At the end of the 16th century, Ermak’s detachment cut the door to Siberia for Rus', and since then the harsh regions beyond the Urals have been persistently developed by small but persistent detachments of miners who set up forts and moved further and further to the east. By historical standards, this movement did not take very long: the first Cossacks clashed with the Siberian Tatars of Kuchum on Tour in the spring of 1582, and by early XVIII For centuries, the Russians have secured Kamchatka for themselves. As in America at about the same time, the conquistadors of our icy lands were attracted by the riches of the new land, in our case it was primarily furs.
Many cities founded during this advance stand safely to this day - Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Tobolsk, Yakutsk were once advanced forts of servicemen and industrial people (not from the word "industry", these were hunters and fishermen), who went further and further beyond "fur Eldorado". However, no fewer towns suffered the fate of the mining settlements of the American gold rush: having received fifteen minutes of fame, they fell into desolation when the resources of the surrounding regions were exhausted. In the 17th century, one of the largest such towns arose on the Ob. This city existed for only a few decades, but became legendary, became the first polar city of Siberia, a symbol of Yamal, and in general its history turned out to be short but bright. In the ferocious frosty lands inhabited by warlike tribes, Mangazeya, which quickly became famous, grew up.
The Russians knew about the existence of a country beyond the Urals long before Ermak’s expedition. Moreover, several sustainable routes to Siberia have emerged. One of the routes led through the Northern Dvina basin, Mezen and Pechora. Another option involved traveling from the Kama through the Urals.
The most extreme route was developed by the Pomors. On kochas - ships adapted for navigation in ice - they sailed across the Arctic Ocean, making their way to Yamal. Yamal was crossed by portages and along small rivers, and from there they went out into the Gulf of Ob, also known as the Mangazeya Sea. “Sea” here is hardly an exaggeration: it is a freshwater bay up to 80 kilometers wide and 800 (!) kilometers long, and a three-hundred-kilometer branch to the east, the Tazovskaya Bay, extends from it. There is no clear opinion about the origin of the name, but it is assumed that this is an adaptation to the Russian language of the name of the Molkanzee tribe, which lived somewhere at the mouth of the Ob.
Pomeranian Koch in an engraving from 1598
There is also an option that traces the name of the land and the city to the Zyryansk word “land by the sea.” "Mangazeya sea passage" with knowledge of the route, compliance optimal timing getting on the road and good navigation skills of the team led from Arkhangelsk to the Gulf of Ob in a few weeks. Knowledge of many nuances of weather, winds, tides, and river fairways could make the path easier. The technology of moving ships by dragging was also developed long ago - they dragged loads on themselves, the ships were moved using ropes and wooden rollers. However, no skill of sailors could guarantee a successful outcome. The ocean is the ocean, and the Arctic is the Arctic.
Even today, the Northern Sea Route is not a gift for travelers, but back then voyages were made on small wooden ships, and in case of emergency one could not count on the help of the Ministry of Emergency Situations with helicopters. The Mangazeya route was a route for the most desperate sailors, and the bones of those who were unlucky became the property of the ocean forever. One of the lakes on the Yamal Perevolok has a name that is translated from the aboriginal language as “lake of the dead Russians.” So there was no need to think about regular safe travel. The main thing was that there was not even a hint of some kind of base at the end of the journey, where it was possible to rest and repair ships. In fact, the Kochi made one long journey to the Ob Bay and back.
There were enough furs at the mouth of the Ob, but one could not yet dream of a permanent trading post: it was too difficult to supply it with everything necessary in such conditions. Everything changed at the end of the 16th century. The Russians defeated Kuchum's loose "empire", and soon servicemen and industrial people poured into Siberia. The first expeditions went to the Irtysh basin, the first Russian city in Siberia - Tyumen, so the Ob, simply by force of events, was first in line for colonization. Rivers for the Russians were a key transport artery throughout the Siberian conquest: a large stream is both a landmark and a road that does not need to be laid in impassable forests, not to mention the fact that boats increased the volume of transported cargo by an order of magnitude. So at the end of the 16th century, the Russians moved along the Ob, building up the coast with fortresses, in particular, Berezov and Obdorsk were founded there. And from there, by the standards of Siberia, it was only a step away to the Ob Bay.
As you move north, the forest gives way to forest-tundra, and then to tundra, intersected by many lakes. Unable to gain a foothold here, having come from the sea, the Russians managed to enter from the other end. In 1600, an expedition of 150 servicemen under the command of governors Miron Shakhovsky and Danila Khripunov left Tobolsk. The Gulf of Ob, to which they rafted without much incident, immediately showed its character: the storm destroyed the kochi and barges. The bad start did not discourage the governor: it was decided to demand that the local Samoyeds deliver the expedition to its destination using reindeer. On the way, however, the Samoyeds attacked the travelers and were badly beaten; the remnants of the detachment retreated on the selected deer.
This circumstance adds intrigue to this story. In correspondence with Moscow, there are hints of Russian participation in the attack (or at least its provocation). This is not such a surprise. Industrial people almost always overtook servicemen, climbed to the most distant lands and did not have any warm feelings towards the sovereign people who carried centralized taxation and control. We can say for sure that some Russian people were already building in the area of the future Mangazeya: subsequently, archaeologists found buildings from the late 16th century on Taz.
Drawing of the land of the Turukhansk city (New Mangazeya) from the “Drawing Book of Siberia” by S. U. Remezov (1701). Swedish copy; Mangazeya at the end of the 18th century.
Nevertheless, apparently, some part of the injured detachment still reached Tazovskaya Bay, and a fortification of Mangazeya itself grew on the shore. Soon a city was built next to the fort, and we know the name of the city planner - this is a certain Davyd Zherebtsov. A detachment of 300 servicemen went to the fortress - a large army by the standards of time and place. The work progressed, and by 1603 a guest house and a church with a priest had already appeared in Mangazeya, in a word, the beginning of the city had been laid.
