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Nevertheless, women, most of whom remain forever nameless to us, still played a significant role in those discoveries. The historian talks about them specifically for DV Alexey Volynets.
“Many people own it, whoever buys it keeps it...”
Almost four centuries ago, pioneers from Russia, be they Arkhangelsk Pomors or “Siberian” and “Yenisei” Cossacks, came to the Far East without women. Many years of campaigns thousands of miles into unknown lands, through the wild taiga “meeting the sun”, were essentially a small war - a constant confrontation with the forces of nature and local tribes. In such conditions, the first Russian women east of the Lena River appeared many years and even decades after Russian men first came to these lands.
As you know, it is difficult for the male sex to remain without the fair half of humanity for a long time. The pioneers were no exception here - therefore, their prey, along with precious sable furs, were also the daughters of local tribes who roamed the taiga and tundra between the Lena River, the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk.
But if the extraction of yasak was a state matter, then the search for women remained a purely personal matter. That is why the number of sable skins obtained by the pioneers and the prices for them are well known from ancient documents left over from the governors who met in Yakutsk. Personal stories and dramas for the most part remained forever hidden from us in the darkness of the past...
About this side of the life of the pioneers, only fragmentary information, legends and rare indirect mentions in ancient “letters” remain. For example, the pioneer Semyon Dezhnev, who discovered the strait between America and Asia, was married to a Yakut girl Abakayada - a romantic legend tells how she bore him a son named Lyubim and for many years waited for her husband from the campaign to Chukotka.
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The surviving documents, in contrast to the poetic tales, contain much more prosaic information. So in March 1651, the Cossack foreman Panteley Mokroshubov, in a message to the Yakut governor, describing the state of the Russian fort on the Alazeya River, among other property and fur booty, mentioned “an interpreter, a Yukaghir woman named Malya.” “Tolmachi” in Old Russian was the name of the translators, and “Malya” is actually the Yukaghir word “mar’il”, meaning just “girl” or “girl”. For the captive of the Russian Cossacks, this word turned into a personal name - we will never know what her real name was.
Cossack foreman Panteley Mokroshubov, in a letter to the Yakut governor, explains the situation of the Yukaghir girl this way: “and that wife is a yasyr, many people own her, whoever buys her keeps her...”. The Turkic word “yasyrka” was then used to designate captives and slaves; the Turkic word “yasyr” served as a designation for captives of all genders.
“Tell that woman to talk to her, but not to cause any offense to her...”
It is not difficult to guess that it was the captives captured in skirmishes with surrounding tribes who became the first wives of the Russian conquerors of the Far East. However, in the conditions of the primitive war “all against all” this was the usual fate of many local women even before the arrival of the Russians. The natives of the taiga and tundra in the expanses between the Lena River, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Arctic Ocean then lived in the real Stone Age. And the consciousness of primitive man perceived raids on neighbors as a type of hunting - therefore, to the Far Eastern captives, their new Russian “masters” probably seemed only more successful hunters...
It is unlikely that the rude pioneers were gallant gentlemen, but they were certainly charismatic and strong. As a result, the voluntary or forced cohabitation of Russian men and local women had one truly strategic significance. The first consequence of such cohabitation was not even common children, but... a common language. Captors and captives inevitably learned to understand each other. First of all, local girls, having lived for a number of months in Russian winter huts and prisons, surrounded by dozens of Cossacks and their language, learned to understand Russian words. The subtleties of philology were not required in this case; even a few dozen simple terms and phrases already made it possible to communicate.
But let us remember that the pioneers, in search of new lands and fur tribute, had to not only travel thousands of miles without any maps, but also communicate with many tribes and clans who spoke their own languages and dialects. And it was precisely in such conditions that the captives, who unwittingly learned the Russian language, became indispensable, allowing the Cossack pioneers to combine business with pleasure.
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It is no coincidence that the captive, a Yukaghir girl named Malya, who was listed as an “interpreter”-translator in the Alazeya prison, earned the attention of the highest government leadership. For the first time, information about her arrived in the Yakut fort in the summer of 1651, and the very next year, in an order from the Yakut governor sent to the Alazeya River, the new head of the Russian fort was ordered to “receive the former interpreter of the Yukaghir family, a woman named Mallya, and order that woman to interpret, and insult her don’t fix anything..."
By that time, in Yakutsk, then the “capital” of the Russian Far East, the successful experience of using local women as translators had been well studied. Unfortunately, for historians in our time, such “wives” have remained in the shadow of the pioneers.
For example, the first Russian to visit the Yana River in 1638 was the Cossack foreman Elisey Buza, who had previously participated in the founding of the Yakut fort, the future capital of Yakutia. However, delving into the documents of the 17th century, you can find out that from Yakutsk to Yana and back is more than 4000 kilometers! - together with the Russian Cossack Elisha, the “Yakut pogrom woman” passed through. The Cossacks took her with them as a translator. We will never know this woman's name. The ancient term “pogrom” in documents of that era meant that the woman was captured during battles with the aborigines of the Far Eastern North.
How Byrchik became Matryona
It is well known that the first of the Russian people to meet the Chukchi was the “boyar’s son” Ivan Erastov, and he also brought to Russia the first information about the lands east of Kolyma. But if you carefully read the documents remaining from Erastov’s campaigns, dated 1644 and telling about his contacts with the Kolyma aborigines, you will find a remarkable phrase: “And those interpreters were interpreted by the Tungus woman, Byrchik, who was an interpreter on the Yndigir River.”
And after more than three centuries, it is not difficult to understand that the “Indigir River” as recorded by the “boyar’s son” Ivan Erastov is the Indigirka River, which flows 500 kilometers west of Kolyma and was developed by Russian pioneers earlier. It was there, on Indigirka, that “Baba Tunguska,” that is, an Evenki woman named Byrchik, served the Russian Cossacks as a translator.
