Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin, a polar explorer who reached the northern tip of Eurasia, has died. Comments

Semyon Semenovich Almost a year has passed since the day our radio operators first received big land good news about the great victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad, and we still continued to live the events of that time. Whatever they started talking about, they invariably returned to

Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev (c. 1605–1673) Russian explorer; the place of birth is not established, and the year of birth can be established from his biography to about 1605. It is known that he lived in the city of Veliky Ustyug on the Sukhona River, served in a detachment of Cossacks in Siberia. From 1638 he was in

Semen Ivanovich Chelyuskin (XVIII century) The surname of this Russian traveler is first found in 1733, when the Great Northern Expedition was organized. Chelyuskin participated in this expedition with the rank of lieutenant commander in the detachment of one of the expedition commanders V.

At midnight on May 8-9, 1742, the Russian polar explorer Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin with his detachment reached the northernmost tip of Eurasia - a cape, later named Cape Chelyuskin.

Unfortunately, very little information has been preserved in the archives about the person whom Russia has the right to be proud of. Even the date of birth of Semyon Ivanovich has not been precisely established. Wikipedia indicates presumably "around 1707". It is known that he was born in the village of Mishina Polyana, Belevsky district (now a village in the Arsenevsky district of the Tula region).

In one of his diaries, Semyon Ivanovich mentions that his father was a lawyer, but he passed away early, and he was brought up in a family of distant relatives.

The Chelyuskin family (in many documents of the 17th century this surname was listed as the Chelyuskins) has an ancient origin. The ancestors of Semyon Chelyuskin served as governors, were circling and "written heads", stewards and solicitors. So, his grandfather Rodion Matveevich rose to the rank of "head" (the rank of colonel) of the Moscow archers. This means that he was rich, noble, well received in the royal court. Rodion Chelyuskin contributed to the career growth of his son Ivan: he was first a solicitor, then a steward.

The wheel of fortune changed drastically under Peter I. After the revolt of the Moscow archers was suppressed, the name of the Chelyuskins was included in the list of the Secret Chancellery. Having fallen into disgrace, Ivan Rodionovich was forced to sell and mortgage estates and lands, to get into unpayable debts and doomed his family to a meager life in a remote village.

In the summer of 1714, Chelyuskin arrived in Moscow for a review of the undergrowth of the nobility, and in the autumn he was enrolled in the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences. For three years he studied literacy, then moved to the navigation class, where, in addition to algebra, geometry, trigonometry and astronomy, they also taught the art of navigation. AT summer time Together with other pupils of the school, Semyon Chelyuskin sailed as a sailor on the ships of the Baltic Fleet. It was very prestigious. educational institution founded by Peter the Great. From its walls came out many excellent naval officers who became the decoration of the Russian fleet.

After graduating from school in 1721, Chelyuskin continued to serve in the Baltic Fleet, taught midshipmen in the Baltic to describe individual sections of the coastal regions of the Gulf of Finland. In 1721, Semyon Chelyuskin “received attestations in science and practice”, having established himself “as an honest person should, having tried in the dignity of a navigator’s position and good manners.”

In the 1720s, Chelyuskin served on the ships of the Baltic Fleet as a "navigator", apprentice navigator and sub-navigator. At the same time, he also practiced in describing the coastal areas of the Gulf of Finland. According to some testimonies, he proved himself to be a knowledgeable sailor: in 1727, navigator Chelyuskin trained midshipmen in the Baltic. Then he started a family. Despite the fact that Semyon constantly carried out a difficult service and was away from home, he had few growth prospects: foreigners held leadership and profitable positions on ships, and he did not have influential support in admiralty circles.

On April 17, 1732, a decree was signed on equipping the Great Northern Expedition under the leadership of V. Bering. At the end of January 1733, “a list of naval and admiralty servants going on the Kamchatka expedition” was submitted to the Admiralty. One of the first in it was the navigator Semyon Chelyuskin. Soon he was promoted to navigator and sent to Yekaterinburg - for "immediate preparation of supplies, things and artillery for ships." Faced with the arbitrariness of local officials, red tape and bureaucracy, being forced to stay in the city, he, although with great difficulty, got everything he needed.