Mangazeya turned into Klondike. True, there was no gold there, but a huge country full of sables stretched around. The bulk of the residents dispersed to surrounding areas that stretched for many hundreds of kilometers. The fortress garrison was small, only a few dozen archers. However, hundreds, or even thousands of industrial people were constantly milling about in the town. Some left to hunt for animals, others returned and sat in taverns. The city grew quickly, and artisans came to fetch the industrial people: from tailors to bone carvers. Women also came there, who did not have to complain about the lack of attention in the harsh and heat-deprived region. In the city one could also meet merchants from central Russia(for example, a merchant from Yaroslavl donated to one of the churches), and runaway peasants. In the city, of course, there was a moving hut (office), customs, a prison, warehouses, trading shops, a fortress with several towers... It is interesting that all this space was built up in accordance with a neat layout.
Furs were bought from the aborigines in full force; detachments of Cossacks reached from Mangazeya even to Vilyui. Metal products, beads, and small coins were used as currency. Since the cyclopean scale of the Mangazeya district was impossible to tightly control entirely from one place, small winter huts grew around. The sea route has sharply revived: now, despite all the risk, the delivery of goods that were urgently needed locally - from lead to bread, and the return transportation of “soft junk” - sables and arctic foxes - and mammoth bones, has become more accessible. Mangazeya received the nickname “boiling gold” - as such there was no gold there, but there was an abundance of “soft” gold. 30 thousand sables were exported from the city per year.
The tavern was not the only entertainment for residents. Later excavations also revealed the remains of books and beautifully crafted, decorated chessboards. Quite a few people in the city were literate, which is not surprising for a trading post: archaeologists often found objects with the names of the owners carved on them. Mangazeya was not at all just a transit point: children lived in the city, ordinary people got animals and farmed near the walls. In general, livestock farming, of course, took into account local specifics: Mangazeya was a typical old Russian city, but residents preferred to ride around the surrounding area on dogs or deer. However, pieces of horse harness were also later found.
Alas! Taking off rapidly, Mangazeya quickly fell. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, the polar zone is not a very productive place as such. The Mangazeans dispersed hundreds of miles from the city for an obvious reason: fur-bearing animals were disappearing from the immediate vicinity too quickly. For local tribes, sable was not of particular importance as a hunting object, so in northern Siberia the population of this animal was huge and the sables lasted for decades. However, sooner or later the fur-bearing animal had to dry up, which is what happened. Secondly, Mangazeya fell victim to bureaucratic games within Siberia itself.
Map of Tobolsk, 1700.
In Tobolsk, the local governors looked without enthusiasm to the north, where huge profits were slipping out of their hands, so from Tobolsk they began to write complaints to Moscow, demanding that the Mangazeya sea passage be closed. The rationale looked peculiar: it was assumed that Europeans could penetrate Siberia in this way. The threat looked dubious. For the British or Swedes, traveling through Yamal became completely pointless: too far, risky and expensive. However, the Tobolsk governors achieved their goal: in 1619, rifle outposts appeared in Yamal, turning away everyone trying to overcome the drag. It was supposed to expand trade flows to cities southern Siberia. However, the problems overlapped one another: Mangazeya was already becoming poorer in the future, and now administrative barriers were being added.
In addition - the king is far away, God is high - internal turmoil began in Mangazeya. In 1628, two governors did not share powers and started a real civil strife: the townspeople kept their own garrison under siege, and both had cannons. The chaos inside the city, administrative difficulties, scarcity of land... Mangazeya began to fade. In addition, Turukhansk, also known as New Mangazeya, was rapidly growing to the south. The center of the fur trade shifted, and people left behind it. Mangazeya was still alive due to the inertia of the fur boom. Even the fire of 1642, when the town completely burned down and, among other things, the city archive was lost in the fire, did not finish it off completely, nor did a series of shipwrecks, which caused shortages of bread. Several hundred fishermen wintered in the city in the 1650s, so Mangazeya remained a significant center by Siberian standards, but it was already only a shadow of the boom of the beginning of the century. The city was sliding towards final decline slowly but steadily.
In 1672, the Streltsy garrison withdrew and went to Turukhansk. Soon the last people left Mangazeya. One of the latest petitions indicates that in the town that was once bursting with wealth, only 14 men and a number of women and children remained. At the same time, the Mangazeya churches also closed.
The ruins were abandoned by people for a long time. But not forever.
A traveler of the mid-19th century once noticed a coffin sticking out from the bank of the Taz. The river washed away the remains of the city, and fragments of a variety of objects and structures could be seen from under the ground. At the beginning of the 20th century, where Mangazeya stood, the remains of fortifications were visible, and in the late 40s, professional archaeologists began to study the ghost town. The real breakthrough occurred at the turn of the 60s and 70s. An archaeological expedition from Leningrad spent four years excavating the Golden Boiling.
The polar permafrost created enormous difficulties, but in the end the ruins of the Kremlin and 70 various buildings, buried under a layer of soil and a grove of dwarf birches, were brought to light. Coins, leather goods, skis, fragments of carts, sledges, compasses, children's toys, weapons, tools... There were amulets like a carved winged horse. The northern city was revealing its secrets. In general, the value of Mangazeya for archeology turned out to be great: thanks to the permafrost, many finds that would otherwise crumble to dust are perfectly preserved. Among other things, there was a foundry with a master’s house, and in it there were rich household utensils, including even Chinese porcelain cups. The seals turned out to be no less interesting. A lot of them were found in the city, including the Amsterdam Trading House. The Dutch came to Arkhangelsk, maybe someone got beyond Yamal, or perhaps this is just evidence of the removal of some furs for export to Holland. Finds of this kind also include a half-taler from the mid-16th century.
One of the finds is filled with gloomy grandeur. A burial was found under the floor of the church the whole family. Based on archival data, there is an assumption that this is the grave of governor Grigory Teryaev, his wife and children. They died during the famine of the 1640s while trying to reach Mangazeya with a caravan of grain.
