Everyone who happened to live in the Soviet period, remember the enthusiastic epithets addressed to the first Russian traveler who set his goal to conquer the North Pole - G. Ya. Sedova. He, a native of the poorest sections of society, was credited with energy and determination, which allowed the village boy to gain world fame. They tried not to talk about the results of his expedition, since it ended tragically, demonstrating an example of a thoughtless and frivolous approach to solving a complex scientific problem.
Poor fisherman's son
The future navy lieutenant Georgy Sedov was the youngest son in the large family of Yakov Yevteyevich - a fisherman from the Krivaya Kosa farm in the Donetsk region. He was born on May 5, 1877. Sedovs lived in extreme need, the reason for which was the frequent binge of his father. The situation did not save the fact that the brothers, and there were five of them, were hired for daily work by the rural rich - they paid miserable pennies to the boys.
Georgy began to study late. Only when he was fourteen, his parents sent him to a parish school, where he showed extraordinary abilities. The teenager graduated from the three-year training course in two years, while receiving a commendation sheet. However, there were no bright changes in his life. I also had to work from morning till late at night.
Cheeky dream
Having mastered the letter, George was carried away by reading, and he had a dream to become a captain of a long voyage - a desire absurd and unattainable for a country boy. Even parents, learning about this, were categorically against such an undertaking. And here one of the main features of his character was clearly manifested - his extraordinary perseverance in achieving his goal.
Secretly from everyone, the young man began to prepare for a trip to Rostov-on-Don, where sailing courses were open at that time. When, after a long ordeal, he finally reached the goal of his first trip in his life, the inspector treated him very kindly, but sent him as a sailor for several months to the Trud steamer, which made voyages along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Having thus received sea baptism, George began his studies.
Merchant ship captain
Three years later, a graduated navigator of coastal navigation Sedov Georgy Yakovlevich left the school. This was no longer the old village boy crushed by want, but a specialist who knew his own worth and had reason for pride. In the near future, he underwent additional training and soon already went as a captain on the ship "Sultan". But I wanted more. Standing on the captain’s bridge, George Sedov was thinking about marine science and expeditionary activity. The goal is achievable, but for this it was necessary to go to the navy.
From Civil Fleet to Cartography Office
After parting with his dry cargo ship, the young captain went to Sevastopol, where he entered voluntarily in the training team. Soon he was assigned the rank of lieutenant, and with a letter of recommendation from the inspector of seagoing courses Rear Admiral A.K. Dryzhenko, George was going to St. Petersburg to work in the Main Cartographic Directorate of the Admiralty. There was wide scope for his research activities. In 1902, an expedition was formed to study the Arctic Ocean. Together with its other participants, Georgy Sedov sets off for the Vaigach Islands and the mouth of the Kolyma River .
His biography has since reached a completely different level. Georgy Sedov is no longer just a sailor, of which there are many in the Russian fleet, he is a passionate explorer, a man obsessed with a thirst for discovery. The next year, he, as an assistant to the head of the expedition, studies the Kara Sea and, having met there with the captain of the ship "America" Anthony Fiala, becomes infected by the idea of conquering the North Pole. But soon the Russo-Japanese War begins, and such ambitious plans have to be postponed.
Military service and marriage
Instead of long trips, life prepared for him during the war years service in the Siberian military flotilla, and at the end of hostilities - work as an assistant pilot of the Nikolaev-on-Amur fortress. Here, for his services in improving the conditions of navigation on the Amur, Senior Lieutenant Georgy Sedov was granted the Order of St. Stanislav of the third degree.
In 1909, a joyful event took place in his personal life. Returning to St. Petersburg, he soon met his future wife Vera Valeryanovna May-Mayevskaya, who was the niece of the prominent military leader of those years, General V.Z. May-Mayevsky. The following year, the wedding sacrament took place in the Admiralty Cathedral of the capital, which became not only the beginning of a happy married life, but also opened the doors to high society for him.
Painful pride requiring satisfaction
The biographers of the traveler disagree about the fact that during this period a feature began to appear with particular clarity in it, which subsequently served as one of the reasons for his tragic death. Having risen from the most social lower classes of society and found himself among the metropolitan aristocracy, Sedov was constantly inclined to see some neglect in relation to himself from those around him as a upstart and a person not of their circle. It was hard to say whether there were real prerequisites for this, or whether such a judgment was the fruit of a patient self-esteem, but everyone who knew him personally noted in his character excessive vulnerability and ambitiousness. They said that for the sake of self-affirmation, he was capable of the most thoughtless actions, of which there were many.
