June 12th, 2013 , 08:08 pm
IRKUTSK-YAKUTSK POSTAL TRACT:
HISTORY OF FORMATION
"The establishment of the tract is connected with the activities of the Second
Kamchatka expedition and was carried out under the leadership of V.Y. Bering.
Irkutsk>Yakutsk postal route occupied a leading place
in the transport system of North-Eastern Siberia and communications
with Russian America in the 18th – 19th centuries.
Since the beginning of the annexation of the North-East of Siberia to the Russian
more than a century passed for the state in 1629 until stable
communication routes in the region. The last one in the region's transport system
The Irkutsk-Yakutsk postal route was established 270 years ago, in 1738.
Since the 406s of the 17th century. until the mid-206s of the 18th century. the main way
supplying the Yakutsk district and transporting exiles was water6
land route from Tobolsk through Yeniseisk along the Angara - Ilim rivers, portage
Ilimsky (Lensky) and rafting from Ust6Kuta along the Lena to Yakutsk.
And yet, until the end of the 17th century. communication between Yakutsk and Moscow and Siberian
cities was not of a clearly organized, regular nature. Delivery
official documents and exiles appointed to the Yakutsk district
carried out both along the way, with the Cossacks traveling to Yakutsk, and as
necessary, appointing service people to accompany them.
To send the collected tribute from Yakutsk to Moscow,
special orderly people with a team, and if necessary urgent
delivery of documents - special express, with the issuance of travel documents. So,
for example, in the document issued on August 3, 1691 by the Yakut governor, stolnik, prince
Ivan Mikhailovich Gagarin in detail
the entire journey was described “... from the great Lena River, from the Yakutsk city...”
“...to Moscow...” [Acts 1864: 766 – 767].
The first attempt to establish regular mail communication between
Moscow and Yakutsk was undertaken in 1698, when it was “established
sending letters via the sovereign mail, which went three times in the summer from
Moscow to Siberia to Nerchinsk and Yakutsk, and back the same number of times" [Slovtsov
1886: 285]. However, stable postal communication within the Eastern
Siberia never happened.
Division of Siberia according to the decree of May 19, 1719 into three provinces
decree of November 26, 1724 “On the schedule of Siberian cities for three
provinces and the appointment of two vice-governors, Irkutsk
and Yenisei, subordinate to the Tobolsk governor" [Complete 1830: 263 –
265] was included in the Irkutsk province of the Siberian province
and Yakutsk district. This necessitated the establishment of regular
communications between Irkutsk and Yakutsk. The main route of communication was
tract from Irkutsk to the upper reaches of the Lena and rafting from Kachuga along the Lena to Yakutsk.
This route was especially busy in the summer. In the off-season - in the spring
and in the fall - the message was completely interrupted, and in the winter, if necessary, from
Irkutsk or Yakutsk sent messengers whose route ran
mainly on the ice of the river. Lena.
By the mid-2060s of the 18th century. within the Irkutsk province, from
Irkutsk to Vitim, there is a year-round connection: in the summer along the Lena,
in winter - according to established villages from Irkutsk to Vitim. So within
Irkutsk province has real prerequisites for rapid
transforming villages near Lena into postal machines (stations).
Thanks to the activities of the First Kamchatka Expedition to the North
Eastern Siberia in 1726-1729. in St. Petersburg had detailed
information, including information about communication routes in the region. Upon return March 1
1730 to the capital, the leader of the expedition, captain of the 16th rank Vitus
Yoanessen Bering presented Empress Anna Ioannovna with a brief
report on the progress of the expedition and made his proposals for
administrative arrangement and improvement of communications in the region
[Bering 1824].
Decisive importance in the organization and arrangement of communication routes
in the North-East of Siberia there were expeditions: military, Cossack head
Afanasy Fedotovich Shestakov; Second Kamchatka - received in 1730
the rank of captain-commander Vitus Yoanessen Bering..."
Regulations
Pursuit Race “Yakutsky Trakt” 2017
Amateur Sled Dog Pursuit Race “Yakutsky Trakt” is held on December 9, 2017. mainly by " Rules for holding competitions and tests in sled dog racing in the RKF system"and in accordance with these regulations.
