In the impression of ancient Chinese, China is at the center of the world. Surrounding the Central Kingdom, there are a series of barbarian states scattered around. If you go further, at the end of the earth, there is the boundless sea. Because the ancients' geographical concept was very vague, they used "four seas" to describe the four oceans.
The ancient concept of "four seas" is very different from the current concept. The South China Sea mainly refers to the current East China Sea and the South China Sea; the East China Sea refers to the current Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan; the concept of the West Sea is relatively vague, and today Qinghai Lake , Lop Nur , Lake Balkhash , Aral Sea , The Caspian Sea and the ocean to its west are collectively called the "Western Sea". So, where does "North Sea" refer to?
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, "Beihai" mainly referred to the Bohai Sea. By the Han Dynasty , as the Han Empire's troops were directed towards Mobei, "North Sea" specifically referred to Lake Baikal. By the Tang Dynasty , as the backbone cadres and other tribes north of Lake Baikal were incorporated into the empire's territory, Lake Baikal became a "small sea", and the "North Sea" became the Sea of Okhotsk .
According to the records of "Tongdian·Beidi·Liugui": Liugui is in the north of Beihai, reaching Yaksha Kingdom in the north, and the remaining three sides reach the sea. In other words, during the Tang Dynasty, people already knew that Kamchatka Peninsula was to the north of the Sea of Okhotsk, and further north was Chukotka Peninsula . The indigenous peoples in the northeastern corner of Asia also paid tribute to the Tang Dynasty, and the two sides also opened trade routes.
In the Yuan Dynasty , the Sea of Okhotsk was still called the "North Sea", but its scope has expanded to the Arctic Ocean . By the Ming Dynasty, the jurisdiction of the Nurgandu Division had extended beyond the Xing'an Mountains, and the Envoy Deer and Envoy Dog Departments around the Sea of Okhotsk were generally included in the Beishan Savage Jurchens.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Sea of Okhotsk has been called the "North Sea". It was not until the arrival of the Russians in the 17th century that the "North Sea" became the Russian version of the "Okhotsk Sea". During this period, the frontier developers of the Russian Empire mainly relied on a group called Cossacks for colonization. In the past few decades, they have traveled 5,000 kilometers eastward from the Ural Mountains, only one step away from the Pacific Ocean.
The Cossacks are all gearing up and eager to try their best to win the crown of being the first to discover the Pacific Ocean outlet. In 1639, a Cossack named Moscow Viking completed the final sprint.
01 Geographic Overview
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea in the Pacific Northwest, located due east of Russia and surrounded by Siberia mainland, Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin and Kuril Islands . Except for a small area in the southeast corner that borders Hokkaido, Japan, this sea area is surrounded by Russia on three sides.
The Sea of Okhotsk has a huge area, with a length of 2,460 kilometers from north to south and a maximum width of 1,480 kilometers from east to west. The total area is 1.583 million square kilometers, which is 20 times the size of the Bohai Sea. The coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk is relatively straight, with a total length of 10,460 kilometers, but there are also good ports. The water is shallow in the north and deep in the south, with an average depth of 821 meters and a deepest depth of 3,521 meters.
Earthquakes often occur on the seafloor of the Sea of Okhotsk, forming huge destructive waves (earthquakes and tsunamis) that can reach up to 20 meters high. Huge and frequent earthquakes and volcanic activities are notable features of this sea area.
Most of the Sea of Okhotsk is at high latitudes and is close to the world's strongest cold high pressure center in Siberia, which extends into the Asian continent, making the winter here cold and long. It is known as the "Pacific Ice Cave". Summers in the Sea of Okhotsk are warm and short, but only two or three months without sea ice. The annual precipitation in the Sea of Okhotsk ranges from 400 mm to 700 mm. Due to the high humidity, the sea surface is often shrouded in sea fog.
Severe cold, snowstorms, drifting ice, thick fog and huge waves make shipping conditions in the Sea of Okhotsk extremely poor. However, the complex submarine topography, vast sea area and sufficient water depth make this sea area the most important base of operations for the Russian ballistic missile nuclear submarine .
In the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, there are the famous Heilongjiang and Udi rivers flowing into it. The Tatar Strait at the mouth of Heilongjiang River connects the Sea of Japan to the south. Not far from the mouth of the Udi River, there is the largest archipelago in ancient my country - Gebut Islands ( Chantal Islands ).
The vast area around the Sea of Okhotsk is home to the Chukchi , Koryak , Kamchatka, Yukagir and Nivkh people , etc. Most of them make a living by fishing and hunting. They all belong to the Tungusic language family and the Ancient Asiatic language family, and have maintained close contact with China since ancient times. After the 17th century, the Russians came here across thousands of rivers and mountains, decisively changing the geopolitical structure of Northeast Asia.
