Zashiversk (; ) was a town north of the Arctic circle in what is now the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

(formerly Yakutia),

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It was located on the right bank of the

Indigirka River The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is . History The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...

where the river makes a sharp bend around the town-site. It was founded in 1639. It served as a fortress town and then as an administrative center. In 1803 administrative functions were removed to

Verkhoyansk Verkhoyansk ( rus, Верхоянск, p=vʲɪrxɐˈjansk; ) is a town in Verkhoyansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle, from Batagay, the administrative center of the district, and nor ...

. Subsequently the town suffered repeated epidemics of smallpox. It was completely depopulated by 1898 (one source says by 1863). Spaso-Zashiverskaya church (built 1700) was moved to

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

Alexey Okladnikov Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov (; 1908–1981) was a Soviet archaeologist, historian, and ethnographer, an expert in the ancient cultures of Siberia and the Pacific Basin. He was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1968 ...

, and now it exhibited at the Museum of the Archeological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science.

Early colony

From the end of the

Time of Troubles The Time of Troubles (), also known as Smuta (), was a period of political crisis in Tsardom of Russia, Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I of Russia, Feodor I, the last of the Rurikids, House of Rurik, and ended in 1613 wit ...

small groups of Russians penetrated and colonized the Far Eastern Arctic, in two distinct waves originating from

White Sea The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the nort ...

area and from the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

. In 1639 the company of Postnik Ivanov, a

Siberian cossack Siberian Cossacks were Cossacks who settled in the Siberian region of Russia from the end of the 16th century, following Yermak Timofeyevich's conquest of Siberia. In early periods, practically the whole Russian population in Siberia, especiall ...

, reached the site of Zashiversk and stayed there for the winter. The site, located below the

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...

(''Shivery'', шиверы, in Siberian dialect, thus the name ''Zashiversk'') of the

, some 870 kilometers from its inlet, marked the crossroads of a river route to

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

and Chukotka and a land route (''Tsar's Trail'', царская дорога) from

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

Nizhnekolymsk Nizhnekolymsk () is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Pokhodsky Rural Okrug of Nizhnekolymsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, located within the Arctic Circle near the East Siberian Sea on the left bank of the Kolyma River near its con ...

. Postnik reported abundance of valuable

sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaz ...

and fish, significant population of native settlers and nomads as well as

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

possessed by the

Yukagirs The Yukaghirs, or Yukagirs ( (), ), are a Siberian ethnic group in the Russian Far East, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. Geographic distribution The Tundra Yukaghirs live in the Lower Kolyma region in the Sakha Republic; the Taiga Y ...

; the

voyevoda Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

responded with establishment of a permanent

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

to exploit the opportunity. The Russians enforced taxation of natives through collection of

yasak ''Yasak'' or ''yasaq'', sometimes ''iasak'', (; akin to Yassa) is a Turkic word for "tribute" that was used in Imperial Russia to designate fur tribute exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Origin The origins of yasak can be trace ...

in sable furs and regularly trespassed their self-assumed rights; the natives evaded

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

by resettling to remote areas. Twice, in 1668 (Forsyth: 1666-1667)Forsyth, p. 79 and 1679, the

Lamuts The Evens /əˈvɛn/ ( Even: эвэн; pl. эвэсэл, ''evesel'' in Even and эвены, ''eveny'' in Russian; formerly called ''Lamuts'') are a people in Siberia and the Russian Far East. They live in regions of the Magadan Oblast and ...

openly revolted and besieged Zashiversk, but the colonists prevailed and fortified the settlement with a wooden

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

, the only one of its kind on the Indigirka. The Lamuts were dispersed with fortress guns, but successfully destroyed a Russian caravan on the way from

Yana River The Yana ( rus, Я́на, p=ˈjanə; ) is a river in Sakha in Russia, located between the Lena to the west and the Indigirka to the east. Course It is long, and its drainage basin covers . Including its longest source river, the Sartang, i ...

to Zashiversk. Their active resistance continued until 1692, by 1700 the Lamuts and Yukagirs were firmly pressed into submission and ended their own fighting among native clans. The wooden

tented church A tented roof (also known as a pavilion roof) is a type of polygonal hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak. W. Dean EastmanHometown Handbook: Architecture./ref> Tented roofs, a hallmark of medieval religious architecture, we ...

of Saviour was erected in 1700. Explorer

Dmitry Laptev Dmitry Yakovlevich Laptev () (1701 – ) was a Russian Arctic explorer and Vice Admiral (1762). The Dmitry Laptev Strait is named in his honor and the Laptev Sea is named in honor of him and his cousin, and fellow Arctic explorer, Khariton Lap ...

complained in 1741 that Zashiversk church remained the only Orthodox church from the mouth of

Lena River The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob (river), Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is long and has a capacious drainage basi ...