Among the officers of the fleet, a fellow countryman and friend of Chelyuskin, Lieutenant Vasily Pronchishchev, went on an expedition. He was to lead a detachment to explore the northern shores from the Lena to the Yenisei. The lieutenant took an energetic navigator into his team.

At the end of June 1735, they went on an unknown and dangerous voyage beyond the Arctic Circle, and a year later Chelyuskin buried the Pronchishchev couple in permafrost.

During the second wintering in Ust-Olenyok, Chelyuskin thought carefully about the circumstances of previous unsuccessful voyages. Together with the surveyor Nikifor Chekin and two soldiers, he went to Yakutsk, but Bering was not found there. Departing for Kamchatka, the commander left him an order: to send the report and the remaining materials to the Admiralty, and to wait for further instructions from St. Petersburg.

February 23, 1738 in the Admiralty "listened to a report received from the Kamchatka expedition from the navigator Chelyuskin." In particular, it was said there that if further “to follow a certain voyage, then it is necessary to make a small yalbot”. He also convincingly requested that new ropes and cables, sails and compasses be delivered from St. Petersburg, "which is now lacking."

Contrary to the opinion spread among naval officers about the futility of continuing voyages in the polar latitudes, Chelyuskin spoke out definitely: "What has begun must be done." That was the motto of Russian sailors.

Semyon Ivanovich spent almost two years in Yakutsk. Acting as a detachment commander, Chelyuskin took care of the sailors and soldiers who were part of the ship's crew (there were more than 40 of them). It is characteristic that in the previous voyage, the team reacted to the navigator with caution - it was painfully hot and harsh. But in Yakutsk, many understood that kindness and exactingness towards people stand behind strictness. Semyon Ivanovich was well aware that, having resumed the expedition, they would set sail with the same crew. And the success of the enterprise will largely depend on them.

The spring of 1740 came. Chelyuskin began painstaking preparations for sailing: he inspected the tackle, organized the repair of the sails. July 13 went on another campaign. The last time the navigator steered his ship. A month later, the dubel-sloop was covered with drifting ice near Pronchishcheva Bay. It was decided to leave "Yakutsk" - "if only people could be saved." Equipment and supplies were unloaded onto the ice. We made a sled and went to the shore, overcoming hummocks. They built two “earth yurts”. They lived there until the winter path was established.

Provision was missing. The Yenisei industrialist Vasily Sazonovsky helped, delivering 70 pounds of flour. A month later, having traveled about 700 miles, the victims of the shipwreck “endured great hardship and almost everyone was obsessed with scurvy, from which several servants died,” but reached the winter hut.

For 1741, the parties of navigator S. Chelyuskin and lieutenant Kh. Laptev described the coast between the mouths of the Pyasina and Lower Taimyr rivers. A group of surveyor Chekin surveyed part of the eastern coast of the peninsula. Remained unexplored, as it was then called, the Northern Taimur Cape. We spent the end of summer and autumn in Turukhansk. There was painstaking preparation for shooting the northern part of the Taimyr coast. Fulfill this difficult dangerous work, judging by the discovered documents, only Chelyuskin could.

On September 24, 1741, “navigator Semyon Chelyuskin for the production of a team for his servants” was issued 695 rubles from the treasury. 40 kop. - a huge sum for that time. By the proposal Semyon Ivanovich most of of these funds went to pay the Yenisei and Turukhansk service people who lived in poverty in the north of the peninsula and for years received neither bread nor money salaries.

On December 5, navigator Chelyuskin left with three soldiers from Turukhansk to the Khatanga River. For the “campaign” 40 dogs and “five sleds trustworthy for a long and unknown journey” were collected. Nine days later, the Turukhansk Cossacks Fyodor Kopylov and Dementy Sudakov sent several dog sleds and reindeer teams with food down the Yenisei. And on December 15, by order of the mayor of Turukhansk, five dog sleds and a horse-drawn sleigh cart left to help Chelyuskin.

