What is a Mangazeya? The legendary city, founded in 1601 in Turukhan lands, which lasted only 70 years. Legends were made about the unprecedented riches of the city. Over the centuries, it has become like a fairy tale, since the location of the legendary city was not known. In 1900, the expedition of the Russian traveler V.O. Markgraf discovered and described the ancient settlement, which confirmed the stories about the existence of a rich Russian city beyond the Arctic Circle at the very beginning of the 17th century.
The formation of the name Mangazeya
The word Mangazeya for a long time meant the legendary city, which was called "gold boiling". What is Mangazeya, how did this word appear? Ethnographic scholars suggest that the name Mangazeya came from the name of Prince Makazey (Mongkashi) - the leader of the local Samoyed tribe, as Russian pioneers called the locals - the Nenets, Ents and Selkups, who ate their fellow tribesmen in the famine. It is believed that the word Mangazeya came from the ancient name of the Taz River. Another version says that the name came from the Mogonzee tribe, as the modern Enets were called in the past.
First expedition
The first mention of people living beyond the Ugra land appeared at the end of the 15th century. There is evidence of this from Novgorod chroniclers who wrote that Samoyeds, called the Malgonzeys, live behind the Eastern country and Ugra. Russian sable hunters had already mastered this land well at that time.
The history of Mangazeya began with the first detachments sent to these places by Boris Godunov. In 1600, the voivode Miron Shakhovsky, with a hundred archers, went there from Tobolsk, but it is believed that as a result of the storm he lost ships and the further route of the detachment was on land. On Pure, the Yenisei and Purov "self-eaters" attacked the detachment. As a result of the collision, part of the archers died, and the wounded governor himself continued with the rest of the detachment.
There is an assumption that the Samoyeds were hired by Russian traders, who did not want to pay to the treasury, since they understood that the appearance of sovereign persons in these places would stop the freemen. The fate of the detachment remained unknown for a long time. Following the traces of the first expedition in 1601, a second detachment of two hundred archers was sent, led by governors Savluk Pushkin and Vasily Mosalsky, who reached the shacks of the Shakhovsky prison and the church laid down by the remnants.
First settlement
A detachment of Pushkin and Mosalsky, having reached Mangazeya, located on the high right bank of the Taz River, three hundred kilometers from the mouth, proceeded to equip the prison and lay the landing. By that time, Shakhovsky allegedly died of his wounds, so Mosalsky and Pushkin are considered to be the first governors. At that time, Russia knew what Mangazeya was, since rumors about these parts, where fur animals were found in large numbers, reached Moscow.
In 1603, by decree of Tsar Boris Godunov, a new governor Fyodor Bulgakov was sent. Together with him was a clergyman with church utensils. When it was laid a guest yard. In 1606, Vasily Shuisky sent new governors - D. Zherebtsov and K. Davydov. State power was firmly established in this region.
The first city in the Arctic Circle
In 1607, a fortress was built - the Kremlin with five towers. At the entrance was the Spasskaya Tower, which had a plan in the form of a quadrangle. Under it were two gates. Four towers are located at the corners of a powerful fence with a width of 3 meters. Ouspenskaya was located opposite the Osterovka River, the Davydovskaya Tower opposite the Taz River, the Tilovskaya and Zubtsovskaya Towers overlooked the taiga.
In the Kremlin itself there were two churches - Troitskaya and Uspenskaya, the governor’s yard, customs, a moving house, a prison. There were only a hundred officially registered sovereign people - archers and Cossacks.
It was built 200 huts, a church, a guest house, a public bathhouse, barns, trading shops, inns. More than a thousand people lived in the village. These were artisans, mostly casters and blacksmiths, as well as traders and tradesmen. There were many temporarily residing in the city, mainly merchants, as well as vagabonds, drunken bastards and dissolute women.
Golden Mangazeya
What was rich in Mangazeya, what was so special about this city? Crafts and trade in gold junk, the so-called skins of fur-bearing animals, which were found in many in the district. Hunters flocked here from all over the Taz region, most of which were natives. There was exchange trade, in which the role of money was played by the skins of fur animals, sable fur was especially valued.
Merchants brought essential goods, mainly salt, flour, other products, clothes and household utensils, which were exchanged for fur. Metal products were also highly valued, so the majority of the inhabitants of the posad were artisans. Fish farming and cattle breeding flourished, shipping was developed.
Why did the city disappear
In 1671, the garrison was ordered to leave the city with the residents and move to the Turukhanskoy winter hut, where a new Mangazeya was laid. Now it is the city of Staroturukhansk. The main reasons for the disappearance include:
- Closing the sea passage to the city. The city was founded at the initiative of the state as a stronghold in the development of Siberia and for the collection of yasak. He brought huge profits to the treasury. Here traded English, Dutch and German merchants. The rumor about the sparsely populated lands reached the government of these countries. The king, fearing the interest of foreigners, issued a decree to close the sea passage under pain of death. Foreign merchants, and with them the Russian merchants-Pomors, no longer came here. This is the main reason that turned Mangazeya into a vanished city.
- A sharp reduction in the number of fur animals.
- The introduction of new customs regulations when trade became unprofitable.
- Fires.
- Hunger. From 1641 to 1644, not a single moat with bread and salt came to the city due to severe storms. Famine and disease began.
- Wealth and remoteness were the reason for the unlimited arbitrariness of the governor. The feud between the two governors - Palitsyn and Kokarev, led to an armed confrontation.
Gradually, the remains of the settlement without residents were destroyed and overgrown with taiga. Tales of the golden Mangazeya turned into legends and tales that excited the imagination of people trying to find the remains of a fabulous city.