Expeditions of the 19th and 20th centuries in the table. Modern travelers and their discoveries

Without Russian discoverers, the world map would be completely different. Our compatriots - travelers and sailors - made discoveries that enriched world science. About the eight most noticeable ones - in our material.

Bellingshausen's first Antarctic expedition

In 1819, the navigator, captain of the 2nd rank, Thaddeus Bellingshausen led the first round-the-world Antarctic expedition. The purpose of the voyage was to explore the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, as well as to prove or disprove the existence of the sixth continent - Antarctica. Having equipped two sloops - "Mirny" and "Vostok" (under the command), Bellingshausen's detachment went to sea.

The expedition lasted 751 days and wrote many bright pages in the history of geographical discoveries. The main one was made on January 28, 1820.

By the way, attempts to open the white continent had been made before, but did not bring the desired success: a little luck was missing, and perhaps Russian perseverance.

Thus, the navigator James Cook, summing up the results of his second voyage around the world, wrote: “I went around the ocean of the southern hemisphere in high latitudes and rejected the possibility of the existence of a continent, which, if it could be discovered, would only be near the pole in places inaccessible to navigation.”

During Bellingshausen's Antarctic expedition, more than 20 islands were discovered and mapped, sketches of Antarctic species and the animals living there were made, and the navigator himself went down in history as a great discoverer.

“The name of Bellingshausen can be directly placed alongside the names of Columbus and Magellan, with the names of those people who did not retreat in the face of difficulties and imaginary impossibilities created by their predecessors, with the names of people who followed their own independent path, and therefore were destroyers of barriers to discovery, which designate epochs,” wrote the German geographer August Petermann.

Discoveries of Semenov Tien-Shansky

Central Asia at the beginning of the 19th century was one of the least studied areas of the globe. An undeniable contribution to the study of the “unknown land” - as geographers called Central Asia - was made by Pyotr Semenov.

In 1856, the researcher’s main dream came true - he went on an expedition to the Tien Shan.

“My work on Asian geography led me to a thorough acquaintance with everything that was known about inner Asia. I was especially attracted to the most central of the Asian mountain ranges - the Tien Shan, which had not yet been touched by a European traveler and was known only from scanty Chinese sources.

Semenov's research in Central Asia lasted two years. During this time, the sources of the Chu, Syr Darya and Sary-Jaz rivers, the peaks of Khan Tengri and others were mapped.

The traveler established the location of the Tien Shan ridges, the height of the snow line in this area and discovered the huge Tien Shan glaciers.

In 1906, by decree of the emperor, for the merits of the discoverer, the prefix began to be added to his surname - Tien Shan.

Asia Przhevalsky

In the 70−80s. XIX century Nikolai Przhevalsky led four expeditions to Central Asia. This little-studied area has always attracted the researcher, and traveling to Central Asia has been his long-time dream.

Over the years of research, mountain systems have been studied Kun-Lun , ridges of Northern Tibet, sources of the Yellow River and Yangtze, basins Kuku-nora and Lob-nora.

Przhevalsky was the second person after Marco Polo to reach lakes-swamps Lob-nora!

In addition, the traveler discovered dozens of species of plants and animals that are named after him.

“Happy fate made it possible to make a feasible exploration of the least known and most inaccessible countries of inner Asia,” Nikolai Przhevalsky wrote in his diary.

Kruzenshtern's circumnavigation

The names of Ivan Kruzenshtern and Yuri Lisyansky became known after the first Russian round-the-world expedition.

For three years, from 1803 to 1806. - that’s how long the first circumnavigation of the world lasted - the ships “Nadezhda” and “Neva”, having passed through the Atlantic Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and then through the waters of the Pacific Ocean reached Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The expedition clarified the map of the Pacific Ocean and collected information about the nature and inhabitants of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.

During the voyage, Russian sailors crossed the equator for the first time. This event was celebrated, according to tradition, with the participation of Neptune.

The sailor, dressed as the lord of the seas, asked Krusenstern why he came here with his ships, because the Russian flag had not been seen in these places before. To which the expedition commander replied: “For the glory of science and our fatherland!”

Nevelsky Expedition

Admiral Gennady Nevelskoy is rightfully considered one of the outstanding navigators of the 19th century. In 1849, on the transport ship “Baikal”, he went on an expedition to the Far East.

The Amur expedition lasted until 1855, during which time Nevelskoy made several major discoveries in the area of ​​the lower reaches of the Amur and the northern shores of the Sea of ​​Japan, and annexed the vast expanses of the Amur and Primorye regions to Russia.

Thanks to the navigator, it became known that Sakhalin is an island that is separated by the navigable Tatar Strait, and the mouth of the Amur is accessible for ships to enter from the sea.

In 1850, Nevelsky’s detachment founded the Nikolaev post, which today is known as Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.

“The discoveries made by Nevelsky are invaluable for Russia,” wrote Count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky “Many previous expeditions to these regions could have achieved European glory, but none of them achieved domestic benefit, at least to the extent that Nevelskoy accomplished this.”

North of Vilkitsky

The purpose of the hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean in 1910-1915. was the development of the Northern Sea Route. By chance, captain 2nd rank Boris Vilkitsky took over the duties of the voyage leader. Icebreaking steamships "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" went to sea.

Vilkitsky moved through the northern waters from east to west, and during his voyage he was able to compile a true description of the northern coast of Eastern Siberia and many islands, received the most important information about currents and climate, and also became the first to make a through voyage from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk.

The expedition members discovered the Land of Emperor Nicholas I., known today as Novaya Zemlya - this discovery is considered the last significant one on the globe.