Distances 3*3km. Sledding and skijoring. Absolute,Open, SES1, SES2 tests.
1. Goals and objectives of the race
Popularization of sledding sports, an active and healthy lifestyle, and humane treatment of animals. Involving dog owners and their pets in sledding sports. Revealing the strongest racers. Identification of dogs with the best sledding and leadership qualities.
2. Time and place
Registration starts at 10-00. The race starts at 12-00.
3. Conditions for admission to the race
All dogs are allowed to participate in the competition, regardless of their breed and pedigree.
Athletes who have no medical contraindications with healthy dogs older than 12 months are allowed to participate in the race.
Dogs must have a valid veterinary passport with vaccination records. At least 14 days must have passed since the last vaccination.
The racer is responsible for his own health and the health of his dogs, understanding that participation in the race involves the risk of hypothermia, injury, dehydration, etc.
Responsibility for minor riders and their dogs rests with the rider's parents or guardians. The age of juniors at which they can be admitted to the race depends on the class and discipline.
Members of the race organizing committee participate in the competition outside the classification.
4. Race Organizing Committee
Pavel Demin, Rimma Demina, Ilya Demin.
5. Race judges
Chief judge Rimma Demina.
The judges are timekeepers Alexey Orgilyanov and Irina Kryukova.
6. Competition program
Distance 3 stages of 3 km.
Classes and disciplines:
SC - teams of 3-4 dogs, rider age 14 years and above;
SD - 2 dog sleds, rider age from 12 years;
2SJ - skijoring 2 dogs, rider age from 16 years;
1SJ - skijoring 1 dog, rider age from 14 years.
Substitution of dogs is prohibited.
Separate start at all stages.
The starting order of the third stage is determined by the sum of the actual time behind the leader in the second and third stages.
The result (total race time) of the racer is the total time of the three stages.
The rider has the right to accept the help of one of his assistants in the starting town between laps, such as: caring for dogs, feeding, replacing equipment and gear, assistance in moving to the next lap, etc.
At the start, assistance is available to all riders in the starting corridor (10m). During the finish, all helpers of all teams must be behind the finish line. The presence of assistants in the finishing corridor and in front of the finish line is prohibited. Leading is prohibited.
7. Starting order
No. 1. Skijoring. Men.
No. 2. Skijoring. Women.
No. 3. Teams of 3-4 dogs.
No. 4. Sled 2 dogs.
The starting point is considered to be the front end of the sled or ski.
The start at the first stage is separate.
The starting positions of the first stage are determined by preliminary placement based on the results shown in the previous races. The starting protocol is published before the start of the race.
The starting interval for the first stage is 1 minute between riders in a class and 5 minutes between men and women.
The order of starts of the second stage is determined by the results of the first stage. The better the result a driver showed in the first stage, the earlier he starts in the second stage.
The starting interval for the second stage is 1 minute between riders in the class and 5 minutes between men and women.
The starting order of the third stage is determined by the sum of the actual time behind the leader in the second and third stages.
Sled competitions begin only after the skijoring competitions have ended. Until the end of the skijoring competition, teams are prohibited from entering the race track.
8. Gear and equipment
Requirements for equipment and equipment are determined " Rules… RKF ».
Each rider is required to have proper gear and equipment that complies with the Rules.
The use of strict and shock collars, any harnesses other than sled ones, pull-ups without a shock absorber, leashes, nooses, and muzzles is unacceptable.
If a dog is injured during a race and the cause of the injury is equipment that does not comply with the “Rules ... of the RKF,” the rider will be disqualified, regardless of the result shown at the race.
It is mandatory for the racer to have a working cell phone with a working battery and the telephone numbers of the organizers included in it (will be announced before the start of the race).
Juniors performing on sleds are required to wear a protective helmet.
All sleds must be equipped with serviceable brakes, brake mats, and anchors, in accordance with the Rules.
9. Dog control
During all competitions, incl. in the starting town, all dogs must be on a leash and under the control of the racer or assistant. Free walking of dogs is strictly prohibited during the entire race.
10. Priorities
The priority is the safety, physical and mental health of racers and dogs, spectators, the judging panel, etc., and an environmentally friendly attitude towards the environment.
