km at the beginning, narrowing towards its base, but the length, measured along the middle line, is over 34 km. The maximum depth is about 150 m, but at the entrance to the bay it does not exceed 35 m, so from May to October the water is completely or partially free of ice.
There are several other small bays and harbors inside the bay, but the village and the airport are located in Komsomolskaya Bay. The steep banks of Providence are the most beautiful cliffs and hills with a height of about 600-800 m.
What to see
The main advantage of the village of Providence Bay (not counting the fantastic nature around) is the Museum of Local Lore, where you can learn almost everything about the life of the local population - the Chukchi, Evenks, Eskimos. It is small, but its collection is unique, as are the people who work within its walls. It is hardly possible to hear more interesting stories about this harsh region than within the walls of the "providential" museum.
Pay attention to the cost of souvenirs - it is often indicated in dollars, which is not at all surprising: American cruise ships from Alaska often come here.
The night was quite warm, a slight wind was blowing. From Cape Chaplino we walked along beacon lights, of which there are many here - navigation is excellent!
Early in the morning we passed the Plover spit, blocking almost half of the entrance to Providence Bay, got in touch with the border guards and the port by radio. In the port, they were waiting for us and very kindly and sympathetically prompted us in detail to enter and place the parking lot.
At seven in the morning we moored to the SPA, the crew of which was also very pleasant and friendly. There were already young border guards here. After the border formalities, they told about our journey. It was still early, and it was Sunday. We reported about our call the day before, but the planned arrival time was indicated at 12-14 o'clock. In order not to wake anyone and not to put on the ears, we decided to wait at least nine - the beginning of the tenth.
Someone dozed, someone talked, someone was engaged in small household issues. The weather is cloudy in the morning, so perhaps the most beautiful bay in Chukotka also looks gloomy.
The village of Provideniya itself, grown with the foundations of houses into a hill with rather steep slopes, causes ambiguous impressions. A sort of mixture of peppy and cheerful Pevek mixed with a dull Tiksi. Some of the houses are bright and multi-colored (later it turned out that they were not even painted, but lined with multi-colored polymer material, which is much more durable than paint).
Some are grey, boarded up tightly. Here and there you can see the gray spots of dilapidated old industrial buildings. And at the same time, on a high spur on the edge of the village, there is an amazingly beautiful two-storey building in the style of northern Scandinavia (it turned out to be the scenery for the film "Territory", which was filmed here not so long ago).
There was a mobile connection, but the Internet did not want to work in any way. By the way, the Internet megaphone did not work that day, and therefore our plans to send materials were crying - we are taking it further, now, probably, to Egvekinot.
At the beginning of ten, we call the head of the Providensky district, Sergei Shestopalov. He is already on his feet, aware that we have come and promises to be very soon. Literally ten minutes later on the SPA deck we get acquainted with the head - a good-natured, pleasant and cheerful man. We quickly discuss our plans, and in order not to stand in the wind, we are offered to continue communication in the cabin of the hospitable SPA crew. From there, Sergei makes a series of short calls, at the same time, Voloboy communicates with the captain of the SPA according to weather forecasts. The captain has a very good and detailed wind forecast map, which is very important for us.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, a “loaf” arrives and the crew of “Andrei” is taken to the hotel on the first flight. Ten minutes later and we are already in the car going there. A very comfortable hotel with a fairly fresh renovation and all the benefits of civilization - such a European-level hostel. Here we are already met and fussed by the hostess. Everyone is settled, and our program for today is already scheduled by the minute:
11.30 – Sauna
14.00 – Museum
15.30 - Departure to the national Eskimo village Novoe Chaplino, meeting at school, concert, communication.
If we manage to do all this and stay alive - a meeting at the Providence club with local residents. If tomorrow we don’t go further in the morning, then at 10 am we will meet at the Administration, and then we’ll see.