Laptev and Chelyuskin agreed as follows: the navigator, having reached the northeastern part of the peninsula, will turn west, describing the coast; the lieutenant will follow from Turukhansk to the mouth of the Lower Taimyr and further east, towards him.

stood severe frosts- down to -50 ° C, the creak of skids was carried far in the cold air. They made transitions of 30-40 miles a day. Chelyuskin was accompanied by carters on reindeer sleds, after ten days of travel "the deer stuck, some remained on the road." Oriented by the stars and a compass, they crossed Taimyr from the southwest to the northeast. On February 15, 1742, along the Khete and Khatanga rivers, they arrived at the inhabited Popigai winter hut.

Studying the documents of this last campaign, one admires Chelyuskin's organizational skills and creative attitude to business. While the Yenisei servicemen Dorofeev and Kyltasov brought food and dog food, the navigator carefully thought out all the details of a successful advance to the north.

At the end of March, a group of soldier Anton Fofanov took provisions to the sea on three sleds. Chelyuskin himself went north. Next came the Tavgian carriers (as the Nganasans were called until the beginning of the 20th century) on 11 sleds loaded with dog food. Another group - the Yakut Nikifor Fomin with nine sleds and a load of dog food, he sent to the mouth of the Lower Taimyr, in order to move from there along the western coast to meet him.

Chelyuskin sent back the mushers accompanying him and, on three dog teams, set off along the coast to the northwest. On the high bank, at Cape St. Thaddeus, the navigator built a lighthouse. No one has penetrated further north.

Chelyuskin continued to conduct observations with particular care. His travel log, the only copy of which is kept in the State Archives of the Navy in St. Petersburg, is a remarkable document, testifying to the extraordinary perseverance and endurance of the navigator. Laconic are his indications of unfavorable weather. There are frequent references to the extreme exhaustion of dogs, which had a much harder time than people. Not a word about his own fatigue or the manifestation of fear, there was no place in the records for personal feelings and experiences.

Day after day, Chelyuskin filmed the coast. They chose a suitable place, got the tools. Having installed a log, they took bearings, measured distances with special chains. When you move to a new place, you start all over again.

On May 6, with "clear weather and sunshine", the navigator calculated the geographical latitude of the place - 77 ° 27 '. The day was successful: noticing bear tracks, they chased dogs for 18 versts and overtook four polar bears. With a well-aimed shot, they laid down one, replenishing the supply of provisions. The next day it became gloomy, “a great snowstorm began, that nothing could be seen.” Tent out deer skins was a poor defense. Even under fur blankets, the cold became unbearable.

Days passed and the storm subsided. We set off, and after five miles we reached the cape. Chelyuskin wrote in the travel journal the usual words, but forever included in the history of geographical discoveries: “The weather is cloudy, snow and fog. At five o'clock in the afternoon he went on his way<…>. We arrived at the cape. This cape is stony, near-yar, of medium height, near it the ice is smooth and there are no hummocks. Here I named this cape: East North. He set up a lighthouse - one log, which he carried with him.

The cape did not impress the navigator: he noted that the coast here is very low and sandy, with a “slight bulge”. From here Chelyuskin turned to the southwest. Only in 1919, 177 years after the discovery, the Norwegian geophysicist and oceanographer Harald Sverdrup, the scientific leader of the expedition of R. Amundsen on the schooner Maud, established that this unprepossessing cape is the northern tip of Eurasia.

Only one hour spent Chelyuskin in the region of the extreme northern point of the mainland. The sky was covered with gray low clouds. Occasionally, a dim cold sun appeared. The navigator indicated in the log that, in his opinion, the North-Eastern Cape ended, and the land lies from west to south. Along the western coast of the peninsula, he headed southwest, to the mouth of the Lower Taimyr.

Laptev, back in February 1742, went to the mouth of the Lower Taimyr, in order to follow Chelyuskin from there. But the lieutenant again did not have enough provisions. In early May, Laptev sent a soldier of the Tobolsk garrison Konstantin Khoroshev to meet the navigator with a load of provisions, and he himself returned back to Turukhansk.

