Mangazeya - the first city of the Russian Arctic, lost in the darkness of centuries

Among the forgotten and lost cities, Mangazeya occupies a special place, and not only because it is located in the Arctic. If the history of the creation and rapid rise of Mangazeya is quite clear and understandable, then a certain mystery is connected with its fall and oblivion, which historians and archaeologists are trying to unravel.

On the shore of desert waves

An ancient city on the banks of the river.

Even today, the banks of the Siberian Taz River cannot be called lively - there are few settlements on them, and nature is striking in its intactness. And in the 16th century, when the Pomors appeared here, this area was perceived as the end of the world. In ancient books, the tribes living to the east of the Ob River were called "Molgonzei": this word comes from the ancient Komi-Zyryan language and means "people of the outskirts". Over time, the name of the tribes turned into the name of the area: on the maps compiled by the Englishman A. Jenkins, it is designated as "Molgomzeya". Later, in the form of "Mangazeya", it became the name of the city.

Magnificent Mangazeya.

The Pomors were brought to these places by shipping business: first they went across the ocean to Yamal, and then, dragging their ships across the peninsula (this was called the "Yamal portage"), they went to the Ob Bay. It is believed that it was the Pomors who founded the first winter quarters on the Taz River. They also told the Moscow authorities about the unheard-of riches of the harsh Arctic.

Old map - try to figure it out.

And the riches were really great: walrus tusks, mammoth tusks, and, most importantly, furs. One sable skin bought from a hunter on the banks of the Taz cost the merchant 40 kopecks; if a reseller entered the business, a ruble had to be paid for such a skin. And in the markets Western Europe for a sable skin you could get about three hundred rubles! Unsurprisingly, the state soon wished to lay its powerful hand on these riches and take control of trade.

"Gold-boiling" Mangazeya

To their goal - the banks of the Taz - the detachment of M. Shakhovsky and D. Khripunov had to fight their way: the Selkup soldiers attacked them dearly. Almost a third of the detachment fell in battle, fell into the cold land of a foreign land. But there was no choice: they did not go to the Arctic by their own will, but by order of Tsar Boris Godunov. Those who survived the battle reached and founded a prison in 1600 on the hitherto deserted shores. This is how Mangazeya appeared.

Mangazeya developed with extraordinary rapidity.

They overwintered, and there help came from Tobolsk and Berezov - two hundred servicemen led by the governors. It became clear: the new city - to be. Indeed, Mangazeya developed with extraordinary rapidity: in a couple of years a large wooden Kremlin grew, churches and houses appeared. Although even in the heyday, the permanent population of Mangazeya was not so large - no more than 1200 people, the city was striking with its livability. The inhabitants of Mangazeya sported silks and velvet, the streets were paved with boards, and the windows of the poorest house were mica - in the European part of Russia this was available only to the richest. But perhaps the most amazing proof of the city's wealth is the piles of plum and cherry pits found by archaeologists: in the 17th century. Mangazeyts could afford regular delivery of fresh fruit to the Arctic.

Mangazeya: whoever was there.

Even more than wealth, Mangazeya amazed with the diversity of the street crowd. Rich foreign merchants in hats with feathers walked alongside the Selkups and Nenets in malitsy, and the Moscow “akayaschaya” speech mixed with the Arkhangelsk dialect. Day and night there was a brisk trade in furs in the city, bringing huge profits. Historians have calculated that up to 30 thousand sable skins alone were exported from Mangazeya to the west per year, and there were arctic foxes, martens, and squirrel furs. For wealth and stormy activity, Mangazeya was nicknamed "Gold-boiling".

The mystery of the disappearance of Mangazeya

Vanished splendor.

The splendor of the trade that turned Mangazeya into a legendary city did not last long - about forty years. For some time, Mangazeya eked out a miserable existence as an outpost, but in 1672 the garrison was transferred to the Yenisei. And the city disappeared, went into the icy polar land. Only thanks to the efforts of archaeologists who began regular excavations here in the 1960s, we know that Mangazeya is not a myth, but a real city. But what happened to him? Why did the population, judging by the results of the excavations, simply leave there?

Mangazeya.

Historians put forward at least three versions of the fall of Mangazeya. According to the first, the fatal role was played by the very state that founded the city: first, Tsar Mikhail Romanov in 1720 forbade sailing on the ocean to Mangazeya, and a little later, in 1729, two newly arrived governors, A. Palitsyn and G. Kokorev, quarreled and arranged in the city civil war in miniature. The city began to decay and gradually faded away. Another version blames the fire of 1642 for the death of Mangazeya, which really destroyed most of the city. And according to the third version, the gradual disappearance of the fur-bearing animal due to too intense hunting was to blame: there is no product - there is nothing to trade, there is nothing for the townspeople to live with.

Excavations of the settlement of Mangazeya.

As it was in fact, we do not know, and it is unlikely that archaeological research will ever give an exact answer. One thing is clear: Mangazeya is one of the world's first polar cities, and although it did not manage to hold out for a long time, its foundation became an important milestone in the development of Siberia's natural resources.

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At the end of the 16th century, Ermak's detachment cut through the door for Russia to Siberia, and since then the harsh lands beyond the Urals have been stubbornly mastered by small but persistent detachments of miners who set up forts and moved further and further east. By historical standards, this movement did not take so long: the first Cossacks clashed with Siberian Tatars Kuchum on the Tour in the spring of 1582, and by the beginning of the 18th century, the Russians secured Kamchatka for themselves. As in America at about the same time, the conquistadors of our icy regions were attracted by the wealth of the new land, in our case it was primarily furs.

Many cities founded during this advance still stand safely today - Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Tobolsk, Yakutsk were once the advanced forts of service and industrial people (not from the word "industry", they were hunters-traders), who went farther and farther behind "fur Eldorado". However, no fewer towns suffered the fate of the mining settlements of the times of the American gold rush: having received fifteen minutes of fame, they fell into desolation when the resources of the surrounding regions were exhausted. In the 17th century, one of the largest such towns arose on the Ob. This city existed for only a few decades, but went into legends, became the first polar city in Siberia, a symbol of Yamal, and in general its history turned out to be short but bright. In the fierce frosty lands inhabited by warlike tribes, the quickly famous Mangazeya grew up.

The Russians knew about the existence of the country beyond the Urals long before Yermak's expedition. Moreover, there are several stable routes to Siberia. One of the routes led through the basin of the Northern Dvina, Mezen and Pechora. Another option was to travel from the Kama through the Urals.

The most extreme route was developed by the Pomors. On koches - vessels adapted for navigation in ice - they sailed along the Arctic Ocean, making their way to Yamal. Yamal was crossed by portage and along shallow rivers, and from there they went out into the Ob Bay, which is also the Mangazeya Sea. The "sea" here is hardly an exaggeration: it is a freshwater bay up to 80 km wide and 800 (!) Kilometers long, and from it there is a three-hundred-kilometer branch to the east - the Tazovskaya Bay. There is no unambiguous opinion about the origin of the name, but it is assumed that this is an adaptation to the Russian language of the name of the Molkanzei tribe that lived somewhere in the mouth of the Ob.

