Like many Russian explorers, thanks to whom Russia has grown into vast territories up to the Amur and the Pacific Ocean, the dates of birth and death of Vasily Poyarkov are unknown. In documentary chronicles it is mentioned from 1610 to 1667. Based on this, the time frame of his life is indicated approximately.
Service people of Siberia
It is known that Vasily Poyarkov was originally from the ancient city of Kashin, Tver province. He belonged to service people, that is, to that group of people who were obliged to carry out either military or administrative service in favor of the state. Service people had other names - military and sovereign people, free servants, servants (free slaves) and just warriors.
Such names were in circulation from the XVI to XVIII century. Vasily Poyarkov was enlisted in Siberia since 1630. Here he rose to the rank of a written head. What does it mean? This is an official who is part of the state under the governor. Mostly this rank was found in Siberia and Astrakhan. On the right bank of the Lena River in 1632, the centurion Pyotr Beketov was laid by the Yakutsky prison. Over a decade, it has become the administrative center of the Yakutsk voivodship and the starting point of a large number of commercial and industrial expeditions to the north, south and east of Asia. And the first governor there was the steward P.P. Golovin, in whom Vasily Poyarkov served as the written head.
Suitable candidacy
At that time, Vasily Danilovich was considered a very educated person, but his temper was pretty steep. Russia, gaining a foothold on the Lena River, was eyeing the southern and eastern, and northern territories. It was already known that the Amur region is rich in arable land, on which a lot of bread will be born, and it was imported to Yakutsk from behind the Urals.
Therefore, when it was decided to send a detachment of Cossacks for reconnaissance in the Shilkar (Amur) region, Vasily Poyarkov was appointed the head of them. He was suitable in all respects - it was necessary not only to find out as much as possible about the fabulous countries, but as much as possible to record everything accurately and draw up maps. His report on the expedition, Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov, and called the "Tale".
Equipment
The detachment, consisting of 133 people, was equipped with a cannon, a large number of squeakers (early examples of firearms) and ammunition. In addition, the wagon train had a lot of ship tools and canvas for building boats, as well as a lot of different goods for gifts to local residents and for exchange with them - cloth and beads, copper pots and utensils. Most importantly, the detachment was strictly forbidden to offend or oppress the natives in any way. Before they were sent to the Cossacks, about a dozen “hunting people” (the so-called industrialists) and an interpreter joined them. They became Semyon Petrov Pure.
Specific Expedition Goals
In 1639, a detachment of foot Cossacks led by the explorer Ivan Yurievich Moskvitin already reached the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sakhalin Gulf. Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov with his detachment initially went to the Amur River, and the detachment was not set a goal to get to the seas of the Pacific Ocean. Their main task was to study the Amur region. The Russians, who settled in Yakutsk, already had scattered data about the surrounding rivers and peoples living along their banks.
Poyarkov was charged with the discovery and detailed description of natural resources, in particular, confirmation of rumors about huge reserves of various ores. We needed detailed information about the occupation of local residents, roads and trails to the already well-known rivers Ziye and Shilke. The route of Vasily Poyarkov was specified in detail and all the available information about the places where the detachment of foot Cossacks had to go was communicated.
Dauria
The country that first lay in their path was called Dauria, and both Cossack Maxim Perfiliev in 1636 and industrialist Averkiev had already visited it. Both of them returned and told amazing stories about the riches of these lands, and Perfiliev made a map, which was used until the 19th century. Part of the present Transbaikalia and the west of the Amur region belonged to Dauria. So that the reader can get at least some idea of how the expedition of Vasily Poyarkov progressed, below we brought a map. All the detachments that had previously gone for reconnaissance were few in number — 509 Cossacks went with Dmitry Kopylov and 32 went with Ivan Moskvitin. And Pyotr Petrovich Golovin equipped a well-armed military expedition of 133 people, and he expected the corresponding results.
The beginning of the campaign
The most well-known years of the life of Vasily Poyarkov is the time of his famous campaign, which was begun in 1643 and completed in 1646. In July-month, a detachment led by Poyarkov, leaving Yakutsk, went down the Lena to the place where Aldan fell into it, on 6 plank beds (a non-self-propelled river vessel with a flat bottom and a deck, with a carrying capacity of 7 to 200 tons). Then along Aldan and two rivers of its basin, Uchur and Gonam, they climbed to the place of the first parking.
Way to the parking lot
It should be noted that the advance against the current did not go so fast - from the mouth of Aldan to the place where Uchur flowed into it, the detachment traveled for a month. The path along the tributary of Aldan to the mouth of Gonam took another 10 days. Only 200 km could be navigated on the ships, then the rapids began, through which the doshchiki had to be dragged. According to written evidence, there were forty thresholds - all these difficulties took another 5 weeks.
Autumn has come, and the traveler Vasily Poyarkov decides to leave part of the detachment with the cargo to spend the winter at the ships, and lightly, accompanied by 90 people, go on sledges (long sleighs) through the tributary of Gonam Sutam and through the tributary of Sutam Nuam further to the Stanovoi Range (mountain External Khingan chain).