On May 15, Chelyuskin moved in with Khoroshev, and they rushed south across the tundra. In the winter hut of the Yakut Nikifor Fomin, another messenger from Laptev was waiting for Chelyuskin's party. On July 20, 1742, Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin made his last entry: “Cloudy weather, great rain. This afternoon at three o'clock I arrived in the city of Mangazeisk and appeared in the command of Lieutenant Khariton Laptev. The northern voyage, which immortalized the name of the navigator Chelyuskin, is over.

During the Great Northern, or Second Kamchatka, expedition, two major discoveries were made: Russia reached North America(Alaska) and the northern point of Eurasia. And, oddly enough, the pioneer Chelyuskin did not attach any importance to his discovery!

“As far as I know,” Lomonosov wrote about the work of the Lena-Yenisei detachment, “from the east of the mouth of the Lena River, Lieutenant Khariton Laptev could reach 77 degrees, and they didn’t surround the entire cape with a waterway, but along the edges standing ice Midshipman Chelyustkin passed at this cape and saw stagnant ice everywhere, surrounded by a hummock.

These words of M.V. Lomonosov from his work “ Short description various journeys along the northern seas and the indication of a possible passage by the Siberian Ocean to East India” only confirm Chelyuskin’s role as a pioneer in Taimyr. But "the officers sent later to the fleet did not reach the Chukchi nose." Lomonosov and Chelyuskin believed that the northern tip of the Eurasian continent, the so-called Taba Nose, was somewhere in Chukotka. Mikhail Vasilievich attached to the manuscript a polar map, compiled by him around 1763. It shows the cape described by Chelyuskin, and in the northeast of the continent, the unexplored “Chukotsky nose” that goes to the pole is indicated by a dotted line. Consequently, both Chelyuskin and Lomonosov could not say with certainty where the northern tip of the “mother earth” was located.

So, Chelyuskin made a discovery that was ahead of geographical science and time. Such was his fate: to remain in obscurity during his lifetime and forever imprinted in the memory of people after death.

A century later, for the first time after the pioneers, the future Russian academician A.F. Middendorf traveled across Taimyr. At his suggestion, the northern tip of Eurasia began to be called Cape Chelyuskin (since 1878 this name has been included in international literature and maps). “Be that as it may,” the researcher wrote, “but if the northeastern cape receives the name of Chelyuskin, then it will keep this name with honor. Chelyuskin is not only the only person who managed to reach this cape and go around it a hundred years ago, but he succeeded in this feat, which others failed, precisely because his personality was higher than others. Chelyuskin is undoubtedly the crown of our sailors who operated in that region.

The researchers of Taimyr made a detailed survey and mapped the entire coast and the interior of the peninsula. Moreover, in some places even the declinations of the magnetic needle were measured. Members of the detachment noted minerals in open mountain deposits. Conducted monitoring of rivers sea ​​currents off the coast.

On August 27, 1743, Laptev submitted to the Admiralty a report, journals, and "composed nautical charts." Soon he began processing materials and compiling a general “Marine chart describing the coast of the Arctic Sea between the Lena and Yenisei rivers”. The vast northern peninsula has ceased to be a mysterious land.

In September 1743, the manuscript “Description contained from the fleet of Lieutenant Khariton Laptev in the Kamchatka expedition between the Lena and Yenisei rivers, in what condition the rivers lie and all the living industrialists are in condition” was prepared. In the literature, the authorship of this work is attributed only to Kh. Laptev. But this is far from true. It is known that it was based on the “Description of the coasts of the sea, rivers and bays of the North Sea, which began with the Lena River”, compiled in 1742 by the navigator Semyon Chelyuskin. Laptev only summarized the diverse information that was collected by Lieutenant Pronchishchev, navigator Chelyuskin, surveyor Chekin and other members of the expedition.

It was a work containing the first scientific information about the large Taimyr land. The manuscript provides a description of rivers, coasts, islands, data on depths, tides, the state of ice and soil, and other hydrographic information. The work quite fully describes Lena and Olenyok, Anabar and Khatanga, Lower Taimyr and Pyasina, Balakhna and Yenisei, the tundra near Lake Taimyr; there are indications about the boundaries of forest growth and their composition, about arable farming, fish and fur trade.

