200 years ago, in July 1819, the First Russian Antarctic Expedition set off from Kronstadt to the shores of Antarctica. Russian sailors became the discoverers of Antarctica, the last sixth continent. This feat was accomplished by the crews of the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny", headed by their commanders Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. Now they want to deprive the Russians of the status of the discoverers of Antarctica. This is due to the fact that the West wants to appropriate the enormous wealth of the ice continent.
Unknown southern land
The success of the Russian Antarctic expedition was not accidental. Russian sailors sailed south to put an end to a long dispute over the existence of the Unknown Southern Land (Terra Australia Incognita). For more than half a century before the sending of the Bellingshausen and Lazarev expedition, the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov substantiated the existence of the Unknown Southern Land by the presence of icebergs. In his 1761 work "Thoughts on the origin of ice mountains in the northern seas" Lomonosov noted that the presence of "paduns" (icebergs) unambiguously speaks of the nearby shores, from which huge ice blocks open. And since in the southern latitudes there are much more such block-paduns than in the northern ones, it can be assumed that the Unknown Southern Land is located there.
Modern science has confirmed Lomonosov's assumption. But then it was impossible to prove it, the Lomonosov theory had supporters and opponents. So, in 1772-1775. Englishman James Cook made a second trip around the world, hoping to find a mysterious continent with the aim of colonizing it. As a result, Cook concluded that if there is land in high southern latitudes, then it is completely inaccessible and unsuitable for development. The authority of the British explorer was so high that no polar expeditions were undertaken for several decades.
However, many Russian sailors did not share the opinion of the British. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian fleet began large-scale exploration of the World Ocean. So, Kruzenshtern proposed a round-the-world travel project. He was supported by Chancellor Count Rumyantsev and Admiral Mordvinov, who obtained the Tsar's permission to implement the project. In 1803-1806 ships "Nadezhda" and "Neva" under the command of Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky carried out the first Russian round-the-world voyage. The successful campaign of this expedition was a big step for our fleet. From that time on, regular voyages of our merchant ships and warships began to Russian America and the Far East, and other ocean voyages.
Golovnin on the sloop "Diana" in 1811 explored the Kuril Islands. In 1815 - 1818. The brig "Rurik" under the command of Lieutenant Kotzebue made a round-the-world trip. The expedition was unable to discover a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, but made several other important discoveries. Beyond the Bering Strait, a vast bay off the coast of America, called the Sound Kotzebue, was examined. Also in the Pacific Ocean, in the eastern part of the Carolina Archipelago, several groups of islands have been discovered.
Russian researchers, Kruzenshtern, Kotsebue, Golovnin and others, put forward the idea of studying the southern circumpolar latitudes. At the beginning of 1819, this idea was supported by the naval minister Ivan de Traversay. In February 1819, the highest decree was signed on the formation of polar expeditions. Two detachments ("divisions") were formed. The first went around South America to study the "Southern Ocean" - the seas around the Unknown Southern Land. The second detachment was supposed to go around Africa, Asia, pass the Bering Strait and find a way north of Canada. The first division included the sloop "Vostok" and the transport "Ladoga" (later renamed "Mirny"). Their commanders were Captain 2nd Rank Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Lieutenant Mikhail Lazarev. The corvette "Otkrytie" and the transport "Blagonamerenny" were assigned to the second division. They were commanded by Lieutenant Commander Mikhail Vasiliev and Lieutenant Gleb Shishmarev.
"East" and "Mirny"
Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen was the classic commander of the Russian fleet. He graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1797, until 1803 he sailed on the ships of the Revel squadron. In 1803 he became a member of the first Russian round-the-world expedition. He went on the sloop "Nadezhda" under the command of Kruzenstern. Bellingshausen performed all sea and geographical maps that were included in the final countdown of the expedition. At the end of the campaign he was promoted to lieutenant commander. He commanded the corvette "Melpomene" in the Baltic, the frigates "Minerva" and "Flora" in the Black Sea. At the beginning of 1819, as an experienced hydrographer, he received the task to determine the geographical position of all prominent places and capes on the Black Sea. However, he did not manage to complete this important task, he was summoned to the capital, Bellingshausen accepted the sloop Vostok and became the head of the first detachment of the polar expedition.
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev studied at the Naval Corps, among the best students in 1803 he was sent to practice in England, in the navy. For five years he went on ships in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Participated in the war with Sweden and France. In 1813, 25-year-old Lieutenant Lazarev became the commander of the Suvorov frigate, which belonged to the Russian-American Company (RAC), and made the second Russian round-the-world voyage (it lasted until 1816). The main goal of the campaign was to establish regular communication between Russia and Russian America. Lazarev spent four years in the ocean, visited Europe, off the coast of both Americas and Australia, crossed the equator four times and brilliantly fulfilled all the instructions of both the RAC and the military command. He discovered five uninhabited atolls and named them the Suvorov Islands.
Thus, the commanders of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition were two experienced sailors with vast experience. This allowed Bellingshausen and Lazarev not only to start the trip together, but also to complete it. They have never lost sight of each other's ships. For that time, this was a great achievement: usually ships that went in one detachment returned home separately. The success of the Russian sailors was all the more if we remember how different in their seaworthiness were the ships sent to the campaign.
The sailing sloop "Vostok", launched in 1818 at the Okhtinskaya shipyard in St. Petersburg, was of the same type as the sloop "Kamchatka", on which in 1817-1819. Golovnin made a new trip around the world. The Maritime Ministry believed that this was the ideal ship for a round-the-world voyage. Therefore, the objections of the sailors about the suitability of the "Vostok" to travel to the polar campaign were not taken into account. In addition, the expedition was prepared in a very short time - five months. There was no time to replace the ship. As a result, the sloop "Vostok" was distinguished by good seaworthiness, was fast, but cramped, poorly endured storms and walking in ice.
