Nikolai Yadrintsev
Encyclopedia
Nikolai Mikhailovich Yadrintsev ' onMouseout='HidePop("96440")' href="/topics/Omsk">Omsk
- June 7, 1894, Barnaul
) was a Russia
n public figure, explorer, archaeologist, and turkologist. His discoveries include the Orkhon script
, Genghis Khan
's capital Karakorum
and Ordu-Baliq
, the capital of the Uyghur Khaganate. He was also one of the founding fathers of Siberian separatism
.
gymnasium, he entered the Petersburg University. There he began his active public work, in 1860 together with his friend and soulmate G.N.Potanin, N.Yadrintsev organized a circle of Siberian students with members S.S.Shashkov, N.I.Naumov, I.V.Omulevsky, I.A.Khudyakov, Ch.Valihanov
and others, future outstanding writers and scientists. The social movement of 1860es captivated the members of the Siberian countrymen, they established connections with democratic revolutionaries, read forbidden literature, and participated in students' revolts, which got them arrested. During those years the journal "Spark" (Russian "Iskra"), a clone of "Contemporary", printed first indictive feuilletons of N.Yadrintsev. In the 1860s N. Yadrintsev became a convinced democrat.
The members of Russian-Siberian community took close to their hearts the needs of their native land, transformed by czarism into a colony, and decided to selflessly struggle for the development of the Siberian fringes, against its subjugated position. The movement started by N.Yadrintsev and G.N.Potanin received a name "Siberian patriotism" or "Siberian separatism". They believed that only Siberians can protect the interests of Siberia, the purpose and obligation of all Siberians they saw only in the service to their land. They raised the inevitability of separation of Siberia from Russia, and in their leaflet they called on the fellow countrymen to rise and create in Siberia an independent democratic republic.
In 1862-1863 the members of the Siberian community, interrupting their studies, departed to the Siberian cities to advance their ideas. Their appeal did not meet a fervent response, but their oral and printed campaign against imperial authorities and oppressors of Siberia, for the revival and education of a native territory were supported by progressive part of the Siberian public, especially youth. A number of articles, feuilletons, and speeches of N. Yadrintsev with sharp condemnation of the defects of the local possessor class and functionaries of administration belongs to that time. N.Yadrintsev passionately appealed to open a university in Siberia, and started a campaign gathering donations for the university, which continued for over 20 years. In 1880 in Tomsk was initiated, and in 1888 opened the first Russian university in Siberia.
The Siberian separatists alarmed the government, they were arrested in 1865. During investigation, N.Yadrintsev spent three years in prison in his native Omsk. In 1868 the "Siberian separatists" N.Yadrintsev, G.N.Potanin and other Siberian patriots were sentenced to forced labor and exile. N.Yadrintsev was sent to Shenkursk
in the Arkhangelsk
province, where he spent five years in exile (1868-1873) in relentless work on self-education, study of history, Siberian problems, development of main principles of Siberian separatism. He made acquaintance with the works of K.Marx, and though he did not become a Marxist, he adopted some of its positions. He was publishing essays, articles and feuilletons in "Business", "Domestic Notes", "Week", "Volga-Kama newspaper" and other liberal periodicals. In Shenkursk in 1872 he authored his first monograph "Russian community in prison and exile", which brought wide popularity to the author and his progressive ideological and scientific positions.
In 1873 the N.Yadrintsev's sentence was "most mercifully" commuted by the Czar, and N.Yadrintsev left for Saint Petersburg
, and then to Omsk, where he entered a state service and lived till 1881. In Omsk N.Yadrintsev collected contemporary records on various scientific and social problems of the "aliens" (indigene peoples in Russian colonial lingo), peasants, and migrants. From Omsk, under a contract with Russian Geographical Society, he traveled twice across Siberia
and Altai
, researching economy and geography, archeology and ethnography, anthropology and linguistics. During his criss-crossing Altai in 1878-1880, N.Yadrintsev collected data about kurgans, fortresses and other archaeological monuments, recorded legends about some of them, produced sketches of many archaeological finds. These materials were published by the Moscow Archaeological Society. For the results of his scientific travel, N.Yadrintsev was awarded a Gold medal of Russian Geographical Society.
In 1881 N.Yadrintsev moved to Petersburg, till 1887. From the materials collected in Siberia, he wrote a monograph "Siberia as a colony" which was taken in Russia as a most monumental work of Siberian literature, and an encyclopedia of Siberian life. In the book the author developed main principles of the Siberian separatism.