In addition, thanks to Vilkitsky, the islands of Maly Taimyr, Starokadomsky and Zhokhov were put on the map.

At the end of the expedition, the First World War began. The traveler Roald Amundsen, having learned about the success of Vilkitsky’s voyage, could not resist exclaiming to him:

“In peacetime, this expedition would excite the whole world!”

Kamchatka campaign of Bering and Chirikov

The second quarter of the 18th century was rich in geographical discoveries. All of them were made during the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions, which immortalized the names of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov.

During the First Kamchatka Campaign, Bering, the leader of the expedition, and his assistant Chirikov explored and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia. Two peninsulas were discovered - Kamchatsky and Ozerny, Kamchatka Bay, Karaginsky Bay, Cross Bay, Providence Bay and St. Lawrence Island, as well as the strait, which today bears the name of Vitus Bering.

Companions - Bering and Chirikov - also led the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The goal of the campaign was to find a route to North America and explore the Pacific Islands.

In Avachinskaya Bay, the expedition members founded the Petropavlovsk fort - in honor of the ships "St. Peter" and "St. Paul" - which was later renamed Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

When the ships set sail to the shores of America, by the will of an evil fate, Bering and Chirikov began to act alone - due to fog, their ships lost each other.

"St. Peter" under the command of Bering reached the west coast of America.

And on the way back, the expedition members, who had to endure many difficulties, were thrown onto a small island by a storm. This is where Vitus Bering’s life ended, and the island where the expedition members stopped for the winter was named after Bering.
Chirikov’s “Saint Paul” also reached the shores of America, but for him the voyage ended more happily - on the way back he discovered a number of islands of the Aleutian ridge and safely returned to the Peter and Paul prison.

“Unclear Earthlings” by Ivan Moskvitin

Little is known about the life of Ivan Moskvitin, but this man nevertheless went down in history, and the reason for this was the new lands he discovered.

In 1639, Moskvitin, leading a detachment of Cossacks, set sail to the Far East. The main goal of the travelers was to “find new unknown lands” and collect furs and fish. The Cossacks crossed the Aldan, Mayu and Yudoma rivers, discovered the Dzhugdzhur ridge, separating the rivers of the Lena basin from the rivers flowing into the sea, and along the Ulya River they reached the “Lamskoye”, or Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Having explored the coast, the Cossacks discovered the Taui Bay and entered the Sakhalin Bay, rounding the Shantar Islands.

One of the Cossacks reported that the rivers in the open lands “are sable, there are a lot of all kinds of animals, and fish, and the fish are big, there are no such fish in Siberia... There are so many of them - you just need to launch a net and you can’t drag them out with fish...”.

Geographic data collected by Ivan Moskvitin formed the basis of the first map of the Far East.

On the world map of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. the outlines of Europe, Asia, Africa are correctly shown; with the exception of the northern outskirts, America is correctly depicted; Australia is outlined without major errors. The main archipelagos and largest islands of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans are mapped.

But inside the continents, a significant part of the surface is indicated on the map by “white spots”. Unknown to cartographers were the vast and uninhabited polar regions, almost three-quarters of Africa, about a third of Asia, almost all of Australia, and large areas of America. All these territories received reliable representation on the map only during the 19th century and at the beginning of our century.

The largest geographical achievement of the 19th century was the discovery of the last, sixth continent of the Earth - Antarctica. The honor of this discovery, made in 1820, belongs to the Russian round-the-world expedition on the sloops “Mirny” and “Vostok” under the command of F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev.

When creating a modern map, cartographic knowledge and geographical information of various peoples and different eras were generalized. Thus, for European geographers of the 19th century who studied Central Asia, ancient Chinese maps and descriptions were of great value, and when exploring the interior of Africa they used ancient Arab sources.

In the 19th century a new stage in the development of geography began. She began not only to describe the lands and seas, but also to compare natural phenomena, look for their causes, and discover the patterns of various natural phenomena and processes. During the 19th and 20th centuries, major geographical discoveries were made, and considerable progress was achieved in the study of the lower layers of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the upper layers of the earth's crust and the biosphere.

In the second half of the 19th century. Russian voyages from the Baltic to the Far East almost ceased due to the outbreak of the Crimean War, and then the sale of Alaska to the United States by the tsarist government.

Among the foreign expeditions around the world in the first half of the 19th century. The French expedition on the ship "Astrolabe" in 1825 - 1829 became famous for its geographical discoveries. under the Command of Jules Sebastian Dumont-Durville; During this journey, the northern shores of the islands of New Zealand and New Guinea were mapped.

The circumnavigation of the English ship Beagle in 1831-1836 was especially important in the history of science. under the command of Robert Fitz Roy. The expedition carried out extensive hydrographic work and, in particular, for the first time described in detail and accurately most of the Pacific coast of South America. The famous naturalist Charles Darwin traveled on the Beagle. Observing and comparing the nature of different regions of the Earth, Darwin later created a theory of the development of life, which immortalized his name. Darwin's teaching dealt a crushing blow to religious ideas about the creation of the world and the immutability of plant and animal species (see Vol. 4 DE).

In the second half of the 19th century. a new stage in the study of the ocean begins. At this time, special oceanographic expeditions began to be organized. The techniques and methods for observing the physical, chemical, biological and other features of the World Ocean have improved.