Pomorskiy koch on an engraving in 1598

There is also a variant that elevates the name of the land and the city to Zyryan "land by the sea". "Mangazeya Sea Pass" with knowledge of the route, observance of the optimal time of departure and good orienteering skills from the team, took them from Arkhangelsk to the Gulf of Ob in a few weeks. The knowledge of the many nuances of the weather, winds, ebb and flow, river fairways could facilitate the path. The technology of moving ships by dragging has also been worked out long ago - the goods were dragged on themselves, the ships were moved with the help of ropes and wooden rollers. However, no skill of sailors could guarantee a successful outcome. The ocean is the ocean, and the Arctic is the Arctic.

Even nowadays, the Northern Sea Route is not a gift for travelers, but then the voyages were carried out on small wooden ships, and in which case it was not necessary to count on the help of the Ministry of Emergency Situations with helicopters. The Mangazeya Way was a route for the most desperate sailors, and the bones of those who were unlucky became the property of the ocean forever. One of the lakes on the Yamal pass is named, which is translated from the language of the aborigines as "the lake of the dead Russians". So there was no need to think about regular safe travel. Most importantly, there was not even a hint of some kind of base at the end of the path, where one could rest, repair ships. In fact, to the Gulf of Ob and back, the Kochi made one long way.

There were enough furs at the mouth of the Ob, but so far there was no dream of a permanent trading post: it is too difficult to supply it with everything necessary in such conditions. Everything changed at the end of the 16th century. The Russians defeated the loose "empire" of Kuchum, and soon servicemen and industrial people poured into Siberia. The first expeditions went to the Irtysh basin, the first Russian city in Siberia - Tyumen, so that the Ob simply by force of things turned out to be the first in line for colonization. For the Russians, rivers were a key transport artery throughout the entire Siberian conquest: a large flow is both a landmark and a road that does not need to be laid in impenetrable forests, not to mention the fact that boats increased the volume of cargo transported by an order of magnitude. So at the end of the 16th century, the Russians moved along the Ob, building up the coast with fortresses, in particular, Berezov and Obdorsk were founded there. And from there, by the standards of Siberia, it was only a step to take to the Gulf of Ob.

As you move to the north, the forest is replaced by forest-tundra, and then by tundra, crossed by many lakes. Unable to gain a foothold here, having come from the sea, the Russians managed to enter from the other end. In 1600, an expedition of 150 servicemen left Tobolsk under the command of voivods Miron Shakhovsky and Danila Khripunov. The Gulf of Ob, to which they rafted without much adventure, immediately showed their character: the storm hit the kochi and barges. The bad start did not discourage the governor: it was decided to demand from the local Samoyeds that the expedition be delivered to the destination in deer. On the way, however, the Samoyeds attacked the travelers and beat them badly, the remnants of the detachment retreated on the selected reindeer.

The following circumstance adds intrigue to this story. In correspondence with Moscow, there are hints of participation in the attack (or at least its provocation) by the Russians. This is not such a surprise. Industrial people almost always overtook servicemen, climbed into the farthest regions and did not harbor any warm feelings towards the sovereign people who were subject to centralized taxation and control. We can say for sure that some Russian people were already under construction in the area of ​​the future Mangazeya: subsequently, archaeologists found buildings of the late 16th century on Taz.

A drawing of the land of the Turukhansk city (New Mangazeya) from the "Drawing book of Siberia" by S. U. Remezov (1701). Swedish copy; Mangazeya at the end of the 18th century.

Nevertheless, apparently, some part of the injured detachment nevertheless reached the Taz Bay, and a fortification, in fact, Mangazeya, grew on the shore. Soon a city was erected next to the prison, and we know the name of the town planner - this is a certain Davyd Zherebtsov. A detachment of 300 servicemen went to the fortress - a large army by the standards of time and place. The work got underway, and by 1603, a guest yard and a church with a priest had already appeared in Mangazeya, in a word, the city was founded.

Mangazeya turned into a Klondike. True, there was no gold, but a huge country full of sables stretched around. The bulk of the inhabitants dispersed to the neighborhoods, stretching for many hundreds of kilometers. The garrison of the fortress was small, only a few dozen archers. However, the town was constantly crowded with hundreds, if not thousands of industrial people. Someone left to hunt the animal, someone came back and sat in taverns. The city grew rapidly, and craftsmen came for industrial people: from tailors to bone carvers. Women also came there, who did not have to complain about the lack of attention in the harsh and devoid of warmth. In the city one could meet both merchants from central Russia (for example, a merchant from Yaroslavl donated to one of the churches), and fugitive peasants. In the city, of course, a moving hut (office), a customs house, a prison, warehouses, trade shops, a fortress with several towers functioned ... It is interesting that all this space was built up in accordance with a neat layout.

Fur was bought up from the natives with might and main, detachments of the Cossacks even reached Vilyui from Mangazeya. Metal products, beads, small coins were used as currency. Since the Cyclopean scale of the Mangazeya district was impossible to tightly control entirely from one place, small winter huts grew around. The sea passage has sharply revived: now, despite all the risk, the delivery of goods that were badly needed on the spot - from lead to bread, and the return transport of "soft junk" - sables and polar foxes - and mammoth bone, became more accessible. Mangazeya received the nickname "gold-boiling" - as such, gold was not found there, but "soft" gold was abundant. In a year, 30 thousand sables were exported from the city.

The tavern was not the only entertainment for the residents. Later excavations uncovered both the remains of books and superbly crafted, decorated chessboards. Quite a few in the city were literate, which is no wonder for a trading post: archaeologists often found objects with the names of the owners carved on them. Mangazeya was not at all just a staging post: children lived in the city, the townsfolk had animals and kept households near the walls. In general, animal husbandry, of course, took into account the local specifics: Mangazeya was a typical old Russian city, but the inhabitants preferred to ride around the neighborhood on dogs or deer. However, pieces of horse harness were later also found.

Alas! Taking off quickly, Mangazeya quickly fell. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, the circumpolar zone is not a very productive place as such. The Mangazeyans dispersed hundreds of miles from the city for an obvious reason: furry animals disappeared too quickly from the surrounding area. For local tribes, sable did not have much value as an object of hunting, so in northern Siberia the population of this animal was huge and sables lasted for decades. However, sooner or later, the fur animal had to dry up, which is what happened. Secondly, Mangazeya fell victim to bureaucratic games within Siberia itself.

Map of Tobolsk, 1700

In Tobolsk, the local governors looked without enthusiasm to the north, where huge profits floated out of their hands, so they began to scribble complaints from Tobolsk to Moscow, demanding the closure of the Mangazeya sea passage. The rationale looked peculiar: it was assumed that Europeans could penetrate into Siberia in this way. The threat looked dubious. For the British or Swedes, traveling through Yamal was becoming completely meaningless: too far, risky and expensive. However, the Tobolsk governors achieved their goal: in 1619, streltsy outposts appeared on Yamal, deploying everyone who tried to overcome the passage. It was planned to expand trade flows to the cities of southern Siberia. However, the problems overlapped: Mangazeya was getting poorer in the future, and now administrative barriers were added.

