Grigory Shelekhov biography and discoveries. Shelikhov Grigory Ivanovich

(1747–1795), merchant, entrepreneur, northern explorer Pacific Ocean, corresponding member of the Free Economic Society.

Born into a wealthy family that belonged to an old merchant family. He was educated at home, showed a family propensity for commerce. In 1773 he came to Irkutsk, started buying furs, became rich, became a shareholder in eight different companies; marriage strengthened his financial position. In 1776-1783, Shelikhov participated in the affairs of 10 trading enterprises, including a large state-owned merchant company.

In 1775 and 1778-1779 Shelikhov made two trips to Okhotsk. Journey towards the American continent began in 1783 from the island of Bering (Commanders). He was the first to correctly present the true length (2600 kilometers) of the Commander-Aleutian underwater structure. He founded a settlement on Kodiak Island, which for 20 years was the center of Russian America. A few more points were laid on the northwestern shores of the Gulf of Alaska.

On the instructions of Shelikhov, the navigator G. Pribilov set sail and in 1786 discovered small archipelago, named Shelikhov in honor of the discoverer.

The report on the voyage to the American coast was published in 1789, was reprinted in 1793. The work was translated into German (three editions) and English (two publications), in 1971 it was republished again in Russian, and in 1981 in English.

In 1788, sailors D. Bocharov and G. Izmailov, who were in the service of Shelikhov, discovered (partly for the second time - after D. Cook) about 800 kilometers of the mainland coast of the Gulf of Alaska from the Kenai Peninsula to Lituya Bay, including Yakutat Bay. The collected materials allowed Shelikhov to compile the first detailed ethnographic description of the Kodiak Eskimos ("horses"), as well as the Indians of Alaska and coastal islands.

Shelikhov is the author of the plan for the economic development of the Kuriles and the project for the exploration of the Baikal-Amur transport and trade route, which almost coincided with the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The charter of the country's first monopoly joint-stock enterprise, developed by him in 1793-1794, became the basis for creating a set of rules for the Russian-American Company.

The main merit of Shelikhov is the actual annexation of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska to the possessions of Russia. "For zeal ... in the discovery of unknown lands and peoples" in 1788 he was awarded a silver sword and a gold medal.

In his program for the "reconstruction" of Russian America, Shelikhov provided for the establishment state borders Russian possessions in the "motherland" and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, the construction of shipyards, the expansion of the region's foreign trade and the development of its agriculture, the consolidation of lands in California for Russia. In a report (end of 1794), he proposed to start developing the sea route along the Arctic Ocean to establish trade with southern countries.

According to contemporaries, Shelikhov had an extraordinary mind and encyclopedic knowledge. He had remarkable abilities as an entrepreneur and organizer, the ability to establish business relationships, feel a change in the situation and take reasonable risks. He was distinguished by excellent knowledge of commercial, industrial and financial matters, slowness and flexibility in decision-making, and intuition.

But this outstanding, almost legendary man, who played a huge role in the development of the Aleutian Islands by the Russians and the "creation" of Russian America, was power-hungry and merciless, arrogated to himself the right to "execute and hang" in order to establish discipline in his American trading posts (A. Radishchev called him "Tsarek Shelikhov"). The circumstances of his death remain mysterious to this day.

From the Shelekhov family, from 1775 he was engaged in the arrangement of commercial merchant shipping between the Kuril and Aleutian island ridges. In 1783-1786 he led an expedition to Russian America, during which the first Russian settlements in North America were founded. Founder of the North East Company.

A life

July 22, 1784 [ ] the expedition landed on the island of Kodiak (Kyktak) in the harbor, which Shelekhov called Three Saints. Here he founded the first settlement. Russian fur merchants who had already visited these places dissuaded Shelikhov from founding settlements here, since shortly before that locals killed a whole group of Russian hunters. However, Shelikhov did not listen to them and founded the first settlement on Kodiak Island. The colonization of the mainland was postponed for security reasons.

Gregory, along with his people, staged a massacre of the local population, killing from 500 to 2500 Eskimos, in response to the armed resistance that turned out to be the Russians who arrived earlier (and Shelikhov himself). After the massacre, Shelikhov captured more than a thousand people.

Shelikhov controlled the construction from 1790. In 1791, Shelikhov founded the "Northeast Company", which in 1799 was transformed into the Russian-American Trading Company. In 1788 he was awarded a gold medal and a silver sword "for the discovery of islands in the Eastern Ocean".

After Shelikhov's death, his son-in-law, Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, inherited his considerable fortune and place at the head of the North-Eastern Company.

Memory

Named after him:

• Shelikhov Bay in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk;
• Shelikhov Bay on Paramushir Island;
• the Shelikhov Strait between Alaska and Kodiak Island;
• the city of Shelekhov in the Irkutsk Oblast;
• Airbus A-320 a / c "Aeroflot".

Monuments to Shelikhov are installed:

• in the city of Shelekhov, Irkutsk region.

Images 108.JPG

Tombstone in the Znamensky Monastery

Images 109.JPG

Fragment of a gravestone

Monument to G.I. Shelekhov (Rylsk).jpg

Monument in Rylsk

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Notes

Literature

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Scientific publication of essays

• Shelikhov G.I. Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov wandering from Okhotsk along the Eastern Ocean to the American shores / G. I. Shelikhov .. - Khabarovsk: Khabarovsk book publishing house, 1971. - 172 p. - (Far Eastern Historical Library).