Wide-ranging oceanographic research was carried out by the English round-the-world expedition of 1872 -1876. on a specially equipped vessel - the sail-steam corvette Challenger. All work was carried out by a scientific commission of six specialists, headed by the head of the expedition, Scottish zoologist Wyville Thomson. The corvette covered about 70 thousand nautical miles. During the voyage, at 362 deep-sea stations (places where the ship stopped for research), the depth was measured, soil samples and water samples were taken from different depths, water temperature was measured at different horizons, animals and plants were caught, and surface and deep currents were observed. Throughout the entire journey, the weather conditions were noted every hour. The materials collected by the expedition turned out to be so large that a special institute had to be created in Edinburgh to study them. Many English and foreign scientists, led by voyage participant John Murray, editor of the works, took part in processing the materials

expeditions. The report on the results of research on the Challenger amounted to 50 volumes. The publication was completed only 20 years after the end of the expedition.

Challenger's research yielded a lot of new things and for the first time made it possible to identify general patterns of natural phenomena in the World Ocean. For example, it was found that the geographic distribution of sea soils depends on the depth of the ocean and the distance from the coast, and that the water temperature in the open ocean everywhere, except for the polar regions, from the surface to the very bottom is continuously decreasing. For the first time, a map of the depths of three oceans (Atlantic, Indian, Pacific) was compiled and the first collection of deep-sea animals was collected.

The Challenger voyage was followed by other expeditions. Generalization and comparison of collected materials led to outstanding geographical discoveries. The remarkable Russian naval commander and marine scientist Stepan Osipovich Makarov became especially famous for them.

When Makarov was 18 years old, he published his first scientific work on a method he invented for determining deviation 1 at sea. At this time, Makarov sailed on ships of the Baltic Fleet. One of these training voyages in 1869 on the armored boat “Rusalka” almost ended in the death of the ship. "Rusalka" ran into an underwater rock and got a hole. The ship was far from the harbor and would have sunk, but the resourceful commander sent it aground. After this incident, Makarov became interested in the history of shipwrecks and learned that many ships had died from underwater holes. He soon found a simple way to seal the holes using a special canvas plaster named after him. The “Makarov patch” began to be used in all fleets of the world.

1 Deviation - deviation of the magnetic needle of ship compasses from the direction of the magnetic meridian under the influence of metal parts of the ship.

Makarov also developed the design of drainage systems and other emergency devices on ships and thereby became the founder of the doctrine of the unsinkability of a ship, that is, its ability to remain on the water even if it has holes. This doctrine was later developed by the famous shipbuilder Academician A.I. Krylov. Makarov soon became famous as a hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Seeing its inevitability, he achieved a transfer to the Black Sea even before the outbreak of hostilities. According to the Paris Peace Treaty, concluded after the Crimean War, Russia did not have the right to build warships on this sea until 1871 and therefore did not yet have time to create its own fleet here. Foreign military experts predicted complete freedom of action for the Turkish fleet in the Black Sea. However, thanks to Makarov, this did not happen. He proposed using fast merchant ships as floating bases for undecked mine boats. Makarov turned the passenger steamer “Grand Duke Konstantin” into a formidable combat vessel. The boats were launched into the water and used to launch a mine attack on enemy ships. Makarov also used a new military weapon - a torpedo, that is, a self-propelled mine. Stepan Osipovich destroyed and damaged many enemy ships, including armored ones; his dashing raids constrained the actions of the Turkish fleet and greatly contributed to Russia's victory in the war. The mine boats used by Makarov became the founders of a new class of ships - destroyers.

After the war, Stepan Osipovich was appointed commander of the steamship Taman, which was at the disposal of the Russian ambassador in Turkey. The ship was in Constantinople. Makarov decided to use his free time to study currents in the Bosphorus. He heard from Turkish fishermen that in this strait there is a deep current from the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea, it goes towards the surface current from the Black Sea. The deep current was not mentioned in any of the sailing directions; it was not shown on any map. Makarov in a four-boat went out into the middle of the strait, and the sailors lowered a barrel (anchor) filled with water with a heavy load tied to it on a cable. This “directly showed me,” he said, “that there was a reverse current below and quite a strong one, because the anchor of five buckets of water was sufficient to force the four to move against the current.”

Convinced of the existence of two currents, Makarov decided to study them carefully. At that time, they did not yet know how to measure the speed of deep currents. Stepan Osipovich invented a device for this purpose, which soon became widespread.

Makarov carried out a thousand measurements of current speed in various places of the Bosphorus from surface to bottom and made four thousand determinations of water temperature and its specific gravity. All this allowed him to establish that the deep current is caused by different densities of the waters of the Black and Marmara seas. In the Black Sea, thanks to the abundant river flow, the water is less salty than in the Marble Sea, and therefore less dense. In the strait at depth, the pressure from the Sea of ​​Marmara turns out to be greater than from the Black Sea, which gives rise to a lower current. Makarov spoke about his research in the book “On the exchange of waters of the Black and Mediterranean Seas,” which in 1887 was awarded a prize by the Academy of Sciences.

In 1886-1889. Makarov circumnavigated the world on the corvette Vityaz. The voyage of the Vityaz forever entered the history of oceanography. This is the merit of Makarov and the officers and sailors who were passionate about him on the path of serving science. In addition to their daily military service, the corvette crew participated in oceanographic research. Already the first observations made on the Vityaz shortly after leaving Kronstadt led to an interesting discovery. The stratification of water into three layers, characteristic of the Baltic Sea in summer, was established: warm surface with a temperature above 10°, intermediate at a depth of 70-100 m with a temperature of no more than 1.5° and bottom with a temperature of about 4°.

In the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Vityaz sailors successfully carried out multilateral observations and, in particular, surpassed the Challenger expedition in accurately determining the temperatures and specific gravity of deep water.