Mangazeya only existed for a little over 70 years, and its population is incomparable with the famous cities of Old Rus' like Novgorod or Tver. However, the disappeared city of the Far North is not just another settlement. At first, Mangazeya became a springboard for the movement of Russians into the depths of Siberia, and then it presented a real treasure to archaeologists and an impressive history to descendants.
Everything you wanted to know about the “Secrets of Mangazeya” expedition is in the presentation at the link.
https://yadi.sk/d/bOiR-ldcxrW6B
Information on how to become a member of the expedition is located here -
Ancient city on the river bank.
The banks of the Siberian Taz River even today cannot be called busy - there are few settlements on them, and the nature is striking in its pristineness. And in the 16th century, when the Pomors appeared here, this area was completely perceived as the end of the world. In ancient books, the tribes living east of the Ob were called “Molgonzeans”: this word comes from the ancient Komi-Zyryan language and means “people of the outskirts”. Over time, the name of the tribes turned into the name of the area: on maps compiled by the Englishman A. Jenkins, it is designated as “Molgomzeya”. Later, in the form of “Mangazeya”, it became the name of the city.
Magnificent Mangazeya.
The Pomors were brought to these places by shipping matters: first they walked across the ocean to Yamal, and then, dragging their ships along the peninsula (this was called the “Yamal portage”), they went to the Gulf of Ob. It is believed that it was the Pomors who founded the first winter quarters on the Taz River. They also told the Moscow authorities about the unheard-of riches of the harsh Arctic.
Old map- try to figure it out.
And the wealth was indeed great: walrus tusks, mammoth tusks, and, most importantly, furs. One sable skin, bought from a hunter on the banks of the Taz, cost the merchant 40 kopecks; if a reseller got involved, you had to pay a ruble for such a skin. And in the markets Western Europe For a sable skin you could get about three hundred rubles! It is not surprising that the state soon wanted to lay its powerful hand on these riches and take control of trade.
The detachment of M. Shakhovsky and D. Khripunov had to fight their way to their goal - the banks of the Taz River: Selkup warriors attacked them on the road. Almost a third of the detachment fell in battle, laying down in the cold soil of a foreign land. But there was no choice: they did not go to the Arctic of their own free will, but by order of Tsar Boris Godunov. Those who survived the battle reached and founded a fort in 1600 on the hitherto deserted shores. This is how Mangazeya appeared.
Mangazeya developed with extraordinary speed.
We spent the winter, and then help came from Tobolsk and Berezov - two hundred servicemen led by governors. It became clear: there will be a new city. Indeed, Mangazeya developed with extraordinary speed: in a couple of years a large wooden Kremlin grew up, churches and houses appeared. Although even in its heyday the permanent population of Mangazeya was not so large - no more than 1200 people, the city was striking in its amenities. Residents of Mangazeya sported silks and velvets, the streets were paved with boards, and the windows of the poorest house were made of mica - in the European part of Russia this was available only to the richest. But perhaps the most amazing evidence of the city's wealth is the piles of plum and cherry pits found by archaeologists: in the 17th century. Mangazeans could afford regular delivery of fresh fruit to the Arctic.
Mangazeya: who was there?
Even more than its wealth, Mangazeya surprised by the diversity of the street crowd. Rich foreign merchants in hats with feathers walked alongside the Selkups and Nenets in Malitsa, and the Moscow “aka” speech mixed with the Arkhangelsk dialect. Day and night there was a brisk trade in furs in the city, bringing huge profits. Historians estimate that up to 30 thousand sable skins alone were exported from Mangazeya to the west per year, and there were also arctic foxes, mustelids, and squirrel furs. For its wealth and vigorous activity, Mangazeya was nicknamed “Gold Boiling”.
Vanished splendor.
The commercial splendor that turned Mangazeya into a legendary city did not last long - about forty years. For some time, Mangazeya eked out a miserable existence as an outpost, but in 1672 the garrison was transferred to the Yenisei. And the city disappeared, went into the icy polar land. Only thanks to the efforts of archaeologists, who began regular excavations here in the 1960s, we know that Mangazeya is not a myth, but a real city. But what happened to him? Why did the population, judging by the results of the excavations, simply leave there?
Mangazeya.
Historians put forward at least three versions of the fall of Mangazeya. According to the first, the fateful role was played by the very state that founded the city: first, Tsar Mikhail Romanov in 1720 forbade sailing on the ocean to Mangazeya, and a little later, in 1729, two newly arrived governors, A. Palitsyn and G. Kokorev, they quarreled and started a riot in the city civil war in miniature. The city began to wither and gradually faded away. Another version blames the death of Mangazeya on the fire of 1642, which actually destroyed most of the city. And according to the third version, the gradual disappearance of fur-bearing animals due to too intense hunting was to blame: there is no goods - there is nothing to trade, nothing for the townspeople to live on.
Excavations of the Mangazeya settlement.
We don’t know what happened in reality, and it is unlikely that archaeological research will ever give an accurate answer. One thing is clear: Mangazeya is one of the world's first polar cities, and although it did not manage to hold out for long, its foundation became an important milestone in the development natural resources Siberia.
It is worth saying that Russia is an amazing country rich in attractions. These are worth seeing, maybe.
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By Siberian standards, the Taz is not a particularly large river. In addition, in comparison with the Ob, its banks today look almost pristinely deserted: for more than 300 km, separating the mouth of the Taz River, where the villages of Tazovsky (regional center), Gazsale and Tibeysale are located, to another regional center - the village of Krasnoselkup, there are no settlements you will meet. But there is a tract on this section of the waterway that is a source of special pride for the local population: when sailing past it, ship crews salute with a long siren. The tract is located at the mouth of a small river - the right tributary of the Taz, near the almost abandoned village of Sidorovsk. The Nenets call this place Takharavyhard - “Ruined City”, and in historical sources it is known as Mangezeya.