Links

• SPb. 1795
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An excerpt characterizing Shelikhov, Grigory Ivanovich

“I don’t know myself,” Natasha answered quickly, “but I wouldn’t want to do anything that you don’t like. I believe in everything. You don’t know how important you are to grinding and how much you have done for me! .. - She spoke quickly and without noticing how Pierre blushed at these words. - I saw in the same order he, Bolkonsky (quickly, she uttered this word in a whisper), he is in Russia and is serving again. What do you think,” she said quickly, apparently in a hurry to speak, because she was afraid for her strength, “will he ever forgive me?” Will he not have an evil feeling against me? How do you think? How do you think?
“I think…” said Pierre. - He has nothing to forgive ... If I were in his place ... - According to the connection of memories, Pierre was instantly transported by imagination to the time when, consoling her, he told her that if he were not he, but best person in peace and free, he would ask for her hand on his knees, and the same feeling of pity, tenderness, love seized him, and the same words were on his lips. But she didn't give him time to say them.
- Yes, you - you, - she said, pronouncing this word you with delight, - is another matter. Kinder, more generous, better than you, I do not know a person, and cannot be. If you were not there then, and even now, I don’t know what would have happened to me, because ... - Tears suddenly poured into her eyes; she turned, raised the notes to her eyes, began to sing, and went back to walking around the hall.
At the same time, Petya ran out of the living room.
Petya was now a handsome, ruddy fifteen-year-old boy with thick, red lips, like Natasha. He was preparing for the university, but lately, with his comrade Obolensky, he secretly decided that he would go to the hussars.
Petya ran out to his namesake to talk about the case.
He asked him to find out if he would be accepted into the hussars.
Pierre walked around the living room, not listening to Petya.
Petya tugged at his hand to draw his attention to himself.
- Well, what's my business, Pyotr Kirilych. For God's sake! One hope for you, - said Petya.
“Oh yes, your business. In the hussars then? I'll say, I'll say. I'll tell you everything.
- Well, mon cher, well, did you get the manifesto? asked the old count. - And the countess was at the mass at the Razumovskys, she heard a new prayer. Very good, she says.
“Got it,” Pierre replied. - Tomorrow the sovereign will be ... An extraordinary meeting of the nobility and, they say, ten thousand a set. Yes, congratulations.
- Yes, yes, thank God. Well, what about the army?
Ours retreated again. Near Smolensk already, they say, - answered Pierre.
- My God, my God! the count said. - Where is the manifesto?
- Appeal! Oh yes! Pierre began looking in his pockets for papers and could not find them. Continuing to pat his pockets, he kissed the hand of the countess as she entered and looked around uneasily, obviously expecting Natasha, who did not sing anymore, but did not come into the drawing room either.
“By God, I don’t know where I’ve got him,” he said.
“Well, he will always lose everything,” said the countess. Natasha entered with a softened, agitated face and sat down, silently looking at Pierre. As soon as she entered the room, Pierre's face, previously cloudy, shone, and he, continuing to look for papers, looked at her several times.
- By God, I'll move out, I forgot at home. Certainly…
Well, you'll be late for dinner.
- Oh, and the coachman left.
But Sonya, who went into the hall to look for the papers, found them in Pierre's hat, where he carefully put them behind the lining. Pierre wanted to read.
“No, after dinner,” said the old count, apparently foreseeing great pleasure in this reading.
At dinner, at which they drank champagne for the health of the new Knight of St. George, Shinshin told the city news about the illness of the old Georgian princess, that Metivier had disappeared from Moscow, and that some German had been brought to Rostopchin and announced to him that it was champignon (as Count Rastopchin himself said), and how Count Rostopchin ordered the champignon to be released, telling the people that it was not a champignon, but just an old German mushroom.
“They grab, they grab,” said the count, “I tell the countess even so that she speaks less French.” Now is not the time.
– Have you heard? Shinshin said. - Prince Golitsyn took a Russian teacher, he studies in Russian - il commence a devenir dangereux de parler francais dans les rues. [It becomes dangerous to speak French on the streets.]
- Well, Count Pyotr Kirilych, how will they gather the militia, and you will have to get on a horse? said the old count, turning to Pierre.
Pierre was silent and thoughtful throughout this dinner. He, as if not understanding, looked at the count at this appeal.
“Yes, yes, to the war,” he said, “no!” What a warrior I am! And yet, everything is so strange, so strange! Yes, I don't understand myself. I do not know, I am so far from military tastes, but in these times no one can answer for himself.
After dinner, the count sat quietly in an armchair and with a serious face asked Sonya, who was famous for her skill in reading, to read.
– “To the capital of our capital, Moscow.
The enemy entered with great forces into the borders of Russia. He is going to ruin our dear fatherland, ”Sonya diligently read in her thin voice. The Count, closing his eyes, listened, sighing impetuously in some places.
Natasha sat stretched out, searchingly and directly looking first at her father, then at Pierre.
Pierre felt her eyes on him and tried not to look back. The countess shook her head disapprovingly and angrily at every solemn expression of the manifesto. She saw in all these words only that the dangers threatening her son would not end soon. Shinshin, folding his mouth into a mocking smile, obviously prepared to mock at what would be the first to be mocked: at Sonya's reading, at what the count would say, even at the very appeal, if no better excuse presented itself.
Reading about the dangers threatening Russia, about the hopes placed by the sovereign on Moscow, and especially on the famous nobility, Sonya, with a trembling voice, which came mainly from the attention with which they listened to her, read the last words: “We will not hesitate to stand among our people in this capital and in others the state of our places for the meeting and leadership of all our militias, both now blocking the path of the enemy, and newly arranged to defeat it, wherever it appears. May the destruction into which he imagines to cast us down upon his head turn, and may Europe, liberated from slavery, glorify the name of Russia!
- That's it! cried the count, opening his wet eyes and halting several times from snuffling, as if a flask of strong acetic salt was being brought to his nose. “Just tell me, sir, we will sacrifice everything and regret nothing.”
Shinshin had not yet had time to tell the joke he had prepared on the count's patriotism, when Natasha jumped up from her seat and ran up to her father.
- What a charm, this dad! she said, kissing him, and she again looked at Pierre with that unconscious coquetry that returned to her along with her animation.
- That's so patriotic! Shinshin said.
“Not a patriot at all, but simply ...” Natasha answered offendedly. Everything is funny to you, but this is not a joke at all ...
- What jokes! repeated the Count. - Just say the word, we will all go ... We are not some kind of Germans ...
“Did you notice,” said Pierre, “that he said: “for a meeting.”
“Well, whatever it is…
At this time, Petya, whom no one paid any attention to, went up to his father and, all red, in a breaking voice, now rough, now thin, said:
“Well, now, papa, I will say decisively - and mother too, as you wish, - I will say decisively that you let me go into military service, because I can’t ... that’s all ...
The countess raised her eyes to heaven in horror, clasped her hands and angrily turned to her husband.
- That's the deal! - she said.
But the count recovered from his excitement at the same moment.