The Vityaz remained in the Far East for over a year, making several voyages in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, during which areas not yet visited by any oceanographic vessel were explored. The Vityaz returned to the Baltic through the Indian Ocean, Red and Mediterranean seas. The entire voyage took 993 days.

At the end of the voyage, Makarov carefully processed the huge material of observations on the Vityaz. In addition, he studied and analyzed the ship's logs of all circumnavigations of not only Russian, but also foreign ships. Stepan Osipovich compiled maps of warm and cold currents and special tables of the distribution of temperature and density of water at different depths. He made generalizations that revealed the patterns of natural processes in the World Ocean as a whole. Thus, he was the first to come to the conclusion that surface currents in all seas of the northern hemisphere, as a rule, have a circular rotation and are directed counterclockwise; in the southern hemisphere, currents move clockwise. Makarov correctly pointed out that the reason for this is the deflecting force of the Earth's rotation around its axis (the "Coriolis law", according to which all bodies when moving are deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in the southern hemisphere).

The results of Makarov’s research comprised the major work “Vityaz” and the Pacific Ocean.” This work was awarded a prize from the Academy of Sciences and a large gold medal from the Russian Geographical Society.

In 1895-1896 Makarov, already commanding a squadron, again sailed in the Far East and, as before, carried out scientific observations. Here he came to the conclusion about the need for the rapid development of the Northern Sea Route. This route, said Stepan Osipovich, “will bring to life the now dormant North of Siberia” and will connect the center of the country with the Far East as the shortest, and at the same time safe, sea road, far from foreign possessions. Returning to St. Petersburg, Makarov turned to the government with a project to build a powerful icebreaker to explore the Arctic, but stupid tsarist officials resisted him in every possible way. Then the scientist made a report at the Geographical Society in which he convincingly proved “that no country is as interested in icebreakers as Russia.” The most prominent scientists, including P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky and D. I. Mendeleev, strongly supported Makarov’s project, and in October 1898, the world’s first powerful icebreaker “Ermak”, built according to Makarov’s drawings in Newcastle (England) ), was launched.

In the summer of 1899, Ermak, under the command of Makarov, made its first Arctic voyage. He penetrated to the north of Spitsbergen and carried out research in the Arctic Ocean.

New glory was brought to "Ermak" by the rescue of the battleship "Admiral General Apraksin", which ran into rocks off the island of Gotland during a snowstorm. During this operation, the great invention of A. S. Popov - radio - was used for the first time.

In 1904, the Russian-Japanese War began. Vice Admiral Makarov was appointed commander of the Pacific Fleet, whose actions, due to the indecisiveness of Makarov's incompetent predecessors, were limited to the passive defense of Port Arthur. In an effort to bring a turning point in the course of military operations, Makarov begins active operations, personally leading the military campaigns of formations of ships. March 31, 1904 The battleship Petropavlovsk, on which Stepan Osipovich was returning after repelling another attack by Japanese ships on Port Arthur, hit a mine. The battleship, which sank within a few minutes, became the grave of this remarkable man.

Makarov's research in the Bosphorus marked the beginning of the study of the Black Sea. In this sea in 1890-1891. The expedition worked under the leadership of Professor of the Maritime Academy Joseph Bernardovich Spindler. The expedition found that in the Black Sea to a depth of 200 m the water has less salinity than in the underlying layers, and at a depth of over 200 m there is no oxygen and hydrogen sulfide is formed. In the central part of the sea, researchers discovered depths of up to 2000 m.

In 1897, Spindler's expedition explored the Caspian Gulf of Kara-Bogaz-Gol and found mirabilite in it, a valuable chemical raw material.

In 1898, the Murmansk scientific and fishing expedition began its work. She studied the possibilities of developing fisheries in the Barents Sea. This expedition, which worked on the research vessel “Andrei Pervozvanny”, was headed by professor, later honorary academician Nikolai Mikhailovich Knipovich. He was vice-president of the International Council for the Study of the Seas, created in 1898, for marine fisheries and the development of measures to protect the natural resources of the sea from predatory extermination.

The Murmansk expedition worked until 1906. It carried out a detailed oceanographic study of the Barents Sea and, in particular, compiled the first map of the currents of this sea.

The First World War of 1914 suspended exploration of our seas. They resumed under Soviet power, when they assumed a systematic character and an unprecedented scale.

A major role in organizing geographical expeditions and in exploring the territory of Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. played by the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), created in 1845 in St. Petersburg. Its departments (hereinafter referred to as branches) were organized in Eastern and Western Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and other areas. A remarkable galaxy of researchers who have received worldwide recognition has grown up in the ranks of the Russian Geographical Society. Among them were F.P. Litke, P.P. Semenov, N.M. Przhevalsky, G.N. Potanin, P.A. Kropotkin, R.K. Maak, N.A. Severtsov and many others. Along with the geographical society, societies of naturalists that existed in a number of cultural centers of Russia were engaged in the study of nature. Significant contributions to the knowledge of the territory of the huge country were made by such government institutions as the Geological and Soil Committees, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Siberian Railway Committee, etc. The main attention of researchers was directed to the study of Siberia, the Far East, the Caucasus, Central and Central Asia.

Central Asian Studies

In 1857-1879 N.A. studied Central Asia. Severtsov, who made 7 major trips to different regions of Central Asia, from desert to high mountain. Severtsov's scientific interests were very broad: he studied geography, geology, studied flora and especially fauna. Severtsov penetrated into the deep regions of the central Tien Shan, where no European had been before. Severtsov devoted his classic work “Vertical and horizontal distribution of Turkestan animals” to a comprehensive description of the altitudinal zonation of the Tien Shan. In 1874, Severtsov, leading the natural history team of the Amu Darya expedition, crossed the Kyzylkum desert and reached the Amu Darya delta. In 1877, he was the first European to reach the central part of the Pamirs, gave accurate information about its orography, geology and flora, and showed the isolation of the Pamirs from the Tien Shan. Severtsov’s works on dividing the Palaearctic into zoogeographical regions based on physical-geographical zonality and his “Ornithology and Ornithological Geography of European and Asian Russia” (1867) allow Severtsov to be considered the founder of zoogeography in Russia.