Back in the 14th century, the Pomors called the area east of the Ob “Mangazeya” - after the name of one of the local Samoyed tribes. A little later the name “Gold-boiling Mangazeya” appeared - because of the riches of this region, primarily furs. Later the city began to be called that. A successful voyage to these parts, which usually took two years, could provide some Ustyug merchant for many years. In the second half of the 14th century, a small winter hut and fishing camp appeared on the Taz River, near the confluence of the small Osetrovka River. People came here on sea ships - kochakhs from the west, from Onega, Dvina, Pinega, Mezen for sable and marten skins, walrus tusks, and mammoth tusks.
The rich region could not remain outside the sphere of state interests for long. Already in 1600, princes Miron Shakhovskaya and Danila Khripunov with a hundred Cossacks were sent from Tobolsk to found a fortress town on the Taz River. The fate of this expedition was sad - after several nomads were defeated in a storm on Tazovskaya Bay, the detachment was attacked by warlike Nenets, who threw the Tobolsk people back to the Ob. The next year, 1601, a new detachment of Vasily Mosalsky and Savluk Pushkin nevertheless ascended the Taz River, and at the beginning of the forest zone, on the site of a fishing winter hut, they set up the Mangazeya fort.
The prison stood on a high hill. There was a voivode's courtyard, a hut (in which business was conducted) and a prison. Soon a settlement began to form around it - huts of industrialists, barns, craft buildings. The wealth of this region attracted people like a magnet - every year several caravans, during a short summer navigation, came here from the west along the route known as the “Mangazeya sea route”. They walked along the polar coast, crossing Yamal along a portage between the Mutnaya and Zelenaya rivers (now Mordyyakha and Seyakha) so as not to bypass its northern tip, usually covered with ice. Food was brought to Mangazeya, metal objects, exchange material for the local population (knives, mirrors and beads). The Kochis went back the next year, after wintering, loaded with furs. Since furs weighed much less, it was not uncommon for one of the three nomads who came to be sold in Mangazeya - many of the city’s buildings were made of nomadic boards and logs.
By 1610, the fort was replaced by a wooden Kremlin with four corner towers and one roadway. Wise builders separated it from the suburb with a 40-50 meter field free of buildings, which subsequently saved the suburb from a fire in the Kremlin, and the Kremlin from fires in the suburb. Unlike other similar settlements in Siberia, the Mangazeya settlement was not fenced with a tynom - the local residents clearly did not try to attack Mangazeya (in any case, not a single such attempt is known in its history).
In 1619, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, concerned about the uncontrolled voyages of the British and Dutch in the White and Barents Seas, as well as their trade with the Pomors, banned sailing along the polar coast on pain of death. A detachment of archers was stationed at the Yamal portage, cutting off the heads of everyone who tried to reach Mangazeya this way. The ban on sea navigation changed the conditions of existence of the city. It was necessary to establish supplies from the Ob, from Verkhoturye and Tobolsk, the path to Mangazeya became longer and more complicated. Over time, the problems were solved, and this northern “uncultivated” city again began to be supplied in the same way as Tobolsk itself was supplied: surprised archaeologists find pits forgotten with hazelnut (hazel) shells, plum and cherry pits. However, exporting “soft gold” became less profitable, and subsequently this factor played a role in the history of Mangazeya.
According to various sources, the permanent population of Mangazeya was up to 1,200 people, and in winter it at least doubled due to those wintering between campaigns with “ big land" and back. Dozens of nomads from different cities stood along the bank of the Taz River, along its tributaries - Ratilovka and Osetrovka. By collecting yasak from the local population and taxes from merchants, Mangazeya quite significantly replenished the Moscow treasury.
Despite the difficulty and obvious ineffectiveness, chickens, cows, and horses were bred in polar conditions. The streets of the posad were paved with boards, which was undoubtedly a rarity for polar Russian settlements at that time. In their free time, the Mangazeans played grain (dice) and even chess. True, the fight against gambling (which also included chess) at that time was carried out almost more harshly than in our time: it was possible to play only in bathhouses, or a special hut on the outskirts of the settlement. Various punishments were applied to violators of this order, and the game items themselves were taken away and thrown into a special pit near the official hut. This pit was found during excavations, resulting in the largest collection of medieval chess pieces.
In the history of Mangazeya there was only one case when its fortress weapons truly spoke. At first, not one governor was appointed to Mangazeya, but two at once - it was believed that one person could not cope with such a complex economy. In 1629, the next two governors arrived in the city - Andrei Palitsyn and Grigory Kokorev. They were connected by old differences, which during their stay in Mangazeya resulted in open hostility. Kokorev and his supporters occupied the Kremlin, Palitsyn took the posad. The three-year struggle of the governors with the use of cannons and arquebuses led to the fact that a significant part of the settlement (the guest courtyard, merchant barns, etc.) was destroyed. Alarmed by numerous complaints and denunciations, the tsar sent the Tobolsk clerk to study the situation on the spot, and recalled Palitsyn and Kokorev to Moscow. They did not suffer any punishment, but after this incident only one governor was appointed to Mangazeya.
After the departure of the grumpy governors, the city took a long time to heal its wounds, but a new blow was dealt to it by a catastrophic fire in 1642, in which the Kremlin burned down along with all the buildings. After the fire, the Kremlin was rebuilt in the same place.
The reason for the abandonment of Mangazeya by the population has not yet been reliably established. The sea route ban played a role here, but it was not decisive. It has been suggested that the number of fur-bearing animals in the Pura and Taz basins has decreased due to intensive fishing, and as a transit transport hub from the Yenisei to the Ob, Mangazeya was not very convenient. It is possible that this was also influenced by the aggravation of relations with local tribes. One way or another, in 1672 the Streltsy garrison was transferred to the Yenisei, where Novaya Mangazeya (the area of the present city of Turukhansk) was founded. Residents of the village followed the archers. The Taz River is empty.
In the polar climate, the city's buildings took a very long time to collapse. For some time after Mangazeya was abandoned, there was a tribute winter hut in this place, then a fishing camp. At the beginning of the 20th century, the remains of walls and one tower could be seen at the site. Now in place of Mangazeya there is a clearing covered with sparse trees and tall grass. The collapsed buildings of the settlement, untouched by archaeologists, form small mounds, at the bottom of which, under the grass, you can find unrotted logs lower crowns log cabins The archaeological study of this place, begun in the 1960s by the expedition of M.I. Belov, continues.