(1747 - 1795)

G. I. Shelikhov 1 is widely known as the “Russian Columbus”, as an enterprising merchant and navigator, inspirer and organizer of the Russian-American Trade and Fishing Company, initiator of research and development of the Pacific coast of North America, Alaska, the Kuril and Aleutian Islands. Shelikhov is also known as a far-sighted and energetic Russian patriot, the author of a number of broad projects: geographical expeditions to find islands not put on the map, to explore the Russian Far East, to find a sea passage to Baffin Bay.

Shelikhov was one of the first to suggest the idea of ​​a Russian round-the-world trip. He owns projects for the expansion of Russian colonization North America, construction of new ports on the Okhotsk coast of Russia, expansion of Russia's external trade relations with the countries of the Indian and Pacific basins. In the course of his travels and work on the development of Russian America, Shelikhov himself made several outstanding discoveries.

Shelikhov was born in the family of a merchant in the city of Rylsk, Kursk province. The month of birth, as well as the first 26 years of life, are not known.

By his time, Siberia was “roughly” put on the map and only to a small extent mastered by the Russians. The main wealth of Siberia at that time - Siberian furs - was getting more and more difficult from year to year. In search of more plentiful trades, the Siberian merchants expanded the boundaries of their activities to the east, to the islands of the "Eastern Ocean" that had not yet been affected by the predatory plunder. The highly profitable, but risky trade of sea beavers, fur seals, and walrus tusk, associated with the search for still unknown islands with rookeries of the animal, attracted the most courageous and enterprising merchants and industrialists to the Okhotsk and Bering coasts. Shelikhov also became interested in this.

In 1773, he arrived in "Siberian Petersburg" - the city of Irkutsk and became a clerk to the wealthy merchant I. L. Golikov, to whom he had a letter of recommendation from his brother, a Kursk merchant. In 1775, Shelikhov moved to Okhotsk and became the organizer of the construction of ships and equipment for expeditions for sea animals to the Aleutian and Kuril Islands, entering into companies with various merchants (Alin, Lebedev-Lastochkin, Golikov, Kozitsyn). For five years - from 1776 to 1781 - ten ships were built under his leadership and a significant number of expeditions were equipped.

Sent by him in company with Lebedev-Lastochkin, navigator Pribilov on the ship "St. Georgy" discovered the islands, called the Pribylov Islands.

During these five years, Shelikhov amassed considerable capital, and most importantly, he studied the business and gained confidence in the trading world, especially from his main partner, Golikov.

Possessing remarkable intelligence and insight, Shelikhov soon realized the destructive effect of predatory trades undertaken by small and short-term companies, realized the impossibility of expanding shipping, saw the hatred for merchants, kindled by them themselves among the indigenous population of the islands. Then he was the first in Siberia to decide to organize a powerful trading company, permanently operating on the islands of the Pacific Ocean and in America, supported by the government, which would organize fisheries in a businesslike manner, build settlements of industrialists and ships on the islands and develop regular shipping.

In 1781, Shelikhov set about organizing this company. Golikov became her shareholder. Three ships were built: galliots “Three Saints”, “Simeon the God-bearer and Anna the Prophetess” and “Archangel Michael”. Shelikhov became the head of the expedition to select the location of the company's base on the islands.

According to Shelikhov's plan, the place of the first Russian settlement was to be rich in game animals and located on the most remote land. To do this, he decided to immediately settle, and then expand navigation and look for new rookeries and new islands.

On August 16, 1783, Shelikhov went along the Aleutian Islands to the extreme land of Kodiak, then known in the east. Before Shelikhov, it was not established whether it was an island or a peninsula. Almost a year later (two ships wintered on Bering Island) - August 3, 1784 - two of the three ships reached Kodiak.