From 1881 N.Yadrintsev began publishing a newspaper "Eastern Review" with democratic orientation. The articles, feuilletons, and reportages were greeted by ordinary ethnically Russian people, who were suffering from the arbitrariness of local authorities and exploitation. Many authors were political exiles. They were exposing the Siberian rulers,and disclosing machinations. The newspaper gained immediate popularity in Siberia, and became a recognized leader of the Siberian press, but within the Siberian administration and local moneymen it ignited a hatred and rage. The newspaper promoted awakening and development of public consciousness of the Siberian Russian intelligentsia and other populations. It supported expansion of the rights of the rural and city autonomies, freedom of press and public life, reorganization of the primitive school system, publicity in the jury court system. By the 1880s, N.Yadrintsev was publishing articles not only in the "Eastern Review", but also in dozens of other editions, "European Bulletin", "Domestic Notes", "Russian Register", "Business", etc. N.Yadrintsev's name became known to the whole progressive Russia, he established connections with the "Freedom of Labor" group in Geneva. In 1888 the publication of "Eastern Review" was moved from Petersburg to Irkutsk, closer to its audience, with N.Yadrintsev remaining in the Petersburg capital.
N.Yadrintsev worked to speed up the development of the backward fringe of the Russian empire. He hoped to awake the "local patriotism" in various layers of the Siberian population and first of all of the small ethnically Russian Siberian intelligentsia, which would help to improve the governance and enlightenment of Siberia, to lead it to prosperity. But as the years went, the number of the Siberian patriots have not increased, and Siberia remained in a sad position. N.Yadrintsev was especially depressed by the growth of the Siberian moneyed elite. Professing the "People's Will" ideas, he hoped that Siberia leapfrog a capitalism stage.
In 1889 under contract with Russian Geographical Society
N.Yadrintsev traveled to Mongolia, where he located the remains of Early Middle Age city Hara - Balgas and the ancient Mongolian capital Karakorum. In the Kosho-Tsaidam gorge (valley of the Orkhon river) N.Yadrintsev found two petroglyphic monuments with runiform writing of ancient Türks of the 6-8th centuries, later decoded by the Danish scientist W.Tomsen
. These discoveries brought N.Yadrintsev a world fame, and became the greatest scientific sensation of the 19th century. In a quick succession, already in the 1891 was organized a follow-up Orhon expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences with participation of N.Yadrintsev, led by an ethnically German native from Barnaul, a recognized Turkologist academician W.W.Radloff
. The Orhon expedition found more monuments of runiform writing with epitaphs of the Türkic kagans and other nobility. The results of the expedition were published by W.W.Radloff in the "Atlas of Mongolia antiquities" (1892-1893) and in aspecial collection of works of the Orhon expedition (1892).
In 1891 N.Yadrintsev published his third monograph "Siberian ailians, their life and modern status", supplementing his book "Siberia as a colony". With graphical actual material the book depicted the distress state of the Siberian nations, subsisting in poverty and ignorance, ruthlessly oppressed by tsarism and Russian capitalists. At the same time N.Yadrintsev highly valued the influence of Russian people on the transition of the Siberian nomads to a subsistence settled agriculture, and their familiarization with Russian culture. The author displayed in his monograph his great humanty as a real friend and defender of small peoples of Siberia. Simultaneously, N.Yadrintsev published in Geneva a brochure "Illusion of Greatness and a Misery", ruthlessly criticizing the Russian autocracy.
In 1891-1892 N.Yadrintsev left Petersburg for Tobolsk
province, where he assisted in organization of help to the starving and stricken by cholera epidemy, to save the peasants and especially immigrants from Russia. In the 1890es N. Yadrintsev specially went to France and America to study migrant problems, to help the Russian migrants to Siberia. For practical realization of his plans in 1894. N.Yadrintsev came to Barnaul
, where, in his own words, he started a "peasant war" to protect the Russian Altay farmers. There, on June 7, 1894 N.Yadrintsev has died.
, Irkutsk
, Barnaul
. Yadrintsevskaya Street in Novosibirsk
is also called after him.
Omsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
- June 7, 1894, Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n public figure, explorer, archaeologist, and turkologist. His discoveries include the Orkhon script
Orkhon script
The Old Turkic script is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates from at least the 7th century to record the Old Turkic language. It was later used by the Uyghur Empire...
, Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
's capital Karakorum
Karakorum
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...
and Ordu-Baliq
Ordu-Baliq
Ordu-Baliqalso spelled Ordu Balykh, Ordu Balik, Ordu-Baliq, Ordu Balig, Ordu Baligh , also known as Mubalik, was the capital of the first Uyghur Empire, built on the site of the former Göktürk imperial capital, 17 km north-to-northeast of the later Mongol capital, Karakorum...