In reality, her name sounded like Berchek - from the Evenki word for “small bow,” as the Evenki called the hunting crossbows that they installed on taiga trails. Of all the female translators, she is perhaps the most mentioned in the documents of Russian pioneers of the 17th century. A few years after the campaigns of Ivan Erastov, in 1648, the new leader of the Indigirsky winter hut, the “Cossack Pentecostal” Konstantin Danube, in a letter to the Yakut governor Vasily Pushkin Among others, he mentions “the former interpreter, a Tunguz woman named Byrchik.”
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Two years later, the same translator Byrchik is mentioned in connection with the campaign of a detachment of Cossacks to the mouth of the Yana River, to the shore of the Laptev Sea, where a new winter hut was founded. That is, the woman, along with the “service Cossacks,” made long treks over thousands of miles in the extreme conditions of the Far North.
In 1652, the translator Byrchik was again on the banks of the Indigirka River; the “service man” Vasily Burlak reported about her in a letter. He was sent at the head of a detachment to replace the former Russian garrison on the banks of the Indigirka - due to two forced winters in the ice, his journey from Yakutsk to the Indigirsky fort took 27 months! In a letter to the Yakut governor, Vasily Burlak writes that he accepted the prison with all its property and population, including “the interpreter Tungus woman Byrchik, newly baptized name Matryonka.”
So a local woman, who served as a translator for more than eight years and participated in many Cossack campaigns, eventually converted to Orthodoxy, becoming Matryona. In those conditions, this meant that she was no longer just a “little yasyr” captive, but a full-fledged person, as far as was possible for a woman of that era.
Pioneer Stadukhin and “Breathing Spirits”
The pioneer Mikhail Vasilyevich Stadukhin, born near Arkhangelsk, made many discoveries in the north of the Far East. It is he who is considered the discoverer of Kolyma, he was the first Russian to live for several months on the site of the future Magadan and reach the borders of the Kamchatka Peninsula. But Stadukhin’s campaigns were not complete without a female translator - she became, according to the surviving letters of Stadukhin himself, “the pogrom-loving Kolyma yasyr woman named Kalib.”
“The pogrom woman” means that the captive “yasyrka” was not bought, but captured in battle. It is known that a small detachment of Stadukhin reached the lower reaches of the Kolyma in July 1643. Here he had to fight a lot and fiercely with previously unknown “deer people.” Most likely, these were nomadic Chukchi reindeer herders, but the pioneer Stadukhin did not yet know about such a people.
However, it was here, in Kolyma, that “the pogrom-loving Kolyma yasyr named Kalib” became his prey. The name "Kaliba" is actually the Chukchi phrase "Kelev'i", literally - "Breathing with spirits." This name was often found among the natives of Chukotka, both women and men, in later centuries.
Apparently, the “pogrom wife Kaliba” was captured by Stadukhin, already being a prisoner - the “Breathing of Spirits” herself, according to her stories, came from settled coastal Chukchi, who were often at enmity with their nomadic relatives, the “reindeer Chukchi.”
The pioneer Stadukhin, naturally, did not know the Chukchi language. But, after spending several years on the banks of the Kolyma, the Cossack and the “pogrom wife” named Kalevya learned to understand each other. They probably communicated in a mixture of Russian, Chukchi and Yukaghir words. The captive became the first to tell Russian people about life in the very north of Chukotka.
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For the pioneers who went “to meet the sun” with completely material goals, the stories of the “Kolyma yasyrka” Kalevya sounded like fairy tales about Eldorado, abundant in gold, for the Spanish conquistadors. After all, the “yasyrka” talked about fantastic riches - about islands near the northern coast of Chukotka, which are so densely populated by walruses that the local Chukchi build entire sanctuaries from their heads. The captive was clearly talking about the island of Aion and the Routan islands, located in the sea opposite the modern city of Pevek, now the northernmost in Russia.
It’s not difficult to imagine how the eyes of the pioneers lit up from such stories of the Chukchi girl. They knew that in infinitely distant Moscow, just one “fish tooth”, that is, a walrus tusk, is worth more than a pair of horses, and for two or three tusks you can buy a good house not far from the Kremlin.
The fate of the “Kolyma yasyrka” is unknown to us. Only in one of the documents of the voivodeship archive in Yakutsk for 1647 is it mentioned in passing how “the pogrom Kolyma yasyrka, the little woman, left Stadukhin.” Today one can only guess what is meant by “gone”...
However, it is known that the following year, 1648, one of the leaders of the Yukagir clans wandering east of Kolyma, the “yasak prince” Nirpa, complained to the Russian authorities in Yakutsk that Mikhail Stadukhin was trying to take his wife by force. “Like that Mikhalka Stadukhin went from Kolyma to the sea, but wanted to take his wife as an interpreter...” - this is how that complaint sounds in the language of the 17th century.
It is unlikely that in 1648 there were many women in the vicinity of Kolyma capable of translating into Russian the dialects of the northern shores of Chukotka. So we can safely assume a “love triangle” in which the Russian pioneer and the Yukaghir leader fought for the “Breathing Spirit” - a Chukchi girl named Kalevya.
“That woman has been to the sea before and knows different languages...”
But in 1648, the Russian Cossacks in Kolyma already had two translators from the Yukaghir language, which ultimately led to intrigue between them. We know about this from a letter from the “Verkhnekolyma clerk” Vasily Vlasyev, preserved in the archives of Yakutsk, sent from the banks of the Kolyma to the Lena River 368 years ago. The “clerk” (as those responsible for collecting the fur tax were then called in the Russian Far East) informed the Yakut governor of the details of the female intrigue that played out in the Nizhnekolymsk winter quarters.
There, the “Omotskaya girl” who learned Russian, that is, the Yukaghir girl, who was considered “the yasyrka of the service man Ivashka Permyak,” told the Cossacks that an older Yukaghir woman named Onguto, who was listed as an “interpreter” in the Nizhnekolyma winter hut, was involved in a conspiracy of the local Yukaghir leaders clans who allegedly conspired to rebel against Russian power. However, the “clerk” Vlasyev reported in a letter that, based on the results of the investigation, he did not punish anyone for such plans of “treason” - he probably considered this denunciation a manifestation of ordinary jealousy.