Shelikhov's expedition was met with hostility by the locals. However, in contrast to foreign invaders who exterminated entire tribes, Shelikhov sought to use local residents for his undertakings. His activities are permeated with concern for the preservation of the indigenous population and maintaining friendly relations with them, for raising their cultural level. In the very first year of his arrival to Kodiak, he established a school. Shelikhov took the most capable of the students of the school to Irkutsk for further education.

Shelikhov tried as soon as possible to bring the local Americans closer to the Russians both through cultural communication and family ties.

Shelikhov did all this at his own expense, taking into account state interests. He wrote to the Governor-General of Irkutsk: “Time and my meager mind invented this plan presented to your excellency, according to which ... he set off ... to the American northeastern shores ... to seek the benefit of the fatherland, without putting greed for self-interest and not seeking to distinguish oneself, but setting the sole goal of sacrificing to my dear fatherland with benefit ... "... "... we must, in order to spread crafts and trade in this region and expand the boundaries of the All-Russian Empire, in such places, through affectionate treatment, bring peoples into friendship ... "

By examining Kodiak, Shelikhov established that it was an island. Then industrialists sent by Shelikhov discovered a number of other islands of the Kodiak archipelago, including Afognak. The strait between these islands and Alaska is deservedly named after Shelikhov.

In 1785 - 1786. Shelikhov sent a detachment of industrialists to the north, where they discovered the deep Kenai Bay, the coasts of North America, described the coasts of Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, the coast of the continent to Cape St. Elijah and the islands of the Gulf of Alaska.

Shelikhov mastered the new lands in a businesslike way: he built new settlements and fortresses (the first fortress on the island of Kodiak was called the Trekhsvyatitelskaya), bred the brought cattle, started arable farming, and looked for minerals. Shelikhov repeatedly gave instructions to the rulers of the company, navigators, and industrialists: “...immediately, to make a careful inventory... describe large and small lying islands everywhere, bays, rivers, harbors, capes, laydas, rikhvy, field and visible stones, where in places there are some lands, that is, forests, meadows, properties, type and location of the land, in what place and at what time, what kind and in what quantity, what more happens, where in the fishery, what it is hunted for, what kind of animals are there , also at what time and how they trade. To note all sorts of vital plants ... For the main subject, describe each vein, where and on which vein, know the number of people, and make a census of the male and female gender, the number of souls, with a prescription, although approximate, who is what age. Any river, lake, housing, islands, in a word, each place in the inventory should be supplied with letters that will indicate the most accurate on the plans. In the name, write according to the very strength the name of all the places of the local inhabitants; and do not disfigure with their names, so that everything can be found by the ranks of the inhabitants.

Shelikhov encourages geographical research and all sorts of discoveries: he was given a bonus (in addition to the company's fee) of 1000 rubles. for the discovery and description of each new island.

He also took care of the wide popularization of the wealth of new lands and their sights in Russia, of ethnographic research.

In 1786, leaving most of the people who arrived with him under the control of K. A. Samoilov, Shelikhov set off on his way back, taking with him representatives of several Alaskan Indians, Aleuts, Eskimos, as well as various sights of America.

On the way to Kamchatka, he visited the Kuril Islands, collecting detailed information about the entire ridge and deciding in the future to settle on these islands.

In Kamchatka, Shelikhov met a ship of the English East India Company and started trading with it, leaving an order to his clerk to continue to maintain trade relations with foreigners if their ships were in Kamchatka.

From Kamchatka, Shelikhov went to Okhotsk on dogs, bypassing that bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, which later became known as Shelikhov Bay.

In the winter of 1787, Shelikhov arrived in Irkutsk, drew up a detailed memorandum to the Governor-General about his journey, attached several instructions to his employees, drew up a project for organizing a monopoly American company for trading with foreigners, and petitioned for the official annexation of the American coast to Russia.

Shelikhov's note to the Governor-General served as material for the publication of the book "The Russian merchant of the eminent Rylsk citizen Grigory Shelikhov ..." This book, published in 1791 without the knowledge of Shelikhov, was a huge success and was translated into English and German. In 1792, the second edition of this book “The Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov continued his wanderings ...” was published.

In the note and in the drafts, Shelikhov discovers a broad outlook: “... This trade through the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk and Kamchatka produces considerable profit for the treasury and merchants, and if it can bring prosperity to the more local land, since through this trade the high cost can turn away ... it will flow there from everywhere merchants and all kinds of people through time will be numerous, and that most distant land will flourish to greatness and the most noble in the light of commerce and cultivation of the land, ... further knowledge can spread to establish our borders along the Northeastern Ocean to the most distant limits ... where yet ... no European power has its own facilities.

Shelikhov was one of the first to draw attention to the expansion of the voyages of foreigners with the aim of capturing colonies in the Pacific Ocean and strenuously sought to get ahead of them.

In 1788, having enlisted the support of the Irkutsk governor-general, Shelikhov and Golikov turned to Catherine IIwith a petition for the approval of a monopoly on American possessions, for the permission of trade with foreigners and the annexation of open new lands to Russia, as well as for appropriations for the further search for new lands.

But at that time Russia was at war with Turkey and Sweden, and Catherine feared complications with England and China. Therefore, she rejected the projects submitted by Shelikhov and Golikov and only ordered the merchants to be awarded with swords and gold medals around their necks for their discoveries and diligence.

Understanding the award as an approval of his actions, Shelikhov even more expanded his activities to strengthen his possessions and explore the islands in America without state assistance.