11. Control time
At a distance of 3 km, the control time for completing the stage is 30 minutes from the moment the racer starts. A rider who fails to meet the time limit will not advance to the next stage and will be removed from the race.
12. Results and diplomas
The result (total race time) of the participant is the total time of the three stages taking into account a possible temporary fine.
The winners of the race are the participants who score the shortest total time of the three stages in classes and categories:
Skijoring:
Open men, CEC1 men, CEC2 men,
Women Open, Women CEC1, Women CEC2;
Sleds:
3-4 Open dogs, 3-4 CEC1 dogs, 3-4 CEC2 dogs,
2 Open dogs, 2 CEC1 dogs, 2 CEC2 dogs.
An absolute classification is also carried out, separately in each discipline, indicating the class (Skijoring men, Skijoring women, Sled 3-4 dogs, Sled 2 dogs).
Each participant who completes the race receives a diploma, which indicates the time to complete the distance in stages, a place in the overall standings, and a place in the speed category.
13. Protests and disqualifications
A participant can file a protest against the actions of a competition participant or an official - verbally immediately after his finish, written within 15 minutes after his finish.
Protest against the judges' decisions and time calculation results - within 15 minutes after the announcement of the competition results.
Any rider can insist on a review of the incident.
A rider may be disqualified for cruelty to animals (including ESH, injury to a dog as a result of using equipment that does not comply with the Rules), incomplete completion of the distance, provoking dog aggression towards people or other dogs. Each such case entails an analysis of the incident.
14. Submission of applications, voluntary entry fee, drawing of lots
Preliminary applications are accepted at: [email protected].
The application is submitted in the format: full name of the racer, gender, age of the racer, distance, discipline, number of dogs, names of dogs, breeds of dogs, age of the youngest dog, full name of the assistant, actual place of residence.
Voluntary entry fee:
15. Reporting
Information about incoming applications and the results of the competition will be available on the forums where the race topic is posted, in Facebook and VK groups.
16. Contact phone number:
Rimma Demina 8-914-8-99-80-65.
Route map
Go to the Yakutsky Trakt Race from Irkutsk:
Drive along the Kachugsky (Yakutsky))) highway until the turnoff to Kudu. At the intersection near Medved near the gas station (now there is a traffic light there), turn right, drive through the whole of Kuda, past the administration, past the pink one-story school No. 1 (this is Kirova Street, there are two monuments to revolutionaries in the courtyard).
After school No. 1, take the first left to the concrete plant (orange fence).
At the concrete plant turn right, this is the street. 50 years of October.
Between houses 18 and 20/1 on the street. 50 Let Oktyabrya turn left into the lane, then the first right turn along the street. Suvorov and again turn left into the vacant lot.
Tel. 8-914-8-998-065. Rimma
Friends! Again, I propose to turn on the “time machine” and move it back into time and send it along another ancient route. It is not as famous as the Siberian Highway, although in fact it is its continuation to the east. We will talk about the ancient Irkutsk-Yakut coachman's tract.
In Yakutia before the revolution there were three large highways - Irkutsk-Yakutsk, Okhotsk and Ayansky. Before joining Russia, Yakutia lived in complete geographic isolation from the center of the country - there were no regular routes of communication on the territory of Yakutia. People got to winter quarters and forts by boat along the Lena to the mouths of Oklema and Vitim, and then there were land roads. And so in 1743, along the banks of the Lena from Vitim to Yakutsk, the Irkutsk-Yakutsk coachman's tract appeared.
How many tears, sweat and blood have been shed, how many songs have been sung on this 1,500-mile journey from Yakutsk to Kirensk. I was able to not only immerse myself in its history, but also drive through a small section of it and visit several museums in the ancient coachman villages on the banks of the Middle Lena. In one of these museums in the city of Pokrovsk there is a large exhibition dedicated to this path. Moreover, the director of the museum, having learned about what our expedition was dedicated to, gave me a book called “Return to Origins.”
The book is dedicated to the 265th anniversary of the formation of the Irkutsk-Yakutsk postal route. Actually, I used this book when writing this report.