Chantal Islands
02 Looking for the Chilkal River
1581, Tsar Ivan IV sent Yermak led 840 Cossacks across the Ural Mountains and officially invaded the Siberian Khanate. In 1598, the Siberian Khanate Its demise heralded the fall of the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River into Russian hands. In the 1620s, the Yenisei River basin was conquered by the Cossacks, and then they invaded the Lena River basin.
In 1632, the Cossacks established an important stronghold Yakutsk in the middle reaches of the Lena River, which became the center of Russia's expansion in Northeast Asia. Yakutsk is nearly 5,000 kilometers away from Moscow, but the Russians have not stopped there. Border collectors represented by Berfiliev, Buza, Ivanov, and Stadukhin broke into northeastern Siberia one after another. In 1648, Dezhnev made his maiden voyage to the Bering Strait , becoming the first person to break into the northeastern corner of Asia, thus achieving epic results.
In addition to heading northeast, the Cossacks also headed straight to the east. As early as the 1930s, the Cossacks set out from Yakutsk and followed the tributary on the right bank of the Lena River southward. They successively learned some confusing news: there was a vast warm ocean to the east, and on the south side of the mountains , there is also a broad and magnificent river flowing - Chilkal River.
Obviously, the "Chilkal River" refers to my country's Heilongjiang, the mountains in the south refer to the Waixingan Mountains, and the eastern sea should refer to the Sea of Okhotsk. The Russians did not know this at the time. The new information aroused strong interest in the Siberian authorities, and expedition teams were sent to the east.
1637, Tomsk The warlord set out with 40 Cossacks headed by Kabelov in order to collect physical taxes from the Tungus people in the Vilyui River basin, a tributary of the Lena River.
In order to facilitate the repair of firearms and ships, the team even included some craftsmen and scribes. Because the Vilyui River Basin falls under the jurisdiction of the Yakutsk Governor-General, the expedition did not receive help from Yakutsk, so they finally missed the Vilyui River. In the spring of 1638, they traveled down the Lena River and arrived at the mouth of the Aldan River, a large tributary on the right bank.
They went up the Aldan River. It took them 5 weeks to use poles and tow ropes with great difficulty to trace the boat to the mouth of the Maya River , and then traced 100 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the river. Here, Kabelov established the Budari wintering ground, and then levied a kind tax on the surrounding Evenki and Yakut people.
It was here that Kabelov and his party found out from the indigenous residents that there was a silver mountain downstream of the "Chilkal River". In Russia at that time, silver was still a very scarce resource, and the information about the Silver Mountain made the Cossacks immediately excited.
In the autumn of 1638, in order to search for the "Chilkal River" and the Silver Mountain, Kabelov decided to send a Cossack team to the upper reaches of the Aldan River, but was forced to return due to lack of food.
But the Cossacks did not find nothing. They found out that there was a sea to the east of the Zhugzhuul Mountains , so they began to brew a plan to go to the mouth of the "Chilkar River" and look for the sea.In the process, a Cossack named Moskovsky stood out.
03 Discovery of the Sea of Okhotsk
1 In May 1639, Moscow Viking led 30 Cossacks on a journey to find the sea. They set out from the Budali winter camp and walked upriver for eight days. The river was so fast that the Cossacks had to use tow ropes and poles to move forward. After another eight weeks, the Cossacks came to the land and water. The Cossacks were forced to abandon the ship when they reached a waterfall that connected water to land and a steep mountainous area.
The Cossacks took two "small Gochi" (a flat-bottomed wooden boat) and spent a week crossing the small river from the Maya River to finally reaching the end of the Ulia River.
Inadvertently, Moscow Viking and his party have successfully crossed the watershed of the Zhugzhuul Mountains. They floated down the Uriah River in flat-bottomed wooden boats for eight days, and then stopped to build large ships. It finally took 5 days to reach the mouth of the Urlia River where it flows into the sea.
In August 1639, Moscow Viking led the Cossacks to the Sea of Okhotsk for the first time. The salty sea breeze washed away the hardships and worries of the Cossacks' journey, and everyone was extremely excited. In this way, after 48 years of continuous colonization, the Cossacks followed the boundless Siberia toward the place where the sun rose, and finally successfully reached the Pacific coast. Behind them is the Siberian wilderness covering an area of more than 10 million square kilometers that has been trampled under their feet.
04Expand the results
The Russian Empire finally obtained the coveted Pacific Ocean outlet, and Moscow Viking took the greatest credit. During the expedition, Moskvikin obtained more information from the Tungus translators who accompanied him. They told the Cossacks that "Chilkal River" is also called " Amur River ". This is the first time this term appears in Russian history.