In 1868-1871 the high mountainous regions of Central Asia were studied by A.P. Fedchenko and his wife O.A. Fedchenko. They discovered the grandiose Trans-Alai Range, made the first geographical description of the Zeravshan Valley and other mountainous regions of Central Asia. Studying the flora and fauna of the Zeravshan Valley, A.P. Fedchenko was the first to show the faunistic and floristic similarity of Turkestan with the countries of the Mediterranean. Over the course of 3 years of travel, the Fedchenko couple collected a large collection of plants and animals, among which there were many new species and even genera. Based on the materials of the expedition, a map of the Fergana Valley and the surrounding mountains was compiled. In 1873 A.P. Fedchenko died tragically while descending from one of the Mont Blanc glaciers.

Friend A.P. Fedchenko V.F. Oshanin in 1876 made an expedition to the Alai Valley and in 1878 to the valleys of the Surkhoba and Muksu rivers (Vakhsh basin). Oshanin discovered one of the largest glaciers in Asia, which he named the Fedchenko glacier in memory of a friend, as well as the Darvazsky and Peter the Great ridges. Oshanin is responsible for the first complete physical and geographical characteristics of the Alay Valley and Badakhshan. Oshanin prepared for publication a systematic catalog of hemipterans of the Palaearctic, published in 1906-1910.

In 1886, Krasnov, on instructions from the Russian Geographical Society, explored the Khan Tengri ridge in order to identify and substantiate the ecological and genetic connections of the mountain flora of the Central Tien Shan with the adjacent floras of the Balkhash steppes and sandy deserts of Turan, as well as to trace the process of interaction between the relatively young flora of the Quaternary alluvial plains of the Balkhash region and the much more ancient (with an admixture of tertiary elements) flora of the highlands of the Central Tien Shan. This problem, evolutionary in its essence, was developed and the conclusions from it are well presented in Krasnov’s master’s thesis “An experience in the history of the development of the flora of the southern part of the Eastern Tien Shan.”

The expedition led by Berg, which studied in 1899-1902, was fruitful. and in 1906 the Aral Sea. Berg's monograph "The Aral Sea. Experience in a physical-geographical monograph" (St. Petersburg, 1908) was a classic example of a comprehensive regional physical-geographical description.

Since the 80s of the XIX century. Much attention was paid to the study of Central Asian sands. This problem arose in connection with the construction of a railway to Central Asia. In 1912, the first permanent comprehensive geographical research station for the study of deserts was founded at the Repetek railway station. In 1911 and 1913 Expeditions of the Resettlement Administration operated in Central Asia and Siberia. The most interesting geographical information was obtained by Neustruev’s detachment, which made the transition from Fergana through the Pamirs to Kashgaria. Clear traces of ancient glacial activity were discovered in the Pamirs. Summary results of studies of Central Asia in the 19th - early 20th centuries. are presented in great detail in the publication of the Resettlement Administration "Asian Russia".

Central Asian Studies

Contemporaries of Przhevalsky and continuers of Central Asian studies were G.N. Potanin (who worked a lot in ethnography), V.A. Obruchev, M.V. Pevtsov, M.E. Grum-Grzhimailo et al.

Research of Siberia and the Far East

In 1849-1852. The Trans-Baikal region was explored by an expedition consisting of astronomer L.E. Schwartz, mining engineers N.G. Meglitsky and M.I. Kovanko. Even then, Meglitsky and Kovanko pointed out the existence of gold and coal deposits in the river basin. Aldana.

The results of the expedition to the river basin were a real geographical discovery. Vilyuy, organized by the Russian Geographical Society in 1853-1854. The expedition was headed by R. Maak, a natural science teacher at the Irkutsk gymnasium. The expedition also included topographer A.K. Sondhagen and ornithologist A.P. Pavlovsky. In difficult conditions of the taiga, with complete impassability, Maak's expedition explored the vast territory of the Vilyuya basin and part of the river basin. Olenek. As a result of the research, a three-volume work by R. Maak appeared, “The Vilyuisky District of the Yakut Region” (parts 1-3. St. Petersburg, 1883-1887), in which the nature, population and economy of a large and interesting region of the Yakut region are described with exceptional completeness.

After the completion of this expedition, the Russian Geographical Society organized the Siberian Expedition (1855-1858) consisting of two parties. The mathematical party led by Schwartz was supposed to determine astronomical points and form the basis of a geographical map of Eastern Siberia. This task was successfully completed. The physical team included botanist K.I. Maksimovich, zoologists L.I. Schrenk and G.I. Radde. Radde's reports, which studied the fauna of the environs of Lake Baikal, the steppe Dauria and the Chokondo mountain group, were published in German in two volumes in 1862 and 1863.

Another complex expedition, the Amur expedition, was led by Maak, who published two works: “A trip to the Amur, carried out by order of the Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society in 1855.” (SPb., 1859) and “Journey along the valley of the Ussuri River”, vol. 1-2 (SPb., 1861). Maak's works contained a lot of valuable information about the basins of these Far Eastern rivers.