Reflections “about mammoth horns” are interesting. They were found in abundance by participants of overland trips in the tundra and on the coast. Moreover, both Chelyuskin and Laptev mistakenly thought that mammoths are marine animals that “are<…>and now in the North Sea, in deep places.” It is curious that the pioneers even found “whole mammoth animals with both horns washed up along the river banks and preserved in the permafrost; on them the skin is five inches thick, and the wool and body are decayed. Undoubtedly, the specimens they discovered were of great scientific interest. However, we do not know whether the leader of the detachment brought to the capital at least some fragments (for example, tusks) of long-disappeared animals.

In the “Description…” a place is given to the way of life, customs, superstitions of the peoples inhabiting the peninsula, which is of great interest to ethnographers.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, the royal court and the Admiralty did not honor Chelyuskin with a “reward”. He was granted the rank of midshipman (the first officer rank in the navy) - was he the only one worthy of such an award? And the naval service in the Baltic stretched out with a mean promotion in ranks. Fate did not spoil Chelyuskin, as well as many other participants in the Great Northern Expedition. Former associates did not remember him either. Khariton Laptev participated in the preparation of the “general map of the Siberian and Kamchatka coasts”, commanded ships, and towards the end of his life was appointed chief quartermaster for the supply of the Baltic Fleet.

The Decree of the Admiralty Board dated December 18, 1756 says "about the resignation of the navy of Lieutenant Semyon Chelyuskin with the award of a sea captain of the 3rd rank." Dismissed from the fleet “due to illness and old age”, with a “passport of resignation from all affairs”, Semyon Ivanovich settled with his wife in a small estate in Aleksinsky district. He soon became involved in the needs and concerns of a middle-class nobleman: he worried about acquiring new estates, sued his neighbors, and collected taxes from the peasants.

With the resignation of the pioneer in complete ignorance for future generations, his ascetic life ended.

The discoverer of the northern point of the Old World, Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin, died in November 1764.

The place of his burial has not been established.

Memory of Chelyuskin

In honor of Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent, Cape Chelyuskin, is named.

The northern part of the Taimyr Peninsula was named the Chelyuskin Peninsula in 1967.

Chelyuskin Island lies at the mouth of the Taimyr Bay of the Kara Sea, into which the Taimyr River flows.

In 1933, a new steamship was named after him, which later became famous.

In the city of Kharkov (Ukraine) a street is named after him

In the Lutuginsky district of the Luhansk region (Ukraine), a village is named after him

Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin

Chelyuskin Semyon Ivanovich (c. 1700-1764), Russian navigator, captain of the 3rd rank. From an old noble family. He studied at the Mathematics and Navigation School and the St. Petersburg Maritime Academy. In the Navy from 1726 as a navigator, in 1733 he was promoted to navigator and assigned to the Great Northern Expedition IN AND. Bering, where he stayed until 1742. At first he was in the detachment of Pronchishchev, after whose death he took command of the ship, then in the detachment X. Laptev. Participated in the study of the coast of the Arctic Ocean from the mouth of the Lena to the Yenisei. In the spring of 1741, he passed overland from the river. Khatanga to the river. Pyasina and compiled a description of the western coast of the Taimyr Peninsula up to Cape Sterlegova. In the winter of 1741-1742, he traveled by dog ​​sled from Turukhansk to the mouth of Khatanga, then compiled a description of the entire eastern coast of Taimyr to the northernmost point of the mainland, named after him (Cape Chelyuskin).

Route map of the expedition Bering - Chirikov.

