Russia (bbabo.net), - This year marks the 110th anniversary of the first Russian expedition to the North Pole. Rossiyskaya Gazeta followed in the footsteps of its boss, the legendary Lieutenant Georgy Sedov.

Some Arkhangelsk families still keep tokens depicting the conquest of high latitudes. Along there is an inscription: "To the donor for the expedition of Senior Lieutenant Sedov to the North Pole." In the center, against the background of eternal ice, a polar explorer on skis, a husky and the flag of Russia are depicted. The same flag that Georgy Sedov planned to hoist at the North Pole. In March 2022, the first Russian expedition to the North Pole will be 110 years old, and in May it will be 145 years since the birth of its leader.

Ahead of Amundsen

It all started in St. Petersburg: in March 1912, Georgy Yakovlevich submitted a report to the head of the Main Hydrographic Department "to reach the Pole and hoist the national flag on it."

The explanatory note said: "Bitter and insulting! Amundsen wants to go north in 1913. And we can go this year, if only Russian society wants to seriously think about the possible achievement of the pole by us, and not by foreigners, and support me" .

According to the writer, photographer and biographer of Sedov Nikolai Pinegin, the "starting shot" of the expedition was given by the editor of the Novoye Vremya newspaper, Mikhail Suvorin, who proposed to create "the topic of the day" out of it.

“In our vile times, even the North is a godsend,” Suvorin said half-mockingly, half-seriously. - I personally like this idea. Better North than talking about the Constitution.

"Bitter and shameful! Amundsen wants to go north in 1913. But we can go already this year"

And since Sedov was denied state support, Suvorin organized a fundraiser. Nicholas II contributed 10,000 rubles, and ordinary citizens of St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk bought bronze, silver and gold tokens - depending on the thickness of the donor's wallet. Such crowdfunding allowed Sedov to collect the necessary amount. By the way, each token was accompanied by a ribbon, which allowed you to proudly wear the badge on your clothes.

Today, in Arkhangelsk, any person who in childhood read Kaverin's "Two Captains" can follow in the footsteps of Georgy Sedov. In the book, by the way, the paths of three legendary expeditions that went to the Arctic on the eve of the First World War intersect. Most of all we know about Georgy Yakovlevich, since his "Saint Foka", unlike the schooner "Saint Anna" of Brusilov and the "Hercules" of Rusanov, nevertheless returned home. He returned without his boss, who went to the Pole on dog sleds and died on the way from scurvy.

"Handle Quick"

from the Northern Maritime Museum of Arkhangelsk today overlooks the snow-covered Red Pier - on August 27, 1912 from here, from the right-wing wall, went to the Arctic "Saint Fock". This wooden steamer was built in Norway and then sold to Russia. “Sedov .. Foka .. liked it. The vessel is strong. The navigator says there is a decent leak. But .. the donka .. (steam pump) copes. There is a strong pump to help her. - Nikolai Pinegin writes in his book about Sedov.

The whole of Arkhangelsk saw off the first expedition to the Pole.

- The ceremony began at the Trinity Cathedral - there was a solemn prayer service. It was attended by the mayor Yakov Leitzinger, vice-governor Bryanchaninov. Then the whole procession moved to the Cathedral Pier, where "Saint Fok" was waiting, - the director of the Northern Maritime Museum of Arkhangelsk Yevgeny Tenetov conducts a tour of the Sedovo places for Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Sedov was against the solemn farewell.

- But precisely because the main sponsor of the expedition was Mikhail Suvorin, a very famous media mogul at that time, and the PR campaign became the main "capital" of the expedition, and such a grandiose event was prepared. Everything was filmed in detail on photo and video, - says the director.

“Steamboat whistles and the chirping of two movie cameras were woven into the singing of the church choir,” Pinegin recalls. “The cameramen were the Spaniard Serrano and the artist Nikolai Vasilievich, who studied the art of filming with him for a month. “Turn the handle faster, faster,” the Spaniard got excited.

By the way, the little that remains of the legendary ship is stored today in the Northern Maritime Museum.

- The ship returned to Arkhangelsk in 1914 broken and half-burnt, no one was waiting for the crew - the First World War had just begun. Later, in 1917, the schooner was carried away by an ice drift and washed up on Shilov Island in the Solombala region, covered with sand. Children from it dived into the Dvina, the fishermen were fishing. And only in 1984, when the 400th anniversary of Arkhangelsk was celebrated, did the Moscow archaeological expedition unearth what was left of the Foka, the sternpost, says Yevgeny Tenetov.

In the anniversary year, the museum decided to present the only witness of the campaign - to demonstrate it more visibly, as the sternpost is attached to the ship. Arkhangelsk carpenter Alexander Antonov has already sketched the project.

Arctic Areopagus

- Despite the fact that the expedition was organized by monarchists, in fact, to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, and Sedov never showed leftist views, in Soviet times, people began to actively preserve his memory. Perhaps due to the low birth of Georgy Yakovlevich - he was the son of an impoverished Azov fisherman, - says Evgeny Tenetov. - The icebreaking steamer, which came from Britain to Arkhangelsk in 1916 and received the name "Georgy Sedov", also played its role in the canonization of the polar explorer. The icebreaker participated in the famous Arctic expeditions of the 1930s, including the famous drift. The word "sedovtsy" has become a household word.

According to the director, it was then that Georgy Yakovlevich began to be introduced into the "Arctic Areopagus":

- And the polar explorers at that time were, as in the 60s - astronauts. Heroes, people who are fighting against the elements here and now. A decisive role in the Arctic canonization of Sedov was also played by the books of the expedition member Nikolai Pinegin.

By the way, some of the photographic documents taken during the first trip to the Pole are also kept in the Northern Maritime Museum. This year, a book is being prepared for publication here, which will include Pinegin's previously unpublished color transparencies with images of Sedov's wintering on Novaya Zemlya.

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Later, the sailors denied everything

Another point of attraction associated with Sedov is the crossroads of the Arkhangelsk pedestrian Chumbarovka and Karl Liebknecht Street: until the end of the 1970s, there was a wooden house of the merchant Dvoinikova, in which Ksenia Gemp lived with her parents . In 1912, the future explorer of the Russian North turned 18 years old, and her father, at that time the deputy head of the construction work of the Arkhangelsk port, led the hydrometeorological service of the Arctic Ocean. Sedov and members of the expedition often visited them, so after returning to Arkhangelsk, sailors Linnik and Pustoshny came here. As is known, these were the only members of the team who agreed to accompany Sedov in his last deadly rush to the Pole.

According to the stories of Ksenia Petrovna, Sedov's tipsy companions admitted that after the death of they fed his remains to the dogs - so that the half-dead team could return to the ship. Later, the sailors denied everything - the mystery of the death of the polar explorer went with them ...

In the meantime

An embankment in Arkhangelsk's Solombala is named after Sedov. Here, on the banks of the Dvina, there was a house where Georgy Yakovlevich lived: in his yard, members of the expedition collected equipment, equipment, dogs, provisions. The fact that Sedov's two-story mansion gave way to a machine-building plant in the 1970s is an irreparable loss for the history of the Arctic. In order to compensate for it, the public of the city proposes to erect a monument to the lieutenant on the Red Pier. True, many still call the polar explorer a fanatic, an "Arctic suicide." Forgetting, by the way, that during his campaigns, Georgy Yakovlevich managed to make a serious contribution to Arctic science - just a detailed description of Novaya Zemlya is worth something! And which of the polar explorers of that time was not a fanatic - in the best sense of the word? In fact, if it were not for the high-latitude expeditions of the desperate "Kaverin" captains, today we would not have learned a lot about the Arctic ...

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