In addition - the king is far away, God is high - internal troubles began in Mangazeya. In 1628, two governors did not share powers and started a real civil strife: the townspeople held their own garrison under siege, and both had guns. A mess inside the city, administrative difficulties, land depletion ... Mangazeya began to fade. In addition, to the south, Turukhansk, aka New Mangazeya, rapidly expanded. The center of the fur trade was shifting, and people left behind it. Mangazeya was still living by inertia from the fur boom. Even the fire of 1642, when the town was completely burnt down and the city archive perished in the fire, among other things, did not finish it off completely, as did a series of shipwrecks, due to which there were interruptions in bread. Several hundred fishermen winter in the city in the 1650s, so Mangazeya remained a significant center by Siberian standards, but this was only a shadow of the boom at the beginning of the century. The city was heading towards final decline slowly but steadily.

In 1672, the streltsy garrison withdrew and went to Turukhansk. Soon the last people left Mangazeya. One of the last petitions indicates that only 14 men and a certain number of women and children remained in the once bursting with wealth. At the same time, the Mangazei churches were closed.

The ruins were abandoned by people for a long time. But not forever.

A traveler from the middle of the 19th century somehow drew attention to a coffin sticking out of the bank of the Taz ... The river washed away the remains of the city, and from under the ground were visible fragments of various objects and structures. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, where Mangazeya stood, the remains of fortifications were visible, and at the end of the 40s, professional archaeologists began to study the ghost town. The real breakthrough occurred at the turn of the 60s and 70s. An archaeological expedition from Leningrad has been excavating the Gold-boiling one for four years.

The polar permafrost created enormous difficulties, but as a result, the ruins of the Kremlin and 70 various buildings buried under a layer of soil and a grove of dwarf birches were brought to light. Coins, leather goods, skis, fragments of koches, sledges, compasses, children's toys, weapons, tools ... There were found charming figures like a carved winged horse. The northern city revealed its secrets. In general, the value of Mangazeya for archeology turned out to be great: thanks to permafrost many finds that would otherwise have crumbled to dust are perfectly preserved. Among other things, there was a foundry with a master's house, and in it were rich household utensils, including even Chinese porcelain cups. The stamps turned out to be no less interesting. Many of them were found in the city, and among others - the Amsterdam Trade House. The Dutch went to Arkhangelsk, maybe someone got across Yamal, or maybe this is just evidence of the export of a part of the furs to Holland. Finds of this genus also include a half-taler from the middle of the 16th century.

One of the finds is filled with somber grandeur. The burial place of an entire family was found under the floor of the church. On the basis of archival data, there is an assumption that this is the grave of the governor Grigory Teryaev, his wife and children. They died during the famine of the 1640s trying to reach Mangazeya with a grain caravan.

Mangazeya existed for just over 70 years, and its population is incomparable with the famous cities of Old Russia like Novgorod or Tver. However, the disappeared city of the Far North is not just another settlement. At first, Mangazeya became a springboard for the movement of Russians into the depths of Siberia, and then presented a real treasure to archaeologists and an impressive history to descendants.

Everything you wanted to know about the "Secrets of Mangazeya" expedition is in the presentation at the link.
https://yadi.sk/d/bOiR-ldcxrW6B
Information on how to become a member of the expedition is located here -

Yes, today, after 400 years, few people even know the name of Mangazeya. But once, in the middle of the 17th century, M. was one of the largest cities beyond the Arctic Circle, in the permafrost zone. And all of Taimyr, including the modern territory of the Norilsk industrial region, was part of the Mangazey district. The history of Mangazeya is the beginning of our Norilsk history.

For many travelers heading north, the "Land of Mangazeya" was a fabulous country. Legends have been written about this mysterious area full of animals for centuries.

The legendary Lukomorye, in Pushkin's tales, is part of the vast territory of the Mangazeya Okrug, the coast of the Ob Bay. Here is a 17th century map of Lukomorye. Its original is kept in Holland. But the author, place of creation and date are unknown.

The drawing "The Sea of ​​Mangazei from the tract", like all Russian drawings of that time in general, is deployed from south to north. In the drawing, the compiler does not yet separate the Ob and Taz Bays, according to the concepts of the 16-17 centuries, this is a single Mangazeya Sea.

The map is conditional. The territories represented on it do not coincide with the images on modern maps. But despite the inaccuracies, the ancient drawing contains not only valuable physical and geographical data, but also the necessary ethnographic and biological information. It shows the depths, color and nature of the water, the settlement of the Nenets tribes and animal world... In the center of the lip there is an inscription: "The water is fresh. They rest three times during the day. The fish in it is a whale and a beluga and a seal." Modern ichthyological research confirms this characteristic.

The word "Mangazeya" is of Zyryan origin. It means "the end of the earth" or "land near the sea."

The way to Mangazeya was well known to the Pomor peasants for a long time. Mangazeya sea passage. - The Arctic route connecting Pomorie with Siberia passed along the coast of the Pechora Sea, through the Yugorsky Shar Strait to the Kara Sea, crossing the Yamal Peninsula along the system of rivers and lakes from west to east and going out into the Ob and Taz Bay. It is here at the confluence of the river. Taz in the Gulf of Ob by the Pomor industrialists and merchants, according to historians, no later than 1572 a stronghold was founded - the Tazovsky town.

This place was also convenient for anchorage of Pomor ships - kochi - the main ice ships of that time.

Looking at the modern, powerful icebreaker-class ships at the docks of the Dudinsky port. You involuntarily think: what kind of courage and courage one had to possess in order to set sail on the seas of the Arctic Ocean on a nomad, such a fragile boat. The drawing of the koch, created by an unknown medieval author, helped scientists recreate the appearance of the ship.

On the front side of the board, discovered during the excavations of Mangazeya, the entire vessel is shown, and on the reverse side its separate parts: a side set and an oval bypass line. This is not so much a drawing as a kind of construction drawing of that time. Using it, an experienced carpenter could determine the proportions of the main parts of the ship he needed, obtain information about the steering gear and the bot set, and position the masts.

Kochi appeared in Russia on the coast of the White and Barents Seas in the 16th century. The name of the vessel comes from the concept of "kotsa", which means ice protection. Iron brackets were stuffed along the waterline of the vessel, on which the ice was frozen. It seemed to be dressing in an ice coat. The ship had an egg-shaped hull. For this feature, the Mangazei kochis were called round ships. When the ice melted, the hull of the vessel was squeezed to the surface without receiving damage. The sails were sewn from linen and rovduga, made from reindeer suede. These were the first Russian naval class ships adapted for Arctic navigation.

The small carrying capacity of the kochi, 6-8 tons, allowed them to swim along the very edge of the coast, where the water did not freeze for a long time. This is clearly seen in the painting by the artist S. Morozov "Pathfinders of the Peter's time in 1700." Canvas. Butter.