Anadyr Anadyr may refer to: *Anadyr (town), a town and the administrative center of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Anadyr District * Anadyr Estuary * Anadyr (river), a river in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Anadyr Highlands * Anadyr Lowlands * A ...

. Noted preacher of Zashiversk Church, father Alexey Sleptsov, was an exile, son of former governor of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Ivan Sleptsov. In 1735 was allowed to preach on condition that he will not ever leave Zashiversk. He died in 1783 at the age of 74 and his duties were assumed by his son Mikhail who lived past the age of 87.

Prosperity

Zashiversk grew as a marketplace settlement, and its annual fair attracted traders from all over the Far East. In 1786 its organic growth was boosted by establishment of

uezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd or uiezd; rus, уе́зд ( pre-1918: уѣздъ), p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context () was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the ...

administration; influx of government bureaucrats and their servants temporarily made it a proper town with a city hall, prison, police force of thirty cossacks and a tavern. Population reached five hundreds, including 64 military and 8 clergymen. This prosperity was recorded in detail by explorers

Gavril Sarychev Gavril (also Gavriil) Andreyevich Sarychev () (1763 — 11 August ( O.S. 30 July) 1831), spelt "Sarichef" in the United States, was a Russian navigator, hydrographer, admiral (1829) and Honorable Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1809) ...

and

Joseph Billings Joseph Billings (17581806) was an English navigator, hydrographer and explorer who spent the most of his career in Russian service. From 1790 to 1794 he commanded a marine expedition that searched for a Northeast Passage and explored the coasts ...

who also noted hospitality of local ispravnik Ivan Banner, an ethnic Dane in Russian service.Pierce, p. 19 Banner, apart from daily police functions, actively recruited the Chukchi into accepting Russian citizenship and jealously tracked the activities of foreign traders in the area.Fyodorov He later joined the staff of the

Russian American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the company in the Ukase of 17 ...

Coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of Zashiversk was approved in October 1790 along with other coats of arms of the Irkutsk Governorate. According to the

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

, the golden

fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

in a black field symbolized hunting foxes as the source of subsistence for the population. Overhunting during the 18th century depleted wildlife; decrease in fur trading spelled the town's end.Zakharova In 1803, when Zashiversk lost its former economic significance as a marketplace, the

was abolished, and all government functions relocated to

Decline

Arctic explorer

Ferdinand von Wrangel Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg Ludwig von Wrangel (, Romanization of Russian, tr. ; – ) was a Russia Germans, Russia German (Baltic Germans, Baltic German) explorer and officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, Honorable Member of the Saint P ...

, who crossed Siberia in the summer of 1820 and reached Zashiversk in October, noted that although after the 1786 the settlement expanded to around thirty permanent houses (as opposed to earlier yurtas), after the merger of Verkhoyansk and Zashiversk

s the latter "plunged into its former misery". By 1820 the town shrunk to only five houses; there were two Russian families, a

Yakut Yakut or Yakutian may refer to: * Yakuts, the Turkic peoples indigenous to the Sakha Republic * Yakut language, a Turkic language * Yakut scripts, Scripts used to write the Yakut language * Yakut (name) * Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ...

postmaster,

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

father Mikhail and his brother. Wrangel was surprised to find local church well-maintained although father Mikhail was 87 years old. He preached in the Arctic for sixty years, converted around 15 thousand natives, and was still able to cross his enormous parish on horseback and hunt wild game in the mountains.Wrangel, chapter 3 Mikhail was the only local able to grow

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

and

root vegetables Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans or animals as food. In agricultural and culinary terminology, the term applies to true roots, such as taproots and tuberous root, root tubers, as well as non-roots such as bulbs, corms, ...

in short Arctic summers. Yakuts of father Mikhail's parish were segregated into the richer

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

s who herded horses and cattle, and poorer settlers, the "River Yakuts". The latter settled along the rivers, and survived by

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

alone, their only livestock being the

sled dog A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in Dog harness, harness, most commonly a Dog sled, sled over snow. Sled dogs have been used in the Arctic for at least 8,000 years and, along with watercraft, were the only transpor ...

s. Zashiversk then still retained some of its

logistical Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption according to the needs of customers. Logi ...

functions: Wrangel's stay there coincided with the passage of a government

caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Caravan (trail ...

with

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

and

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

heading to

; horses for the caravan were provided by the Yakuts.

