The army that recently defeated Frederick the Great, victoriously beating the Turks and Swedes, yielded to the polar natives with bows and spears.
Polar skirmish
The Russian-Chukchi war (more precisely, a series of wars) lasted, according to some estimates, more than 150 years and ended generally ingloriously for us. True, let's clarify something. The Russians left not because the defeats were so painful for the huge empire. The war just lost its meaning (about which - below). And of course it wasn't 150 years of daily fighting. The stay of the garrison in the Anadyr prison, several campaigns, a series of skirmishes - this is the chronicle of events. The entire Chukchi tribe (then they wrote "chyukchi") with old men, women, children numbered less than 10 thousand people, Russian detachments - several hundred bayonets (and even bayonets? - there were not so many soldiers and Cossacks in them, much more "enrolled in composition "of the Koryaks and Yukaghirs). So judge the scale of the hostilities. And in general, let's face it, the theater of military operations was not the main one for the state. The empire here simply "designated the flag." In 1763, she lowered this flag. Nobody really noticed.
Chukchi warrior. Modern reconstruction
But on the other hand … Russia left the territory that it already considered its own. The military contingents were defeated. The military leaders were killed. The Chukchi captured the banner of the Russian military unit (and also weapons, military equipment, even a cannon that they did not need). And most importantly - "they forced themselves to respect": in the future, they did not agree with them from a position of strength. Whatever one may say, in all respects - our defeat, their victory.
Why did Russia get up with this tribe?
Circassians of Siberia
In general, a natural process was taking place: while mastering Siberia, Russians in the 17th – 18th centuries went further and further, to the most extreme northeastern borders. Along the way, they negotiated with the local peoples, accepted them as citizenship, established yasak (give furs). They set up huts - if the natives were in a peaceful mood. Or fortified prison - if not peaceful. On the Chukotka Peninsula, by the time described, there was a reference point - the Anadyr prison, founded back in 1652 by the Cossacks Semyon Dezhneva. Not to be confused with today's city of Anadyr, that prison is now a village Markovo deep in the peninsula, a local oasis! Anadyr - simply because on the Anadyr River, along the banks of which the Chukchi lived.
Chukchi - ha ha! How, we know! There are so many jokes about them!
Well, for the attention of lovers of these anecdotes … "Circassians of Siberia" - this is how the former exiled Polish rebel, "Kostyushkovets", who was observing them, called the Chukchi in his memoirs Yu Kopot. That is, he compared them with the Caucasian highlanders. "The people are strong, tall, courageous, of sturdy build, (…) warlike, loving freedom, (…) vindictive" Is an estimate Dmitry Pavlutsky, one of the heroes of our story. And he fought directly with the Chukchi.
For all northern peoples, the main wealth is deer. This is food, clothing, and a means of transportation. The Chukchi too. But they preferred to replenish their herds by driving off the herds of their neighbors - the Koryaks and Yukagirs. The "raiding economy" formed a certain national type. The Chukchi were distinguished by innate fighting skills, courage, and fearlessness. They preferred suicide to surrender. Yes, they did not know guns and gunpowder. But they beat them with bows without missing, they skillfully wielded spears in close combat, and in their armor and helmets made of walrus skins they were invulnerable - at least for the local enemy. Plus the swiftness of movement - on sledges, skiing, the ability to disguise, the mass of military techniques worked out since ancient times …
They always looked down on other peoples - so why should some newcomer Russians be treated differently? The first domestic mentions of the Chukchi are reports from 1641 that they robbed Russian yasak collectors. They robbed further.
In 1725 the Yakut Cossack head Afanasy Shestakov proposed to St. Petersburg to organize an expedition to the north-east of Siberia. Petersburg knew about the unexplored land there, about the existence of tribes that were not overlaid with yasak. And then, by the time, part of the Koryaks also refused to pay it. Well, in 1727 the Senate gave the go-ahead to create "Anadyr Party". She had to study and take control of Chukotka, Kamchatka, the Okhotsk coast. Shestakov's Cossacks were given a military command under the aforementioned dragoon captain Pavlutsky.
Exotic enemies and allies
For many centuries Russia has fought with anyone! Tatars, Turks, Swedes, Poles, Germans … But there were opponents and quite exotic ones.
Recall, for example, "Russian-Indian war": in 1802-1805 colonists of "Russian Alaska" fought with the tribe Tlingit Indians (ears) on the island of Sitka.
Even earlier, our opponents almost became Madagascar pirates. Or allies? At the dawn of the 18th century, the local filibusters (of European origin) decided to create their own "pirate republic". We asked for help from Sweden. This became known Peter I. In 1723 he sent a secret expedition to the shores of Madagascar in order to … Further it is unclear. Seize the initiative? Act as appropriate? One way or another, the sent ship sank on the way. The plan was slowed down. And at the beginning of 1725, the tsar died - and the project collapsed by itself.