The snow-covered expanses of the North have long attracted Russian and foreign travelers. Some of them, striving for the unknown, thirsted for new discoveries, others were looking for fame, and still others were ways of getting rich quick. For many centuries Siberia has been and remains a source of wealth, a source of replenishment of the state treasury.

If today the main riches of Siberia are: ore reserves, oil and gas deposits, then in the past Siberia was famous for the wealth of fur, sea and fish industries, an abundance of mammoth bones.

Mammoth bone was delivered in huge quantities to the central regions of the country and beyond. Products made from it were in demand in the local market. Buttons, household items and details of reindeer harness were made from mammoth bone: a needle for weaving nets, cheek pads.

Goods brought to the north by Russian merchants: household items, firearms (flint guns), jewelry, beads, large blue beads, which were called clothes in Russia, were fabulously expensive and went in exchange for soft junk, skins of fur animals, sable, ermine, beaver, polar fox.

The exchange was clearly unequal. The metal cauldron cost as much as it could hold sable skins.

Expensive beads were used by local tribes in the manufacture of jewelry and clothing embroidery.

It is the rich sable trades of the Mangazeisk region, the fame of which spread throughout Russia, that attract the attention of the Moscow sovereign.

In 1600, Tsar Boris Godunov sent to the river. Taz and Yenisei from Tobolsk to a hundred archers and Cossacks led by Prince Miron Shakhovsky and the streltsy head Danila Khripunov. In the Gulf of Ob, the Kochi fell into a storm, some of the expedition members died. The survivors were attacked by the Nenets tribes that had long lived in the Mangazeya district, and were forced to return back to Berezov.

Later, in winter, Miron Shakhovskoy with a small detachment on skis, again went on a hike to the lower reaches of the Taz, where in the summer of 1601, on the site of a Pomor town, a prison was hacked.

Mangazeya has an amazing fate with her name associated with many glorious pages in the history of Russia and Siberia, the first campaigns beyond the Urals, geographical discoveries at the very Cold Sea, the development of trade and crafts in the taiga and tundra.

Fate was not merciful. Did not last long northern city... After 70 years, it was abandoned by the inhabitants and soon forgotten.

Systematic archaeological research of the legendary Mngazeya began at the initiative of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. A comprehensive historical and geographical expedition led by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Belov, for several field seasons, explored the cultural layer and the remains of the wooden structures of the settlement with an area of ​​more than 3 hectares ...

The members of the expedition had to make a lot of efforts, since the entire area of ​​the monument was covered with a thick layer of sod, overgrown with forest and bushes.

"Dive into the water, ice snakes.

Part you, snow curtain,

The gates of gold of boiling Mangazeya

Opening in front of me and you! "

Leonid Martynov

Archaeologists have discovered over a thousand items that characterize the life of the ancient city. The work resulted in a two-volume monograph by M. Belov.

The finds of Belov's expedition made it possible to recreate a picture of a large Russian medieval city, numbering about 500 buildings, with rich provincial estates, domes of churches, craft workshops and a gostiny dvor. With a population of up to 2000 people.

In 1607, under the governors of Davyd Zherebtsov and Kurdyuk Davydov, the construction of city defensive structures began, consisting of continuous gordens - cages. The construction of five towers of the Kremlin dates back to this time. In which the archers were serving, watching the Mangazeya district. The Mangazeya garrison consisted of 100 archers.

Outside the walls of the Kremlin, the total length of which was more than 280 meters, there was a clerk hut - the administration of the voivode, streltsy guards, provincial estates, mirroring one another. In remote Russian cities, two governors were appointed at the same time.

Remains of the provincial court discovered during excavations.

It also houses one of the most significant religious buildings in the city - the five-domed Trinity Church. The church played a significant role in the life of the city. She was the keeper of the royal treasury and at the same time, the lender gave funds to the inhabitants of the posad for the development of trading, trades and crafts.

Burials were discovered under the floor of the church. Burials were made on the site of the burned down church even before re-construction. This is the tradition. Subsequently, Mikhail Belov, on the basis of archival documents, suggested that people of noble origin of the voivode were buried here - Grigory Teryaev, his wife, one of the confidants, his two daughters and a niece.

They died, returning from Tobolsk in the fall of 1643, with a caravan loaded with grain supplies for the starving Mangazeya. Grigory Teryaev tried to deliver bread by sea, sacrificing not only his life, but also the lives of his loved ones for this.

Throughout the entire period of its existence, Moscow was the center of Russian culture and Orthodoxy in the north of the country.

The legend associated with another religious building of the city is still alive in the people's memory. At the beginning of the 20th century, believers visited the building of the chapel of Vasily of Mangazey on the settlement. The name of Vasily of Mangazeisky in Siberia of the 17-18 centuries was widely known as the name of the defender of the poor and disadvantaged. It was the cult of industrialists and explorers.

The legend says: Vasily the youth worked for an evil and ferocious rich man from Mangazeya. Once a theft happened in the merchant's house, which he reported to the voivode, accusing Vasily of stealing. The massacre was not slow to come true. The accused was tortured in the Kremlin, in a congress hut, but he flatly denied his guilt. Then the enraged merchant, hitting the boy in the temple with a bunch of keys, killed him.

To conceal the murder, the merchant and the governor decided to bury the body in a hastily put together coffin, in a vacant lot. Later, many years later, after the great fire of 1742, when almost all of Mangazeya burned. The coffin broke through the pavement and came out of the ground. Obviously its survived to the surface of the permafrost. The murdered man was found.

At the expense of the pilgrims, a chapel was built on the site of the appearance of the coffin.

In the 60s, the abbot of the Turukhansk Trinity Monastery, Tikhon, tried to secretly take the relics to the Yenisei. But, according to the abbot, the coffin rose into the air and was not given to him. In the legend, fiction is closely intertwined with real events. During excavations, archaeologists found a chapel, under the ruins of which a cult burial was discovered, with the remains of limbs. Perhaps priest Tikhon nevertheless took part of the skeleton to Turukhansk, leaving the rest of the bones in Mangazeya, at the burial site.

The secrets of the Trinity Church and the chapel of Basil of Mangazey were far from the only ones in a series of amazing discoveries and unexpected surprises that were revealed to the scientists who explored this mysterious Russian city. But we will talk about this in the next program.

On the territory of the posad there was a two-storey sitting courtyard with more than 20 barns and shops filled with goods from all over the world.

This is how he appeared before archaeologists.

No, not for nothing all over Russia, there was a glory about Mangazeya, like a boiling earth of gold. Trade in grain, overseas and Russian goods in exchange for furs brought fabulous profits to the artels of merchants and industrialists. One ruble invested in the economy of Mangazeya gave an increase of 32 rubles.

Annually M. dumped on the domestic market of the country up to one hundred thousand sable skins for a total of 500 thousand rubles. Income, for that period, equal to the annual income of the royal court.

Fisheries were especially well developed in the city, which stands on the banks of the river. This is evidenced by the many findings that characterize this type of activity. Wooden floats, birch bark sinkers of various shapes.

In Mangazeya, standing on permafrost, no bread was sown. Every year, whole coravans of ships came to the city, loaded with grain reserves, numbering from 20 to 30 kochi. But goats, sheep, pigs were raised. Cows and horses were bred. They rode on horseback only around the city; outside the city walls there was a swampy tundra.