If you happen to visit Mangazeya, be sure to look at it from the river - at the slender spruce trees on a high cliff. Imagine in their place the towers and walls of the Kremlin, and to the right - where the bank goes down to the mouth of the Mangazeika (as Osetrovka is now called) - the posad buildings with the high tower of the Gostiny Dvor, decorated with a clock.
Mangazeya lived a short life for the city - only 71 years. But its importance for the development of the vast expanses of northern Siberia cannot be overestimated. The world's largest gas fields - Urengoyskoye, Medvezhye, Zapolyarnoye, Russkoye - are located in Russia. And much of the credit for this belongs to the now forgotten small polar city.
There will be more holidays on the streets of Mangazeya - travelers, archaeologists, tourists. Happy will be the one who sees its magnificent ruins!
Mangazeya settlement in 2007
Kremlin logs.
Reconstruction of Mangazeya, carried out by the expedition of M.I. Belov.
Pillar at the confluence of the Taz and Mangazeyka.
Ancient harbor. Previously, the water level was higher, and Pomeranian kochi stood here.
Traces of excavations.
We have never seen more delicious red currants during the entire expedition.
The detail of the kocha recovered by archaeologists is the stem or sternpost. Length about 2 m, weight more than 100 kg.
The side boards in the piles were sewn on with spruce roots.
This is how the Mangazeya governors saw Taz.
The shore under the fort. You can sometimes find coins and other items here.
Coastal erosion is destroying Mangazeya. The Kremlin wall facing the river, along with two towers, has already collapsed into the river. All along the shore there are logs and boards sticking out from the cliffs.
Archaeological camp. This group has been working in Mangazeya for the seventh year.
A cross on the site of the main temple of Mangazeya - the Trinity Church.
General view of the fort.
Kremlin logs.
Sometimes you can find cuttings along which buildings were built.
This field separated the Kremlin from the Posad.
The building is destroyed, but under a layer of grass you can still see the unrotten logs of the lower crowns.
Sunset over the island.
View of the Mangazeya settlement from the river.
Kremlin. Free reconstruction)
Mangazeya was the first Russian polar city built in the north Western Siberia. This city was called the “gold-boiling patrimony”; people sought here for the difficult Russian northern happiness, which was built on labor and profit.
The great advance of the Russian people to Siberia is shrouded in secrets and legends. The development of Siberia is a feat of the Russian people, before which the enterprises of the “various Cortez and Pisars” in America pale in comparison. One of these secrets is connected with the legendary Mangazeya, a fabulous city in which enterprising Pomors, brave sailors and explorers lived, who discovered the northernmost peninsula of Eurasia - the Taimyr Peninsula - to the world.
At the end of the 15th and early XVI centuries Siberia was actively developed “through the tireless labors of our people.” And, as M.V. rightly noted. Lomonosov, “Pomeranian residents from the Dvina and other places around White Sea, the main thing is to take part.”
During the movement of the Pomors “meeting the sun” (to the east), permanent settlements appeared on the territory of Siberia - wooden “fortresses”, winter huts and forts. one of the first such urban settlements was Mangazeya, built in the lower reaches of the Taza River. It became the first polar sea and river port of Siberia. And the Mangazeya sea passage led into it. This was the name in those distant times for the first Arctic highway connecting the White and Barents Seas with the Kara Sea.
The fabulous name, so unusual for Russian cities, keeps its secret. There is a version according to which the name “Mangazeya” comes from the name of the Nenets tribe Malgonzei who lived in those parts. According to the historian Nikitin, the name Molgonzeya goes back to the Komi-Zyryan word molgon - “extreme” “ultimate” - and means “outlying people”. We do not know the exact date of the founding of the city; it is approximately known that it existed already at the beginning of the 17th century.
IN winter time on sledges, and in the summer on koches, carabasses and plows, large masses of merchant and industrial people came to Mangazeya through the polar seas, swamps and small tributaries. People called Mangazeya “the golden-boiling sovereign’s estate,” meaning its fur riches. For their sake, brave traders and hunters flocked here; they were ready to endure hardships just to get rich later.
What was this “ornately decorated” city like? It had a wooden fortress-kremlin, a fortress wall, a suburb, a cemetery, three churches, a guest house, and “sovereign granaries.” Mangazeya was no different from other logged medieval cities of the Pomeranian North. The Pomors also brought the memory of the saints of the Russian North to this circumpolar region: Procopius of Ustyug, the Solovetsky wonderworkers, and Metropolitan Philip. One of the churches was erected in honor of Mikhail Malein and Macarius of Zheltovodsky, revered in the North. Revered throughout Pomerania, Nicholas the Wonderworker had his own chapel in the cathedral Trinity Church. There was also a saint here - Vasily of Mangazeya, who was considered the patron saint of industrial people.
Churches and other buildings stood on permafrost, so the foundations of the buildings were strengthened on a layer of frozen construction chips.
The Mangazeya community (“world”) differed from the zemstvo worlds in the homeland of the Pomors in that it united not a territory, not a volost or a district with a permanent population, but those trade and industrial people who found themselves in the “gold-boiling patrimony.” Whoever ended up in Mangazeya became one of their own. Harsh life united people.
Information about Mangazeya is very fragmentary and mostly shrouded in mystery. There was also a chronicle of Mangazeya, but it disappeared. The rich city quickly appeared and disappeared. Its existence lasted no more than seventy years. The reasons why people left here for Novaya Mangazeya - Turukhansk are not fully understood. It, like the fairy-tale city of Kitezh, disappeared, but was preserved in people's memory as a land of fabulous wealth, where dreams come true.
Russia, Siberia, Legendary Mangazeya. The village of Turukhansk.
Mangazeya - the first Russian city Eastern Siberia, founded in 1600 on the right bank of the Taza River, conducted significant trade and was considered the main point of the Lower Yenisei region, after two fires it became so impoverished that in the 2nd half of the 17th century it was completely deserted.