Wayward and unprofessional behavior
Having overcome this path in two weeks, V.D. Poyarkov enters the Amur Region, and after a similar period of time along the tributary of the Mulmage he goes to the big Zeya River and, in fact, penetrates into Dauria. In some sources, information about the progress of this expedition is different. In some, emphasis is placed on Poyarkov’s steep disposition, the favorite method of which was capturing noble Aborigines and further extorting gifts and forcing cooperation. Others say that the "written head", although he was cool, but remembered the order - not to offend the local population.
And Petrov is considered the culprit of further rejection of the Cossacks by natives. He, allegedly sent at the head of a detachment of 40 people for reconnaissance to Amur, stopped at a large settlement. The Daurs sent great gifts, but Petrov, on his own initiative, attacked the village, and the foot Cossacks of his detachment were defeated by horse dauras. And further across the Amur, Russian travelers were not allowed to approach the shores and attacked them wherever possible.
First scary wintering
However, the more common version suggests that Vasily Poyarkov, the explorer and explorer, the discoverer of new lands, ordered the representatives of the Daurian nobility to be taken hostage by the amanats and kept in a fortified prison built in order to force them to pay the royalties not to the Manchus, but to the Russian Tsar. The prison was well fortified, and the Cossacks knew a lot about the war, and all the attacks undertaken by the local population were repulsed. But from the beginning of January 1644 until the spring, the prison was in blockade. A severe famine began, and, according to written evidence, as Vasily Poyarkov himself, whose biography would have otherwise ended here, so did the Cossacks “eat corpses”. The actions of the Russian aliens taken in a ring disgusted the well-fed daur. News of this shameful fact rushed ahead of the expedition.
Amur descent
In the spring, when for some reason the siege ring broke up, V. D. Poyarkov sent for the wintering on the banks of Gonam, while the rest, under the direction of the aforementioned Petrov, went further to Amur for reconnaissance. Petrov’s returning detachment was badly battered, as a result, with the reinforcements arrived, the total number of Cossacks under the command of V. Poyarkov was 70 people. They built new boats and sailed along See to Amur. Everywhere the Russians met with rejection and resistance and were forced to go down to the mouth of this great river.
New unknown tribes
The next people after the Daurians, who met the Cossacks in the middle reaches of the Amur, were farmers ducher. The news of the evil "cannibals" reached their ears. The militia of the duchers destroyed the reconnaissance detachment of the Cossacks, consisting of 20 people. This extermination of explorers sent to the exploration took place at the mouth of the large tributary of the Amur River - the Sungari River. The next two tribes that met the detachment of V.D. Poyarkov were not farmers or hunters - they hunted fish. They fed her, and dressed in painted skins of large fish. The first tribe was called golds, and the second, who lived at the mouth of the Amur, was gilyaks.
Unreasonable actions
According to the preserved chronicles, V.D. Poyarkov had no clashes with the first or second peoples, and the Gilyaks immediately willingly swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar and even paid their first tribute - yasak. Here, at the mouth of the Amur, the Cossacks began their second wintering. And again they had a chance to experience severe hunger and eat carrion. Maybe that’s why, or maybe because of tyranny (we’re unfortunately not going to know the truth today) Vasily Poyarkov, who discovered the Amur Liman and the Tatar Strait this winter and found out about the “hairy people” living on Sakhalin before Departing on a further journey attacked the peaceful gilyak. As a result of this battle, the detachment of Cossacks was halved.
Return
The ice was opened, and Vasily Poyarkov went into the Amur estuary. Subsequently, for three months it rose along the southwestern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk (everything is confirmed by documents). The navigator advanced from the mouth of the Amur to the confluence of the Ulja River in the Sea of Okhotsk (Lam). Here, after a storm, in which a heavily thinned detachment fell, the Cossacks began their third winter. But in 1639 Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin already visited these lands , and local residents paid tribute to the Russian Tsar. After wintering, the detachment (according to various sources, from 20 to 50 people remained) along the May River began its return to Yakutsk, where it arrived in mid-June 1646.
Expedition Merits and Miscalculations
The main goal of V. Poyarkov’s campaign was to detect deposits of lead, copper and silver ores, but it was not achieved. In addition, the explorer violated the original plan of the expedition and destroyed many people with the wrong decisions. But still, Vasily Poyarkov (what this person discovered, you now know) gave Russia a new path to the Pacific Ocean and vast areas of new rich land, as well as the first to enter the Amur basin and go down in the history of the country as a great pioneer, whose name villages, and rivers, and ships. In 2001, the Bank of Russia issued a coin in denomination of 50 rubles "Expedition V. Poyarkova." She is part of the series "Development and exploration of Siberia."
It should be noted that a lot is written about the cruelty of V. Poyarkov - and he did not disdain the torture of prisoners, and burned out wheat fields so that it would be more profitable to sell the excess bread at first. But the most important thing that V. Poyarkov achieved with such behavior is a sharp rejection by the indigenous population of participants in subsequent Russian expeditions, for example, E.P. Khabarova. But at the same time, Poyarkov managed to complete the expedition and deliver official information about the new lands. The last years of Vasily Poyarkov’s life passed in Moscow, in peace and prosperity. In Siberia, he served until 1648 in his former post.