The most striking pages in the study of the geography of Siberia were written by the remarkable Russian traveler and geographer P.A. Kropotkin. The journey of Kropotkin and the science teacher I.S. was outstanding. Polyakov to the Leno-Vitim gold-bearing region (1866). Their main task was to find ways to transport cattle from the city of Chita to the mines located along the Vitim and Olekma rivers. The journey began on the banks of the river. Lena, it ended in Chita. The expedition overcame the ridges of the Olekma-Chara Highlands: North Chuysky, Yuzhno-Chuysky, Outskirts and a number of hills of the Vitim Plateau, including the Yablonovy Ridge. The scientific report on this expedition, published in 1873 in the “Notes of the Russian Geographical Society” (vol. 3), was a new word in the geography of Siberia. Vivid descriptions of nature were accompanied by theoretical generalizations. In this regard, Kropotkin’s “General Outline of the Orography of Eastern Siberia” (1875), which summed up the results of the then exploration of Eastern Siberia, is interesting. The diagram of the orography of East Asia he compiled differed significantly from Humboldt's scheme. The topographic basis for it was the Schwartz map. Kropotkin was the first geographer to pay serious attention to the traces of ancient glaciation in Siberia. Famous geologist and geographer V.A. Obruchev considered Kropotkin one of the founders of geomorphology in Russia. Kropotkin's companion, zoologist Polyakov, compiled an ecological and zoogeographical description of the path traveled.

Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Schrenk in 1854-1856. led the expedition of the Academy of Sciences to Amur and Sakhalin. The range of scientific problems covered by Schrenk was very wide. The results of his research were published in the four-volume work “Travel and Research in the Amur Region” (1859-1877).

In 1867-1869 Przhevalsky studied the Ussuri region. He was the first to note the interesting and unique combination of northern and southern forms of fauna and flora in the Ussuri taiga, and showed the originality of the nature of the region with its harsh winters and humid summers.

The largest geographer and botanist (in 1936-1945, President of the Academy of Sciences) V.L. Komarov began researching the nature of the Far East in 1895 and maintained an interest in this region until the end of his life. In his three-volume work “Flora Manschuriae” (St.-P., 1901-1907), Komarov substantiated the identification of a special “Manchurian” floristic region. He also owns the classic works "Flora of the Kamchatka Peninsula", vols. 1-3 (1927-1930) and "Introduction to the floras of China and Mongolia", no. 1, 2 (St. Petersburg, 1908).

The famous traveler V.K. painted vivid pictures of the nature and population of the Far East in his books. Arsenyev. From 1902 to 1910, he studied the hydrographic network of the Sikhote-Alin ridge, gave a detailed description of the relief of Primorye and the Ussuri region and brilliantly described their population. Arsenyev's books "Across the Ussuri Taiga", "Dersu Uzala" and others are read with unflagging interest.

A significant contribution to the study of Siberia was made by A.L. Chekanovsky, I.D. Chersky and B.I. Dybovsky, exiled to Siberia after the Polish uprising of 1863. Chekanovsky studied the geology of the Irkutsk province. His report on these studies was awarded a small gold medal of the Russian Geographical Society. But Chekanovsky’s main achievements lie in the study of previously unknown territories between the Lower Tunguska and Lena rivers. He discovered a trap plateau there, described the river. Olenek and compiled a map of the northwestern part of the Yakut region. Geologist and geographer Chersky owns the first summary of theoretical views on the origin of the lake depression. Baikal (he also expressed his own hypothesis about its origin). Chersky came to the conclusion that here is the oldest part of Siberia, which has not been flooded by the sea since the beginning of the Paleozoic. This conclusion was used by E. Suess for the hypothesis about the “ancient crown of Asia.” Chersky expressed deep thoughts about the erosional transformation of the relief, about leveling it, smoothing out sharp forms. In 1891, already terminally ill, Chersky began his last great journey to the river basin. Kolyma. On the way from Yakutsk to Verkhnekolymsk, he discovered a huge mountain range, consisting of a series of chains, with heights of up to 1 thousand m (later this ridge was named after him). In the summer of 1892, during a trip, Chersky died, leaving behind a completed “Preliminary report on research in the area of ​​the Kolyma, Indigirka and Yana rivers.” B.I. Dybovsky and his friend V. Godlevsky explored and described the peculiar fauna of Lake Baikal. They also measured the depth of this unique reservoir.

Of great interest are the scientific reports of V.A. Obruchev about his geological research and his special articles about the nature of Siberia. Along with the geological study of gold placers in the Olekma-Vitim country, Obruchev dealt with such geographical problems as the origin of permafrost, glaciation of Siberia, and the orography of Eastern Siberia and Altai.

Western Siberia, with its flat topography, has attracted little attention from scientists. Most of the research was carried out there by amateur botanists and ethnographers, among whom N.M. Yadrintseva, D.A. Clemenza, I.Ya. Slovtsova. Of fundamental importance were the studies carried out in 1898 by L.S. Berg and P.G. Ignatov's research on salt lakes, set out in the book "Salt lakes of Selety-Dengiz, Teke and Kyzylkak of Omsk district. Physico-geographical sketch." The book contains a detailed description of the forest-steppe and the relationship between forest and steppe, sketches of flora and relief, etc. This work marked a transition to a new stage of research in Siberia - from route studies to semi-stationary, comprehensive ones, covering a wide range of physical and geographical features of the territory.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. and in the first decade of the 20th century. Geographical research in Siberia was subordinated to two problems of great national importance: the construction of the Siberian Railway and the agricultural development of Siberia. The Siberian Road Committee, created at the end of 1892, attracted a large number of scientists to research a wide strip along the Siberian Railway route. Geology and minerals, surface and groundwater, vegetation, and climate were studied. Tanfilyev's research in the Barabinsk and Kulunda steppes (1899-1901) was of great importance. In the book “Baraba and the Kulundinskaya Steppe” (St. Petersburg, 1902), Tanfilyev, having examined the views of previous researchers, expressed convincing thoughts about the origin of the ridge topography of the Baraba steppe, about the regime of numerous lakes in the West Siberian Lowland, and about the nature of soils, including chernozems. Tanfilyev explained why forests in the steppes of European Russia are located closer to river valleys, while in Baraba, on the contrary, forests avoid river valleys and are located on watershed ridges. Before Tanfilyev, Middendorf studied the Baraba Lowland. His small work "Baraba", published in 1871 in the "Appendix" to the "Notes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences", is of great interest.