Sometimes the translators themselves became the subject of intrigue and quarrels among Cossack detachments - the pioneers well understood the value of the “interpreter” in campaigns in uncharted lands.
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So in 1653, the “Yakut serviceman” Yuri Seliverstov complained to his superiors that Semyon Shubin, the head of the Middle Kolyma winter hut, “did not give him a Yukaghir woman named Alevaika as an interpreter.” The complaint stated that “that woman had been to the sea before and knows different languages” and without her the trip from Kolyma to Chukotka for the “fish tooth” would not be successful.
Three years later, the famous Semyon Dezhnev wrote to his superiors in Yakutsk that his newly created Anadyr prison was left without a translator, since “the interpreter Yukagir woman Nyurka was ordered to be left on the Kolyma River” with another detachment of pioneers. “It’s impossible to talk to foreigners without an interpreter,” Dezhnev wrote and asked for the translator to be returned to him: “So that the sovereign could tell about that woman interpreter Nyurka...”
As we see, even the most famous pioneers could not do without local translators. History has preserved the names of some of them for us, albeit in the shadow of the male pioneers. However, from documents of the 17th century, most of these women are known to us not even by names and nicknames, but by their affiliation with a certain man. “The Cossack interpreter Ofonka Shestakova”, “the drunken girl of the industrial man Fomka Permyak”, “The Yakut woman Fedot Alekseeva” - that’s all that we can remember today about those women who walked with the Russian discoverers of the Far East many thousands of miles of taiga and tundra and the Arctic Ocean.
- FAR EAST
(English Far East French Extreme Orient), a territory in eastern Asia in which the eastern part of the Russian Federation (Russian Far East) is located, ... - FAR EAST
Vostok", a literary, artistic and socio-political magazine, organ of the Khabarovsk branch of the RSFSR SP (is a continuation of the magazine "At the Turnover", which closed in 1941). Published in ... - FAR EAST in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
East (English: Far East, French: Extreme Orient), the general name for states and territories located in East Asia. To D.V. usually... - FAR EAST GEOGRAPHY
a geographical name that came into use in recent years, when the attention of Europeans was drawn to the fate of China. This name is usually called... - FAR EAST NEWSPAPER in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
social and literary newspaper, published in Vladivostok since 1893, twice a week, editor-publisher. E. A. and V. A. ... - FAR EAST in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
? a geographical name that came into use in recent years, when the attention of Europeans was drawn to the fate of China. This name is usually... - FAR EAST
D'alniy... - FAR EAST in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
(English Far East, French Extreme Orient), a territory in eastern Asia in which the eastern part of the Russian Federation (Russian Far East) is located, ... - FURTHER
665690, Irkutsk, ... - FURTHER in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
658253, Altaisky, ... - FURTHER in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
431531, Mordovia Republic, ... - FURTHER in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
347553, Rostovskaya, … - FURTHER in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
309979, Belgorodskaya, … - EAST in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
694201, Sakhalinskaya, ... - EAST in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
692183, Primorsky, ... - EAST in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
627555, Tyumen, ... - EAST in the Directory of Settlements and Postal Codes of Russia:
416210, Astrakhan, ... - EAST in the Bible Encyclopedia of Nikephoros:
The word east is used in Palestine generally in relation to a distant country lying in an eastern direction relative to Palestine (Isa. 45:11). U... - EAST in the Literary Encyclopedia:
see “Russian magazines... - FURTHER in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
city in China, see... - EAST in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
sailing sloop of war. Built in 1818; displacement 900 tons. In 1819-21, under the command of F. F. Bellingshausen on the “Vostok” and the sloop ... - EAST in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
the point of the east, one of the four main points of the horizon (cardinal points), located to the right of the observer facing north. ... - FURTHER in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron.
- FURTHER in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
, -yaya, -ee. 1. Same as distant (1 value). Distant areas. Long-range aviation. On distant approaches (also... - FURTHER
LONG-RANGE ORDER, characteristic of crystals, strict repeatability in all directions of the same structural element (atom, group of atoms, molecule... - FURTHER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
FAR EAST (eng. Far East, French. Extreme Orient), ter. in East Asia, on which the east is located. part of Russia (Russian D.V.), ... - FURTHER in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
FAR, see Dalian... - EAST. in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"EAST. AFRO-ASIAN SOCIETIES: HISTORY AND MODERNITY", scientific. Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, since 1955, Moscow. Founders (1998) - Department of World Economy and... - EAST in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"VOSTOK", sailing military ship. sloop. Built in 1818; displacement 900 tons. In 1819-21 under command. F.F. Bellingshausen to "V." and sloop... - EAST in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"VOSTOK", a series of single-seat spacecraft. ships for flights in low-Earth orbit. According to program "B." the possibility of space exploration was studied. human flight, scientific studies were carried out. ... - EAST in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"EAST", grew up. polar station in the Yuzh region. geomagnetic pole in the East. Antarctica, at altitude 3488 m, 1250 km from ... - EAST in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
EAST (east point), point of intersection of math. horizon with the celestial equator, lying to the right (in the middle between points N. and S.) of the observer, ... - FURTHER in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron.