John Dundas Cochrane Captain John Dundas Cochrane (14 February 1793 – 12 August 1825) was a Scottish officer in the Royal Navy, traveller and explorer. An illegitimate son of Scottish MP, army-commander and swindler Andrew Cochrane-Johnstone, John Dundas Cochrane ...

visited Zashiversk in December 1822 ''on foot'' and lamented that "Of all the places I have ever seen, bearing the name of city or town, this is the most dreary and desolate: my blood froze within me as I beheld and approached the place."Cochrane, p. 264 He recorded seven single-person households: two clergymen, a widow, two

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is an enlisted rank, enlisted leader, petty officer, or in some cases warrant officer, who does not hold a Commission (document), commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority b ...

s, a postmaster and a trader: "I have seen a merchant ship with sixteen guns and only fifteen men, but I never before saw a town with only seven inhabitants".Cochrane, pp. 264-265 Cochrane praised the hospitality of these people who provided him with "living in a state of luxury" and "plenty of fish ... the greatest delicacy I have ever tasted."

Ghost town

Wrangel and Cochrane visited Zashiversk after the population was hit by the first outbreak of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

in 1816. The second outbreak, in 1840, killed all the remaining settlers (or, according to different accounts, spared just one girl). Depopulation of Zashiversk spawned a Siberian legend: when local traders found a

chest The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

abandoned at the fairground, a

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

prohibited opening the chest while an Orthodox priest agreed to open it. Traders opened the chest ... and released the

grim reaper The Grim Reaper is a popular personification of death in Western culture in the form of a hooded skeletal figure wearing a black robe and carrying a scythe.George Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

, in 1879 the

bureaucracy Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...

believed that the deserted town still existed, and dispatched Hermann Schiller, a political exile from

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

, on a 3,700 mile march on foot to Zashiversk. Only then did the news of the town's demise reach the government, and Schiller was taken on another year's journey to

Srednekolymsk Srednekolymsk (; , ''Orto Xalıma'') is a town and the administrative center of Srednekolymsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the left bank of the Kolyma River, northeast of Yakutsk, the capital of the republic. As of the 201 ...

.Kennan, pp. 265-266. The original text by Kennan is also reproduced by Harry de Windt in footnote 31 to chapter VII. Authenticity of Kennan's story is uncertain. A similar fictional story was retold by Adam Szymansky in ''A Pinch of Salt''.Included in: Officially, Zashiversk ceased to exist only in 1890.

Harry de Windt Captain Harry Willes Darell de Windt (9 April 1856 – 30 November 1933) was an explorer and travel writer. His books were published under the name of Harry de Windt. Early life Harry de Windt was born on 9 April 1856 in Paris. He was the son of ...

, who travelled through the region in 1902, witnessed Zashiversk abandoned, its ruins still standing.De Windt, chapter V He noted that the town was still marked on contemporary British maps and the 1883 map of Russian General Staff.

Modern studies

In 1969 achaelologists led by

rediscovered and surveyed the remains of Zashiversk. According to archaeologist Nikolay Zhurin, Okladnikov was tipped about the existence of Zashiversk Church by polar aviation pilots, who wondered how could the church emerge and survive in a frozen wilderness.Anisimova He set up the 1969 expedition and, indeed, found the church, unattended for around a century, in good condition. A second expedition, in 1971, carefully disassembled the log structure (recruiting curious

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

pilots to pull up the whole

tented roof A tented roof (also known as a pavilion roof) is a type of polygonal hip roof, hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak.W. Dean EastmanHometown Handbook: Architecture./ref> Tented roofs, a hallmark of medieval religious archite ...

assembly) and shipped the parts to

Akademgorodok Akademgorodok ( rus, Академгородок, p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok, "Academic Town") is a part of the Sovetsky City District, Novosibirsk, Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located south of the city center and abou ...

. Volunteers slowly assembled the church on the site of the future

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

() but, as of June 2006, the interiors were not restored and the church has not been consecrated to resume service. Okladnikov and his colleagues Gogolev and Ashchepkov authored the definitive academic book on the subject, ''Ancient Zashiversk'' (Древний Зашиверск), printed by Nauka in 1977. A replica of Zashiversk church has been erected in Sottintsy open-air museum ( Ust-Aldansky Ulus of

References and notes

Sources

* * (reprint of original 1825 edition) * * * * * (first edition: Saint Petersburg, 1841) ** English edition: * *

External links

* {{cite web , url=http://www.nlib.sakha.ru/resoures/data/bibl_assist/Rus_Ust/rus_ust4.html , title=Bibliography of sources on Zashiversk (in Russian) , publisher=National library of

, access-date=2009-10-17 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012040751/http://www.nlib.sakha.ru/Resoures/Data/Bibl_Assist/Rus_Ust/rus_ust4.html , archive-date=2009-10-12 , url-status=dead Former populated places in the Sakha Republic History of Siberia Fur trade Defunct towns in Russia Rural localities in Momsky District