I will begin my story with the history of Russian coachmen. Carriage work is a business in Russia that is slightly less widespread than trade. But just as in trade, rarely does anyone officially announce that they are working as a driver if they work for themselves and not for the owner. Carriage has always been an additional source of income. The word “coachman” comes from the word “yam” - this is how postal stations where horses were changed were called in Russia in the 13th-18th centuries. Translated from Tatar, “yam” means “stopping place.” From the middle of the 18th century, the pits began to be called posts. In the 13th-15th centuries, the same word “yam” was also used to refer to yam duty – the state duty of the population for the transportation of persons in public service and state cargo. This duty was also called “cart.” From the end of the 15th century, the population was obliged to maintain roads and pits in order and provide carts, food and guides for state needs.
To construct a pit, an “orderly person” came from Moscow or the nearest city. He “described” the road with the “camps” built on it and the responsibilities of the population according to the number of households “adjacent to whom and hand in hand.” The agreement was drawn up in writing and handed to the clerk. Sometimes an agreement was concluded between the coachman and the population: the coachman assumed obligations to fulfill the Yamsk duty, and the community paid him an annual salary.
The coachman had to keep three geldings, record all travelers, their number, the number of carts, documents provided (travel certificates) and paid “passes”.
The first head of the Yamsky order was Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky. Ivan III urged his successors to maintain the race in good condition. Yamskaya “chase” is, in modern terms, postal and transit transportation. Under Peter I, post offices and post offices appeared; for military and administrative needs, a post office was organized parallel to the road. Catherine II continued the reform - an official staff of postal employees was introduced, instead of “life-long coachmen”, free-hire postal employees were recruited, and a unified postal route was established throughout the country. At the beginning of the 19th century in Russia there were 458 post offices and 5,000 postal officials.
But let's return to the Irkutsk-Yakutsk tract. To establish regular communication with the center of Russia, the Yakut-horse-drawn highway was opened in 1773. 
The route line was laid along the left bank of the Lena from Vitim to Yakutsk through completely uninhabited areas. In 1743, an official of the Yakut voivodeship office, Zakhar Baishev, founded 28 stations.
At first, at each station there were lonely Yakut yurts, called Yamsk cooks.
Initially, the following stations were organized from Yakutsk to the Olekminsky district
1. Tabaga – 25 versts from the city station
2. Uulaah-Aan
4. Toyon-Ary – 30.5
5. Tit-Ary – 44 versts
6. Sinsk – 52 versts
7. Dura - 51.5 versts
The Yakut Voivodeship Office entrusted the handling of mail in these machines to the Yakuts of the Khangalas ulus. In winter, the road was prepared on ice, hummocks were cleared, and spruce branches were placed.
Bridges were built and roads were laid on land areas. In the summer, bushes were cleared from the reach, the towpath was widened, and ditches were filled in. Postal stations were also built. The Yakutsk-Irkutsk highway was operated all year round. In the summer they were transported on boats, downstream by self-propelled float, and upstream against the current by a tow-line boat with the help of horses or by a group of coachmen.
According to the decree of January 28, 1773, at each postal station it was necessary to keep two or four horses, which were supposed to be “hidden day and night,” and with them two people “all dressed and ready for business.”
Overtaking mail was primarily due to the long travel distances between stations. In the 1740s, Yakuts began to complain about the wastefulness of maintaining the highway and the abuses of tsarist officials.
Next, I will try to describe the route and visit to the coachmen's farmsteads along the Yakut tract from the village of Tit-Ary. In several villages and towns along the way there were museums dedicated to the route to Tit-Ary, Elanka, and Pokrovsk.
The village of Tit-Ary is located on the left bank of the Lena on a rather steep bank; across the Lena channel there is the wooded island of Tit-Ary. Two rows of wooden peasant houses with one wide street between them stretched for quite a long distance along the shore. Every summer there was a fair along the Lena from Irkutsk, trading at the stations for two or three days. There were parties and drinking, but it didn’t get to the point of losing one’s mind and fighting.
True...in Tit-Ary the museum was completely closed. We called in advance with someone from the administration with a request to give a tour, but it turned out that the female tour guide had left for mowing. And only she has the keys to the museum.