Allegorical city
A village on the banks of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River, a tributary of the Yenisei.
Geographical coordinates: Latitude 65°47′36″N (65.793214); Longitude 87°57′33″E (87.95917).
Directions from Moscow: by plane to Krasnoyarsk - 4 hours. 30 minutes, then by plane to Turukhansk airport - 2 hours. 30 minutes or from Krasnoyarsk along the Yenisei by river transport (river station on the banks of the Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk)
Directions from St. Petersburg: by plane to Krasnoyarsk - 4 hours. 50 minutes, then by plane to Turukhansk airport - 2 hours. 30 minutes or from Krasnoyarsk along the Yenisei by river transport (river station on the banks of the Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk)
Distance from Moscow - 5500 km, from St. Petersburg - 6200 km.
What to visit. Interesting historical and geographical sites.
The village has all the infrastructure of a modern settlement: Schools, kindergartens, shops, airport.
Brief history and description of these lands.
In the descriptions of Dutch expeditions made Jan van Linschoten and published in 1601 with very interesting maps of that time, it is said that the second Dutch expedition, consisting of 6 ships loaded with goods and money, arrived at Yugorsky Shar on August 19, 1595, where they encountered ice. From Russian industrialists and the Samoyed prince she collected extremely interesting information that the ice will soon disappear and that summer will continue for another 7 weeks, and that sometimes floating ice stays in the strait all summer, that in winter the strait freezes, but the sea on both sides of the strait does not freeze; finally, that Russian ships loaded with goods sail annually through this strait past the Ob to the Yenisei River, where they winter that the inhabitants of the Yenisei River are of the Orthodox faith. At the same time, the Samoyeds also provided the expedition with correct information about the further shores of the Arctic Ocean lying beyond the Yenisei.
The expedition soon managed to reach the Kara Sea, but seeing floating ice and fearing to endanger ships loaded with expensive goods from ice, the ships decided to return to Holland.
Even then, obviously, commercial shipping was widely developed between the northern coast of Russia and the Siberian rivers Ob and Yenisei. All this clearly shows that the route along the Arctic Ocean along the northern shores of Russia to Siberia by water was taken even earlier by Russian industrialists and traders. It is difficult to say who and when was the first to follow this path, but most likely, the honor belongs to the enterprising and brave Novgorodians. Professor Butsinsky, author of the book “Mangazeya and Mangazeya Uyezd”, expresses the opinion that sea route to Mangazeya was known to the Novgorodians and Suzdal colonists long before the founding of Arkhangelsk and, on the basis of some historical indications, believes that the Novgorodians back in 1364 walked precisely from the mouths of the Northern Dvina, the White Sea, the Kara Sea and the rivers of the Yamal Peninsula to the Gulf of Ob to the Ob and The foreigners there fought. Some historians are inclined to attribute the beginning of these voyages even to the 11th century. In Chulkova’s “Historical Description of Russian Commerce” we read: “Inhabitants of the Northern Country, in order to obtain soft junk, both before and after the construction of the city of Arkhangelsk, went to the Ob River and to Mangazeya.” The Novgorodians made the voyage for the sake of the Obdorsky and Tazovsky or Mangazeya Samoyeds, who had an abundance of precious fur goods. Lerberg, referring to the above-mentioned attempts of the Dutch and English in the 16th and 17th centuries to get into the Northern Ocean through the Kara Sea, notes: “what labors and misfortunes would the Dutch and English navigators have saved themselves, looking for the north-eastern route to India, if they had been able to use hydrographic knowledge, which was known in Veliky Novgorod several hundred years earlier.” Mangazeya was known to Russians and foreigners of northern Rus' long before the conquest of Siberia in 1581 Ermak, trade and crafts in the local region have long attracted enterprising people there. But the Moscow government knew nothing or very little about this for a long time, and only at the very end of the 16th century did they begin to realize this. various information. Based on chronicle data, it is known that in 1598 Tsar Feodor Ioannovich sent to Mangazeya and the Yenisei Fedora Dyakova with comrades to “visit” these countries and to tax the foreigners there with yasak (a tax in kind, which until the middle of the 19th century the peoples of Siberia paid mainly in furs). Dyakov returned to Moscow in 1600. Of course, trading people, continues Prof. Butsinsky, found out about Dyakov’s parcel and knew how it would end: the government would build a city in Mangazeya, and then their free trade in that region would come to an end. And so they, looking ahead, in 1599, asked Tsar Boris “to favor them, to allow them to travel for trade and fishing to Mangazeya by sea and the Ob River, to the Pur, Taz and Yenisei rivers and to trade “freely” (Freely, freely, unhindered) with the Samoyeds who live along those rivers.” Boris Fedorovich He granted the petitioners permission and allowed them to trade freely in those places, but so that they would pay the usual tithe duty to the sovereign's treasury and not trade in reserved goods. This charter was given in January 1600.
Initial location of the city of Mangazeya (according to the Map of the Yenisei province (from the Atlas of Asian Russia 1914)
The following year, 1601, during the reign of Boris Godunov, the city of Mangazeya was founded, 200 versts above the mouth of the Taza River, which flows into the Gulf of Ob. In a short period of time, this city becomes a center of trade, where brave industrial people and traders from all over northern Russia flock to barter.
This entire huge territory occupied by the Mangazeya district, corresponding approximately to the current Turukhansky district, was then called the “overseas sovereign estate”, and the sea route there along the “icy sea” was called “old”.
According to the description, the city of Mangazeya had 5 towers, and between them walls, one and a half fathoms (3 meters) high. in which the huts of the local population mainly huddled. Inside the city there were two churches (Troitskaya and Uspenskaya), a voivode's courtyard, a hut, a customs hut, a guest house, a commercial bathhouse, barns, shops and a prison.
