Demid Pjanda

Siberian river routes

Demid Sofonowitsch Pjanda ( Russian Демид Софонович Пянда ; *?; † after 1637) was a Cossack fur trader who was one of the greatest explorers of Siberia . He was one of the first Russians to reach the Lena River . In the years 1620 to 1624 he explored around 2300 km of the Lower Tunguska , 1400 km of the Angara and around 2400 km of the Lena. In total, Pjanda traveled around 8000 km of previously unknown Siberian rivers. He discovered Yakutia and was probably the first Russian to have contact with both Yakuts and Buryats . He proved that the Angara (Buryat name) and the Upper Tunguska (the original Russian name) are the same river.

About identity and name

Maliza: garment of a Samoyed

Pjanda is obviously a nickname. It refers to the fringes of the Maliza (Малица), a Samoyed garment made of reindeer fur, made of different colored furs .

In the first third of the 17th century, two men nicknamed Pjanda are reported in Yakutia. One was Demid Safonowitsch (the son of Safon or Sofon), called Pjanda - his name appears in documents from 1637. The other was Pantelej Demidowitsch Pjanda, probably a son of Pjanda Safonowitsch - his name is mentioned in 1643. The great discoverer was most likely Demid Sofonowitsch Pyanda.

Title page of the ninth volume from Müller's Collection of Russian History , Saint Petersburg 1764.

Few original documents exist regarding Pjanda. Most of the findings come from the records of the historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller , who collected the stories about Pjanda around 100 years later during his participation in the Great Nordic Expedition in the regions of Yenisei and Lena. Müller published his research results from 1732 to 1764 in the nine-volume series of monographs, Collection of Russian History .

Driving on the Yenisei and the Lower Tunguska

Demid Pjanda came to Mangaseja around 1619 from the Yenisisker Ostrog . He had some money and possessions of unknown origin. With 40 men he took a trip on the Yenisei to Turukhansk near the mouth of the Lower Tunguska. Buyer of furs from the locals, he heard stories about a major river in the east of the Lower Tunguska, called Elju-en , which in the language of the Evenki "big river". The Russians changed the name to Lena (pronounced Ljena ), a short form of the Russian female name Jelena.

Many wanted to find this legendary river Lena and its fur riches, but at the same time a different kind of story was circulating: It was told of a great river in the east, on which large ships with bells and cannons sailed. This may have related to Chinese ships on the Amur River , not the Lena, but the Russians did not yet know that there are two different sized rivers east of the Yenisei. The stories of armed ships prevented Russian adventurers from moving eastward too quickly and carelessly.

Strug: Small Russian sailing boat of the 16th / 17th centuries Century for inland navigation, detail of a postage stamp from 1987

Pjanda was the most determined of the potential explorers, and in 1620 embarked on a very lengthy expedition. He sailed from Turukhansk with a large crew and several Strug boats down the Lower Tunguska. They moved very quickly between the taiga- covered banks of the river until the river turned south and narrowed. Tree trunks floating down the river obstructed the way. Pjanda said the Tungus tried to force him to repent. To avoid risk, or possibly to buy furs from the locals at this point in the trip, he ordered his men to stop and build a winter settlement (зимовья). In the middle of the 18th century this place was called Nizhny Pyandino (Нижни Пяндино - Lower Pyandino). It was located at the point where the Lower Tunguska is closest to the Wiljui , an important tributary of the Lena. The winter camp was attacked several times by the Tungus, but the Russians were able to easily repel these attacks with firearms.

In the spring of the next year, 1621, Pyanda sailed only a few tens of kilometers upstream and had another winter settlement, Verkhneje Pyandino ( Верхнее Пяндино - Upper Pyandino) built. In 1622 he also sailed only a few hundred kilometers south, where he wintered again in a winter camp. This slow pace of his journey can be explained either by the resistance of the Tungus or by the successful fur trade with them.

Discovery and exploration of the Lena

Rocky banks on the Lower Tunguska (Photo: AP Kurilowitsch 1926/27)

The latter winter settlement of the Pyanda expedition happened to be very close to the so-called Chechuisky Volok ( Чечуйский волок ), a 20 km narrow portage between the Lower Tunguska and the Upper Lena. So Pjanda discovered the Lena and in 1623 either crossed his ships or built new boats on the banks of the Lena in order to finally explore this great East Siberian river. (In fact, he was not the first Russian to visit the Lena: three years earlier, men from Mangaseja who were not known by name had discovered the Lena at the mouth of the Wiljui, which is about 1800 km down the river to the north.)

After the ice melted, Pjanda followed the ice floes down the river for several days and sailed through rocky banks. Below the mouth of a right tributary called the Witim , the Lena broadened, eventually turned east and flowed around low sandbanks and numerous islands. After Pjanda had passed the mouth of another right tributary, the Oljokma , the banks gave a view of the land of the Yakuts. Numerous Yakut yurts stood on the wide plain, so that Pjanda and his team turned around to avoid wintering in the midst of the still unknown tribe.

Exploring the Angara

Pyanda returned to the Chechuisky Volok and decided to explore another route back to the Yenisei. He continued sailing up the Lena until it became too rocky and flat, and then traveled west through the steppes inhabited by nomadic Buryats .

In the fall of 1623, Pjanda's team reached the upper Angara . Here the men still had some time to build new boats, as the Angara does not freeze over until relatively late. After successfully negotiating the Angara rapids, Pjanda and his men finally reached the mouth of the Yenisei River. Pyanda and his men discovered that the Angara is the same river as the Upper Tunguska (Верхняя Тунгуска - Verkhnyaya Tunguska), as the river was previously called by the Yeniseisk Cossacks. In late 1623 or early 1624, Pyanda reached Yeniseisk, where his 8,000 km journey ended.

Demid Pjanda is mentioned again in 1637, his further life is unknown.

literature

• Raymond Henry Fisher: The Russian Fur Trade, 1550-1700 . University of California Press, 1943. (English)
• Вячеслав Маркин: Через всю Сибирь: от реки к реке . Москва: Вече 2002 г. (Vyacheslav Markin: Through the whole of Siberia: From river to river. Moscow 2002). (Russian). Digitized extract , accessed on November 29, 2010
• Section Землепроходец Пянда и открытие Лены (The discoverer Pyanda and the development of the Lena) in Открытие русскими средней и и открытие Лены (Russian opening of the Central November 2010 ) and the Russian opening of the Central November 2010 (Russian восточной on November 29, 2010 Сибирочной )
• Gerhard Friedrich Müller : Collection of Russian history . 9 volumes, Saint Petersburg 1732–1764. Available online via the Goettingen SUB digitization center