- FURTHER
da"len, da"lin, da"len, da"lin, da"len, da"lin, da"len, da"lin, da"lin, da"lin, da"lin, da"lin, yes" flaxen, da" flaxen, da" more, da" flaxen, da" flaxen, da" flaxen, da" more, da" flaxen, ... - EAST in the Complete Accented Paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
east"to, east"ki, east"ka, east"kov, east"ku, east"kam, east"to, east"ki, east"com, east"kami, east"ke, ... - EAST in the Popular Explanatory Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language:
-ah, only food. , m. 1) That part of the horizon where the sun rises. The east was covered with a ruddy dawn, in a village across the river... - FURTHER
- EAST in the Thesaurus of Russian Business Vocabulary:
‘horizon sides’ Syn: rest… - FURTHER in the Russian Language Thesaurus:
‘distance’ Syn: distant, distant, distant Ant: ... - EAST in the Russian Language Thesaurus:
‘sides of the horizon’ Syn: ost (special... - FURTHER in Abramov's Dictionary of Synonyms:
see distant || without distant... - FURTHER
distance Syn: distant, distant, remote Ant: ... - EAST in the Russian Synonyms dictionary:
sunrise, mizrah, ... - FURTHER
adj. 1) Having a large extent (opposite: near). 2) Distant, distant (opposite: close). 3) Going back to a common ancestor no closer than... - EAST in the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
m. Territory or countries located east of the states ... - EAST in the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
m. 1) a) One of the four countries of the world. b) The side of that part of the horizon where the sun rises. 2) Direction, side, opposite... - FURTHER in Lopatin's Dictionary of the Russian Language.
- EAST in Lopatin’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
East, -a and (Asian countries) East, -a; Far East, Middle East, Middle East (territories in ... - FURTHER in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language.
- EAST in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language:
East, -a and (Asian countries) East, -a; Far East, Middle East, Middle East (territories in ... - FURTHER in the Spelling Dictionary.
- EAST in the Spelling Dictionary:
east, -a and (Asian countries) east, -a; Far East, Middle East, Middle East (territories in ...
KHABAROVSK, March 2. /TASS/. The indigenous peoples living in the Far East are gradually forgetting their native speech. No more than 25–30% of Koryaks, Evens, Chukchis, Udeges and representatives of other small nations speak their native language. Some languages, such as Negidal, are on the verge of extinction. Experts in the Far East expressed this opinion to a TASS correspondent.
Some experts point to the threat of extinction of languages due to the scattered residence of Far Eastern ethnic groups and the need to strengthen guarantees for the preservation of the languages and culture of small peoples, while another part speaks of a growing desire for national identity among the indigenous population and a tendency towards revival. But both groups of experts agree on one thing: saving endangered languages is possible only through a significant expansion of the program of their teaching in educational institutions.
The basis of cultural identity
“Language is the basis of cultural identity. Despite the fact that Russian is the state language on the territory of Russia, only the languages of indigenous peoples are able to convey the subtleties of the mental world of the people,” says Galina Alekseeva, professor at the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), chairman of the Assembly of Peoples of the Primorsky Territory.
Language is the basis of cultural identity. Despite the fact that Russian is the state language on the territory of Russia, only the languages of indigenous peoples are able to convey the subtleties of the mental world of the people
Galina Alekseeva
Professor FEFU
According to the FEFU professor, indigenous peoples are literally “dissolving” among the larger, predominantly Russian population. Therefore, today there is a need to improve legislation that guarantees the small peoples of the North the preservation of their ethnic identity, social security, state support in the transition to a market economy, and the opportunity to integrate into modern Russian society in an acceptable and pleasant way.
“That is why the state has now adopted programs for the development of the Arctic, where issues of culture and language occupy a special place. The program for the preservation of Finno-Ugric small peoples is working well in the Republic of Karelia. Yakutia is actively working, which has a program for the development of the native language and culture until 2030. According to The state national policy strategy until 2025 must ensure the “cultural diversity” of the peoples of Russia,” notes Alekseeva.
At risk of loss?
The Commissioner for the Rights of Indigenous Minorities of the North (IMNS) in Yakutia, Konstantin Robbek, believes that for the majority of representatives of the peoples of the North, Yakut or Russian have already become their native languages.
“In Yakutia, the issue of preserving the native language of the indigenous peoples of the North is very acute. In the republic, representatives of indigenous minorities live compactly in 70 settlements in 22 districts, but only in five of them do people communicate with each other in their native language. In the rest, where significant changes have occurred In the traditional way of life of indigenous peoples, native languages are practically lost or are taught as a subject, an elective as a second language, and either Yakut or Russian are considered native,” he says.
Similar problems were encountered in the Kamchatka Territory.
“We have eight ethnic groups living in the Kamchatka Territory: Koryaks, Itelmens, Evens, Chukchi, Eskimos, Aleuts, Kamchadals, Olyutorians. All native languages are taught in educational institutions, there are subjects about the culture and life of peoples. Languages are retained at a sufficient level by Koryaks - 20.9% (1655 people), Evens - 25.9% (5656 people), Chukchis - 32% and Itelmens -2.5% (84 people)," says the head of the department for work with indigenous peoples Agency for Domestic Policy of the Region Eleonora Lysyanskaya. According to her data, the most students master Koryak, Even, Itelmen and Chukchi languages.
The Institute for Educational Development of the Sakhalin Region (IROSO) conducted a survey among Nivkhs - parents of children studying their native language. Only 62 people (26%) out of 232 who took part in the survey know the language of their ancestors well and only 19% use it to communicate in everyday life.
“In the Primorsky Territory, difficulties are known with teaching children the Udege language. The difficulties are quite natural - the only specialist in the village of Krasny Yar, where the Udege people live, does not have a document confirming her knowledge of the language,” complains FEFU professor Alekseeva.
The right to study one's native language
Senior methodologist of the Khabarovsk Regional Institute for Educational Development, member of the Council of Elders of the Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North of the Khabarovsk Territory, Nanayka Valentina Shabelnikova, believes that today an important step has been taken in preserving the languages of the indigenous population of the Amur region and the Far East - the right to learn their native language is enshrined in the Federal State Educational Standard. “The educational part of the standards involves teaching the native language for 3 hours a week,” she notes. “This is a very significant step on the part of the federal center, which actually guarantees representatives of indigenous peoples the right to learn their native languages.”
However, the creation of educational programs and teaching aids of a new generation is already the prerogative of regional authorities; it requires reliance on one’s own creative forces and cooperation with native language teachers from other regions.