He picked up smart, energetic, and courageous seafarers and rulers of the company's affairs in America. These rulers - first Delarov, then Baranov - expanded their exploration of Alaska and the coast of America up to California. Navigators Izmailov and Bocharov discovered new islands and made descriptions of them. Everything was done in detail, with the expectation of many years. Everywhere on the banks were installed iron boards with the inscriptions: "Land of Russian possession." In many places, copper boards with the same inscription were buried in the ground. The shores from Alaska to California were described, settlements and fortresses were built in the most convenient places, cattle breeding and arable farming were widely introduced. At the same time, Shelikhov instructed Baranov "to think of a machine with which it would be convenient to yell at the earth." Shelikhov was very concerned about the fact that the settlements were beautiful, with comfortable houses, clean air. He was especially concerned about the development of shipbuilding in America, perfectly understanding the importance of external relations and intending to send ships with goods to China, Malaya, Indonesia, and India.

In 1790 - 1793. Shelikhov, in addition to the "Northeast American", organized three more companies: "Predtechenskaya", operating on the islands of Pribylov and Fox, "Unalashkinskaya", located on the island of Unalashka, and "North American", whose task was to create and strengthen settlements on the islands of the Bering Sea and on the northern, then completely unexplored coast of Alaska, as well as to find a sea or land passage to Baffin Bay.

Shelikhov also took the initiative in settling the Kuril Islands with Russians. In 1795, he sent 20 industrialists and four families of peasants to the 18th Kuril Island (Urup).

Realizing the great importance for Russia of the strategic outpost in the form of the Kuril ridge, Shelikhov, despite the warning of Catherine IInot to start a dispute over these islands with other powers, took the liberty and risk of assigning the Kuril Islands to Russia.

Shelikhov's capital grew rapidly. In the shortest possible time, he became the richest merchant in Siberia, but at the same time, his trading affairs were inextricably combined with the derivation of benefits for Russia, for geographical research. None of his contemporaries contributed so much initiative to the exploration of newly discovered lands at his own expense, to strengthening the borders of Russia and developing new lands. He believed that American possessions were to become a new region of Russia - "Slavorossia" - with cities, shipyards, industry and agriculture surpassing Siberia.

American possessions, thousands of kilometers away from the center of Russia, demanded many different goods. Finding new convenient routes to America was one of Shelikhov's most important concerns. Traveling across roadless Siberia, and especially communication with its northeastern outskirts, was extremely difficult. In this regard, Shelikhov had the idea of ​​finding and exploring part of the Northern Sea Route from the mouth of the Lena to North America and through the Bering Strait, and even about circumnavigation: “... As your Excellency knows, that a thousand and thirteen versts from Yakutsk to Okhotsk are carrying all burdens ... Yakuts on riding horses ... very often, according to the parable of the Dozzes, they throw luggage on the road ... because they are empty, stony and swampy and often impassable places, as well as rivers ... By sea, things transported there are not only cheaper ... but always in sufficient quantities ... they can be delivered there ... ". He had already found men for the first task in 1790.

At the same time, he sought to improve the existing ways of exploring the Far East. In November 1794, Shelikhov compiled a “most humble report” to the Irkutsk Governor-General I. A. Pil with a request to allow him to make an expedition to find a more convenient place for building a port than Okhotsk, and also to give him “skilled people whom I would detach could along the mane of that permanent ridge, which extends from Baikal itself to the east ... from such an expedition this benefit will be that we will find out the location between the Amur and between the peaks of the Vitim, Olekma, Aldan and May rivers, because these places still remain completely unexplored by us and indescribable ... And as such, the expedition must have all the necessary ... allowances and expenses, then I will accept them and willingly donate the required amount for the benefit of the fatherland ... ". But Shelikhov failed to carry out this expedition. Only the Soviet people managed to describe these places and discover the vast wealth of their subsoil.

Shelikhov was the initiator and organizer of A. Laxman's expedition to Japan in 1792, not only to establish trade relations, but also to describe Japan. Trade could not be established, but the expedition collected valuable information about Japan. In 1795 Shelikhov was preparing a new expedition to Japan. But this expedition did not take place, since on July 20, 1795, at the age of 48, Shelikhov died in the city of Irkutsk in the full bloom of his strength and striking in his energy and breadth of activity.

A worthy successor and continuer of Shelikhov's work was A. A. Baranov, who continued to expand settlements and research in America.

The evaluation of Shelikhov as a person and figure by his contemporaries and descendants was different. It was often said about his cruelty, the pursuit of personal gain, the exploitation of the American population and exiles, etc. All this could have taken place to some extent, since it corresponded to the spirit of that time, but on the whole, the activities of Shelikhov, an exceptional person for his age, remarkable figure and patriot, was progressive and democratic. Concerns about the native population and the resettlement of Russians in America, who sought to get rid of serfdom, speak of the progressive direction of the colonization of Russian America. This is confirmed by the fact that the Decembrists showed great interest in Russian colonization in America. Some Decembrist sailors dreamed of making independent round-the-world trips on the company's ships. The Decembrists Ryleev (former director of the Company), Kuchelbeker, Zavalishin, Romanov were connected with the activities of the Russian-American Company. The House of the Company at one time served as the headquarters of the Decembrists for their meetings; meetings of the leaders of the Decembrists sometimes took place there.

Shelikhov's services to the national geographical science are invaluable. His numerous instructions, projects, reports and requests, bold plans, descriptions of new lands, prudent orders on a national scale, instructions, which were programs for the geographical exploration of open lands, constitute an interesting work. Unfortunately, many documents characterizing Shelikhov as the organizer and leader of the first geographical descriptions and compiler of maps of North-West America and the islands adjacent to it and the first organizer of geographical surveys have not yet been sufficiently studied.

