Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov

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Stepan Petrovich KrasheninnikovThe fate of Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov was unusual. The son of a soldier, he was born in Moscow on October 31, 1711. At the age of 13 he was admitted to the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy at the Zaikonospassky monastery. Among the twelve best students in 1732, he was sent as a student to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. There he underwent appropriate training in order to then take part in the most remarkable scientific expedition of the 18th century.

... In August 1733, a wagon train left St. Petersburg. Ahead - bulky rattle cars, behind them wagons loaded with luggage carts.

One of the detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, which included academicians of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, set off on a long journey to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The detachment was to explore Siberia and especially the then little-known Kamchatka. Painters, arrows for hunting animals and birds, students went along with the academicians. In one of the wagons, a twenty-two-year-old Krasheninnikov, then unknown to anyone, was traveling ...

Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov

"Stepan Krasheninnikov, Professor of Botany and Natural History of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences."
Portrait by A. Osipov, 1801. Dotted engraving

Could he have guessed that he would return back to St. Petersburg only ten years later? That these years will become years of his scientific feat, years of courage and tireless, selfless labor, which will glorify his name as one of the Russian explorers? That the result of all this will be a unique book that he will write at night in the remaining years of his short life? That his work will not be found equal in the entire world geographical literature of the 18th century, and that for another century it will be an inexhaustible treasure for researchers? And that, finally, he will never see his book printed - "Description of the Land of Kamchatka" will be published a year after his death?

And the blizzard, and the rain, and the fierce Siberian frost, and hunger, and a day without sleep - all Krasheninnikov had to endure. Only two and a half years later the detachment arrived in Yakutsk. “This is not a trip, not a journey, this is a special life; this path is so long ", - said later the writer I. A. Goncharov, who traveled to these places a century later than Krasheninnikov.

Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov

"Kamchatka Fire-breathing Mountain".
Illustration from the book of S. Krasheninnikov Description of the land of Kamchatka

The leaders of the academic group I. Gmelin and G. Miller did not go further. On July 5, 1737, a sailing boat, on the deck of which Krasheninnikov stood, sailed from Yakutsk up the Lena. A student of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the first explorer of Kamchatka, sailed to a distant land. From that time on, his independent activity began, which today amazes with its breadth and scope. He visited the extreme

south and north of the peninsula, crossed a huge land in various directions. For hundreds of miles, it traveled along the river valleys along the Kamchatka lands and more than a thousand miles along the Kamchatka shores. During his trips, he stayed for a long time in the villages of the Kamchadals, as the Russian inhabitants of Kamchatka were called then - the Itelmens.

In a relatively short period of time Krasheninnikov was able to collect all the necessary information on this region. When his book was subsequently published, readers found in it a detailed geographical description of the region. It told about everything that Krasheninnikov could learn over the years - about the geography of the area, natural conditions, flora and fauna, life and customs of the population, but almost not a word was said about him, about how he lived on Kamchatka, how he made friends with the Itelmens, how he won their trust and how many times he was on the verge of death when he walked deaf, unexplored paths in the forests or sailed in a boat along the rough Kamchatka rivers.And only the people with whom he became friends in Kamchatka spoke about the courage of the young Russian student for many years.

The Itelmens did not immediately understand why this young man needed to ask them about the habits of animals and birds or talk for hours about how the inhabitants hunt, celebrate weddings, and bury the dead. And when the traveler explained that he had come from afar to learn and tell all people about the land of Kamchatka, they began to treat him with great respect. The Itelmens even composed a song about him. Krasheninnikov translated it into Russian and placed it in his book "Description of the land of Kamchatka".

Stepan Petrovich KrasheninnikovKrasheninnikov did a job that only an outstanding scientist could do. By 1740, the description of the peninsula was completed. On June 23, 1741, he left Kamchatka and at the beginning of 1743 returned to St. Petersburg. Krasheninnikov's path during his stay in Siberia and Kamchatka was 25 thousand versts, or about 30 thousand kilometers.

In 1750 Krasheninnikov was approved as a professor, that is, an academician of the natural history of botany, appointed rector of the academic university and inspector of the academic gymnasium. He directs the botanical garden, studies the flora of the Petersburg province, makes several expeditions, makes many translations from foreign languages, gives a course of lectures ... All these matters hinder the scientist's scientific studies, including the preparation for publication of the main work of his life - "Description of the land of Kamchatka"... However, he works on the manuscript with his usual determination and tenacity. MV Lomonosov, who knew the author well, appreciated him and often expressed support for him, approved the manuscript and recognized it as worthy of publication.

The last years of his life, S.P. Krasheninnikov was in a very serious condition - his health, undermined during the years of study and stay in Kamchatka, greatly deteriorated. Material insecurity was partly to blame for this; burdened with a large family, Krasheninnikov increasingly appeals to the treasury of the Academy, asking for money to purchase medicines. On March 8, 1755, he was gone. Krasheninnikov's wife had nothing to arrange a funeral.

Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov

The grave of S.P. Krasheninnikov at the Lazarevskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg

Book "Description of the land of Kamchatka" came out a year after his death through the efforts of M.V. Lomonosov. Contemporaries highly appreciated this remarkable work - the first scientific description of the Pacific outskirts of the Russian land, which opened to the whole world a hitherto unknown original culture of the peoples of Kamchatka. The scientist's book went through many editions in France, Germany, England, Holland. It is known that AS Pushkin read “Description of the land of Kamchatka” literally before his tragic death. The book fascinated him so much that he outlined it, thinking soon to start a historical story from Kamchatka life.

Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov died 43 years old in the prime of his creative powers. His life is an example of selfless service to the motherland and science.

M. Remizova

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