Strug (boat type)

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Alexei Ilyich Kravchenko (1889–1940): Old Russian city. Red Strugi. (Древний русский город. Красные струги.)

Strug ( Russian струг , plural: струги - Strugi) is the name of a historical Russian boat type from the 9th to 18th centuries. The term Strug subsumed watercraft that were particularly suitable for river navigation due to their size and construction. In German, Barke best describes this meaning.

Origin of the term

The origin of the term is unclear. In Russian and other Slavic languages, Strug also refers to tools for wood and metalworking ( peeling irons , draw knives , planes , lathe ). Derived from this origin, the name is traced back to the mode of locomotion of the flat-bottomed ships that glide over the water like a plane. Others attribute the term Strug to the root стригун (strigun = one-year-old foal).

First evidence in ancient Rus

Coat of arms of the Rajons Strugi Krasnye = Red Strugi, until 1919 Strugi Belyje = White Strugi

In the course of the settlement of the Eastern European lowlands by the Slavic tribes and the development of the ancient Rus, the need grew to use the extensive network of rivers and tributaries as a means of transport. For this purpose, ships were required that were suitable for river navigation due to their design and size, but still had sufficient capacity to carry freight and passengers. Already in the Russkaya Pravda , a legal code of Kievan Rus (11th century), is the Strug next to Kahn ( altruss. Челн, Russian чёлн ) and boat (altruss. Ладь, Russian ладья ) mention. Little can be deduced from the Russkaya Pravda about the original construction, the text only testifies that it was a small boat of simple construction, that it was a third of the value of a large seagoing ship and was worth half as much as a boat on board. It is assumed that it was a cargo ship that was particularly adapted to the transport of cargo on the Russian rivers due to its flat bottom and consequently shallow draft as well as high-sided side planking . If it was initially a question of rowing boats, Strugi later also had a mast with a rectangular square sail attached amidships . There was sometimes a cabin on deck for the transport of high-class people.

Novgorod Strugi

Sadko, Palech miniature with Strug in the background

As a result of the Tatar invasion in the 13th century, the connection to the Black and Caspian Seas via the Don and Volga rivers remained blocked for several centuries. Therefore, the trade route from Novgorod across the Volkhov River , Lake Ladoga and Neva to the Gulf of Finland gained in importance. Strug boats are mentioned several times in Novgorod history, in trade with the Hanseatic League and Scandinavia, as well as in defense of control over the Gulf of Finland. Even in the medieval heroic saga Sadko, the Novgorod hero Sadko travels rivers and seas on a Strug. The Novgorod Prince Alexander Newski is said to have succeeded in the surprise attack on the Swedes occupying the Gulf of Finland in 1240 because he reached the Swedes' camp quickly with agile, fast Strug boats. The destruction of large parts of the Swedish fleet in the Neva Delta after the Ladoga invasion of the Swedes in 1284 by a Novgorod army under the command of the Possadnik Semyon Michajlowitsch justifies the assumption that the Novgorodians meanwhile had a not inconsiderable number of war-worthy river and sea ships decreed. Depictions of Novgorod Strugi show them as sailing rowing boats with several rowing benches, a mast attached amidships with a square sail and a raised, artfully cut, richly carved stem (horse head, dragon head) .

Significance for the colonization of Siberia

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

The rowing boats used during the colonization of Siberia by Russian settlers for the development of the Siberian rivers and the inland trade in furs and raw materials were also known as strug. The Russian adventurer and explorer Demid Pjanda undertook his 8000 km river expedition on the Lower Tunguska , Angara and Lena in Strug boats from 1620 to 1624. Boats called Strug were still used by Yakut fishermen until the 20th century . It was a dugout canoe with planks attached to raise the edge of the ship.

First Russian fleet (Azov fleet) and demise of the Strug building

Strug boat of the first Russian Navy after 1696. Detail from a painting by Abraham Storck (1644–1708)

The first Russian Navy , set up under the reign of Peter I for the second Azov campaign , consisted of frigates , fires and galleys as well as approx. 1300 Strug boats. Here, smaller cannon rowing boats with single-masted sails are used. Tsar Peter I himself traveled in 1722 with an 18-row "Moskva" -trug (москворецкий) from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod and from there to Astrakhan . In the further course of the construction of a Russian fleet under Peter I at the beginning of the 18th century, however, the construction of Strugi and other traditional Russian ship types was abandoned in favor of Western European models. In a decree of December 28, 1715, Peter I ordered the conversion of boat building from traditional Russian boats (ладья, коча) to more modern ships, mostly of Dutch design (галиот - Galiot , гукар - Huker , кат - Katboot , флейт - Fleute ) within two Years. The reason for this change is said to have been the better military usability of the Dutch models (better possibility of mounting cannons, better seaworthiness in case of attacks). Due to this change in Russian shipbuilding, traditional Russian boat types such as the Strug were almost forgotten in the following centuries.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The early approach u. a. in Edeltraud Maier-Lutz among others: River cruises in Russia: On the way on the Volga, Don, Yenisei and Lena . Trescher Verlag, 5th revised. A. (2005). P. 48. Towards the end of the 16th century mentioned there, see the documents from the time of Peter I.
  2. ↑ Pons.eu the language portal
  3. ↑ Шубин И.А .: Волга и волжское судоходство. История, развитие и современное состояние судоходства и судостроения (IA Schubin: Moscow and Volga Shipping. History, development and current status of shipbuilding in 1924, pp. 40ff . ) And Russian shipbuilding.
  4. ↑ Article Струг in "Техника Молодежи"
  5. ↑ Grekov, BD (ed.): History of the culture of ancient Rus . Bd. 1. Institut Istorii Akademiia Nauk SSSR. Moscow, Akademie-Verlag 1959. P. 270 ff
  6. ↑ Самойлов К. И .: Морской словарь (KI Samojlow: Marine Dictionary ). Moscow, Leningrad 1941. (Russian) Excerpt online
  7. ↑ Главная История отечественного флота Retrieved April 25, 2011
  8. ^ MN Tichomirow: The struggle of the Russian people for sea access between the XIIIth and XVIIth centuries: Introduction . (The struggle of the Russian people for sea access between the 13th and 17th centuries) (English), accessed April 25, 2011
  9. ^ Gerhard Friedrich Müller : Collection of Russian history . 9 volumes, Saint Petersburg 1732–1764. see. the article Demid Pjanda and the literature there
  10. ↑ П. Г. Борисов: Очерк Рыболовства Якутской республики in П. Б. Виттенберг (ed.): Якутия . Leningrad 1927. p. 372ff. quoted from: Franz Baermann Steiner : Wissenschaftliche Schriften . ed. by J. Adler u. R. Fardon, Göttingen (Wallstein) 2008. p. 14
  11. ↑ Pinl, Harald: The warship of Russia between 1725 and 1762. Langenhagen 2003. cf. the article Imperial Russian Navy and the literature there
  12. ↑ Самойлов К. И .: Морской словарь . (KI Samoylov: Marine Dictionary ) Moscow, Leningrad 1941. (Russian) Excerpt online
  13. ↑ Article Струг in "Техника Молодежи"