CHELYUSKIN Semyon Ivanovich (c. 1700 - after 1770), Russian. polar explorer, captain of the 3rd rank (1760). Studied mathematics at school. and navigation sciences in Moscow. From 1728 he sailed as a navigator on the Balt ships. fleet. In 1733 he was promoted to navigator, in 1733-1743 he was in the 2nd Kamchatka (Great Northern) expedition. He worked in the detachments of V. V. Pronchishchev, then. X. P. Lapteva. With the name of Ch. associated discoveries pl. islands and bays, as well as the first information about the animal and grows, the world Far North, way of life and customs of its population. In the spring of 1741, he passed overland from the river. Khatanga to the river. Pyasina, made an inventory of app. coast of the Taimyr Peninsula to the bay. Middendorf and then from the mouth of the Pyasina to the mouth of the Yenisei. Dec. 1741 - Feb. 1742 traveled on sleds from Turukhansk to the mouth of the Khatanga, described the sowing. coast of the Taimyr Peninsula from Cape Thaddeus in the east to the mouth of the river. Taimyr on 3., while revealing sowing. tip of Asia, named in his honor Cape Chelyuskin. After returning from the expedition, he served in the Baltic. fleet. From 1770 retired due to illness.

Materials of the Soviet military encyclopedia, v. 8: Tashkent - Rifle cell were used. 688 p., 1980.

Chelyuskin Semyon Ivanovich (years of birth and death unknown) - Russian navigator, captain of the 3rd rank. From an old noble family. He studied at the Mathematics and Navigation School and the St. Petersburg Maritime Academy. In the Navy since 1726 he was a navigator, in 1733 he was promoted to navigator and assigned to the Great Northern Expedition of V. I. Bering, in which he stayed until 1742. At first he was in the detachment of Pronchishchev, after whose death he took command of the ship, then in the detachment of X. Laptev. Participated in the study of the coast of the Arctic Ocean from the mouth of the Lena River to the Yenisei. In the spring of 1741, he traveled overland from the Khatanga River to the Pyasina River and compiled a description of the western coast of the Taimyr Peninsula to Cape Sterlegov. In the winter of 1741-1742, he traveled by dog ​​sled from Turukhansk to the mouth of Khatanga, then compiled a description of the entire eastern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula to the northernmost point of the mainland, named after him (Cape Chelyuskin), and part of the western coast of the peninsula to 77 ° 42 "N. He retired from the Baltic Fleet in 1760.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 15 1974.

Works: Northeastern Cape, 1742, in collection: Zap. hydrographic Department of Mor. min-va, v. 9, St. Petersburg, 1851.

Literature: Osipov K., S. I. Chelyuskin, M., 1951; Yanikov G.V., Great northern expedition, M., 1949; The history of the discovery and development of the Northern Sea Route, v. 1 - Belov M.I., Arctic navigation from ancient times to the middle. XIX century., M., 1956.

Compositions:

Northeast Cape. According to the inventory of the navigator Chelyuskin of 1742. - In the book: Notes of the Geographical Department of the Naval Ministry. T. 9. St. Petersburg, 1851.

Literature:

Troitsky V. A. Geographical discoveries of V. V. Pronchishchev, Kh. P. Laptev and S. I. Chelyuskin on Taimyr. - V. book: Chronicle of the North. [T. 7]. M., 1975;

Glushankov I. V. Pioneers of Taimyr. - In the book: Arctic Circle. M., 1974;

Osipov K. S. I. Chelyuskin. M., 1951;

Yanikov G.V. The Great Northern Expedition. M., 1949.

The history of the discovery and development of the Northern Sea Route, v. 1 - Belov M.I., Arctic navigation from ancient times to the middle. XIX century., M., 1956.

Many geographical names are associated with the name of Chelyuskin, but, first of all, this is the northernmost tip of the Taimyr Peninsula, discovered by him in 1742 during a polar campaign to icy waters Kara Sea. Then this discovery was not given much importance and was not even awarded the pioneer award, but, as it turned out later, Chelyuskin made a significant discovery - he was the first to reach and describe the northernmost part of Eurasia.

Since Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin did not get recognition during his lifetime, many facts about his birth and death are contradictory and confusing. The years of life are approximately 1704-1764. There are sources indicating other dates as well. Historians also name the place of birth ambiguously, based on various archival materials. Nevertheless, it is known that this man was of noble origin, was born in the Tula province and was distinguished by an extraordinary strength of character and unbending will.