From 1908 to 1914, soil-botanical expeditions of the Resettlement Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture operated in the Asian part of Russia. They were led by an outstanding soil scientist, a student of Dokuchaev, K.D. Glinka. The expeditions covered almost all regions of Siberia, the Far East and Central Asia. The scientific results of the expeditions are presented in the 4-volume work “Asian Russia” (1914).

Studies of European Russia, the Urals and the Caucasus

A new stage in the field of soil-botanical research was the work of Dokuchaev, who led the plant in 1882-1888. The Nizhny Novgorod soil expedition, as a result of which a scientific report was compiled ("Materials for the assessment of the lands of the Nizhny Novgorod province. Natural history part...", issue 1-14. St. Petersburg, 1884-1886) with two maps - geological and soil. This essay examines the climate, relief, soils, hydrography, flora and fauna of the province. This was the first comprehensive study of its kind in a large agricultural area. It allowed Dokuchaev to formulate new natural historical ideas and substantiate the genetic direction in soil science.

Tanfilyev summed up the results of a 25-year study of Russian swamps, organized by the Ministry of State Property. In his articles “On the swamps of the St. Petersburg province” (Proceedings of the Free Economic Society, No. 5) and “Swamps and peat bogs of Polesie” (St. Petersburg, 1895), he revealed the mechanism of formation of swamps and gave their detailed classification, thus laying the foundations scientific swamp science.

In studies conducted in the second half of the 19th century. in the Urals, the main attention was paid to the study of its geological structure and the distribution of minerals. In 1898-1900 The Orenburg branch of the Russian Geographical Society organized barometric leveling of the southern part of the Ural ridge. The results of leveling were published in the "News of the Orenburg Branch of the Russian Geographical Society" for 1900-1901. This contributed to the emergence of special geomorphological studies. The first such work in the Urals was carried out by P.I. Krotov. He critically reviewed the history of orographic research in the Middle Urals, gave a general picture of the structure of its relief, described many characteristic surface forms and explained the geological conditions of their occurrence.

A thorough study of the climate of the Urals began in the 80s of the 19th century, when 81 meteorological stations were created there. By 1911, their number increased to 318. Processing of weather observation data made it possible to identify the distribution pattern of climatic elements and determine the general features of the climate of the Urals.

From the middle of the 19th century. Work began to appear on a special study of the waters of the Urals. From 1902 to 1915, the Department of Inland Waterways and Highways of the Ministry of Transport published 65 issues of “Materials for the Description of Russian Rivers,” which contained extensive information about the rivers of the Urals.

By the beginning of the 20th century. the flora of the Urals (except for the Northern and Polar) was already quite well studied. In 1894, the chief botanist of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden S.I. Korzhinsky was the first to draw attention to traces of ancient vegetation in the Urals. Employee of the Petrograd Botanical Garden I.M. Krasheninnikov was the first to express thoughts about the relationship between forest and steppe in the Southern Trans-Urals, thereby raising important botanical and geographical problems. Soil research in the Urals was significantly late. Only in 1913, Dokuchaev’s collaborators Neustruev, Krasheninnikov and others began a comprehensive study of the soils of the Urals.

In the second half of the 19th century. Systematic work on triangulation and topographic surveys of the Caucasus began. Military topographers reported a lot of general geographical information in their reports and articles. Using data from geodetic work and geological research by G.V. Abikha, N. Salitsky in 1886 published “Essay on the orography and geology of the Caucasus,” in which he outlined his ideas about the geography of this mountainous region. Much attention was paid to the study of the glaciers of the Caucasus. The work of K.I. is of great scientific value. Podozersky, who gave a qualitative and quantitative description of the glaciers of the Caucasus Range ("Glaciers of the Caucasus Range." - Notes of the Caucasus Department of the Russian Geographical Society, 1911, book 29, issue I).

Voeikov, studying the climate of the Caucasus, was the first to draw attention to the relationship between climate and vegetation of the Caucasus and in 1871 made the first attempt at natural zoning of the Caucasus.

Dokuchaev made an important contribution to the study of the Caucasus. It was during the study of the nature of the Caucasus that his doctrine of latitudinal zonality and altitudinal zonation finally took shape.

Along with these famous scientists, the Caucasus was studied by many dozens of geologists, soil scientists, botanists, zoologists, etc. A large number of materials about the Caucasus have been published in “News of the Caucasian Department of the Russian Geographical Society” and special industry magazines.

Research in the Arctic

In 1910-1915 On the icebreaking transports "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" hydrographic surveys were carried out from the Bering Strait to the mouth of the river. Kolyma, which ensured the creation of sailing directions for the seas washing Russia in the north. In 1913, "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" discovered the archipelago, now called Severnaya Zemlya.