Every year a fair was held there, when trade and industrial people returned to Rus' from trades and crafts, and over two thousand visiting guests temporarily gathered. Service people, Cossacks and archers, clergy, interpreters made up the permanent population of the city. The turnover of trade with Mangazeya for that time reached large figures, goods worth several hundred thousand rubles were brought in, and a lot of money went into the sovereign treasury.
In addition to the yasak, which was collected from foreigners in furs, various duties were established, which extremely burdened merchants and industrialists, such as: capitulation, barn, shop, livestock, travelers, departures, etc., but the most important duty is the tithe from trades, with purchase and sale of all kinds of goods and various food supplies that merchants and industrial people brought to Mangazeya, with the exception of bread, which was passed duty-free. Then a duty was established on bread, which was initially brought from Rus', but with the development of arable farming in the Verkhoturye, Turin and Tyumen districts, it was delivered along the tributaries of the river. Ob to Tazovskaya Guba and Mangazeya. In these Siberian districts, in productive years, a pound of flour cost a few kopecks, and in Mangazeya and Turukhansk it was sold for 50 kopecks, a ruble and 2 rubles.
But besides the established duties, a major source of monetary income in Mangazeya was the sale of wine and honey; the sovereign tavern was opened there. 
However, the Tobolsk voivode Prince Kurakin(in 1616), who did not sympathize with trade relations by sea with Siberia, began to write to Moscow that “trade and industrial people go kochami (Koch, in different dialects - kocha, kochmora, kochmara) - this is a vessel adapted for sailing on broken ice, and for the portage.) from the Arkhangelsk city to the Kara Bay and on the portage to Mangazeya, and the other road from the sea to the Yenisei mouth by large ships, and that the Germans hired Russian people to be taken from the Arkhangelsk city to Mangazeya.
Reporting to Moscow information about the sea route to Mangazeya, the governor Prince Kurakin expressed his fears that the Germans might take advantage of him, “but according to the local situation, sir,” this governor wrote: “depending on the Siberian case, some customs of the Germans cannot be allowed to go to Mangazeya to trade; Yes, not just for them to travel (to travel), otherwise, sir, and the Russian people by sea to Mangazeya from the Arkhangelsk city for the Germans are not ordered to travel, so that the Germans, looking at them, do not recognize the road and many military people passing through the Siberian cities do not cause any destruction.” (wouldn't have seized the land).
According to the information received during interrogation by the governor, the route from the Arkhangelsk city to Mangazeya is close: “throughout the years, many commercial and industrial people travel in camps with all sorts of German goods and grain reserves and make it to Mangazeya in 4-4 1/2 weeks.”
These reports so alarmed the Moscow government Mikhail Fedorovich, that in the same year it was forbidden, under pain of great disgrace and execution, to sail this way to Mangazeya and back, and all trade and industrial people were ordered to be sent to Mangazeya and from Mangazeya to the cities of Berezov and Tobolsk through the Verkhoturye outpost. And one of the storytellers about German people Eremku Savina It was even ordered “because he expects German people to come all the years,” to beat the batogs mercilessly, so that, despite this, it would be discouraging for others to start trouble by stealing.” These orders, which dealt a mortal blow to maritime trade and closed the Siberian northern coast not only from Europe, but also from Russia itself, caused a petition in the name of the Tsar from trade and industrial people of all cities who go to Mangazeya for their trades and trades. In their petition they wrote to “welcome them, order them from Mangazeya to Rus' and allow them to go to Mangazeya from Rus' big sea and through the Stone as before, so that in the future they would not be without industry, and the sovereign’s sable treasury would not suffer a loss in the tenth duty without markets and without industry.” And the Tsar granted trade and industrial people from all cities and ordered them to travel from Rus' to Mangazeya and from Mangazeya to Rus' by the large sea and through Stone as before; he only orders to hide this move so that the Germans do not find out about it.
But the governor Prince Kurakin didn’t calm down on this. In his further letters to Moscow, he continues to insist on the prohibition of sailing to Mangazeya by large sea, since it will be impossible to collect duties, therefore it is necessary to send trade and industrial people to Siberia and back only by land, through outposts. Then “the sovereign’s duty will double the profit,” and besides, German people, following in the footsteps of the Russians, can make their way to Mangazeya and the Yenisei, and then there will probably be damage to the sovereign’s treasury. At the end of his reply, Prince Kurakin adds that he wrote to the governors about the sovereign’s order to the Siberian and Pomeranian cities, but “whether that order will be strengthened or not, I don’t know, your servant, because: the places are distant, and the Pomeranian cities are not a Siberian award.” , and they don’t listen to your servant’s replies. And if, sir, with which measures the ship’s passage by sea to Mangazeya is secured, I would not be in disgrace from the sovereign from you.”
These messages frightened the Moscow government even more, and in its response letters it orders: “What if the Russian people go to Mangazeya by the big sea and start (start) trading with the Germans in violation of our decree, and because of their disobedience and theft and treason, the Germans or some foreigners will find a way to Siberia, and those people, for their theft and treason, will be executed by evil deaths and their houses (houses) will be destroyed to the ground.”
Prince Kurakin thus finally achieved that in 1620 he ordered that the sea passage to Siberia and the Russian people be blocked under pain of death, and to block the path along the portage on the rivers Mutnaya (Murtyyakha River) and Zelenaya (Soyakha River) to build forts . 
“To Matveev Island (Matveev Island, Zapolyarny District, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, Latitude: 69°27′58″N (69.466068); Longitude 58°31′53″E (58.531295) and to Yugorsky Shar (Yugorsky Shar Strait, Zapolyarny district, Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, Latitude 69°43′33″N (69.725837); Longitude 60°33′56″E (60.56548) in the summer a guard was sent who were supposed to collect duties from industrialists and traders in favor of the treasury. This collection was carried out with great constraint and extortion. Such measures had such a disastrous effect on Russian, actually, White Sea navigation, that by the end of the 17th century, not only merchants, but also fur traders stopped sea voyages to the east and even to Novaya Zemlya and limited themselves only to the nearest waters.”