Derzhavin's poems are carved on the monument to Shelikhov in Irkutsk:

"Columbus Rossky is buried here,

Sailed the sea, discovered the unknown countries ... "

On the other side of the monument, the words of I. I. Dmitriev are carved:

“... Ross Shelikhov, without troops, without thunderous forces,

Flow to America through the stormy abyss...

Don't forget, baby

What ross - your ancestor was loud in the east.

A source---

Domestic physical geographers and travelers. [Essays]. Ed. N. N. Baransky [and others] M., Uchpedgiz, 1959.

MOU "Nizhnegridinskaya secondary school"

Bolshesoldatsky district, Kursk region

"Ushakov Readings"

(Research)

"Russian Columbus",

business merchant,

founder of Russian America.

Fedyukina Julia Grade 11

Supervisor: history teacher Anichkina T.A.

Travel and history lovers geographical discoveries we should be doubly grateful to our Russian Columbuses, who not only discovered and explored unknown lands, but also left very amusing descriptions of their own travels.

Only the desire for the unknown and natural curiosity can explain their activities in an environment full of great hardships. In addition, they were driven by the realization that their actions lead to the exaltation of their native Fatherland. Studies by Russian travelers of the American shores in the 18th - 19th centuries. once again proved "that the glory of the Russians will reach all ends."

Petrov Alexander Yurievich

Doctor of Historical Sciences,

Leading Researcher

Institute of World HistoryRAS

T
wash my research work we decided to take on the activities of the outstanding Russian navigator and explorer of the sea spaces of the Far East, Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov.

Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (1747 - 1795) the second outstanding Russian traveler half of XVIII, came out of the environment of the Rylsky merchant class.

R
od Shelikhov - old in Rylsk. In the scribe book, compiled under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1621, which lists all the trading establishments of the city of Rylsk, the merchant Ivan Shelekh is mentioned, and in the scribe book of the Rylsky district, compiled in 1625 - 1626, when describing the lands and population of the village of Grunya, it says about the forest and hayfields of Frolka Shelikhov.

The building of the secondary school. G. I. Shelikhova

Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov was born in Rylsk in 1747 in the family of a merchant. He spent his childhood and youth in hometown where he helped his father in his trade. The house where the navigator was born has not been preserved. Now on this site there is a building and a yard of secondary school No. G. I. Shelikhov (Lunacharsky St.).

One of Shelikhov's houses is located at the corner of Uritsky and K. Liebknecht streets. A memorial stone made of Baikal granite was laid in front of the house - a gift from the Siberian sister city of Shelekhov. Shelikhov's two-story house (corner of Uritsky and Karl Liebknecht streets) stands on land bought by Grigory Shelikhov when he arrived in Rylsk in 1788, but construction began no earlier than 1798, that is, after Shelikhov's death. Obviously, he could never live in this house. But Alexander the First stopped there during his last trip to the south in the autumn of 1825 (in December of the same year, as you know, he died in Taganrog). In addition to the main house, an outbuilding overlooking Karl Liebknecht Street (house 28) has been preserved. The entire corner of Lenin and Dzerzhinsky streets is occupied by the Von Filimonovs' house (1870s, architect Karl Friedrichovich Scholz), obviously built with an eye on the St. Petersburg mansions of that time. In front of the entrance to the city park, opposite the Assumption Cathedral, a monument to Shelikhov was restored in 1957, erected before the revolution (1903) with funds raised by the All-Russian subscription, and destroyed immediately after the revolution.

House of Shelikhov

Young Shelikhov in Rylsk and Kursk heard a lot from local merchants about the lucrative trade of Siberian merchants in furs, about the discovery by brave Russian people of islands rich in fur animals in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Siberia beckoned him.

In 1773, twenty-six-year-old Grigory left for Siberia. In Irkutsk, he serves as a clerk for the merchant Golikov. In 1775, he marries the young widow of a wealthy Irkutsk merchant, Natalya Alekseevna, and leaves for Okhotsk. Here begins the vigorous activity of organizing expeditions for the trade of fur-bearing animals. From 1776, when Shelikhov sent the first ship for a fur-bearing animal, until 1783, when he himself went to sea, 10 campaigns are known in which an energetic and enterprising merchant from Rylsk participated.

The ships returned loaded with valuable furs. But unlike other industrialists, Shelikhov sought not only to enrich himself, but also to protect the interests of Russia in the Pacific Ocean. A bold and far-sighted plan of exploration and annexation of newly discovered lands to Russia, their economic development and development, the establishment of permanent Russian settlements on these lands and the enlightenment of the indigenous population is ripening in his head.

To implement the plan, Shelikhov entered into a company with a wealthy Irkutsk merchant, his former owner Golikov. Having built three ships at the mouth of the Urak River: "Three Hierarchs", "Saint Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess" and "Saint Michael", Shelikhov on August 16, 1783 headed for the shores of Alaska to establish a Russian colony. On all three ships there were 192 "working people" - sailors and St. John's wolves.

IN In the same place with Shelikhov, his wife Natalya Alekseevna and two children set off on a long voyage. This is a Russian woman who shared with her husband all the hardships of a distant sea voyage in the harsh, little-studied northern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. Shelikhov wrote about her with warmth and gratitude: "and being himself on the first galliot with my wife, who followed me everywhere and did not renounce all difficulties."