Despite the large distances in time and space separating the ancient Mangazeya and Norilsk, the common Arctic features inherent in the appearance of these polar cities. The ancient city, like Norilsk, stood on permafrost, on piles. Not on reinforced concrete, of course.

Log houses were installed on layers of frozen chips with birch bark pads, which protected them from moisture and helped preserve the permafrost.

So, the first experience of building houses on stilts belongs to the Mangazeans.

Crafts: pottery, leather, bone carving.

But the main sensation of Mangazeya is the find of the foundry yard. On the ruins of which crucibles were found - ceramic pots for melting copper ore. Analysis of the found copper remains, carried out in 1978 at the Institute of Arctic Geology, showed that they contain nickel.

In the original document, the conclusion of the examination of copper ore, NN Urvantsev, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, one of the discoverers of the Norilsk deposit, comes to the conclusion that the Mangazeyans smelted Norilsk carbonate ore.

Oxide ores come to the surface, are low-melting, and are clearly visible due to their green or blue color. They were still used by people of the Bronze Age.

We are located at the foot of the Norilsk Mountains. Perhaps it was here, from time to time, that ore was mined in the required quantities and transported to Mangazeya on reindeer sleds. Despite the huge distance of 400 km., Between the Norilsk winter hut, presumably founded in 20-30 years. 17th century and Mangazeya, there were quite stable ties during that period.

Today the Norilsk Combine produces millions of tons of copper, nickel and cobalt. And the beginning was laid even in tiny medieval foundries and primitive furnaces, which have almost nothing in common with modern giant factories.

The enterprising Mangazei miners were the first to attempt to start industrial development of the Norilsk deposit, long before the construction of the Sotnikovskaya copper smelting furnace.

Mangazeya copper, smelted in crucibles in very small quantities, was used for all kinds of crafts and decorations: crosses, rings, pendants, which were always in great demand among the local population.

But Mangazeya is not only a craft and cultural center, it is an outpost for the advancement of Russians to the North and East of Siberia. From here, in search of new lands and fur riches, the pioneers set off further, "meeting the sun", to the Yenisei and Lena. The link routes crossed the entire inner Taimyr from west to east.

In 1610, Russian merchants led by Kondraty Kurochkin sailed down the Yenisei, calling the newly discovered land Pyasida. What does treelessness mean. This is what our peninsula was called in the past. Local tribes inhabiting the newly discovered lands were immediately imposed with tribute - yasak ...

The mangazer Ivashka Patrikeev, a mangazer in Taimyr, wrote in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.

In the 17th century, the first Russian settlements appeared on Taimyr - Khantayka, Khatanga. Volochanka, Some of them have retained their ancient Russian names to this day, such as, for example, the village of Volochanka standing on the portage.

The name of the area is Norilsk and the river. Norilskaya, too, according to Urvantsev, have an old Russian origin, fishermen call "noril" or "diving" a flexible pole for underwater fishing. From the word "norilo" the river began to be called Norilka, and then the city received the same name ...

Until now, time has preserved tacit evidence of eras long gone from us in the form of traces of a drag in the tundra or objects left from that time. The photographs taken in Taimyr by members of the expedition of Vladimir Kozlov, undertaken in 1989, at the initiative of the Main Directorate for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, testify to this more than eloquently.

There are remains of old fishing huts and entire settlements that existed in the 17th century and later, in the form of ruins of log cabins with floor decayed logs or plates of wooden tiles. Traces of life that once boiled here.

It is hard to believe, but the current capital of Taimyr Dudinka once also began with a similar winter hut, lost in the endless snowy expanses of the north.

In 1667, the Mangazei archer Ivan Sorokin set up a yasak hut below the Dudina River. The newly founded settlement was at the same time a convenient point for further development of new lands in the east.

The displacement of trade routes to the Yenisei and Lena, the predatory extermination of the sable in the Mangazey region, bribery and greed of the governors, who turned the local tribes against themselves, led to the desolation and gradual destruction of the city. On the initiative of the governor, the administrative capital was moved to a safer place, the Turukhansk winter hut, built by the Magazines back in 1607, and was named New Mangazeya.

In 1672, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the last streltsy garrison left Mangazeya. The city, which once thundered with its exploits, crafts and riches, went into oblivion.

source http://www.osanor.ru/np/glavnay/pochti%20vce%20o%20taimire/goroda/disk/mangazey.html

Russia, Siberia, Legendary Mangazeya. The village of Turukhansk.

Mangazeya, the first Russian city in Eastern Siberia, was founded in 1600 on the right bank of the Taza River, conducted significant trade and was considered the main point of the Lower Yenisei Territory, after two fires it became so impoverished that in the 2nd half of the 17th century it was completely desolate.

Location and directions

Allegorical city

A village on the banks of the Lower Tunguska River, a tributary of the Yenisei.
Geographical coordinates: Latitude 65 ° 47′36 ″ N (65.793214); Longitude 87 ° 57′33 ″ E (87.95917).
Travel from Moscow: by plane to Krasnoyarsk - 4 hours. 30 minutes, then by plane to the airport of Turukhansk - 2 hours. 30 minutes or from Krasnoyarsk along the Yenisei by river transport (river station on the banks of the Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk)

Travel from St. Petersburg: by plane to Krasnoyarsk - 4 hours. 50 minutes, then by plane to the airport of Turukhansk - 2 hours. 30 minutes or from Krasnoyarsk along the Yenisei by river transport (river station on the banks of the Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk)
Distance from Moscow - 5500 km., from St. Petersburg - 6200 km.

What to visit - a short history and interesting places

What to visit. Interesting historical and geographical sites.
The village has the entire infrastructure of a modern settlement: Schools, kindergartens, shops, airport.
Brief history and description of these lands.

In descriptions of Dutch expeditions made Jan van Linschoten and published in 1601 with very interesting maps of the time, it is said that the second Dutch expedition, consisting of 6 ships loaded with goods and money, arrived at the Yugorsky Shar on August 19, 1595, where they met ice. From Russian industrialists and a Samoyed prince, she collected extremely interesting information that the ice will soon disappear and that summer will continue for another 7 weeks, and that sometimes floating ice stays in the strait all summer, that in winter the strait freezes, but the sea on both sides of the strait does not freeze ; finally, that Russian ships, laden with goods, go every year through this strait past the Ob to the Yenisei River, where they winter, that the inhabitants of the Yenisei River are of the Orthodox faith. At the same time, the Samoyeds also gave the expedition correct information about the further shores of the Arctic Ocean, lying beyond the Yenisei.