, the capital of the Uyghur Khaganate. He was also one of the founding fathers of Siberian separatism
Siberian separatism
Siberian regionalism , is a political movement to form an autonomous Siberian polity. It originated in the mid-19th century and reached a high tide with the military activities of Aleksandr Kolchak and Viktor Pepelyayev during the Russian Civil War....
.
Biography
Nikolai Yadrintsev was born to a family of an Omsk merchant. After TomskTomsk
Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
gymnasium, he entered the Petersburg University. There he began his active public work, in 1860 together with his friend and soulmate G.N.Potanin, N.Yadrintsev organized a circle of Siberian students with members S.S.Shashkov, N.I.Naumov, I.V.Omulevsky, I.A.Khudyakov, Ch.Valihanov
Shokan Valikhanov
Chokan Chingisovich Valikhanov , given name Muxammed Qanafiya Shokan was his pen-name, and later became his official name. was a famous Kazakh scholar, ethnographer and historian. He is regarded as the father of modern Kazakh historiography and ethnography. The Kazakh Academy of Sciences is named...
and others, future outstanding writers and scientists. The social movement of 1860es captivated the members of the Siberian countrymen, they established connections with democratic revolutionaries, read forbidden literature, and participated in students' revolts, which got them arrested. During those years the journal "Spark" (Russian "Iskra"), a clone of "Contemporary", printed first indictive feuilletons of N.Yadrintsev. In the 1860s N. Yadrintsev became a convinced democrat.
The members of Russian-Siberian community took close to their hearts the needs of their native land, transformed by czarism into a colony, and decided to selflessly struggle for the development of the Siberian fringes, against its subjugated position. The movement started by N.Yadrintsev and G.N.Potanin received a name "Siberian patriotism" or "Siberian separatism". They believed that only Siberians can protect the interests of Siberia, the purpose and obligation of all Siberians they saw only in the service to their land. They raised the inevitability of separation of Siberia from Russia, and in their leaflet they called on the fellow countrymen to rise and create in Siberia an independent democratic republic.
In 1862-1863 the members of the Siberian community, interrupting their studies, departed to the Siberian cities to advance their ideas. Their appeal did not meet a fervent response, but their oral and printed campaign against imperial authorities and oppressors of Siberia, for the revival and education of a native territory were supported by progressive part of the Siberian public, especially youth. A number of articles, feuilletons, and speeches of N. Yadrintsev with sharp condemnation of the defects of the local possessor class and functionaries of administration belongs to that time. N.Yadrintsev passionately appealed to open a university in Siberia, and started a campaign gathering donations for the university, which continued for over 20 years. In 1880 in Tomsk was initiated, and in 1888 opened the first Russian university in Siberia.
The Siberian separatists alarmed the government, they were arrested in 1865. During investigation, N.Yadrintsev spent three years in prison in his native Omsk. In 1868 the "Siberian separatists" N.Yadrintsev, G.N.Potanin and other Siberian patriots were sentenced to forced labor and exile. N.Yadrintsev was sent to Shenkursk
Shenkursk
Shenkursk is a town and the administrative center of Shenkursky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Vaga River. Municipally, it is incorporated as Shenkurskoye Urban Settlement of Shenkursky Municipal District. Population:...
in the Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
province, where he spent five years in exile (1868-1873) in relentless work on self-education, study of history, Siberian problems, development of main principles of Siberian separatism. He made acquaintance with the works of K.Marx, and though he did not become a Marxist, he adopted some of its positions. He was publishing essays, articles and feuilletons in "Business", "Domestic Notes", "Week", "Volga-Kama newspaper" and other liberal periodicals. In Shenkursk in 1872 he authored his first monograph "Russian community in prison and exile", which brought wide popularity to the author and his progressive ideological and scientific positions.
In 1873 the N.Yadrintsev's sentence was "most mercifully" commuted by the Czar, and N.Yadrintsev left for Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, and then to Omsk, where he entered a state service and lived till 1881. In Omsk N.Yadrintsev collected contemporary records on various scientific and social problems of the "aliens" (indigene peoples in Russian colonial lingo), peasants, and migrants. From Omsk, under a contract with Russian Geographical Society, he traveled twice across Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Altai
Altai Republic
Altai Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the town of Gorno-Altaysk. The area of the republic is . Population: -Geography:...
, researching economy and geography, archeology and ethnography, anthropology and linguistics. During his criss-crossing Altai in 1878-1880, N.Yadrintsev collected data about kurgans, fortresses and other archaeological monuments, recorded legends about some of them, produced sketches of many archaeological finds. These materials were published by the Moscow Archaeological Society. For the results of his scientific travel, N.Yadrintsev was awarded a Gold medal of Russian Geographical Society.
In 1881 N.Yadrintsev moved to Petersburg, till 1887. From the materials collected in Siberia, he wrote a monograph "Siberia as a colony" which was taken in Russia as a most monumental work of Siberian literature, and an encyclopedia of Siberian life. In the book the author developed main principles of the Siberian separatism.
