Until Death Do Us Part: The Letters and Travels of Anna and Vitus Bering

by Peter Ulf Møller (Editor), Natasha Okhotina Lind (Editor), Anna Halager (Translator)

Overview

Eighteenth-century Danish explorer Vitus Bering led historic expeditions to the Russian Far East and Alaska under the patronage of Peter the Great, and his wife Anna Christina accompanied him on his expedition to Okhotsk in 1739. The sixteen letters that they wrote over the following year make up the core of this volume, which features facing-page translations from the original German. The documents offer an intimate look into eighteenth-century customs, as well as the explorer’s family life and daily routine. Also featured is an inventory of goods that Anna Christina brought back to Moscow after Bering’s death in 1742, revealing key insights into the types of goods available in Russia at the time. Until Death Do Us Part is a richly informative volume that will be essential for all those interested in European history and travel writing.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781889963945
Publisher:	University of Alaska Press
Publication date:	08/25/2008
Series:	Rasmuson Library Historic Translation , #14
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Peter Ulf Møller is professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Aarthus in Denmark. Natsha Okhotina is a research fellow in Russian history at the University of Copenhagen. Anna Halager is an independent translator based in Copenhagen.



Peter Ulf Møller is professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Aarthus in Denmark. Natsha Okhotina is a research fellow in Russian history at the University of Copenhagen. Anna Halager is an independent translator based in Copenhagen.

Read an Excerpt

Until Death Do Us Part

The Letters and Travels of Anna and Vitus Bering

---

By Peter Ulf Møller Natasha Okhotina Lind

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA PRESS

Copyright © 1997 Pter Ulf Møller and Natasha Okhotina Lind and Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A/S, Copenhagen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-889963-94-5

---

Chapter One

The Russian Columbus

The Imperial Vision

* * *

Vitus Bering, the Russian Columbus, was born in Horsens, Denmark, in 1681. He entered the Russian service in 1704 and died in 1741 on a remote island in the North Pacific, which today bears his name. His life's work was to lead two enormous voyages of discovery, called the Kamchatka expeditions, which had not only scientific, but political and economic objectives as well: to explore new possibilities for Russian colonization and trade beyond the Pacific coast.

The Russian classic poet Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765) invented the expression "The Russian Columbus" six years after Bering's death. For many years, Lomonosov would pay homage to the reigning empress Elizabeth with an ode of celebration on the anniversary of her "ascent" to the throne, a more beautiful term for the coup d'état of November 25, 1741. Despite the archaic language, somewhat exaggerated rhythmical cadence, open flattery, and unconcealed requests for funds for the sciences, they remain great, pompous poems. What impresses us the most today are the poet's visions. The slightly plump, squatty Lomonosov was the first Russian to be appointed professor at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Underneath his powdered wig he housed the very vision of Russian imperialism. On the wings of poetry he would glide to impressive heights across the vast expanse over which the highly praised empress reigned. By the time Lomonosov had reached the Pacific coast, opulently expressing the hope that the darkened souls of the natives might be converted and enlightened, he continued ecstatically beyond the rim of the continent:

Yonder foams the wet way of the fleet, And the ocean hastily makes room: The vessels of The Russian Columbus Deliver express messages of your gracious Majesty To peoples yet forgotten.

People liked the idea of "The Russian Columbus": The expression has remained a catchphrase in Russian. It was quite in the spirit of the time to put Bering's voyage to Alaska on par with what European explorers had achieved. In the 1700s, Russian state patriotism expressed pride in having achieved just as much as-if not more than-its Western European counterparts.

In praises of Russia's unfathomable expanse, the American motif was a springboard to the world of dreams and fantasies, to a future of borderless expansion. Lomonosov's 1747 ode of celebration continues with a stanza about a transoceanic fantasy realm where the South Sea Islands lie so close to one another that the sea almost resembles a river. Exotic birds, their plumage so colorful that it "surpasses the gentle garb of spring," whirr past. Nobody is familiar with "harsh winters"-such was the paradise awaiting Russians on the new continent.