We are absolutely satisfied with the plan, but we honestly say right away that we are leaving unconditionally in the morning, since the forecast is still good, but then it gets worse by the second half of the week. We proceed according to plan. We understand that over time we are tense - before the bath we run to the store to buy something for lunch and buy a little extra fresh food for kochi.
At 11.30 we are already in the bath. The bath is public. But what! Clean, comfortable, spacious, excellent steam room, relaxation room with tables - in general, it would seem, well, a bathhouse and a bathhouse .... No, nothing like that! BATH!!! Probably, the mainland does not understand this. Since not many people go to the bathhouse and not so often. Those who go to Moscow and really appreciate the bath - go to Sanduny. Well, one way or another, there are different baths and saunas, of which there are a great many with an incomprehensible format (either a bath, or “at the same time wash yourself”). But, here is a public bath in such excellent condition and a wonderful bath culture (regulars, communication, traditions), which is being lost more and more, you will not meet often! And, really, what is a bathhouse for us, who have been traveling for fifty days now on the water, and in general there is no need to say! There was a very good bath in Pevek. But, it was not a "public bath" format.
In general, our admiration knew no bounds, and for two hours we were immensely and infinitely happy! Along the way, we told the local bathers about our expedition - why waste time in vain - these are excellent informal meetings!
Having made a million bows to the hostess, we are in a hurry to have a quick bite to go to the museum.
MUSEUM! And shock again! We are knocked out! Two floors of real local lore! An excellently built exposition in the halls, a very rich collection of exhibits - everything shows the skill and professionalism multiplied by the invested soul of the museum staff!
Our guide and senior researcher Igor Aleksandrovich, whom we simply bombard with questions, answers everything, managing to tell a lot about everything between them.
The archaeological collection of the museum is especially impressive!
We are completely out of the schedule, because we cannot stop inquiring. The conversation continues here, but already in the administrative office for a tea party with a lot of all sorts of goodies! But, we understand that there is a school in New Chaplino and they are waiting for us there! Igor Alexandrovich willingly volunteers to go with us and continue communication on the road!
Vasily Mitrofanov
Providence Bay
What is it like to live in the Arctic and cut through the tundra on a snowmobile
– Sometimes I don’t have enough communication, I just want to talk to someone. There are very few people in Chukotka. You can ride a motorcycle all day and not meet anyone. In principle, this suits me, I'm used to traveling alone. Sometimes you don’t say a word for several days of a trip, and I don’t like talking to myself.
I have been living in Chukotka since I was two years old, one might say, all my life, and I was born in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, on the Taimyr Peninsula. This is also the Far North. In general, I have lived in the Arctic all my life. Perhaps that is why my place of residence seems ideal to me. For example, when I am on vacation, in big cities I feel uncomfortable from all this fuss around. I want to return home to Chukotka as soon as possible.
You will hardly meet non-locals at home. There are tourists, of course, but mostly foreigners come on cruise ships: they wander in crowds around the village for several hours and then sail further. I think it is very problematic for an ordinary tourist to get to the territory of Chukotka. Firstly, it is a border zone, and secondly, it is very expensive. Airplane is not the cheapest mode of transport. They fly here from Anadyr: once a month in winter and once a week in summer.
My main hobby is riding a motorcycle. I like to climb mountains, walk alone on the tundra and visit abandoned, dead towns, which we have had since the days of the Iron Curtain. On our side of the bay is the village of Provideniya, and on the opposite side is Ureliki, a dead and abandoned military town. I go there often, just wandering through the empty streets, looking into the gaping, broken windows of buildings.
This autumn I visited the local school, the building is in a very deplorable state, even though you can shoot a horror movie: broken glass is everywhere, water is dripping from the ceiling, the wind is walking along the corridors. I know some graduates of this school, they are already adults, sometimes they come to their school, but they can’t even get together in their own class. They sit in the yard, fry kebabs and complain that the meeting of graduates now has to be held on the street, since only walls remain from their native school.