We were content with only an external inspection and a photograph at the milestone.
In Elanka it’s about the same thing – there’s no one in the museum. But at least there was a sign on the road, although even knowing that there was a museum in the village, we didn’t find it on the first try.
Luckily, the entrance to the courtyard was open. There is a note on the door with a phone number. We called for a long time, about half an hour, but alas, no one answered.
We went inside to have a look.
The distance between the then-existing Toyono-Arinskaya and Tit_Arinskaya stations was 44 versts, and between Tit-Ary and Sinsk - 52 versts. These were some of the longest and most difficult hauls on the entire Irkust-Yakutsk tract. Distances that were feared in severe frosts not only by coachmen, but also by those passing through who personally experienced them.
The matter of opening new stations took 14 years to resolve. And yet, in the 1820-1870s, with great difficulty, 8 intermediate stations arose, including Elanskaya. Only in December 1830 was the “Decree of His Imperial Majesty the Autocrat of Russia...” signed on the establishment of new stations, Markhachanskaya and Elanskaya.
Elanka is a diminutive form of the word elan, an elevated, bare and open plain. The chosen location for the station, with smooth elan trees near a high mountain, right next to the river, delighted the new settlers, but at the same time, the continuous virgin taiga added to the hard work of clearing. Within a few years, the village consisted of a complex of wooden buildings: the building of the postal station itself, a stable, sheds for the coachman’s utensils, a barn and sheds for sleighs and firewood.
A striped milepost was installed in front of the postal station building, on which on one side was written “159 versts from Yakutsk”, on the other “2572 versts to Irkutsk.”
By 1836, there were already 8 farms in Elanka, of which only one did not participate in the mail drive.
This is what is stated in the explanatory note for the arrangement of the inn
House: width 8m, length 16m, height 3m, Russian stove 1 piece, windows - 8 pieces, room 3, Yakut stove 1
At the central entrance on the left side of Ulga there is a Yakut stove, which was used to illuminate the house, dry things and harness. Wooden drying poles are built in at human height. Next to the stove there is a large dining table, along the walls there are wide benches on which coachmen and poorer guests sleep at night. On the right is a Russian stove, on which food and bread are prepared, and also serves as a bed for the caretaker on duty. The first room is usually occupied by the rich or officials. In the second room at the back of the stove is the caretaker's family.
A model of the house, which we saw a little later in the Pokrovsk Local History Museum.
In addition to the house there were a number of buildings. Cart shed. Width 4 m, length 8 m, height 3 m. The barn for carts was located one side next to the stable, the back wall, a blank wall, served as a continuation of the fence. The barn gate opened onto the yard.
The stable was also located as a continuation of the fence. Inside there were mangers, those horse stalls, the horses were tied with their heads to the gate to make it easier to feed and quickly take out. The stable was divided into two parts: in the first there were rested, fed, ready-to-ride horses, in the second those who had just arrived from the race. The horses that had just arrived were unharnessed, led around the yard so that they calmed down and regained their breathing, then they covered their entire back with a blanket and put them in the stable, but did not feed them, and after two hours they were given dry hay, and before leaving, a measure of oats and water.
On the side of the stable was the holy of holies - a small forge and a machine for changing and shoeing horses.
The barn was placed close to the house between the entrance doors of the house. The barn was divided into two parts by a main wall, each part had a separate entrance. In the right one, the caretakers kept their praviant, as well as mail; this part had forged doors on iron hinges and was locked. The second part served as a common storage for visiting guests and coachmen. In both parts of the barn there were special boxes (bottom boxes) for storing food, wide benches were placed along the walls, and there were special shelves and hanging racks on the walls.
On the way, we saw a strange pillar near the road. I definitely can’t tell whether this pillar belongs to the coachman’s tract or something else.
And here is another “artifact” - the old bridge. A new road passed nearby, no one drives along it anymore, but it still stands.
In Pokrovsk we were lucky - we managed to get into the Khangalas Local History Museum named after G.V. from which I have used in this report.
The museum has a separate room dedicated to the history of the Irkutsk-Yakut tract. Sleigh and horse bow with a bell.
A beautiful installation of the view from the window of the coachman's station.
