From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former city in Siberia
Mangazeya
(
Russian
:
Мангазе?я
) was a Northwest
Siberian
trans-
Ural
trade colony and later city in the 17th century. Founded in 1600 by
Cossacks
from
Tobolsk
, it was situated on the
Taz River
, between the lower courses of the
Ob
and
Yenisei
Rivers flowing into the
Arctic Ocean
. The name derives from a
Nenets
ethnonym
Monkansi
or
Mongandi
.
[1]
Russian settlers of the
White Sea
coasts of
Russia
(
pomors
) founded
a route
along the Arctic coast to
Arkhangelsk
to trade with
Norwegian
,
English
and
Dutch
merchants. Mangazeya accumulated
furs
and
ivory
(walrus tusks) around the year to be shipped out during the short Northern summer. Trade also occurred along the
Siberian River Routes' Northern Route
. It became "a virtual
Baghdad
of Siberia, a
city-state
, all but independent of the Russian Empire in its wealth and utter isolation."
[2]
The
Northern Sea Route
was forbidden in 1619 under the penalty of death
[
why?
]
and the city closed to outsiders: navigational markings were torn up, posts established to intercept anyone who might attempt to get through, and maps were falsified.
[3]
The state was unable to collect taxes, and there was a fear of
English
trading penetration into Siberia; furthermore, "Mangazeya had aroused the envy of inland merchants working out of the
Urals
,
Tyumen
, and
Tobolsk
, who saw it siphoning off commerce that would otherwise have come their way."
[4]
The city was finally abandoned following the catastrophic fire of 1678, after which the remaining population was evacuated to
Turukhansk
(now
Staroturukhansk
[
ru
]
) at the junction of the
Yenisei
with the
Lower Tunguska
, which was known as New Mangazeya until the 1780s.
[
citation needed
]
The location of original Mangazeya and the Pomors'
Northern Sea Route
were forgotten until the 20th century, when archaeologists discovered remains of a wooden
Kremlin
and a
Gostiny dvor
(trading centre) on the site of Mangazeya.
There is a 220 kV
electrical substation
owned by
Gazprom
with the same name nearby.
[
citation needed
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
E.M. Pospelov,
Geograficheskie nazvaniya mira
(Moscow: Russkie slovari, 1998), p. 406.
- ^
George St. George,
Siberia: the New Frontier
(Taylor & Francis, 1970), p. 263.
- ^
Benson Bobrick,
East of the Sun: The Conquest and Settlement of Siberia
(Heinemann, 1992:
ISBN
0434928895
), p. 56.
- ^
Bobrick,
East of the Sun
, p. 56.
External links
[
edit
]
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Key locations
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Monasteries
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66°41′38″N
82°15′17″E
/
66.6938292°N 82.2546387°E
/
66.6938292; 82.2546387