History of the Chukotka Peninsula Exploration in the Documents from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences
| 26 September 2024
Posted in
Archival funds and collections
Kiselev M.Y.,
Moscow, Russian Federation
History of the Chukotka Peninsula Exploration in the Documents from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Abstract
The article draws on personal provenance documents on the history ofthe ChukotkaPeninsula exploration stored in the Archive of the RussianAcademy of Sciences. It aims to expand the source base on the historyof exploration and development the Chukotka natural resources. The issue is addressedin papers of N.N. Dikov, K.I. Bogdanovich, B. Gorovsky, D.V. Ivanov, K.N. Tulchinsky, V.M. Vonlyarlyarsky. The Archive of the RussianAcademy of Sciences (ARAN) stores the personal provenance fond of Academician V.A. Obruchev (1863-1956), whereinthe "Russian Argonauts", memoirs of M.A. Korzukhina on explorations of the Chukchi Peninsula in 1900-1921, are preserved. The documentscollectionincludes copies of articles and reports of her husband, mining engineer I.A. Korzukhin, and other explorers, letters and releases of official documents. I.A. Korzukhin, son of the artist A.I. Korzukhin,(1871-1931) was geologist, professor, who in 1903-1921 years headed an expedition to explore minerals in Chukotka. Memoirs, written in 1931-1945, cover various aspects of the mining engineer I.A. Korzukhin’sexploration of natural resources and organization of mining on the Chukchi Peninsula. Sent to Chukotka in 1903 by the North-Eastern Siberian Society, the expedition headed by I.A. Korzukhin found no gold, although discovered a large deposit of graphite. During this expedition (1903), havingexplored the coastal strip, I.A. Korzukhin charted the geological structure of the Chukchi Peninsula according to which the gold vein, purportedly,wentfrom the mouth of the Anadyr River to the Kolyuchinskaya Bay. According to the memoirs of A.M. Korzukhina, I.A. Korzukhin showed this chart to the inspectors of the society at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which, in her opinion,prompted the discovery of the richest Anadyr gold fieldby one of the society membersE.Nedo at the end of 1906. Due to the war with Japan it was only in 1911 that mining engineer I.A. Korzukhin was invited as a member of the Management Board, in the same year he organized a new expedition to the Chukchi Peninsula. Engineering works were carried out on rivers Nado (former Volchja), Vetleson and Colbyand mineral deposits were found. The memoirs containdataon the geological discoveries on the Chukchi Peninsula in 1903-1912: placer gold deposits and vein gold, large deposits of galena with high silver content, of pure magnetite, of bloodstone ocher, of high-quality graphite, and athickbedding of brown coal. Of particular interest are the biographical dataon I.A. Korzukhin, his passion for music, his activities in 1917-1923 in order to organize an expedition to the Chukchi Peninsula in 1921 andto obtain an official permission for mining. After the expedition to the Chukchi Peninsula in 1921 I.A. Korzukhin argued that the Chukchi Peninsula is similar in every way to the Seward Peninsula in Alaska.New deposits of gold, carbon, graphite were discovered, a variety of salts in seawater was identified. Theprovided information may be used for research and educational purposes.
Keywords
Chukchi (Chukotka) Peninsula, I.A. Korzukhin, RussianAcademy of Sciences Archive, personal provenance fond, history, research.
Download the article: pdf
About authors
Kiselev Michail Yuryevich, PhD in History, head of the Documents Preservation Center of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-916-302-14-52, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it