Photo of the Pokrovskaya post station, the interior of the Yakut booth, photo of the highway.
As a result, the museum managed to film the exhibition, but alas, the story did not work out.
In Yakutsk itself there is a certain private museum, they say it is very interesting. But alas, we no longer had time. In the evening, I met with Anatoly Anatolyevich Dobryantsev, chairman of the public organization “Descendants of the Sovereign Coachmen.” He mostly spoke about current projects to maintain the history of the highway, about the expedition organized by the initiative group along the highway from Irkutsk to Yakutsk. They traveled most of the route by boat along the Lena, and partly covered the route by car.
The Irkutsk-Yakutsk tract gave rise to the Vilyuisky, as well as the Verkhoyansk, Kolyma tracts, its other branch is the Ayansky and Okhotsk tracts. Cossack detachments passed along these roads, collecting yasak, then they were replaced by various expeditions of explorers of the northern lands and the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Along these roads, Russian people reached the shores of North America and Alaska. With the opening of the Amur, these routes, like Yakutsk, which was once a major communications hub in northeast Asia, lost their former importance. Subsequently, stages of exiles and convicts passed along the northern roads, starting with the Decembrists and ending with prisoners of Stalin’s camps in Kolyma. A large trade route ran along these roads through Yakutsk, Zhigansk, Verkhoyansk, Kolyma, reaching Chukotka and Kamchatka, which was active in the winter.
To be continued...
The Lensky district met a historical parcel - a mailbox, which was given to the Yakut residents by residents of the Irkutsk region. He travels through the cities and villages of two neighboring regions, as a symbol of anniversary events in honor of the 275th anniversary of the formation of the Irkutsk-Yakutsk postal route. Thus, the current generation remembers and pays tribute to the sovereign coachmen, who for two centuries carried mail on horseback for thousands of kilometers.
On March 14, a carved mailbox, made especially for the anniversary expedition, set off from Irkutsk. The relic was brought to the Angara region by First Deputy Chairman of the State Assembly Il Tumen Anatoly Dobryantsev. It is he, as a descendant of one of the sovereign's coachmen, who is the ideological inspirer and organizer of events dedicated to the 275th anniversary of the tract. During the ceremonial start of the expedition, the Yakutian gave parting words: “This tract has long been the only lifeline for Yakutia, so we attach great historical significance to it.” It is worth noting that in the summer of 2017, Anatoly Dobryantsev, as part of an expedition, traveled the entire Irkutsk-Yakutsk highway from beginning to end, and in the spring of 2018, a reconstruction of mail delivery from Irkutsk to Yakutsk was planned.
The parcel follows the historical path, it is passed from hand to hand by residents of those cities and towns where postal stations used to be located. In the mid-19th century there were about 80 of them, most of them on the Lena. The mailbox is not empty, it is filled with letters “From residents of Irkutsk to residents of the Republic of Sakha.” Also, throughout the journey, it is replenished with new messages from the population of former coachman stations. On March 22, the anniversary symbol reached Yakutia. Residents of Kirensk solemnly handed over the mailbox to the residents of Vitim and Peleduy. The leadership of the Lensky district met the mail in the village of Hamra, Yaroslavl nasleg. Administration employees headed by the head of the Department of Social Development went there Natalia Enders.
For the Khamrin residents, the anniversary of the Irkutsk-Yakutsk highway became a real event. They prepared for it for several months. Village residents piece by piece collected information about local coachmen and prepared special stands with photographs and biography of these people. The mail was met on the banks of the Lena in a decorated horse-drawn carriage, which took the “modern coachmen” along with the box along the historical route. In the center of the village, a cart with valuable cargo was greeted with bread and salt. For the holiday, the villagers dressed in national costumes, decorated the local club with balloons and renamed it “Khamrinskaya coachman station”. After the official meeting, Natalya Enders shared her impressions: “Having traveled with a mailbox on a horse-drawn sleigh along the banks of the Lena, as real coachmen used to do, it was as if we had visited the past. You can't fool the goosebumps. And they were."