Bering's voyage across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska earned him the reputation as the new Columbus. He helped expand the borders of the realm beyond the Eurasian continent, blazing the trail for Russia to become an empire with overseas colonies within the same century. However, Bering's voyage to America covers only a short span of his joint work as the commander of expeditions. Bering symbolizes modernization in Russia's centuries-old advance eastward. He carried out the mission, requested by the dynamic tsar, to have the new Russian navy explore the North Pacific and to lay the foundations of Russian supremacy over this territory. Although it may be difficult to link the ships that Bering ordered to be built for voyages in the Pacific Ocean with modern high technology, the vessels were innovative, adding a European dimension to the Russians. In order to see Bering's impact on this perspective, we need to take a look at Russia's conquest of Siberia.

Russia's Eastward Expansion

Russia's advance eastward is one of the great adventures in recent exploration history. It is comparable in several ways to the colonization of North America. Just before the middle 1200s, the Russians were thrown back by Mongolian cavalry. For several hundred years, they paid tribute as subjects to the descendants of Genghis Khan. But the winds of the West replaced those of the East. The state of Moscow got a strong foothold in the forests of central Russia and abolished the Tatar yoke. Ivan the Terrible captured the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1552-54, thus ensuring Russian control over the entire Volga. The way was paved for a continued eastward advance into the vast and sparsely populated Siberia.

Shortly after the victories by the Volga, Ivan received a congratulatory delegation from the khanate of the Siberian Tatars, volunteering spontaneously to pay an annual duty of sable and squirrel pelts to the tsar-one thousand pieces of each. The tsar took this as a sign of submission and added "Ruler of all Siberia" to his title. In 1574, Ivan leased Siberia, unseen and unconquered, for twenty years to the Stroganovs, a merchant dynasty that already administered the vast forests of Perm immediately west of the Ural Mountains. From the lease came the right to conquer the leased territory. The Stroganovs sent Jermak, a Cossack chieftain, to conquer Siberia: With a force of eight hundred men-mostly Cossacks-and a fleet of boats but no horses, he conquered the khanate capital in 1582. This was all it took in military terms to conquer "all Siberia."

Beyond this khanate, subdued so rapidly, lay a vastly greater Siberia, an immense treasure in furs and land. During the 1600s, out of European sight, new areas were annexed, more than doubling Russian territory over a century. The advance occurred as joint private and state initiatives but in such a manner that the powers of the state in faraway Moscow did not control the events in the wilderness until much later. The Cossacks were the pioneers, a particularly mobile people in Russia at the time. They traversed the unknown regions and subjugated the newly discovered natives. The Cossacks were actually runaway serfs from Russia, who had fled the open plains southward, where they set up military communities under elected leaders. They helped guard the border against the Poles, Turks, and Tatars. They gradually established themselves in the Russian military, although freedom continued to be an integral part of their identity. Thus they have their special place in history, as they spearheaded Russia's conquest of Siberia. After them came peasants and traders, followed by state regulation; the Wild East gradually came under Russian law. Local governors, known as voievodes, represented the power of the state. They had small army units at their disposal. In 1637, a special ministry for Siberia, the Siberian Office (Sibirskii prikaz) in Moscow, was opened. It had difficulties in making its presence felt across the vast expanse.

Russia's expansion moved speedily. This was due partly to the human yearning for quick wealth and partly to the geography of communications. Journeys across the vast mainland were mostly by boat, which may seem paradoxical to the non-Russian observer. The explorers tended to use the riverways, by boat in the summer, by sleigh in the winter. This was possible because four large river systems flow through Siberia: the Ob, Enisei, Lena, and Amur, with countless smaller ones whose branches nearly touch each other. Before the railways, many people dreamed of a contiguous riverway through the whole of Siberia.

The bait that turned Cossack horsemen and peasants into river captains and hunters was "the gold of Siberia," that is, furs. Very gradually it dawned on people that Siberia was also rich in good farmland. The intensive hunt for fur-bearing animals in European Russia had greatly reduced their numbers so that new hunting grounds were needed. Siberian fur was very much in demand in Russia, where wealthy people readily paid vast sums for the best-quality pelts. There was, moreover, a great demand from Chinese and Turkish export markets. Russian sable became a hard currency. It could be used as payment for military services and as gifts for foreign monarchs. Besides sable, the sea otter-also known as the Kamchatka beaver-ermine, and various kinds of fox were coveted. The conquest of Siberia was a veritable rush for furs, and posterity has taken note of its brutality. When it comes to the ruthless exploitation of certain animal species and the indigenous population, we may draw parallels with the colonization of the North American continent. By the 1720s, Russians already accounted for 70 percent of the Siberian population.