The expedition soon managed to reach the Kara Sea, but seeing the floating ice and fearing endangering ships loaded with expensive goods from the ice, the ships decided to return to Holland.
Even then, obviously, there was widespread commercial shipping between the northern coast of Russia and the Siberian rivers Ob and Yenisei. All this clearly shows that the route along the Arctic Ocean along the northern shores of Russia to Siberia by water was traveled by Russian industrialists and merchants even earlier. It is difficult to say who and when passed the first along this path, but most likely, the honor belongs to enterprising and courageous Novgorodians. Professor Butsinsky, the author of the book "Mangazeya and Mangazeya Uyezd" expresses the opinion that the sea route to Mangazeya was known to Novgorodians and Suzdal colonists long before the founding of Arkhangelsk and, on the basis of some historical indications, believes that as early as 1364, Novgorodians went exactly from the mouths of the Northern Dvina, Bely the sea, the Kara Sea and the rivers of the Yamal Peninsula to the Ob Bay to the Ob River, and the local foreigners fought there. Some historians are inclined to attribute the beginning of these voyages even to the XI century. In Chulkov's "Historical Description of Russian Commerce" we read: "the inhabitants of the Northern country, to get soft rubbish, both before and after the construction of the city of Arkhangelsk, traveled to the Ob River and to Mangazeya." The Novgorodians sailed for the Obdorsk and Taz or Mangazei Samoyeds, who had an abundance of precious fur goods. Lerberg, referring to the above-mentioned attempts of the Dutch and the British in the 16th and 17th centuries to get into the North Ocean through the Kara Sea, notes: “What labor and misfortunes would Dutch and English sailors get rid of when they were looking for the northeastern route to India if they could use hydrographic knowledge, which in Veliky Novgorod were known for several hundred years before. " Mangazeya was known to Russians and foreigners of northern Russia long before the conquest of Siberia in 1581 Ermak, trade and crafts in the local region have long attracted enterprising people there. But the Moscow government for a long time knew nothing or very little about this, and it was only at the very end of the 16th century that different information began to reach it on this score. On the basis of chronicle data, it is known that in 1598 Tsar Theodore Ioannovich sent to Mangazeya and to the Yenisei Fyodor Dyakov with his comrades for "passing" these countries and for imposing yasak on the foreigners there (a tax in kind, which until the middle of the 19th century the peoples of Siberia paid mainly in furs). Dyakov returned to Moscow in 1600. Of course, trade people, continues prof. Butsinsky, they found out about Dyakov's sending and knew how it should end: the government would build a city in Mangazeya, and then their free trade in that region would come to an end. And so they, running ahead, in 1599, ask Tsar Boris “welcome them, allow them to travel for trade and crafts to Mangazeya by sea and the Ob River, to the rivers Pur, Taz and Yenisei and trade“ freely ”(Freely, freely, unimpeded) with the Samoyeds who live along those rivers. " Boris Fedorovich He granted petitioners, allowed them free trade in those places, but so that they would pay an ordinary tithe duty to the sovereign's treasury and not trade in reserved goods. This certificate was given in January 1600.

The initial location of the city of Mangazeya (according to the Map of the Yenisei province (from the Atlas of Asian Russia, 1914)

In the next 1601, during the reign of Boris Godunov, the city of Mangazeya was founded, 200 versts above the mouth of the Taza River, which flows into the Gulf of Ob. In a short period of time, this city becomes a center of trade, where courageous industrial people and merchants from all over northern Russia flock for bargaining.
All this huge territory occupied by the Mangazeya district, which approximately corresponded to the present Turukhansk region, was then called the "overseas sovereign patrimony", and the sea route there along the "cold sea" was called "old."
According to the description, the city of Mangazeya had 5 towers, and between them walls, one and a half sazhens (3 meters) high. in which the huts of the local population mainly huddled. Inside the city there were two churches (Troitskaya and Uspenskaya), a voevodsky courtyard, a moving hut, a customs house, a guest house, a trading bath, barns, shops and a prison.
Every year a fair was held there, when commercial and industrial people from trades and crafts returned to Russia, and more than two thousand visiting guests temporarily gathered. Servicemen, Cossacks and archers, clergy, interpreters made up the permanent population of the city. The turnover of trade with Mangazeya for that time reached large numbers, goods were brought in for several hundred thousand rubles, and a lot of funds were received in the sovereign's treasury.
In addition to the yasak, which was collected from foreigners with furs, various duties were established, which greatly burdened traders and industrialists, such as: general duties, barns, shops, animals, traffic, departures, etc., but the most important duty is the tithe from industries, with purchase and sale of all kinds of goods and various food supplies that merchants and industrial people brought to Mangazeya, with the exception of bread, which was allowed through duty-free. Then a duty was imposed on bread, which was first brought from Russia, but with the development of arable farming in the Verkhotursky, Turinsky and Tyumensky bridles, it was delivered along the tributaries of the river. Ob to Tazovskaya Guba and Mangazeya. In these Siberian districts, in good years, a pood of flour cost a few kopecks, and in Mangazeya and Turukhansk it was sold for 50 kopecks, for a ruble and for 2 rubles.
But in addition to the established duties, a large item of monetary income in Mangazeya was the sale of wine and honey, and a sovereign tavern was opened there.
However, the Tobolsk voivode Prince Kurakin(in 1616), who did not sympathize with the commercial relations of the sea with Siberia, began to write to Moscow that “commercial and industrial people go kochi (Koch, in different dialects - kocha, kochmora, kochmara) is a vessel adapted both for sailing on broken ice and for the drag.) from the Arkhangelsk city to the Kara Bay and to the portage to Mangazeya, and another road from the sea to the Yenisei estuary by large ships, and that the Germans hired Russian people to lead them from the Arkhangelsk city to Mangazeya.
Reporting to Moscow information about the sea route to Mangazeya, the voivode Prince Kurakin he expressed his fears that the Germans could use it, “but according to the local, sir,” this voivode wrote: “due to Siberian business, some customs cannot allow the Germans to trade in Mangazeya to travel to Mangazeya; Yes, it is not just for them to go (ride), otherwise, sir, and the Russian people by sea to Mangazeya from the Arkhangelsk city for the Germans should not be told so that the Germans, looking at them, do not recognize the road and, having passed the military, many people would not cause any trouble to Siberian cities ”. (would not have seized the land).