P

Settlement of Grigory Shelikhov on Kodiak Island

Almost a year after leaving Okhotsk, on August 3, 1784, the ships, having overcome a number of obstacles, approached Kodiak Island - the final goal of the voyage. Here G.I. Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement.

Having fortified himself on Kodiak and having thoroughly studied the coast and inland regions of the island, in the spring of 1785 he began to explore and develop the coast of the American mainland and

adjacent islands, establishing friendly relations with local residents who voluntarily transferred to Russian citizenship. On the coast and islands, Shelikhov built fortresses and put up crosses as a sign that these territories belonged to Russia.

Along with the exploration of the new region, its economic and cultural development was carried out. The beginning of agriculture and cattle breeding was laid, the population was attached to the material and spiritual culture of the Russian people.

For two years of stay on Kodiak, G.I. Shelikhov firmly settled on American soil. It was time to think about the deeds left in Siberia, about securing their rights with the Siberian administration, about the official recognition of Alaska, Kodiak and other adjacent islands as Russian possessions.

May 22, 1786 G.I. Shelikhov left Kodiak Island, heading for his native shores. January 27, 1787 he arrived in Okhotsk, in April of the same year - in Irkutsk. Here he presented the Irkutsk governor-general Jacobi with a description of his journey, a map of the explored lands and plans for fortresses (fortifications) erected to protect the colony he founded. The governor reported this to St. Petersburg, and Shelikhov was summoned to the capital.

Catherine II reacted favorably to Shelikhov's case. It was proposed to equip two expeditions to the Far East, and G.I. Shelikhov was awarded in 1788 a medal, strewn with diamonds, to be worn on a blue ribbon around his neck, a sword and a diploma, which allowed him to continue the work he had begun to develop new territories and annex them to Russia.

Returning to Irkutsk, Shelikhov develops energetic activities. He asks for state support for his enterprise, develops plans to establish trade relations with Japan, China, India, the Philippines and other countries. He comes up with bold plans for the exploration of Siberia, the Pacific and arctic oceans. From Irkutsk, Shelikhov leads the life of the first Russian colony in America, where the Shelikhovites are developing new and new territories, installing metal boards there with a capacious inscription "Land of Russian Ownership".

In 1791, a small book by G.I. Shelikhov entitled: "The Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov's wanderings from Okhotsk along the Eastern Ocean to the American shores from 1783 to 1787 and his return to Russia". The drawing that opened the book depicted G.I. Shelikhov and two American residents, from whom he exchanges animal skins, and under the picture in large letters was typed a prophetic stanza from Mikhail Lomonosov's famous poem "Peter the Great":

Russian Columbuses, despising gloomy rock,

Between the ice a new path will be opened to the East,

And our power will reach America,

And that glory will reach the Russians to all ends.

This book attracted everyone's attention, causing joy and jubilation. Irkutsk and Rylyans were especially happy about the success of the navigator. G.I. Shelikhov in his homeland was proclaimed "an eminent Rylsky citizen." This title was firmly entrenched in him, and the new edition of his book, published in 1793, already had the title: "The Russian merchant of the eminent Rylsky citizen Grigory Shelikhov's first wandering ..." In the same year, Shelikhov's work was reprinted three times on German, and later twice English language. So a native of a small Russian city Rylska became a world famous navigator. The last years of G. I. Shelikhov's life were filled with stormy activity. He regularly sends expeditions to the American shores, fights with competitors, surviving them from fishing grounds. In 1790 - 1791, I. L. Golikov and Shelikhov established the North-Eastern, Unalashkinskaya and Predtechenskaya companies in order to expand the fishery. In 1791 Shelikhov undertook the publication of his book, in which he told about all the details of the two-year voyage and about what he saw in the Aleutian Islands. For the first time, it described in detail the flora and fauna, as well as the life and customs of the Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians, and covered almost all aspects of their material and spiritual culture.

At the height of his vigorous activity, at the age of 48, Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov died unexpectedly on July 20, 1795 in Irkutsk, where he was buried. Death found Shelikhov in the midst of his affairs, preventing him from completing many plans. He died suddenly "in the midst of so many important exercises for him in his full health and the middle years of his life." The suddenness and unclear circumstances of the death of a prominent merchant, who left a considerable legacy, caused a variety of rumors in Irkutsk. Until today, the death of Grigory Ivanovich is shrouded in a veil of secrecy.
On November 10, 1797, by imperial decree, the widow and children of Shelikhov "for the merits of her husband and father" were granted the nobility "with the right to trade." The business of further consolidating Russian acquisitions in Alaska was continued by Natalia Shelikhova. The heavy burden of managing a huge economy fell on her shoulders, and after the death of Grigory Shelikhov, with his proxies, who reported directly to her.

H unusual for the merchant environment of that time in the behavior of Natalia Alekseevna was that she often conducted business negotiations on trade transactions on behalf of her husband. We can say that by the beginning of the 90s. 18th century she developed her own relationships with many people who participated, together with Grigory Shelikhov, in trade and fishing operations. Most of her connections in the merchant and bureaucratic world were her own acquisition, and not an inheritance from her husband.

Shelikhov was buried in Irkutsk in the Znamensky convent against the church altar. In 1800, through the efforts of his wife, a marble monument with a bronze bas-relief of the deceased.
On the monument erected on his grave, the following words are carved:

Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov,
Rylsky eminentcitizen

Rylsk. Monument Gregory Shelikhov.