As a nobleman, educated in Moscow, in the 1720s Chelyuskin entered the military service, becoming a naval officer in the Baltic Fleet. In St. Petersburg, he studied navigation and became an assistant navigator. Then he started a family and trained midshipmen.

Before the signing on April 17, 1732 of the decree on equipping the Great Northern Expedition under the leadership of Vitus Bering, Semyon Chelyuskin had the opportunity to prove himself well as an assistant navigator and an intelligent sailor. But there was no reason to expect a career take-off - mostly foreigners were accepted to leading positions in the fleet under Tsarina Anna Ioannovna.

And at the end of January 1733, Semyon Chelyuskin went on an expedition to Kamchatka. He was promoted to navigator and sent to Yekaterinburg to train ships adapted for navigation along the rivers of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean. Faced with local bureaucracy and red tape, Chelyuskin had to show a lot of will and perseverance in order to get the necessary equipment with great difficulty.

In the second Kamchatka expedition, in 1733-43, Chelyuskin worked in the detachments of Vasily Pronchishchev, with whom he had been friends since his youth, and Khariton Laptev, after whom one of the northern seas of Russia would later be named. At the end of June 1735, a detachment of pioneers set off on a dangerous voyage to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula, and a year later Chelyuskin buried his commander Vasily Vasilyevich Pronchishchev and his wife Tatiana (the first woman member of the polar expedition) in permafrost on the banks of the Yakut Olenyok River.

Research was carried out in the harsh conditions of the Arctic. The northern campaigns were then extremely dangerous enterprises, with high mortality of participants from scurvy, diseases and accidents. Such a harsh experience shapes and tempers Chelyuskin's character, allows him to go further, to icy lands where no man has yet set foot.

Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin. Source: discoveries.ru

In 1740, Semyon Chelyuskin again assembled an expedition to Taimyr. On July 13 of that year, the Yakutsk research ship sets off on its last polar voyage. How it happened can be told by the only reliable document - a travel journal, a copy of which is stored in the archives of the Navy in St. Petersburg.

Two months later, the expedition was blocked by drifting ice on the eastern coast of Taimyr in the Laptev Sea. Equipment and supplies were unloaded onto the ice. They made a sled and went to the shore, where they built two "earth yurts". They lived there until the winter path was established. A month later, having traveled about 700 miles, the team, led by their navigator, having survived illness and hunger, reached the winter hut. People were saved, but Semyon Chelyuskin was not going to stop. Together with the Cossacks Fofanov and Gorokhov, on dog sleds, he goes to the northern part of the peninsula to complete his description.

Frosts were up to 50 degrees below zero for all three months, while the trio of pioneers reached the mouth of the Khatanga River. In April 1742, they reached Cape St. Thaddeus, where the researchers built a lighthouse and moved even further north, into completely uncharted lands. Chelyuskin continued to conduct and record observations with special care.

May 20 (May 9 old style) In 1742, a dog team reached a previously unknown cape. Navigator Chelyuskin wrote in the travel log: “The weather is overcast, snow and fog. We arrived at the cape. This cape is stone, of medium height, near it the ice is smooth and there are no hummocks. Here I named this cape: East North. He set up a lighthouse - one log that he carried with him. It is this entry in his journal that will become the main evidence geographical discovery Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin.

The navigator Chelyuskin did not even think about what world significance his courage and determination would later have, which made it possible to reach the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent. During his campaigns and expeditions, Semyon Chelyuskin traveled and walked, carrying out inventories, a total of more than 7 thousand kilometers, and, among other things, discovered the cape, which then seemed to him an insignificant find.

A hundred years later, for the first time after the pioneers, the future Russian academician Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf traveled around Taimyr. It was he who suggested the Russian geographical society rename the northern tip of Eurasia from Cape Vostochno-North to Cape Chelyuskin. Since 1878, this name has been included in international maps, and in 1919, the Norwegian oceanographer Otto Sverdrup, who worked closely with Russian polar explorers, confirmed with modern scientific methods that this particular cape is the northern tip of Eurasia.

Now at Cape Chelyuskin there is a polar station, and the northernmost airfield of continental Eurasia. This is one of the few places on our mainland where average temperature negative for all months.