According to the information received during the interrogation by the voivode, from the Arkhangelsk city the way to Mangazeya is close: “all the years many commercial and industrial people go kochi with all sorts of German goods and grain supplies and keep up to Mangazeya in 4-4 1/2 weeks”.
These reports so alarmed the Moscow government Mikhail Fedorovich that in the same year it was forbidden, on pain of great disgrace and execution, to sail this way to Mangazeya and back, and all trade and industrial people were ordered to be sent to Mangazeya and from Mangazeya to Berezov and Tobolsk through the Verkhoturskaya outpost. And one of the storytellers about German people Eremka Savina it was even commanded “because he longed for the arrival of German people for all the years of the German people,” beat the batogs mercilessly, so that, in spite of that, it would be discouraging to start a distemper by stealing ”. These orders, which dealt a fatal blow to sea trade and closed the Siberian northern seaside not only from Europe, but also from Russia itself, caused a petition to the Tsar of the trade and industrial people of all cities who go to Mangazeya for their trades and crafts. In their petition, they wrote: “to welcome them, order them from Mangazeya to Russia and to Mangazeya from Russia to allow the great sea and across the Stone as before, so that they will not be without trades in the future, and the sovereign's sable execution in their market without there was no loss in the tenth duty without fishery ”. And the Tsar granted trade and industrial people of all cities and ordered them to go from Russia to Mangazeya and from Mangazeya to Russia by the big sea and across the Stone as before; he only orders to hide this passage so that the Germans do not find out about it.
But the voivode Prince Kurakin did not rest on this. In his further replies to Moscow, he continues to insist on the prohibition to sail to Mangazeya by the large sea, since it will be impossible to collect the duty, therefore it is necessary to send commercial and industrial people to Siberia and back only by dry route, through the outposts. Then "the tsar's tax will be twice as profitable", and besides, the German people, following the Russians' footsteps, can get into Mangazeya and the Yenisei, and then the tsar's treasury will probably be damaged. In conclusion of his unsubscribe, Prince Kurakin adds that he wrote about the order of the sovereign to the Siberian and Pomor cities to the governors, and “whether that order will be strengthened or not, and I don’t know your servant, because the places are far away, and the Pomor cities will not be awarded Siberian , and mine, your slave replies are not listened to. And if, sir, with which the measures of the ship's passage by sea to Mangazeya will be cleared, but I would not be in disgrace from you to the sovereign. "
These messages frightened the Moscow government even more, and in its reciprocal letters it orders: “and it will be that the Russian people will go to Mangazeya by the big sea and learn (begin) to trade with the Germans by our decree, and thus not the Germans by obedience and theft and treason, or some foreigners will find a way to Siberia, and for those people, for their theft and treason, to be executed by evil deaths and we order their houses (houses) to be destroyed to the ground. "
Prince Kurakin achieved in this way in the end the fact that in 1620 he was ordered to lock the sea passage to Siberia and the Russian people on pain of death, and to block the way along the portage on the Mutnaya (Murtyakha river) and Zelenaya (Syoyakha river) rivers to build forts ...
“To Matveev Island (Matveev Island, Zapolyarny District, NAO, Russia, Latitude: 69 ° 27′58 ″ N (69.466068); Longitude 58 ° 31′53 ″ E (58.531295) and to Yugorsky Shar (Yugorsky Shar Strait, Zapolyarny region, NAO, Russia, Latitude 69 ° 43′33 ″ N (69.725837); Longitude 60 ° 33′56 ″ E (60.56548) in the summer a guard was sent to collect duties from industrialists and merchants in favor of the treasury. Such measures had such a disastrous effect on Russian, in fact, the White Sea shipping, that by the end of the 17th century, not only merchants, but also animal traders stopped sea voyages to the east and even to Novaya Zemlya and limited themselves only to the nearest waters. "
Since then, Mangazeya has been rapidly declining and few people need it. Russian traders and Zyryans brought to the Taz and Yenisei rivers various iron, copper, tin and wood products, men's and women's shirts, worn and new, multi-colored zipuns of English and homespun cloth, etc. They sailed along the Arctic Ocean without any nautical charts, even without a compass, on small koch ships, and meanwhile there is not even a trace of wrecks on the sea route. The entire sea route from the mouths of the Dvina, in favorable weather, took place in one month, and if they sailed from the Mezen, Pinega, Pechora, they reached Mangazeya much faster.
For all these Dvinyans, Mezenians, Pinezhans, Ustyuzhans, who mainly traded there, the sea route was much closer and easier than the one established by the Moscow government through Verkhoturye and Tobolsk. The voyage from Tobolsk to Mangazeya alone, under favorable weather conditions, required 8 weeks, and under unfavorable conditions continued for 13 weeks, and ships often suffered accidents in the Ob Bay. How much more time was needed for the inhabitants of the northern provinces to get the goods to the city of Tobolsk.

Towards the end of the reign Mikhail Fedorovich the trade of the city of Mangazeya fell significantly. In addition, local trades decreased: sables and beavers were hunted, new shopping centers began to be created. Finally, some accidental circumstances had a great influence on the fall of the city of Mangazeya, namely: from 1641 to 1644, not a single kochi with bread came to this city: they were all defeated by storms in the Ob Bay. And in Mangazeya there was a great famine. To complete the misfortune in 1643, the city was almost completely burnt out: the provincial courtyard, the sovereign's barns, moving out of the hut, some of the city walls were burnt, and the buildings that remained from the fire were either broken or opened.
Although orders are sent from the Kazan Palace to renew, to build burned-out buildings, it is already impossible to carry out the order - it is beyond the power of the local population, which, as it turned out, was only a small number: “There are only 94 of us serving people, they answered to Moscow, yes 70 of them are sent to the sovereign's services in yasak winter huts and with yasak to Moscow, 10 people are in prison and remain in Mangazeya city to save the sovereign's treasury, only 14 people. Yes, and those who do not come with food to the ships endure hunger and scatter. The existence of Mangazeya brought only harm to commercial and industrial people, an unnecessary burden, it became more accessible to get into it by a roundabout way, through Yeniseisk and Turukhansk, than through the Gulf of Ob; meanwhile, the Moscow government continued to preserve this city until 1672, when it was finally moved to the mouth of the r. Turukhana on the Yenisei. In present-day Turukhansk and in the village of Monastyrskoye at the confluence of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska river into the river. Some relics of old Mangazeya are preserved in the Yenisei.

Tower at the Turukhansk Church, where Dutch bells, brought from Mangazeya, hang

And to the present day you can see on the high, free-standing wooden bell tower at the church in Turukhansk, the bells transported from Mangazeya and delivered there, no doubt, by the northern sea route with the following Dutch inscription “Anno 1616 haeccampana svmtibrei pvr peclesemens estoflata honore dei et bsannae” (it was not possible to translate from Dutch).
Mangazeya ceases to exist, and the trading city completely disappears from the face of the earth. On the site of the old Mangazeya, there is only a small chapel built later.
As for the significance of Mangazeya in the history of trade Siberian region, then, as the prince writes M. A. Obolensky it is clear that she was already beginning to occupy important place, and if it were not for the disastrous customs system that so despotically dominated our ancient trade, there is no doubt that Mangazeya would soon become one of the main trading points of Siberia. This was guaranteed by the very location of Mangazeya, which eliminated the need to transport goods by dry route and, on the contrary, represented the enormous benefits of water communications, which were already beginning to become common. The extreme north of Siberia, says prof. Butsinsky Obdoria and Mangazeya were known to the Russian people much earlier than the middle or southern part of this region. And meanwhile, historically, the mentioned area for many, very many, is terra incognita, an unknown land, covered with the darkness of deep antiquity. And it is not surprising Obdorsk, but at least it resembles the now existing city of Obdorsk, and Mangazeya long ago left geographic maps... That part of Siberia, which in the XVI and XVII centuries it was known under the name of Mangazeya, now it does not draw attention to itself; That is why the Samoyeds are now only wandering around with their deer and dogs to the deaf, inhospitable land. And in the old days there was a time when life was in full swing in this land, trade and industry flourished, great benefits were delivered to both the Moscow Tsars and their subjects: they once spoke of him, as they say about a country flowing with honey and milk. After all, Mangazeya in the old days is a gold mine, a kind of California, where the inhabitants of the present northern provinces: Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Perm, etc., eagerly sought for the prey of a precious fur-bearing animal.
With the prohibition of sea voyages to Mangazeya, any sea trade movement ceases for more than 250 years, and the northern sea trade route is not only forgotten, but even the belief in the possibility of sailing on the Kara Sea, which was later considered an impassable glacier, has disappeared. „After the expedition Wood(1676) the voyages in order to open the northeastern passage almost cease, and a 200-year interval begins before the voyage Nordenskjold on "Vega" in 1878-1879, which finally solved this age-old question.