In the 1870s and 80s, the great traveler N. Miklouho-Maclayseeing the Anglo-German colonial aspirations for New Guinea, he asked in turn two emperors, Alexander II, and then Alexander III establish a Russian protectorate over it. I almost provoked an interstate crisis. But Petersburg because of the Papuans did not want to get into a fight.
Russian conquistadors
Reading today materials about the "Chukchi epic" of the 1720s – 50s. (detailed work A. Zueva, V. Gritskevich and others), you don't even pay attention to the vicissitudes of campaigns and hostilities. The types of the "actors" themselves are interesting. These are the conquistadors, our Pizarro and Cortes! The same courage, energy, courage. The same ruthlessness (in the name of Pavlutsk, the Chukchi frightened children for a long time). The same sometimes treachery (centurion Shipitsyn invited the Chukchi elders to negotiate and cut it). The same pride, frenzied temperament. Pavlutsky and Shestakov could not agree on which of them is in charge. In 1729, they set out together from Tobolsk, on the way to Yakutsk they quarreled to death - and then each went with his detachment in his own direction.
Shestakov acted on the Okhotsk coast - pacified the insurgent Koryaks, fought the "Chukoch". In 1730 he ran into an ambush. Wounded by an arrow in the throat, he was taken prisoner - and the head of the Cossack was cut off.
With Pavlutsky it turned out even more interesting.
Toothed man
He actually was Pavlotsky and now would be called a Belarusian: the son of a native of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Therefore, for Belarusian historians - almost "our fellow countryman". They celebrate his merits. He organized an expedition to the shores of Alaska … I taught Kamchadals to farming … For the first time I brought them a cow and a bull … That's right. Only Pavlutsky is glorious to others.
In September 1729 he reached Anadyr and became the head of the "party". Tired of the Chukchi raids, the Yukaghirs and Koryaks willingly accepted the "Russian hand". But now they had to be protected. Pavlutsky made several campaigns against the Chukchi throughout the peninsula. The enemy could not resist rifle fire, he suffered terrible losses in battles, and then Pavlutsky went through the Chukchi camps as a true punisher. But he achieved his goal - for the time being "forced to the world."
After the battle, the corpse of a strange man was found at the present Cape Dezhnev - "Toothed": from the slits on his lips protruded the resemblances of walrus tusks, carved from bone. The custom is not local. It turned out that it was an Eskimo who fought with the Chukchi. And the Eskimos are from Alaska, about which the Russians did not know then. But since the Chukchi and the Eskimos are connected, it means that the land of the Eskimos is not far away? Pavlutsky reported to Petersburg. In 1732 the bot "Saint Gabriel" crossed the Bering Strait (which has not yet bore this name) - this is how the Russians first came to the Alaskan shores.
Then Pavlutsky was recalled to Yakutsk, given a major, then he served in Kamchatka, again in Yakutsk, again in Anadyr. Only the Chukchi were invincible. In March 1747, they drove away a garrison herd of deer. Pavlutsky with a hundred Cossacks and Koryaks rushed in pursuit - and ran into the Chukchi soldiers already waiting for him. There were five times more of them, and we already knew the moments when the enemy was vulnerable. After the first volley, the Cossacks began to reload their guns (then it was a long procedure), and then the Chukchi attacked. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, Pavlutsky's detachment was defeated, the major himself was killed.
Waste land
Enraged Petersburg sent new troops to Chukotka - but it’s not easy to fight on frozen ice expanses! In addition, the Chukchi did not get involved in battles, they preferred partisan tactics. Yes, in fact, they did not so much fight with us as they simply robbed our neighbors. The sluggish confrontation lasted another ten and a half years. At Elizabeth the wise admiral became Siberian governor Fedor Soimonov. He kept repeating: throw these Chukchi, let them live as they want. Their land is meager, and most importantly - we do not need it. A possible foothold for a dive into Alaska? It's easier to go there by sea. And in 1763 (250 years ago), already at Ekaterina, the new head of the Anadyr party, lieutenant colonel Friedrich Plenisner presented calculations - how much is the maintenance of this party costing the treasury. The figure turned out to be astronomical - despite the fact that there was no income and was not expected.
The Senate gasped and made a decision: to liquidate the party, to tear down the fortifications of the prison, to withdraw the garrison and Russian settlers.
Although ten years later I had to return: French and British ships began to appear near the Chukchi coast. They were afraid that a foreign outpost would appear near the Russian Alaska. But Catherine strictly ordered to negotiate good with the Chukchi, to meet them halfway in everything.
Nevertheless, even before October 1917, the Chukchi were considered not completely "pacified".
… Although, of course, the vodka and diseases brought by the "white people" turned out to be more terrible for the harsh warriors of the North than all the guns of Major Pavlutsky.