The expedition of George Sedov to the North Pole has become one of the links in this chain. Work on its preparation began in 1912. By that time, two Americans had already announced the conquest of the pole, and Sedov could not claim to be the discoverer of the discoverer, but he considered such a trip, made exactly this year, for himself. The fact is that in 1913 there should have been celebrations associated with the centenary of the Romanov dynasty, and the Russian flag on the extreme northern point of the globe could be a wonderful gift to the sovereign, and the traveler himself would earn unquestioned authority and glory.
Reasonable opinion of hydrographic scientists
To meet the upcoming anniversary, it was necessary to hurry, because there was very little time left. First of all, money was required for preparing the expedition, and considerable. Having submitted an application to the Main Hydrographic Directorate, Sedov received a polite, but categorical refusal. The pundits tactfully pointed out to him all the adventurism of the plan, citing the fact that in the absence of sufficient technical means, academic knowledge and specialists in this field, enthusiasm alone is not enough.
The refusal was regarded as a manifestation of arrogant arrogance to a native of the people and even more aroused in him the desire to prove to everyone, “no matter what, who.” About the frivolity of the plan is evidenced by his article published in one of the capital’s magazines. In it, Sedov writes that, without setting any "special scientific tasks", he simply wants to reach the pole, as if it was a sporting achievement.
Hasty and stupid gatherings
But if nature refused prudence to him, then more than endowed him with energy. Turning to the general public through the press, Sedov was able to quickly raise the required funds from voluntary donors. The idea was so exciting that even the sovereign made a private contribution of ten thousand rubles, which amounted to twenty percent of the required amount.
With the money raised, an old sailing and steam schooner “Holy Great Martyr Phoca” was bought, which had to be repaired and restored to proper shape. Haste is a poor helper, and from the very beginning it affected the preparation of the expedition. It was not only not possible to assemble a professional crew of sailors, but they could not even find real sled dogs, and already in Arkhangelsk they caught street mutts on the streets. It helped out that at the last moment they were sent from Tobolsk. Merchants, taking this opportunity, slipped the most unfit products, most of which had to be thrown away. On top of all the troubles, it turned out that the ship’s carrying capacity does not allow to take on board all supplies of provisions, some of which remained on the pier.
Two years among the polar ice
One way or another, but on August 14, 1912, the ship left Arkhangelsk and headed for the open sea. Their journey lasted two years. Twice reckless daredevils made wintering among ice hummocks immersed in the darkness of the polar night. But even in such conditions they did not waste time and compiled geographical maps and descriptions of all sections of the coast where they had a chance to visit. During the second wintering a group of sailors with papers was sent to Arkhangelsk for shipment to the Geographical Society of St. Petersburg. They contained the results of research and a request to send a vessel with a supply of food and other provisions, which was never fulfilled.
The tragic end of the expedition
The decisive assault on the North Pole began on February 2, 1914. On this day, Russian explorer Georgy Sedov and two sailors from his team left Tikhaya Bay and headed north for a dog sled. Even before the start of the journey, they all suffered from scurvy, and a few days later the state of Georgy Yakovlevich sharply worsened. He could not walk, ordered to tie himself to the sledges, and died on February 20, 1914. Of the two thousand kilometers of the toboggan that were coming up to this moment, only two hundred were passed.
According to the official version, the sailors, before turning back, buried him, making a grave in the snow and putting a cross from it on skis. But there is another version of what happened, based on completely reliable information. It was once outlined by the director of the Museum of the History of the Arctic Maritime Institute G. Popov. In order for sailors to get to the shore alive, they needed working sled dogs, which by that time were already falling from starvation. Being on the verge of death, the sailors dismembered the corpse of their commander, and he fed the dogs with his remains. No matter how blasphemous it may seem, but they managed to survive.
Memory left to posterity
The traveler Sedov Georgy Yakovlevich entered the history of science as a tireless hydrograph and explorer of the Arctic Ocean. The son of a poor fisherman, he became a naval officer, a member of the Russian Geographical and Astronomical Society, was awarded several orders. In the Soviet period, Georgy Sedov, whose discoveries were laid in the piggy bank of Russian science, was a symbol of the development of the North. His memory is immortalized in the names of the streets of many cities. On the map you can see geographical objects named after George Sedov. His name was the famous icebreaker. Once the drift of "George Sedov", wiped out in the ice of the ocean, was in the focus of attention not only of the public of our country, but of the whole world.
Today, many heroes of past years faded into the background, giving way to the trends of modern times. However, Sedov Georgy Yakovlevich will remain in our history as a selfless traveler, a man of unbending will and unbending character. He always set himself super tasks, and it was not his fault that the latter cost him his life.