Since then, Mangazeya has been rapidly declining, becoming of little use to anyone. Russian traders and Zyryans brought various iron, copper, tin and wooden crafts, men's and women's shirts, worn and new, multi-colored zipuns of English and homespun cloth, etc. They made their voyages along the Arctic Ocean without any nautical charts, even without a compass, on small boats, and yet there are no reports of wrecks on the sea route and I remember it. The entire sea journey from the mouths of the Dvina, in favorable weather, was completed in one month, and if they sailed from Mezen, Pinega, Pechora, they reached Mangazeya much faster.
For all these Dvinians, Mezenians, Pinezhans, Ustyuzhans, who mainly traded there, the sea route was much closer and easier than the one established by the Moscow government through Verkhoturye and Tobolsk. The voyage alone from Tobolsk to Mangazeya, in favorable weather, required 8 weeks, and in unfavorable conditions it lasted 13 weeks, and ships often suffered accidents in the Gulf of Ob. Yes, how much more time did it take for residents of the northern provinces to get to the city of Tobolsk with goods? 
By the end of the reign Mikhail Fedorovich trade in the city of Mangazeya fell significantly. In addition, local fisheries decreased: sables and beavers were hunted, new ones began to be created shopping centers. Finally, some random circumstances had a great influence on the fall of the city of Mangazeya, namely: from 1641 to 1644, not a single koch with bread came to this city: they were all defeated by storms in the Ob Bay. And a great famine began in Mangazeya. To complete the misfortune, in 1643 the city almost completely burned out: the voivode's courtyard, the sovereign's barns, the hut, some city walls burned down, and the buildings remaining from the fire were either broken or uncovered.
Although orders are sent from the Kazan Palace to restore and build the burned buildings, it is no longer possible to carry out the order - beyond the power of the local population, of which, as it turned out, there were only a small number left: “there are only 94 of us service people, they responded to Moscow, yes of these, 70 people are sent to the sovereign’s services in winter tribute and with tribute to Moscow, 10 people are in prison and only 14 people remain in the Mangazeya city to save the sovereign’s treasury. And even those, due to the failure of ships with provisions to arrive, suffer hunger and run away. The existence of Mangazeya brought only harm to commercial and industrial people, an unnecessary burden; getting into it became more accessible by a roundabout route, through Yeniseisk and Turukhansk, than through the Ob Bay; Meanwhile, the Moscow government continued to preserve this city until 1672, when it was finally moved to the mouth of the river. Turukhan on the Yenisei. In present-day Turukhansk and in the village of Monastyrskoye at the confluence of the Lower Tunguska River with the river. The Yenisei and some relics of old Mangazeya are preserved.
The tower at the Turukhansk Church, where Dutch bells brought from Mangazeya hang
And to this day you can see on the high, free-standing wooden bell tower at the church in Turukhansk bells transported from Mangazeya and delivered there, no doubt, by the northern sea route with the Dutch inscription reading “Anno 1616 haeccampana svmtibrei pvr peclesemens estoflata honore dei et bsannae” (it was not possible to translate from Dutch).
Mangazeya ceases to exist, and the trading city completely disappears from the face of the earth. On the site of old Mangazeya there is only a small chapel that was subsequently built.
As for the significance of Mangazeya in the history of trade in the Siberian region, as the prince writes M. A. Obolensky it is clearly visible that it was already beginning to occupy an important place, and if it were not for the disastrous customs system, which so despotically dominated our ancient trade, there is no doubt that Mangazeya would soon have become one of the main trading points of Siberia. This was guaranteed by the very location of Mangazeya, which eliminated the need to transport goods by land and, on the contrary, represented the enormous benefits of water communications, which were already beginning to become common. Far north of Siberia, says prof. Butsinsky, Obdoria and Mangazeya were known to Russian people much earlier than the middle or southern strip of this region. Meanwhile, from a historical perspective, the mentioned area is for many, very many, terra incognita, an unknown land, covered in the darkness of deep antiquity. And it’s not surprising that Obdorsk, but at least it resembles the now existing city of Obdorsk, and Mangazeya has long since disappeared from geographical maps. That part of Siberia which in the 16th and XVII centuries was known under the name Mangazeya, now does not attract attention; Therefore, the remote, inhospitable region is currently only wandered by Samoyeds with their deer and dogs. And in the old days there was a time when life was in full swing in this region, trade and industry flourished, great benefits were brought to both the Moscow Tsars and their subjects: they once spoke of it as they say of a country flowing with honey and milk. After all, Mangazeya in the old days was a goldmine, a kind of California, where residents of the current northern provinces: Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Perm, etc. greedily sought to obtain precious fur-bearing animals.
With the prohibition of sea voyages to Mangazeya, all maritime trade traffic ceased for more than 250 years, and the northern sea trade route was not only forgotten, but even the belief in the possibility of sailing on the Kara Sea, which was later considered an impassable glacier, disappeared. "After the expedition Wooda(1676) voyages with the actual purpose of opening the north-eastern passage almost cease, and a 200-year interval begins before the voyage Nordenskiöld on the Vega in 1878-1879, which finally resolved this age-old issue.
Wonderful people of Turukhansk.
Suslov Innokenty Mikhailovich-Historian and ethnographer, mineralogist, public and political figure. Born into the family of a sexton and a music school teacher.
Anatoly Sedelnikov, poet who died during the war near Lublin in Poland (1944).
Shestakov Yuri Grigorievich Honored test navigator of the USSR (08/18/1977), colonel. Born on April 20, 1927 in the village of Torkhan, Zaigraevsky district (Buryatia). He spent his childhood in the city of Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Valentin Feliksovich Voino-Yasenetsky- From 1923 to 1925, an outstanding surgeon and doctor of medicine, laureate of the Stalin Prize and later Bishop of Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei, canonized by the Orthodox Church, served his exile here.
Ariadna Ephron— From 1949 to 1955, Marina Tsvetaeva’s daughter Ariadna Efron was exiled to Turukhansk.
History of the name (toponym).
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Modern view of the village of Turukhansk from the bank of the Yenisei.