In the eyes of the conquerors, the pleasant thing about Siberian fur was that often they did not have to bother to catch and skin the animals. They needed only to utter the word iasak, the Tatar term for duty or tribute, with sufficient authority, and the locals would be obliged to hand over a portion of their own catch. The peoples of Siberia had learned to survive in the harsh climate, but they were unable to defend themselves against the influx of greedy tax collectors from a major European power.

Practically all the newcomers from European Russia worked at collecting iasak if they could get away with it. The power of the state did try to establish some sort of system with fixed annual duties of various sizes. However, this was not sufficient to curb the zealous civil servants and the free Cossacks. Faced with such thievery, the natives felt that when the Russians closed in on them, the only safe option was to make themselves scarce. Unfortunately, this was not always possible, and if people did not have furs with which to pay, the collectors would take the natives-mostly women-instead. Despite the good prospects to collect iasak, the newcomers were often forced to offer something instead of furs: glass pearls, vodka, and tobacco. These articles, together with smallpox and venereal disease, constituted the early gifts from European civilization to the native Siberians.

The Russian advance had an impact on the countryside: wooden forts, called ostrogs, were established, which were the beginning of Siberia's modern cities. The following dates indicate the speed in moving eastward: Tobolsk, 1587; Tomsk, 1604; Eniseisk, 1619; Krasnoiarsk, 1628; Iakutsk, 1632; Irkutsk, 1652. Tobolsk became the administrative center of West Siberia. Because the city was founded so early, it succeeded in having a kremlin, a walled fortress in the ancient Russian style, on the ridge along the River Irtysh. Iakutsk on the Lena became the administrative center of East Siberia and an important junction for further reconnoitering and conquests. The Cossacks moved from Iakutsk to the northeast toward the Chukchi Peninsula, in a due easterly direction to the Sea of Okhotsk, and in a southerly direction to the Amur. In 1649, the ostrog Anadyrsk was founded on the Chukchi Peninsula as the easternmost point of Russian expansion thus far. It was from here that the Russians started to penetrate down to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the late 1600s. Likewise, in 1649, an ostrog was established on the Okhota estuary, which later became the important port of Okhotsk. The southward advance met fierce resistance when the Cossacks reached Chinese land, and at the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, Russia had to surrender both banks of the Amur to China. As compensation, Russian merchants were given access to trade with the Chinese.

The Russian advance also had a Western side. In the early 1700s, Peter the Great established Russia's access to the Baltic at Sweden's expense and founded Russia's new capital, St. Petersburg, in the newly conquered territory in proximity to the sea and Europe. Peter's Russia stretched from coast to coast lengthwise of the continent. Up until then, Kholmogory and later Archangel, both on the Northern Dvina estuary into the White Sea, had been Russia's most important access routes to the sea. Once the English captain Richard Chancellor reached this place in 1553 and was granted an audience with Ivan the Terrible, Russian, English, Dutch, and Scandinavian merchants would do a brisk trade. They would navigate during the six months of the year when the Northern Dvina was ice free. It is an oversimplification to say that, before Peter the Great, Russia was without a window to Europe. However, Peter was consistent in trying to shift Russian foreign trade from the White Sea to the Baltic by imposing high customs duties on trade via Archangel.

It was also a prerequisite that the fleet, the apple of Peter's eye, was given military and political importance by having access to the Baltic. A lot of money was invested in the Russian fleet in advanced technology and know-how. Aside from river and coastal navigation in the cold northern waters, Russia was a typical inland nation prior to Peter's reign. In the beginning, the state had to contend with the role of pupil, and Peter had even tried his hand at learning how to build ships in Holland. Nor was the tsar tight-fisted in paying for foreign experts to sail these new treasures. The Russian landlubbers had to learn the art from people who were used to having their children's shoes filled with sand. The Dane Vitus Bering was merely one of many foreigners from seafaring nations such as Norway, England, and Holland who were recruited for the Russian navy.