Before, I was not afraid to wander through abandoned buildings, but now I feel fear. It seems as if there is something alive in these houses, so I completely stopped going into dark rooms: basements, long corridors and rooms without windows. But I am attracted to these houses, I like to wander around places that have no future: to visit old hunting and fishing houses.
It is always interesting for me when traveling to suddenly find an old house of geologists in the tundra. I love reading graffiti on the walls. For example: “Andrey Smirnov. Chukotka. Summer 1973". Questions immediately arise in my head: "Who was this Andrey? What did he do in Chukotka in 1973? How did his fate turn out, where is he now?" And so on. It all excites and interests me madly.
Active construction of the village began in 1937. A caravan of ships from the Providenstroy enterprise arrived here. The first step was to build a port. At the end of 1945, the Kamchatka Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution on the creation of a workers' settlement of Provideniya in the Chukotka region. The settlement continued to develop rapidly, military units were relocated here. The first public building, the canteen, was built only in 1947.
From the memoirs of Lyudmila Adiatullina, Perm:
- My father, Vasily Andreevich Borodin, reached Prague during the war years. Then part of it was loaded onto trains and sent across Russia to the Far East to Providence Bay, where he served for another five years.
It was very difficult, for two years they lived in six-bladed tents, among rocky stone hills. Nars were made of stones, deer moss was placed on top. Four slept, and the fifth drowned the potbelly stove. In the morning, sometimes the hair froze to the tent. This tent city was covered with snow, people dug each other out, made catering units, officers' houses, defensive structures and even roads out of logs.
In the second year, little fuel was brought in, and in order not to freeze, the military looked for dwarf birch trees, uprooted them; they chipped bricks and soaked stones in barrels of kerosene. This has already stoked the stoves. It is good that the Chukchi suggested that there were coal mines developed by the Americans not far from the location of the unit. When they were asked to leave from there in 1925, they blew everything up and covered it with earth. The soldiers re-developed these mines in a primitive way, carried coal 30 km away in backpacks, on skis. And yet they survived.
Later we rode dogs and reindeer and rented them from the Chukchi. They sawed snow with saws, carried it on sledges and made water out of it. Only in the third year did they begin to build soldiers' barracks from wooden bars. The barracks were large, for a division. There were no builders among the soldiers, but life taught everything. In 1950, in September, everyone was demobilized. For seven years they were not at home: two years in the war and five years in Chukotka.
The village of Providence itself is an ordinary northern port town with monuments of the devastation of the nineties, bad roads and kind, sympathetic people. Some come here just to earn a "northern" pension and get out. They do not understand the beauty of the North, it is for visitors - cold, snow and stones. Someone, on the contrary, is crazy about mountains, northern lights, whales, and other romance. I am just one of those people.
All the most interesting things are located outside our village: the base of sea hunters, the whale cemetery, the remains of military facilities, ancient Eskimo camps, hot underground springs. In the summer I go to the ocean on a motorcycle all the time, I like to go everywhere, climb the hills, wander through uncharted places.
And what kind of animals can you stumble upon! I saw: whales, seals, wolves, brown and polar bears, fox, arctic fox, wolverine, hare, eurage, ermine, lemming and a bunch of different birds. Only bears and wolves are dangerous to humans. A gun, I think, of course, is not a superfluous thing in the tundra, and just in the wild, but it just so happened that I did without it all my life. Maybe I was lucky, just if I ran into bears, I was always on a transport, on a snowmobile or a motorcycle. But if you travel on foot, then it is better to take a gun or at least a rocket launcher: some kind of firecrackers to scare away predators.
One day I came across the wreckage of an airplane. Once I was driving along the shore of the lake and saw something on the slope of the hill. I climbed in - it turned out that it was an LI-2 aircraft. He crashed here in the seventies. At the bottom I saw a commemorative plaque and a sign. Many more aircraft wreckage can be found on the territory of military facilities. All this remains from the time of the Soviet army.