Transport "Ladoga", which before the campaign was enrolled in the navy and named "Peaceful", was better prepared for the campaign in Antarctica. It was built in 1818 at the Olonets shipyard as an ice-moving transport. To speed up the beginning of the expedition, it was decided to build not a new ship, but to use the Ladoga. Therefore, the ship initially had many useful qualities: a strong structure and a low spar, which made it possible to better endure storms and not overload the ship in icy conditions. When "Mirny" was assigned to the expedition, Lazarev personally supervised its completion. In Kronstadt, the ship was equipped with a second skin, the underwater part was covered with copper, and some of the structural and control elements from pine were replaced with stronger oak ones. Inside the hull, additional fasteners were installed in case of ice impact, etc. As a result, the vessel turned out to be very strong and stable, but it was seriously inferior in speed to the Vostok. During the cruise, the ship under Bellingshausen's command had to wait for "Mirny" more than once. However, near Antarctica itself, the advantages of Mirny were obvious.
Pioneers
In early November 1819, the Russian expedition arrived in Rio de Janeiro. In mid-December, "Vostok" and "Mirny" approached South Georgia Island, previously briefly examined by Cook's expedition. Geographical discoveries began, and the names of expedition participants and famous compatriots appeared on the maps. Thus, the capes of Paryadin, Demidov, Kupriyanov, Novosilskiy Bay, Leskov Island, Torson Island (renamed to Vysokiy Island) and Zavadovskiy Island were discovered. Then the Russian ships headed for the Sandwich Land, so called Cook, which mistook a number of small islands for the capes of one land. Honoring the great navigator, the largest island was named after him, and the other islands were named South Sandwich.
On January 16 (28), 1820, Russian sailors first approached the sixth continent. Bellingshausen and Lazarev solved a problem that Cook considered unsolvable. The Russian Antarctic expedition justified all the hopes placed on it. Russian sailors on small ships made a round-the-world trip, visited places that had not yet been visited by other ships. Only more than a hundred years later, people came here again - Norwegian whalers.
As a result, during the cruise, which lasted 751 days, "Vostok" and "Mirny" spent 527 at sea, of which 122 days sailed south of the 60th parallel, including 100 days in ice. Russian sailors reached the shores of Antarctica four times, discovered 29 islands, many of which were named after the expedition members and Russian emperors - the land of Alexander I, the island of Peter I, the islands of Annenkov, Zavadovsky, Leskov, Torson, and the Vostok island. They were able to draw up detailed maps of previously discovered places, which sailors around the world used for a whole century. And most importantly, the first Russian Antarctic expedition discovered the Unknown Southern Land - Antarctica. At the same time, the expedition, which took place in the most difficult conditions, managed to lose all three people during all this time (one sailor died of illness, two died during storms). It was an amazing case for that time!
Territorial claims
Since the southern continent for a long time was not of economic interest, the issue of primacy in the discovery of the sixth continent for a long time was only of a narrow scientific nature. At the beginning of the 20th century, in connection with the development of science and technology (the possibility of economic development appeared), the military-strategic interests of the United States and Britain began to strive to prove their priority in the discovery of the southern continent. So, in England, the British navigator Edward Bransfield was named the discoverer of Antarctica, who on January 30, 1820 may have discovered the Trinity Peninsula - this is the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. In the United States, it is considered the discoverer of the seafarer-fisherman Nathaniel Palmer, who in November 1820 saw the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and in 1821 discovered the South Orkney Islands.
Even before the start of World War II, England, France, Norway, Argentina, Chile, Germany and Japan, presented their territorial claims on the territory of the southern continent, including the nearby islands (she transferred part of her rights to her dominions - Australia and New Zealand). Soviet Moscow made no claims, but reserved the right to do so on the lands discovered by Russian sailors.
After the victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, the issue of priority in the discovery of Antarctica became part of the global confrontation between the two superpowers - the USSR and the USA. Germany and Japan, which were defeated in the world war and became the semi-colonies of the United States, abandoned their claims. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was signed, and in 1961, the Antarctic Treaty entered into force, which consolidated the existing status quo, prohibiting new claims and expanding old ones. The agreement allowed the use of the territories of the sixth continent and the water area south of 60 ° South latitude for scientific purposes (it is believed that scientific activity makes it possible to “stake out” certain areas of Antarctica). Economic and military activities were prohibited.
At the present time, when the Great Victory of our people in 1945 in the West is forgotten and vilified, the USSR is destroyed, like the Yalta-Berlin system of international relations, the question of the ownership of Antarctica (like the Arctic) is again on the agenda. Obviously, the owners of the West (and the East - China, Japan) are interested in the Southern continent. It is a matter of military-political strategy, global domination and resources. It is clear that Western parasites are not averse to launching their tentacles into the vast riches of the whole continent.
Russia's actions in this situation lie in the vector of development: either we are still a part of Europe (its “pipe”), the economic, political and cultural periphery of the West, or a separate Russian civilization, autocratic and decisive in global, foreign policy and internal issues in the interests of the state and people. If we are still a part of Europe "from Lisbon to Vladivostok", with the dominance of Western liberalism and "democracy", then sooner or later the Southern continent will be mastered without us. The Russian discoverers will be safely forgotten.
In the event of the restoration of Russian global and foreign policy in the interests of the state and the people (and not a handful of "friends of the West"), it is necessary to raise the question that Antarctica belongs to Russia by the right of its first discovery. Usurpation of this right by other countries is illegal.