From 1881 N.Yadrintsev began publishing a newspaper "Eastern Review" with democratic orientation. The articles, feuilletons, and reportages were greeted by ordinary ethnically Russian people, who were suffering from the arbitrariness of local authorities and exploitation. Many authors were political exiles. They were exposing the Siberian rulers,and disclosing machinations. The newspaper gained immediate popularity in Siberia, and became a recognized leader of the Siberian press, but within the Siberian administration and local moneymen it ignited a hatred and rage. The newspaper promoted awakening and development of public consciousness of the Siberian Russian intelligentsia and other populations. It supported expansion of the rights of the rural and city autonomies, freedom of press and public life, reorganization of the primitive school system, publicity in the jury court system. By the 1880s, N.Yadrintsev was publishing articles not only in the "Eastern Review", but also in dozens of other editions, "European Bulletin", "Domestic Notes", "Russian Register", "Business", etc. N.Yadrintsev's name became known to the whole progressive Russia, he established connections with the "Freedom of Labor" group in Geneva. In 1888 the publication of "Eastern Review" was moved from Petersburg to Irkutsk, closer to its audience, with N.Yadrintsev remaining in the Petersburg capital.
N.Yadrintsev worked to speed up the development of the backward fringe of the Russian empire. He hoped to awake the "local patriotism" in various layers of the Siberian population and first of all of the small ethnically Russian Siberian intelligentsia, which would help to improve the governance and enlightenment of Siberia, to lead it to prosperity. But as the years went, the number of the Siberian patriots have not increased, and Siberia remained in a sad position. N.Yadrintsev was especially depressed by the growth of the Siberian moneyed elite. Professing the "People's Will" ideas, he hoped that Siberia leapfrog a capitalism stage.
In 1889 under contract with Russian Geographical Society
Russian Geographical Society
The Russian Geographical Society is a learned society, founded on 6 August 1845 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-Imperial Geographical Society:Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was known as the Imperial Russian Geographical Society....
N.Yadrintsev traveled to Mongolia, where he located the remains of Early Middle Age city Hara - Balgas and the ancient Mongolian capital Karakorum. In the Kosho-Tsaidam gorge (valley of the Orkhon river) N.Yadrintsev found two petroglyphic monuments with runiform writing of ancient Türks of the 6-8th centuries, later decoded by the Danish scientist W.Tomsen
Vilhelm Thomsen
Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen was a Danish linguist. In 1893, he deciphered the Turkish Orkhon inscriptions in advance of his rival, Wilhelm Radloff...
. These discoveries brought N.Yadrintsev a world fame, and became the greatest scientific sensation of the 19th century. In a quick succession, already in the 1891 was organized a follow-up Orhon expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences with participation of N.Yadrintsev, led by an ethnically German native from Barnaul, a recognized Turkologist academician W.W.Radloff
Vasily Radlov
Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff was a German-born Russian founder of Turkology, a scientific study of Turkic peoples....
. The Orhon expedition found more monuments of runiform writing with epitaphs of the Türkic kagans and other nobility. The results of the expedition were published by W.W.Radloff in the "Atlas of Mongolia antiquities" (1892-1893) and in aspecial collection of works of the Orhon expedition (1892).
In 1891 N.Yadrintsev published his third monograph "Siberian ailians, their life and modern status", supplementing his book "Siberia as a colony". With graphical actual material the book depicted the distress state of the Siberian nations, subsisting in poverty and ignorance, ruthlessly oppressed by tsarism and Russian capitalists. At the same time N.Yadrintsev highly valued the influence of Russian people on the transition of the Siberian nomads to a subsistence settled agriculture, and their familiarization with Russian culture. The author displayed in his monograph his great humanty as a real friend and defender of small peoples of Siberia. Simultaneously, N.Yadrintsev published in Geneva a brochure "Illusion of Greatness and a Misery", ruthlessly criticizing the Russian autocracy.
In 1891-1892 N.Yadrintsev left Petersburg for Tobolsk
Tobolsk
Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...
province, where he assisted in organization of help to the starving and stricken by cholera epidemy, to save the peasants and especially immigrants from Russia. In the 1890es N. Yadrintsev specially went to France and America to study migrant problems, to help the Russian migrants to Siberia. For practical realization of his plans in 1894. N.Yadrintsev came to Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
, where, in his own words, he started a "peasant war" to protect the Russian Altay farmers. There, on June 7, 1894 N.Yadrintsev has died.
Memorials
There are streets named after him in Siberian cities OmskOmsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
, Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
, Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
. Yadrintsevskaya Street in Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
is also called after him.