According to the teacher-methodologist, to prepare programs and teaching aids, regions can unite and replicate what has already been created, for example in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Shabelnikova also noted that last year, courses for training specialists in teaching native languages were created at the Institute for Educational Development; teachers were invited from universities in the Magadan Region and the North-Eastern Federal University named after Ammosov in Yakutia.
New generation textbooks
The first textbook of the new generation in the Khabarovsk Territory was a primer of the Negidal language (in the Khabarovsk Territory, in the region named after Polina Osipenko, 480 Negidalians live; according to the 2002 census, about 150 of them spoke their native language). “This publication is for children who do not speak the language, for those who want to start learning the Negidal language,” Shabelnikova said.
The Negidal primer was published by order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the region as part of the activities of the state program of the Khabarovsk Territory "Development of indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation living in the Khabarovsk Territory" by the publishing house "Private Collection" at the end of 2016.
According to Shabelnikova, over the next three years, textbooks for primary schools will be prepared in all languages except Oroch, which is not taught due to the impossibility of gathering children for education (that is, dispersed, nomadic living).
The Ministry of Education of the Sakhalin Region noted that in 2016, a set of textbooks for studying the Nivkh language of seven titles was purchased for 2 million rubles. So far, textbooks have been written only for first and second grade students. A creative group has been created in the region to prepare textbooks for the next grades so that there is a complete course.
Revival of multilingualism
“The most important thing is to provide conditions in the cultural environment for communicating their language to the peoples of Russia, through cultural creative programs and competitions, and the recreation of a multilingual cultural environment with the participation of small nations,” notes Primorye expert Alekseeva.
Valentina Shabelnikova claims that schoolchildren of other nationalities also show interest in learning indigenous languages, this can be seen during olympiads in their native language and national culture. She also noted that bilingualism for schoolchildren is also a powerful incentive for the development of thinking.
In Yakutia, linguistic scientists express hope that the revival of native languages will occur thanks to the development of national literature. “Aksakals are reviving their culture through literature and poetry. Also, according to monitoring data, young people have begun to identify themselves more as representatives of small nations,” Antonina Vinokurova, head of the department of northern philology of NEFU, told TASS.
According to the head of the department for working with indigenous peoples of the agency for internal policy of the Kamchatka Territory, Eleonora Lysyanskaya, native speakers are encouraged to study it by competitions for the best project for teaching national languages in schools and creative works in their native languages. “Thanks to these events, we hope that we will have young authors and poets who will write, including in their native languages,” Lysyanskaya noted.
“The more mental images of peoples a person can perceive through knowledge of languages, the more successful, spiritually richer and more interesting he is for the world around him,” summarized Professor Alekseeva from Primorye.
Far East
The general name for states and territories located in eastern Asia. The Far East usually includes the eastern part of China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the extreme eastern part of Russia.
Encyclopedic reference
The Russian Far East stretches in a narrow strip from northeast to southwest for almost 4,500 km. It consists of mainland, peninsular (Kamchatka Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula, etc.) and island (Sakhalin Island, Kuril Islands, etc.) parts. The nature of the Far East is unusual and very diverse. It is home to 90 species of mammals, including the critically endangered Amur tiger and goral, Amur leopard and white stork; There are 400 species of birds, 27 of them are included in the Red Book of Russia. There are more than 100 species of fish in rivers and lakes. The Far East is the birthplace of the legendary root of life - ginseng, lotus, cedar, and the Far Eastern tortoise trionics.
Russia's exploration of the Far East took place throughout the 17th-19th centuries. In 1632 on the river. The Yakut fortress (fortress) was founded in Lena, and the bulk of the Yakuts accepted Russian citizenship. In 1639, the Russians reached the Sea of Okhotsk. In 1648, explorer S.I. Dezhnev, having rounded the Chukotka Peninsula, opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1650-1653. expedition E.P. Khabarova explored the lower reaches of the Amur. By the middle of the 17th century. Transbaikalia (the area beyond Lake Baikal) and the Amur region (the area along the Amur River) were annexed to Russia. In 1731, the Siberian Military Flotilla was created, designed to protect the Far Eastern coast, which was included in Russia. At the end of the 17th century. the development of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands began.
The Siberian Cossack Army (see Cossack), formed in 1808, played a major role in the development and protection of the eastern territories of Russia.
In the 50-70s. XIX century Russia included the Lower Amur region, the Ussuri region, and Sakhalin Island. In 1860 the city of Vladivostok was founded. In 1891, construction began on the Trans-Siberian Railway (about 7 thousand km), which by 1916 connected Moscow with Vladivostok, which accelerated the economic development of Siberia and the Far East.
At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. The Far East became the arena of the struggle for dominance on the Pacific coast. As a result of defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Russia has lost part of its Far Eastern territory.
In October-November 1917, Soviet power was established in the Far East. In 1918-1922. here, as throughout Russia, the Civil War took place. After the end of the Civil War, the restoration of the national economy began in the Far East. The administrative-territorial division was changed. In 1926, the Far Eastern Territory was formed. In 1938 it was transformed into the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories.
Currently, the Russian Far East includes the following constituent entities of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Primorsky Territory, Khabarovsk Territory, Amur Region, Kamchatka Region, Magadan Region, Sakhalin Region, Jewish Autonomous Region, Koryak and Chukotka Autonomous Okrugs. In 2000, these territories were united into the Far Eastern Federal District with its center in Khabarovsk.
In culture
The dramatic history of the development of the Far East is reflected in many literary works: A.P. described his trip to the Far East. Chekhov in the book “Sakhalin Island” (1894); outstanding traveler, scientist, writer V.K. Arsenyev wrote the famous novel “Dersu Uzala” (1923), dedicated to the life of a traveler in the taiga; in the novel by A.A. Fadeev’s “Destruction” (1927) describes episodes of the Civil War in the Far East. One of the most famous Russian songs - M. Kyuss's waltz “Amur Waves” - is dedicated to the great Russian river - the Amur. Musical radio broadcasts for Siberia and the Far East still often begin with this melody.