In 1912, Navy Lieutenant G.L. Brusilov decided to go from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok along the Northern Sea Route. The schooner "St. Anna" was equipped with private funds. Off the coast of the Yamal Peninsula, the schooner was covered in ice and carried away by currents and winds to the northwest (north of Franz Josef Land). The crew of the schooner died, only navigator V.I. survived. Albanov and sailor A.E. Conrad, sent by Brusilov to the mainland for help. The ship's log, saved by Albanov, provided rich materials. Having analyzed them, the famous polar traveler and scientist V.Yu. Wiese predicted the location of an unknown island in 1924. In 1930, this island was found and named after Wiese.

G.Ya. did a lot to study the Arctic. Sedov. He studied the approaches to the mouth of the river. Kolyma and Krestovaya Bay on the islands of Novaya Zemlya. In 1912, Sedov reached Franz Josef Land on the ship "Saint Foka", then spent the winter on Novaya Zemlya. In 1913, Sedov’s expedition returned to Franz Josef Land and spent the winter on the island. Hooker in Tikhaya Bay. From here, in February 1914, Sedov, with two sailors on a sled, headed towards the North Pole, but did not reach it and died on the way to the Pole.

The Murmansk scientific and fishing expedition under the leadership of N.M. obtained rich hydrobiological materials. Knipovich and L.L. Breitfus. During its activities (1898-1908), the expedition on the ship "Andrew the First-Called" carried out hydrological observations at 1,500 points and biological observations at 2 thousand points. As a result of the expedition, a bathymetric map of the Barents Sea and a current map were compiled. In 1906, Knipovich’s book “Fundamentals of Hydrology of the European Arctic Ocean” was published. Scientists from the Murmansk Biological Station, founded in 1881, received a lot of new information about the Barents Sea.

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] Collection. Afterword by E.M. Suzyumova.
(Moscow: Mysl Publishing House: Main Editorial Office of Geographical Literature, 1973. - Series “XX Century: Travel. Discoveries. Research”)
Scan: AAW, OCR, processing, Djv format: mor, 2014

• CONTENT:
  A.M. Gusev. IN THE SNOW OF ANTARCTICA
  Antarctica (6).
  The sixth continent is Antarctica (24).
  To the shores of Antarctica (24).
  First days on the shore of the sixth continent (35).
  Construction of the Mirny Observatory (48).
  Flight to the oasis of Antarctica (51).
  Opening of the Mirny Observatory (66).
  On the ice dome of eastern Antarctica (77).
  Aerial reconnaissance of the ice dome of Antarctica (78).
  The first sleigh-and-tractor trip into the interior of the mainland (86).
  Construction of the first inland station on the high plateau of Antarctica (103).
  First winter at Pionerskaya station (108).
  In winter on the high plateau of Antarctica (111).
  Features of climate and weather in the interior regions of Antarctica (128).
  Change of the first winter crew at Pionerskaya. Return to Mirny (136).
  The final stage of the expedition's work (144).
  Spring in Mirny (145).
  Some results of the first scientific research (146).
  Meeting of ships and return to their homeland (158).
  A.F. Treshnikov. BLACKED IN ICE
  Preface (164).
  Day one (167).
  At the height of summer (169).
  Tractor drivers pass the exam (172).
  In the air and on the ice (173).
  Deep into the continent (178).
  Moscow time (181).
  At the 100th kilometer (183).
  From the travel diary (186).
  Pionerskaya station (190).
  Hiking lessons (197).
  Ice warehouse (199).
  Looking for the unloading site (203).
  Disaster on the icy shore (203).
  The flag is raised (211).
  Fire in Mirny (214).
  The sleigh train is on its way (217).
  Emergency (221).
  Flight to Komsomolskaya (224).
  Birth of the East-1 (223).
  Temporary retreat (231).
  Advances of geologists and biologists (235).
  Penguins and petrels (237).
  Beginning of wintering (240).
  Day after day (244).
  Under the howl of a blizzard (247).
  Through the cracks (250).
  May Day (252).
  Our neighbors (254).
  Workdays (259).
  Winter flights (263).
  Aviation helps out (267).
  Towards spring (271).
  “Indigenous inhabitants” of these places (274).
  Little America (276).
  Hurricane (281).
  Brigade "Wow!" (287).
  Americans on the sixth continent (288).
  News from a neighbor (292).
  Such was the weather (296).
  Australian guests (299).
  Air reconnaissance (302).
  In Oasis (304).
  American Base News (306).
  Rehearsal for the big march (309).
  Heading south (311).
  "Dragon's Teeth" (314).
  In the birthplace of Christopher Columbus (318).
  Village on a sleigh (320).
  The train moves on (322).
  People of Vostok-1 station (325).
  Minus 74° (328).
  Second opening of Komsomolskaya (330).
  “Spring” in the snow (333).
  Shift meeting (335).
  After the emergency (340).
  The raid continues (342).
  At the South Geomagnetic Pole (346).
  Airplane over the pole of inaccessibility (350).
  Pilots and radio operators (353).
  Farewell to Antarctica (356).
  Study of the ice sheet (368).
  Weather and climate (361).
  Ice regime of the Davis Sea (365).
  Observations of geophysicists (367).
  Home! (371).
  EAT. Suzyumov. SOVIET PIONEERS OF ANTARCTICA (372).

Publisher's abstract: In 1955, Soviet people first landed on the shores of Antarctica. Authors - Gusev A.M. (Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences) and Treshnikov A.F. (Doctor of Geographical Sciences) - in their documentary books they talk fascinatingly about the activities of the First and Second Soviet Antarctic expeditions, about the creation of scientific stations, about inland expeditions, about the main scientific problems of Antarctica.