Then, after the main dates of his life, the epitaph of the famous Russian

poet G. R. Derzhavin, beginning with the following words:

Columbus here Russian is buried!

Passed the sea, discovered the countryunknown,

And, in vain, that everything in the world is decay.
He sent his sail to the heavenly ocean -
Seek treasures from above, not earthly...

Before the death of G.I. Shelikhov bequeathed 30 thousand rubles to the city of Rylsk. In accordance with the will of the deceased, a hospital and the Resurrection Church were built with this money in his homeland.

grave GregoryShelikhov.

Name G.I. Shelikhov, "an eminent Rylsky citizen", immortalized on

geographical map peace. A bay in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, a strait separating Kodiak Island from the Alaska Peninsula, one of the largest lakes in Alaska, the main harbor and bay on Kruzov Island are named after him. grew up not far from Irkutsk new town- Shelikhov.

The city of Shelekhov is located in the south of the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo Plain, 20 km southwest of Irkutsk.
It arose in connection with the construction of an aluminum plant.
Since 1956, the working settlement of Shelekhov. The name is in honor of the Russian merchant and explorer G.I. Shelikhov. In the decree of 1956 on naming the village, the surname of the entrepreneur was adopted in the wrong spelling Shelekhov.
The population is 48 thousand (2007).

From the small Rylsk, located in the depths of Russia, where this amazing person was born and spent his youth, to the sea and oceans - thousands of miles. And at the same time on Far East and in North America he was destined to play the role of "Russian Columbus".

We decided to complete our work with a crossword puzzle compiled by us about the life and work of Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov.

How kingdoms fell at Catherine's feet,
Ros Shelikhov without troops without thunderous forces
Inflow to America through the stormy abysses
And he conquered a new region to her and to God.
Don't forget the offspring!
That Ros, your ancestor, is loud in the East.

I.I. Dmitriev

ABOUT
reply:

Horizontally: 2. Rylsk. 4. Ivan. 5. Merchant. 7. Field. 10. Golikov.

12. Natalia. 14. Znamensky. 15. Resurrection. 16. Columbus.

Vertically: 1. Profits. 3. Beringov. 6. Catherine. 8. Okhotsk. 9. Jacobi. 11. Alaska. 13. Kodiak.

Literature:

V. Prosetsky. Rylsk. Third edition, revised. Central - Chernozem book publishing house. Voronezh, 1977

G.I. Shelikhov. Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov wandering from Okhotsk along the Eastern Ocean to the American shores. Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk book publishing house, 1971

M.P. Tsapenko. Through the Western lands of Kursk and Belgorod. Moscow "Art" 1976

"Russia, complete geographical description of our fatherland”, V.2, 1902.

) - Russian merchant, participant and co-owner of merchant fishing companies, founder of Russian America, initiator of the creation.

G.I. Shelikhov: encyclopedic reference

Born in the family of a Rylsk merchant. He was educated at home and early joined the commercial activities. Having met the wealthy merchants Golikovs, he arrived in 1773. At first he worked as a clerk for I. L. Golikov, but the following year he organized his own business in a company with the Yakut merchant P. Lebedev-Lastochkin. After his marriage in 1775, he organized several trading and fishing companies one after another. In 1781, with the merchants Golikovs, he organized the Northeast Company for fur trade in the Aleutian Islands and off the coast of North America. In 1784 he founded the first Russian settlement on about. Kodiak, thus laying the foundation for Russian America. Upon his return to Russia in 1791, he published his notes, which speak of the need to expand the scale of Russian advancement in the Pacific region.

Works by Grigory Shelikhov

1. Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov wandering from Okhotsk along the Eastern Ocean to the American shores. - Khabarovsk, 1971.

Irkutsk. Historical and local lore dictionary. - Irkutsk: Sib. book, 2011

Founding of the first colonies

In mid-August 1783, Shelikhov set off for Alaska with three ships and a crew of 192 people. A month later, upon arrival at New World, having lost one of the ships, the expedition reached the island of Unalaska. Russian fur merchants who had already visited these places dissuaded Shelikhov from establishing settlements here, since not long before this, local residents had killed a whole group of Russian hunters. However, Shelikhov did not listen to them and founded the first settlement on Kodiak Island. The colonization of the mainland was postponed for security reasons.

Shelikhov intended not to give the local Eskimos the slightest pretext for hostile actions, wishing to make them Russian subjects not through fear, but by kindness and for their own benefit. He received the first who dared to visit the Russian settlement, very friendly, fed and bestowed with gifts. However, unfortunately for the Russians, a solar eclipse occurred during the visit. The inhabitants of the island were very frightened and took this as an unkind divine sign. The following night, they attacked the Russian camp, which, despite superior weapons, was only able to repel the onslaught with difficulty. The next morning with neighboring island boats filled with warriors began to approach, going to the aid of the Kodiak Eskimos. It was clear that the Russians would not be able to resist this overwhelming force for long. Therefore, Shelikhov gave the order to bombard the settlement of the natives with cannons, after which hundreds of them immediately surrendered out of fear of unknown weapons. The most militant Shelikhov ordered to be executed. The rest had to leave their children as hostages and were set free. These children were brought up with Russian children, went to school and learned Russian. Despite the difficulties, the Russians eventually managed to establish peaceful relations with the Indians.

Shelikhov controlled the construction from 1790. In 1781, Shelikhov founded the Northeast Company, which in 1799 was transformed into the Russian-American Trading Company.