Wonderful people of Turukhansk.
Suslov Innokenty Mikhailovich-Historian and ethnographer, mineralogist, public and political figure. Born into the family of a sexton and a music school teacher.
Anatoly Sedelnikov, a poet who died during the war near Lublin in Poland (1944).
Shestakov Yuri Grigorievich Honored Test Navigator of the USSR (08/18/1977), Colonel. Born on April 20, 1927 in the village of Torkhan, Zaigraevsky District (Buryatia). He spent his childhood in the city of Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Valentin Feliksovich Voino-Yasenetsky- From 1923 to 1925, an outstanding surgeon and doctor of medicine, laureate of the Stalin Prize later, the Bishop of Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei, who was ranked Orthodox Church to the face of the saints.
Ariadne Efron- From 1949 to 1955, the daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva, Ariadna Efron, was exiled to Turukhansk.

History of the name (toponym).
Name:

1. By the name of the local Nenets tribe.
2. The word "Mangazeya" is most likely spoiled by the Siberian pronunciation - "Shop", a spare warehouse (store) was previously arranged here for storing provisions given out free of charge to baptized Samoyeds, but there are other explanations.

Video

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Photos and images

Modern view of the village of Turukhansk from the banks of the Yenisei.

What is Mangazeya? A legendary city, founded in 1601 in the Turukhan lands, which existed for only 70 years. Legends were written about the unprecedented riches of the city. Over the centuries, it became like a fairy tale, since the location of the legendary city was not known. During the expedition of the Russian traveler V.O. Markgraf, a settlement was discovered and described, which confirmed the stories about the existence of a rich Russian city beyond the Arctic Circle at the very beginning of the 17th century.

Formation of the name Mangazeya

For a long time, the word Mangazeya meant the legendary city, which was called "golden boiling". What is Mangazeya, how did this word appear? Scientists-ethnographers suggest that the name Mangazeya comes from the name of Prince Makazey (Mongkasi) - the leader of the local Samoyed tribe, as the Russian pioneers called the local residents - the Nenets, Enets and Selkups, who ate their fellow tribesmen in times of famine. It is believed that the word Mangazeya comes from the old name of the Taz river. Another version says that the name comes from the Molgonzei tribe, as the modern Enets were called in the past.

First expedition

The first mentions of people living behind the land of Yugorskoy appeared at the end of the 15th century. There is evidence of this from Novgorod chroniclers, who wrote that Samoyeds, called Malgonzees, live behind the Eastern country and Ugra. Russian sable fishermen had already mastered this region well at that time.

The history of Mangazeya began with the first troops sent to these places by Boris Godunov. The voivode Miron Shakhovsky with a hundred archers went there from Tobolsk, but, as it is assumed, as a result of the storm he lost ships and the further path of the detachment was by land. On Pur, the detachment was attacked by the Yenisei and Purov "samoyad". As a result of the collision, part of the archers died, and the wounded voivode himself continued on his way with the remnants of the detachment.

There is an assumption that the Samoyeds were hired by Russian fishermen who did not want to pay to the treasury, as they understood that the appearance of sovereigns in these places would stop the freemen. The fate of the detachment remained unknown for a long time. On the trail of the first expedition in 1601, a second detachment of two hundred archers was sent, led by the governors Savluk Pushkin and Vasily Mosalsky, who reached the foundation of the remains of the Shakhovsky prison and the church.

First settlement

The 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 fort and lay the posad. By that time, presumably Shakhovsky had died of his wounds, so Mosalsky and Pushkin are considered to be the first voivods. What Mangazeya was, they knew at that time in Russia, since rumors about these regions, where fur-bearing animals were found in large numbers, reached Moscow.

In 1603, by decree of Tsar Boris Godunov, a new voivode Fyodor Bulgakov was sent. Together with him was a priest with church utensils. Under him, a guest yard was laid. 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 - a Kremlin with five towers. At the entrance was the Spasskaya Tower, which had the shape of a quadrangle in its plan. There were two gates under it. Four towers are located at the corners of a powerful fence, which is 3 meters wide. Uspenskaya was built opposite the Osterovka river, the Davydovskaya tower - opposite the Tilovskaya and Zubtsovskaya towers overlooked the taiga.

In the Kremlin itself there were two churches - Troitskaya and Uspenskaya, the courtyard of the governor, customs, leaving the hut, and a prison. There were only one hundred officially registered sovereign people - archers and Cossacks.

There were built 200 huts, a church, a guest house, a public bath, barns, shops, inns. More than a thousand people lived in the settlement. These were artisans, mostly foundry and blacksmiths, as well as traders and tradesmen. There were many temporarily residing in the city, mostly merchants, as well as vagabonds, drunkards and dissolute women.

Golden Mangazeya

What made Mangazeya richer, what was so special in this city? By fishing and trade in gold junk, this was the name of the skins of fur-bearing animals, which were found in abundance in the area. Hunters flocked here from all over the Tazovsky region, most of whom were natives. Here, the role of money was played by the skins of fur-bearing animals, sable fur was especially highly valued.

Merchants carried essential goods, mainly salt, flour, other products, clothing and household utensils, which they exchanged for fur. Metal products were also highly valued, so the bulk of the inhabitants of the settlement were artisans. Fish farming, cattle breeding flourished, shipping was developed.

Why the city disappeared

In 1671, the garrison was ordered to leave the city together with the inhabitants and move to the Turukhansk winter hut, where a new Mangazeya was laid. Now it is the city of Staroturukhansk. The main reasons for the disappearance are:

• The closure of the sea passage to was founded at the initiative of the state as a strong point for and for collecting yasak. He brought huge profits to the treasury. English, Dutch and German merchants traded here. The rumor about the sparsely populated lands reached the governments of these countries. The king, fearing the interest of foreigners, issued a decree to close the sea passage on pain of death. Foreign traders, and with them 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.
• Introduction of new customs regulations when trade has become unprofitable.
• Fires.
• Hunger. From 1641 to 1644, due to severe storms, not a single koch with bread and salt came to the city. Hunger and disease began.
• Wealth and remoteness were the reason for the unlimited arbitrariness of the governor. The enmity between the two voivods, Palitsyn and Kokarev, led to an armed confrontation.

Gradually, the remnants of the settlement without inhabitants were destroyed and overgrown with taiga. The stories about the golden Mangazeya turned into legends and tales that excited the imagination of people who were trying to find the remains of the fabulous city.