The Kamchatka Expeditions

Peter the Great was ambitious, bold, and ruthless in terms of human lives in achieving his objectives. Today, several of his unsuccessful projects strike us as pure fantasy, and others that ultimately succeeded seemed pretty far-fetched at the time. He was immensely confident as to what could be achieved in a joint effort by the navy, skillful engineers, and the armed forces, provided the matter was approached with the necessary zeal. In fact, people in the service of the state could be punished if they did not show sufficient determination in carrying out their duties. There is no mistaking it: Peter put his fingerprint on the plans for the expeditions to Kamchatka. Although the Russian fleet was stationed in the Baltic, it was made to operate in the North Pacific as well, through the sheer power of energy and resources, more than one-third of the Earth's circumference away.

The expeditions had a certain connection with another fantastic project that preoccupied the tsar in the years shortly before his death. The goal was to extend the realm all the way to India, with the aim-at the very least-of diverting one trading route with the Orient into Russia. As part of implementing this plan, and as soon as peace with Sweden had been made, Peter decided to go to war with Persia, which was weak at the time. When peace was made in 1723, Peter got the whole of the west and east coast of the Caspian Sea, with which he was well satisfied, even if thirty thousand Russians had lost their lives in the struggle.

While the Persian campaign took place, a young naval lieutenant by the name of F. I. Soimonov had a talk with the tsar during which he said eagerly that a northeast passage to India via Kamchatka ought to be found. Peter replied: "I know all that. Please, not now. Besides it's too far away" (Anisimov 1989, p. 428). The reply probably meant that Peter was well aware of the two-hundred-year-old dream of a northeast passage, which inspired several Western seafaring nations to unsuccessfully scout the Arctic Ocean. However, Peter was also determined to make a real effort in exploring whether there was a northeast passage, but the shorter, southern route to India seemed more promising for the time being.

Immediately before his death, Peter felt that the time had come to explore the northeast passage further. His short order dated December 23, 1724, concerning the dispatch of what was to become the first Kamchatka expedition, contains the following, all characteristic of Peter the Great: naval voyages, construction assignments, and an almost inhuman workload. In five short items, the tsar outlined his idea of sending an expedition that, in addition to cartographers familiar with Siberia, was to comprise naval officers, able-bodied seamen, ship carpenters, and sail makers. The expedition was to carry the necessary equipment for shipbuilding, including ropes, tackle, small naval guns, and ammunition, all the way to the Pacific coast. Peter employed new naval technology along with the precious foreign naval officers who knew how to use it. The College of the Admiralty proposed two foreign captains as candidates to command the expeditions. Of the two, the tsar chose Bering the Dane, probably because as a young man, Bering had been to the East Indies onboard a Dutch ship. At any rate, the College of the Admiralty stressed his experience with the East Indies in recommending him to the tsar.

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Until Death Do Us Part by Peter Ulf Møller Natasha Okhotina Lind Copyright © 1997 by Pter Ulf Møller and Natasha Okhotina Lind and Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A/S, Copenhagen . Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface to the American Edition
Acknowledgments
Note on Archival Terms and Abbreviations
 
Chapter One: The Russian Columbus
The Imperial Vision
Russia's Eastward Expansion
The Kamchatka Expeditions
 
Chapter 2: Sojourn in Iakutsk
The East Siberian Command Post
The Geometry Brawl and Its Aftermath
Plautin's Accusations Against Anna and Vitus Bering
 
Chapter 3: Background on the Letters
Courier Mail from Okhotsk
How the Letters Survived
The Boys and the In-Laws
 
Chapter 4: The Letters
A Note on the Letters
Eleven Letters to the Family
Five Letters to the Professor, the Resident, and Their Wives
Janeman's Repatriation
 
Chapter 5: The Couple's Belongings
Anna Bering's Journey Home
 
Chapter 6: The Estate's Odyssey
Introduction
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 7
Noteworthy Items
 
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index