During the ceremonial meeting, the Khamrin residents spoke about the history of their station, and also dropped a letter into the historical box, addressing it to their descendants: “Dear descendants. Residents of the village of Khamra, which has been adorning the left bank of the great Lena River for 282 years, are addressing you. We kindly ask you to remember the history of our village, respect and honor the traditions of our ancestors, and be patriots of your homeland. We wish that our village prospers, that enterprises open, that there is year-round communication with the regional center, that your children and grandchildren work in their native land and glorify our village with good deeds and deeds. 03/22/2018 Your ancestors.”
Then the “coachman” mail headed to Lensk, where the baton was met by old-timers of the city at the local history museum. Some of them know about the Yamskaya chase first-hand and not from historical documents. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War Alexey Lapinsky, who recently celebrated his 92nd birthday, said that he himself sometimes “moonlighted” as a coachman. He was born in the village of Turukta, past which the Irkutsk-Yakutsk highway also passed. He says that back then the mail was never late, and not only men, but also women carried it. In particular, his wife was involved in the coachman business. Teenagers also carried mail along with adults.
Home Front Veteran Vladilen Kochkin said that at the age of 14 he also sometimes worked as a coachman. The distance between the stations was large, but part of the journey had to be spent not in a cart, but running, because “my feet were very cold.” The coachmen also took guns with them to scare away wolves. The last horse mail passed by Mukhtui in the spring of 1954.
The mailbox spent one night in the Lena Museum, and on the morning of March 23 it went further - along the Irkutsk-Yakutsk highway.
The parcel “from the past” was greeted in the villages of Murya, Nyuya, Natora, Turukta, and in the village of Tinnaya, Olekminsky district, also in a solemn atmosphere, it was handed over to neighbors. There are still several dozen stations ahead; the mailbox will complete its journey on April 1 in the capital of Yakutia.
The Irkutsk-Yakutsk highway, with a length of 2895 km, has been an important state transport artery for more than 200 years. He was a link between Russia and the countries of the Pacific region and contributed to strengthening trade and cultural ties. Each station on the route is a whole story with its own characteristics and heroes who regularly carried mail all year round. Today, descendants of coachmen work in all sectors of our republic and beyond. Among them are many eminent scientists, doctors and candidates of science, teachers and production managers.
Photo report from the press service of the Lensky district administration.
Last year, on the big date - the 275th anniversary of the formation of the Irkutsk-Yakutsk postal route - 1st Vice-Speaker of the State Assembly (Il Tumen), Chairman of the public organization “Descendants of the Sovereign Coachmen” Anatoly Dobryantsev, together with a small delegation of fellow countrymen and a creative group of amateur artists, set off along the route of the Yamsk mail. We publish his memories on our website.
In 1743, a serviceman Zakhar Baishev on instructions from the voivodeship office, he first founded 28 stations from Vitim to Yakutsk. This year begins the chronology of the state coachman's postal route, which united the destinies of the Russian and Yakut peoples. The Irkutsk-Yakutsk postal route was of the same importance for our northern region as the Great Silk Road, which at one time determined the development of entire civilizations. 
Irkutsk-Yakutsk postal route: 2750 kilometers
I would like to recall the main points of the research and ethnographic expedition “In the footsteps of the sovereign’s coachmen”, which took place in July last year and became possible thanks to the order of the head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Egor Borisov and the action plan of the government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
The implementation of the project was preceded by a lot of preliminary work: to convince the leadership of the republic and historians to pay tribute to our ancestors, the sovereign coachmen, for the sake of the past. The Republic should widely celebrate this historical date, because for more than two centuries this road served as the only road of life for the inhabitants of the Lena Territory, the Yakut Region and the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
During the VI Erdyn Games, meetings were held with the Governor of the Irkutsk Region Sergei Levchenko and the Chairman of Parliament Sergei Brilka, where support was achieved from the leadership of the region, as well as meetings with some heads of municipal districts.
Irkutsk, ancient Siberian land
We had to travel 2,750 kilometers, visiting 126 postal stations in two regions, of which about 1,500 kilometers were in the Irkutsk region. We visited nine municipal districts: Irkutsk, Ekhirit-Bulagatsky, Bayandaevsky, Kachugsky, Zhigalovsky, Ust-Kutsky, Kazachinsko-Lensky, Kirensky and Mamsko-Chuysky. About 1250 kilometers across the territory of our republic in four municipalities: Lensky, Olekminsky, Khangalasssky districts and the Yakutsk urban district.