In language and speech
The first lines of the song Smoothly Cupid carries its waves... have become catchphrases.
The remoteness of the Far Eastern territories of Russia from the center has become the reason that in colloquial language (usually with a touch of playfulness) the word Kamchatka they call the back desks in a school (see school) class or the last rows in an institute auditorium.
The Kuril Islands are colloquially called simply Kuril Islands.
Language in general, as a distinctive feature of man, is both a product of human society and one of the main conditions for its existence. And second: the state form of life of society is the historical peak of its development within the common territory under generally accepted authorities and civil law, essentially defined and functioning in a generally accepted language.
Now a short excursion into history. It is known that Russia was finally and firmly established as a state by the middle of the 16th century. It is customary to associate the beginning of its expansion to the East with this time. True, spontaneously Russian industrial and commercial people have long been shopping for furs and other “rubbish” in the Trans-Urals and beyond. Nevertheless, the organized advance of the Russians in this direction began in 1582, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, through the Cossacks under the leadership of Ermak Timofeevich. And by the end of the century, the Siberian Khanate, opposing the eastern aspirations of Rus', disappeared from the face of the earth and peasants, industrialists, trappers, and service people moved across the endless expanses of Siberia. They founded new settlements here (1618 - Yenisei fort, 1628 - Krasnoyarsk fort, 1630 - Bratsk, 1632 - Yakut, 1642 - Verkholensky), created centers of agricultural, commercial, industrial culture, paved the way further to the East, at the same time drawing closer with local tribes and nationalities and somehow promoting their life and development. A significant role in this - especially after the establishment of the Siberian or Tobolsk diocese in 1620 - was played by the Church, which, not limiting itself to feeding Russian explorers, sought to convert the Tatars, Voguls, Ostyaks, Tungus, Buryats, Gilyaks, etc. to Christianity. By the end of the 16th century. Many chapels, churches, and monasteries appeared in Western Siberia. This process continued throughout the entire 17th century, now covering Eastern Siberia right up to the Sea of Okhotsk and the Amur.
It should be noted that the original military Ivan the Terrible's policy in the eastern direction changed in the 17th century. mainly peaceful and was carried out by small research teams.
In 1639, Tomsk Cossack Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin went to the Sea of Okhotsk and founded a fort at the mouth of the Ulya River. In 1643-1646. Yakut writer Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov with a small detachment explored the banks of the Zeya and Shilka rivers, then, being the first in the history of Russia to make a water crossing along the Amur, he also went to the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk. The activities of Erofei Pavlovich Khabarov are of absolutely exceptional importance, despite very unflattering reviews about his nature. As a result of his campaigns of 1649-1652, Russian villages and Russian fortresses bordering China appeared in the Amur region, the Albazinsky voivodeship (county) was formed, which, along with Nerchinsky, became the center of the economic life of the region, the Amur population accepted Russian citizenship, and even in a small part - turned to the Christian faith.
Following the Cossacks, the sovereign's servants and industrialists, simple and eminent people, laymen and clergy, flocked to the East, some at the call of the Tsar and the Church, and some running away from them, some willingly, others unwillingly. But in any case, given the vast expanses of the territory being developed, there were extremely few newcomers here. It is all the more surprising that by the last quarter of the 17th century, essentially within a century, thanks to the newcomers - their energy, determination, perseverance, intelligence, hard work - Russia expanded its borders in the East to the Sea of Okhotsk, and by the end of the century to Kamchatka, turning into great Eurasian power.
Undoubtedly, a very important factor in this success was the fundamental non-interference of the Russians in the traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples being conquered (even if through force) and the primary desire for peaceful coexistence with them (unlike, for example, the actions of civilized Europeans in America). Indicative, in particular, is the instruction of Metropolitan Pavel of Tobolsk, with which he admonished the Orthodox mission in Transbaikalia in 1681. According to his order, the missionary monks were to “arrive in Dauria, in Selenginsk and other cities and forts, to invite all people of other faiths to the Orthodox Christian faith; teach with all care and zeal from the Divine Scripture and baptize... beware lest some obstinate words alienate the Gentiles from the holy work of baptism. And the Moscow Council of 1682 sentenced “to send archimandrites and abbots, or good and teaching priests, to the distant cities of Lena, to Daury... to teach the Christian law and enlighten the infidels.” There are many examples of their successful activities, although, of course, the overwhelming majority of the indigenous population remained faithful to their own religious traditions for a number of reasons.
Unfortunately, the famous Nerchinsk Treaty between Russia and China in 1689 slowed down the Russian development of the Far East in the Amur region. The activity of the Transbaikal Spiritual Mission here has also weakened greatly. But still, in general, the process has not stopped. Throughout the 18th century. Despite political obstacles, the settlement of Eastern Siberia continued, exploration of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin was carried out through Okhotsk, and a layer of technically educated specialists was formed through mining schools in the Nerchinsk district and navigation schools in Irkutsk, Nerchinsk, Yakutsk, and Okhotsk. All this gradually contributed to the creation of political, economic and cultural prerequisites for the return of Russians to the Amur region.