Moscow Viking built a stronghold at the mouth of the Ulya River, and then went out to explore the customs and customs here. They found that this area was extremely rich in products, with all kinds of fish, and they were very large, and there were also many kinds of animals, especially martens. There is no doubt that the products here are richer than other parts of Siberia, and it is naturally an ideal paradise for Cossacks to colonize.
The Cossacks first tried to force the Evenni people in the Urya River Basin to surrender, but the Evenni people refused to pay the tax in kind and launched an attack on the Cossacks. As a result, they suffered crazy revenge from the furious Cossacks.
1 In the spring of 1640, Moscow Viking obtained new information. He learned from a local chief that south from the stronghold, along the island, there lived Nivkh people (Kiriak people ), and they raised bears. Before the Cossacks arrived in the area, a group of about 500 Daurs came to the Udi River by boat. They all had big beards and defeated the Nivkhites here.
The Daur people live on both sides of the Amur River, where there are fertile fields and flocks of chickens and ducks. They can make wine, weave, and spin thread. They have silver mines there and are very rich.
This is one of the most accurate pieces of information the Russians have received about the Heilongjiang Basin. For the sake of the wealth there, Moscow Viking decided to take the risk.
He captured an Eveni man to use as a guide and set out south along the coast. They first came to the mouth of the Udi River for investigation and obtained information about Heilongjiang and its tributaries Zeya River and Amgun River from local people. Then we go around the Chantal Islands, learning that some indigenous people still live on the islands, and finally reach the northern part of Sakhalin Island.
On the west coast of Sakhalin Bay, Moscow Viking may also enter near the mouth of Heilongjiang River to the south. It was only because they ran out of food that the Cossacks had to return to the north. In the spring of 1641, a group of Moscow Vikings crossed the Zhugzhuul Mountains and finally arrived in Yakutsk in mid-July carrying a large amount of "soft gold" mink .
05 followed
Moscow Viking's epic adventure and caused a sensation. Based on his description, Gubat Ivanov drew one of the earliest maps of the Sea of Okhotsk.At the same time, other Cossacks were heading towards the Sea of Okhotsk along different roads.
In the autumn of 1641, Oymyakon Castle sent an expedition consisting of 18 Cossacks and 20 Yakut guides, led by Cossack Andrei Ivanovich Kalerei takes the lead. They followed the guidusun River, a tributary on the left bank of the Indigirka River, up the Kudusun River, crossed the watershed, and came to the source of the Okhota River. Then we went downstream and successfully reached the Sea of Okhotsk.
This road is 500 kilometers long and takes a total of 5 weeks. It is the shortest road from the Lena River Basin to the Sea of Okhotsk known to the Russians.
In 1647, as more and more Russians arrived at the mouth of the Okhota River, the wintering place here gradually became a center, and Okhotsk Castle was established. Because of its key position, it soon became the economic and political center of the Sea of Okhotsk. Eventually, this ocean became known as the Sea of Okhotsk.
In addition to operating in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Cossacks also extended their tentacles to the north. In order to collect taxes in kind, the Cossacks repeatedly clashed with the Evenni. Wherever the Cossacks went, there was chaos.
In the winter of 1651, the famous Stadukhin traveled by sleigh and ski from the Anadyr River to the Sea of Okhotsk in the south. In the Pinzhena River basin, the Cossacks encountered a new nation-the Koryak people.
On April 5, 1654, the Cossacks attacked the Koryak village near the Auckland River , a tributary of the Pinzhena River. Then he built a boat and sailed along the coastline from the mouth of Pinrenna River to the mouth of Jiriga River , where he built a castle and spent the winter there.
In the summer of 1653, Stadukhin left the mouth of the Jizhga River and continued southward, arriving at the mouth of the Taoyi River . Here, the Cossacks built a small castle and successfully collected taxes in kind.
In 1657, Stadukhin left here and went to Okhotsk. In the summer of 1659, he went to Yakutsk. Then, under instructions from the authorities, a detailed map was drawn.
06 Conclusion
At this point, the west coast of the Sea of Okhotsk has been included in Russia's territory. At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula was also occupied by the Russians. After 1856 and 1860, with the decline of the Qing Empire, the north of Heilongjiang, the east of Ussuri River and Sakhalin Island were ceded to Russia, and China completely lost the Sea of Okhotsk. By 1945, the Southern Kuril Islands were assigned to Russia.
Just like this, Russia has been pursuing land for hundreds of years. Now, except for the northern coast of Hokkaido , the Sea of Okhotsk has been almost entirely included in Russia's inland sea. And the Cossacks will not stop the pace of expansion, they set out again...
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