The contribution of Russian travelers to the history of great geographical discoveries was partly forced, because the vast lands annexed by the empire beyond the Urals were the true Terra Incognita.
Due to the harsh Arctic climate, there could not be permanent settlements in the vast northern territories, and the northernmost point of Eurasia was reached only thanks to the great courage and sense of duty of the Russian explorers.
From Indian to Arctic
Eurasia is the mainland, occupying more than a third of all land and the largest on the planet. Most of humanity lives on it. But if overpopulated areas are located in the south of the continent, then the circumpolar Arctic regions are a huge deserted ice desert.
When in the south the heat drives all living things into the warm waves of the Indian Ocean, only the polar bear feels comfortable in the waves of another ocean - the Arctic Ocean, into which the northernmost point of Eurasia stands out - Cape Chelyuskin.
Great Northern Expedition
At the end of 1732, on the initiative of the great Russian navigator Vitus Bering , preparations began for the expedition, which later received the name of the Great Northern. Five groups of travelers were supposed to explore the Russian coast from the mouth of Pechora to the coast of Japan. The coordinates of the northernmost point of Eurasia remained unknown. The shape of the coast of the Arctic Ocean was approximate on the maps of that time - the colossal Arctic regions remained a white spot for Russian and world geographers.
From Lena to Taimyr
One of the most difficult sections - from the mouth of Lena to Taimyr - went to the detachment under the command of Vasily Pronchishchev. He acted in places almost deserted, where there was no mass indigenous population. The main ship of the expedition - a sailing and rowing double boat — that is, twice as long as those equipped with warships, about 20 m in length — Yakutsk — was crushed by ice, and Lieutenant Pronchishchev and his wife were subsequently killed. The expedition continued with three detachments moving inland. Two units succeeded in successfully completing the task of exploring and mapping sections of the northern coast.
Khariton Laptev commanded one detachment, the other, reaching the northernmost point of Eurasia, was the navigator of the Yakutsk dinghy boat Semyon Chelyuskin. The surname of the first of the commanders and his cousin remained in the name of the Laptev subpolar sea, the name of Chelyuskin became truly a legend.
Eastern North Cape
Along with the eighteenth century, in the far from large seas of the Tula province, the future naval officer was born, whose name bears the most extreme northern point of Eurasia, discovered by him forty years later. These years included studies at the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation, opened at the behest of the founder of the Russian fleet, Peter I, and service in the Baltic with the rank of sub-navigator.
By order of the sick VV Pronchishchev, he had to command the Yakutsk and take him out of the advancing ice to the mouth of the Siberian rivers. In the course of the study of the western coast of Taimyr, conducted by a detachment led by Chelyuskin, the coastline was marked with unprecedented accuracy, and on May 7, 1742, the detachment reached a stone low cape, on which a lighthouse was installed from a log and stones collected.
No one went further than this place. The calculated latitude and longitude is -77 ° 43′00 ″ s. w. 104 ° 18′00 ″ in. d. Chelyuskin carefully entered in his diary, calling the cape East North. These were the coordinates of the northernmost point of Eurasia. But this became clear much later, when the results of the expedition were processed in the Russian Geographical Society.
Man and ship
The next expedition reached the northern tip of Taimyr after only a hundred years. In honor of the centennial of the feat of the participants of the Great Siberian Expedition, the Eastern North Cape - the northernmost point of Eurasia - was renamed Cape Chelyuskin.
The name of the legendary navigator was received in 1932 by a cargo and passenger steamer, specially built for sailing in the ice at Danish shipyards. "Chelyuskin" was supposed to go from the mouth of the Lena to Vladivostok, because the leadership of the USSR attached special attention to the development of the Far North and the Far East.
Chelyuskin epic
The voyage, which aimed to initiate Arctic navigation, began on August 2, 1933, and on September 1, the ship reached Cape Chelyuskin - the northernmost point of Eurasia. By that time, a polar station with an observatory was founded there, led by the legendary I.D. Papanin.
Further dramatic events made the name of the ship, and with it the name of the polar navigator, world famous. In the Chukchi Sea, the ship was blocked by ice and began to drift to the Bering Strait. February 13, 1934 "Chelyuskin" plunged into the ice abyss, unable to withstand the pressure of the ice masses. People and equipment were unloaded on an ice floe in advance, an operation to rescue them began.
The cape is located at the polar tip of Taimyr. This is the northernmost point of Eurasia, located on the territory of Russia, therefore, the radio station of the polar explorers, located on Cape Chelyuskin, played an important role in establishing communication between the participants in the operation. For two months, all people - 104 people - were taken out of the ice parking lot by plane. The glory of the polar explorers and heroic pilots was fantastic, the pilots became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, the name of the Chelyuskins was known to the whole country - from small to large.
Arctic today
Present-day Russia has proclaimed the significance of its interests in the Arctic zone. The territorial possessions in the Arctic are legally fixed, funds are invested in scientific and geological surveys. The northernmost point of Eurasia also finds its place in these programs.
The research station on
Cape Chelyuskin has become smaller compared to the Soviet period, but its work continues, which means that the victims of the pioneers of the Arctic were not in vain.