And again, one cannot fail to note the spiritualizing role of the Church, which greatly intensified with the final separation of the Irkutsk diocese from the Tobolsk diocese in 1727. Already the first head of the department, St. Innocent (Kulchitsky; 1727-1731) became famous, in particular, for his missionary work on the Christianization of the Buryats. The Orthodox mission in the Far East was quite successfully developed by the next Irkutsk Bishop Innocent (Nerunovich; 1732-1741), the former prefect of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. He fought against abuses by secular authorities against the indigenous population; significantly increased the number of clergy and Orthodox churches in the diocese; traveled a lot around the diocese and personally baptized many people of other faiths; sought various benefits for baptized Yakuts, Chinese, and Mongols; organized a school in Irkutsk to teach their children the Russian language, and in Yakutsk - a school for the children of the clergy; restored the preaching of Christianity in Kamchatka. The latter was very effective in the 40s. XVIII century continued through active shepherding and teaching Russian literacy by Archimandrite Joasaph (Khotuntsevsky), who directly dreamed of “enlightening St. the baptism of all Kamchadals, except for the Koryaks, moving from place to place at a distance from Kamchatka” and actually created a galaxy of educated aborigines (T. Uvarovsky, I. Chechulin, A. Pavlutsky, K. Merlin). They glorified their names in the field of missionary service in the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries. priests Stefan Nikiforov, Kirill Sukhanov, Grigory Sleptsov, who preached, respectively, among the Koryaks, Tungus, Yakuts, and Chukchi.
The missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Eastern Siberia and the Far East acquired its most organized character in the 19th century. Unlike the previous period, this activity is now characterized by the establishment of permanent rather than traveling missions, increased attention to the creation of missionary schools, work on translations of the Holy Scriptures and liturgical books into the languages of the aborigines who accepted Christianity, and the expansion of their cultural and economic ties with the Russian population. In the 19th century Along with Irkutsk, the Transbaikal Orthodox mission to educate the Tatars, Mongols, Buryats and even Jews begins its work again. As part of the activities of these missions, zealous preachers of the faith of Christ and educators of the pagans were: priest Alexander Bobrovnikov and baptized Buryat Mikhail Speransky, Irkutsk Archbishop Nil (Isakovich; 1838-1853), a Mongol priest and before baptism Lamaist Nikolai Nilov-Dorzheev, Irkutsk Archbishop Parfeniy ( Popov; 1860-1873). Particularly famous in the 19th century. found by Saint Innocent (Veniaminov), Bishop of Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleut (1840-1868), who was very successful in enlightening the Yakuts, Chukchi, Evenks, Amur Nivkhs, and Nanai. Among the peoples converted to Christ, he set up missionary camps, built churches and schools for teaching Russian and national languages, and organized translation works. At the beginning of the 20th century. Hieromonk Nestor (Anisimov), later Bishop of Kamchatka, priest Porfiry Protodyakonov (compiler of the dictionary “Sino-Manchu dialects”) and many others worked a lot in the field of Orthodox missionary work among the Tungus, Koryaks and Chukchi. other.
The educational work of the Church was undoubtedly facilitated by the activities of the Russian-American Trading Company, established in 1799, which was granted a monopoly right to use all the fisheries and minerals located in Russian America, on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, respectively, and the right to organize expeditions, occupy newly discovered lands, trade with neighboring countries. Of course, the Company’s work was not always ideal in everything, especially in relation to the local population. But be that as it may, with her help in the 10-70s. XIX century Nevertheless, the mouth of the Amur, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands were explored, Russian settlements were established there, intensive development of new lands in the Far East and trade in the Amur region were established. The company was also the conductor of Russian foreign policy in the Far East in its relations with China, Japan, the USA, England, France and, in particular, on the issues of consolidating Russian borders here and the return of the Amur region to the Empire.
By order of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov, Admiral Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy in the late 1840s. traveled on the military transport "Baikal" almost throughout the Amur to the very mouth, carried out the necessary research to determine the Russian-Chinese border on the ground and on June 29, 1850 raised the Russian flag at Cape Kuegda, where he founded the Nikolaev post, which then became the country's main naval base on Pacific Ocean (Nikolaevsk-on-Amur), at the same time the Amur peoples were again accepted into Russian citizenship, and new Russian settlements arose along the banks of the river. In the early 50s. G. I. Nevelskoy and Vice Admiral E. V. Putyatin simultaneously explored Sakhalin, compiled accurate maps of its shores and finally, without firing a single shot, settled on the island, which was secured by treaties with China - Aigun Treaty of 1858 and Beijing Treaty of 1860 From that time on, the systematic settlement of the new Far Eastern Russian lands began, lasting until 1915. The Old Believers who had long lived here were joined, in addition to the involuntary settlers - various kinds of exiled convicts, also free settlers - peasants, townspeople, Cossacks, nobles, merchants, clergy (in just half a century about 500 thousand people). Accordingly, the structure of Russian villages, Cossack villages, cities with vital infrastructure is developing.
It is important to note the rather rapid development in the Far East in the second half of the 19th century. systems of public education and cultural life. Its index can be, for example, the 1897 census data. According to them, the literacy rate in the Primorsky region was 24.7%, and in the Amur region - 24.3%, which significantly exceeded the figures for both European Russia (22.5%) and Siberia (11.5%). At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, press organs appeared in the region (Amurskaya Gazeta, the Far East newspaper, Blagoveshchensk Diocesan Gazette), libraries, museums, parochial schools, pre-gymnasiums, gymnasiums, real schools, a naval school in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, a theological seminary and river school in Blagoveshchensk, a railway school and a cadet corps in Khabarovsk. In 1899, the first higher educational institution in the region, the Oriental Institute, opened in Vladivostok. At the same time, a network of missionary schools for indigenous children is being developed in the region. For example, in 1906, only in the Khabarovsk district there were 7 similar educational institutions, in which 111 boys and 51 girls studied.
Of course, one should not fall into idealistic enthusiasm about what has been said. Russian statehood, with all its external successes in the Far East in the 19th century. very slowly it was assimilated here precisely as an algorithm for life according to generally accepted law, norms of behavior and communication, that is, on the basis of compliance with a single legality, culture, and language. First of all, it must be emphasized that the local administration of the region at its various levels did not always coordinate its actions with the targeted efforts of the central government to develop the region. Often, professional incompetence and bureaucracy, dishonesty and greed, arbitrariness and corruption brought the best initiatives to naught.
By the way, the literary evidence about the condition of the indigenous population is very interesting. In August 1854, the famous Russian writer Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov stepped off the schooner Vostok onto the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk. From here, from the trading post of the North American Company Ayan, he then covered a huge distance by land to St. Petersburg. Talking in his famous book “Frigate “Pallada”” about the transition to Yakutsk, he mentions the Yakuts several times. He first saw them in Ayan: “The Yakuts are all sedentary and Christian, everyone is dressed cleanly and, according to the climate, well... They always have work from the Russians; therefore, they are well-fed, and, moreover, I saw that they are treated kindly.” One can only assume, since the author himself is unclear, that these Yakuts, performing “civil” service in Ayan, could somehow understand and speak Russian. The next mention in the book is about the Yakut guide. He, according to the writer, did not know the Russian language at all and, it must be understood, was not a Christian. Moving further to the West, Goncharov meets more and more Christian Yakuts and already communicates with them in Russian. All of them have long and constantly lived next to the Russians. At the same time, the writer also records a remarkable fact of the opposite influence: he meets many Russians by blood who, having grown up among the Yakuts, preferred to speak Yakut, because they either forgot or knew their native language very poorly.
36 years later, in 1890, another remarkable Russian writer, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, visited the Far East, mainly Sakhalin. Here he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the life of the Gilyaks and Ainu. Judging by his characteristics in the essay "Sakhalin Island", generally benevolent, both of them, despite the attempts of the local authorities (rather clumsy) to Russify them, were not Christians, barely understood Russian and firmly retained their original way of life, although they provided certain services to the Russian population. It must be said that Chekhov’s description as a whole, especially in relation to the Russian population of the island, presents a very sad, if not terrible, picture: poverty, immorality, affecting both exiles and free inhabitants, only four churches on the entire island with a passive clergy, several schools with teachers from semi-literate convicts, drunkenness and theft, lawlessness and abuse, the reign of the laws of the prison, and not the laws of the state.
All of the above allows us to conclude that in the pre-revolutionary years in the Far East, the process of strengthening Russian statehood proceeded spasmodically in qualitative, quantitative, territorial terms and depended on many internal and external factors, but above all, obviously, on the intensity of the work of the state machine itself. This process is indicatively illustrated by the only partially revealed history of the introduction of the indigenous Far Eastern population to the Russian language and culture, which obviously developed in completely different ways in Eastern Siberia, the Amur region, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka. This process, apparently, needs to be more closely coupled with the growth of the Russian-speaking contingent in this part of Russia, taking into account, however, its heterogeneity in national, social, ideological, cultural, educational, religious and moral aspects.
In any case, the dependence of the circumstances is undeniable: the increase in Russian speakers in the Far East increased the influence of the Russian language on the way of life of the indigenous population; the latter’s mastery of the Russian language contributed to his involvement in life according to new rules, within the framework of state-defined legality; the unity of aborigines with settlers on the basis of the Russian language and Russian - predominantly Orthodox - culture led to the creation of a new specific community, within which, importantly, there were no irreconcilable antagonisms; the emergence of such a community only strengthened Russia’s position as a state in areas extremely remote from the center.
And we have to admit that this logical chain (excluding, unfortunately, the confessional aspect) was most effectively implemented in the post-revolutionary period: the elimination of general illiteracy, compulsory primary and then secondary education for all, the creation of a system of equally accessible secondary specialized and higher education contributed best to Russification of the Far East, turning it in Soviet times into a powerful outpost of the country in the face of rapidly developing Japan, China, and Korea during the 20th century.
Now, however, we should think with alarm about the well-known trends in the life of Far Eastern society (to varying degrees, they also occur in other regions of Russia), relating to its demographic, educational, social, material, cultural state, the general negative indicator of which is the sign of inequality. Hence the nationalist, cosmopolitan, centrifugal, separatist mentality, but the most terrible thing, apparently, is disappointment and apolitism (at the same time, it is again appropriate to recall the long-standing impression of A.P. Chekhov: “If you want to make an Amur citizen get bored and yawn, then talk to him about politics, about the Russian government, about Russian art...").
I believe that such a state of mind can only be counteracted by the center’s purposefully and consistently implemented concern regarding the unity of the inhabitants of the Far East among themselves and with the European part of Russia on the basis of economic activity, economics, social work, culture, and ideology. And undoubtedly, the decisive role in this, if you like, struggle cannot but belong, due to historical conditionality, again to the Russian language as a generally recognized means of international and interethnic, national and regional communication today; socio-political, industrial, technical and scientific activities; mass written and oral information (print, Internet, radio, television); finally, intellectual and spiritual education. After all, the Russian language still unshakably retains its importance as a culture-forming factor in social development in our country. So far, in historical circumstances, it is the only generally accessible and productive civilizational basis for the life of our country as an accumulator and relay of the entire amount of knowledge accumulated by humanity. This, if you like, is its universal significance.
The role of the Russian Orthodox Church is also extremely important, which, with its ontological and historical reliance on the non-ethnic orientation of the Savior’s teaching about love, as well as on the Russian peace-loving (in a broad sense) and creative (in the main vector) tradition of life, is a treasury of a thousand-year-old culture and, accordingly, internally and essentially conservative, at the same time she was always - by the will of the Holy Spirit, who once descended on the disciples of Christ - extroverted, dynamic, active in her appeal to the outside world, in her unearthly focus on the fertilization, cultivation and transformation of the world.
The people say this: “The tongue moves kingdoms.” And also like this: “The voice of the people is the voice of God!” I will boldly add on my own behalf: the Lord has endowed us with reason and speech, leaving us with the freedom to choose... in particular, where to direct our minds, what to fill our speech with, and how to translate both into deeds. So the choice is ours. However, one should remember about the dialectically subordinate unity of human activity with his language, which was remarkably accurately noted by the Russian critic Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev: “The incorrect use of words leads to errors in the field of thought and then in the practice of life.” . But even better, the primary meaning of language is determined by the theologem of St. John the Theologian, of course, by its indirect, figurative context: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything came into being through Him...”
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