The expedition spent the first two days after arriving in the city of Irkutsk as planned in the city itself. On July 12, we visited the unique historical museum-complex of Russian wooden architecture “Taltsy”, where ancient buildings and structures of the Ilimsk fort, founded in 1630, were collected, which was flooded during the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power stations along the Angara River; this is more than 100 buildings.
On July 14, our expedition started from the ancient building of the Irkutsk city postal station, built in 1799. This building still houses the Irkutsk Main Post Office. No special restoration was carried out; everything here is the same as two centuries ago.
On the first day, we drove through the territory of the former Irkutsk district, 4 postal stations, and at the very first Khomutovskaya station there was a warm welcome with bread and salt, and the folk group “Rossiyanka” greeted us with a folk song. At the Zherdovskaya postal station they showed a good local history museum.
Ust-Horda pagans
The Ust-Orda Buryats, like the Sakha people, are pagans, we saw a lot of similarities in traditions, religion, customs, and they turned out to be very close in spirit to us, the descendants of the Lena coachmen.
In the first four days of our stay in the Irkutsk region, we were accompanied everywhere by my parliamentary colleague, Vice-Speaker of the Irkutsk Legislative Assembly Kuzma Aldarov, a wonderful person, a worthy son of the Buryat people.
He comes from these places, and along the way he was an interesting storyteller and interlocutor, well versed in the history of the formation of the Yakut tract (as Irkutsk residents kindly call our tract). Kuzma Romanovich is an agricultural specialist, for a number of years he was the regional minister of agriculture, and I, an agricultural worker, also had something to talk about, especially since from Irkutsk we drove along an excellent asphalt road to the village of Kachug, and the historical route passed along this road . Along it are endless fields, which are sown with various crops, and in some places endless hayfields and pastures, where large herds of cows, horses and sheep graze. Irkutsk residents have largely retained their large farms from Soviet times. Here you can find Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Tatar and Buryat villages, which were founded at the beginning of the 20th century during the Stolypin reform. And there is something here to think about and reflect on.
In the unique tourist complex "Yurt Khan" the interior decoration is very colorful, in the national Buryat-Mongolian style, made of bright materials, antique furniture, and appropriate utensils. We were treated to unique Buryat dishes. This yurt was built by analogy with the yurt of the great Genghis Khan.
Bayandaevsky district
The baton at the border, where the former Olzonovskaya postal station was located, was taken up by the charismatic head of the Bayandaevsky district, Anatoly Tabinaev, an old acquaintance of mine from the times of the two Erdyn Games.
Bayandaevsky district is one of the large agricultural areas of the region, where for 15 thousand people there are 50 thousand heads of cattle, 20 thousand heads of horses and 8 thousand heads of sheep of the January population and up to 20 thousand hectares of sown areas of various agricultural crops. Impressive numbers.
Further along the way, we stopped at the watershed of the two great Siberian rivers Yenisei - Lena, where there is a huge sign indicating that it is here that our nurse, the Great Lena River, originates in the form of a small stream.
There was a short stop at the Khogotovskaya postal station, and at the border, at the Manzur postal station, we were met with a song to the accordion by a hospitable, good-natured hostess, the head of the Kachugsky district, Tatyana Sergeevna Kirillova, with her large retinue and folk group.
Homeland of St. Innocent Veniaminov
On the morning of July 15, after checking into the Kachuga hotel, we left for the village of Anga. This is 25 kilometers away from the highway, to the small homeland of St. Innocent Veniaminov - the Apostle of Siberia and America, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, an outstanding Orthodox figure in Russia. In the village of Anga we visited the Orthodox complex being built for the 220th anniversary. The current Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region, Sergei Fateevich Brilka, is from this village. He received me on the day of my arrival in the city of Irkutsk and gave me a completely new book, No. 3, “Russia Lives Through the Merit of Innocent.”
In the village, we were warmly welcomed by the folk group “Selyanka” with an ancient song accompanied by an accordion, then we visited the historical building - a house-museum, where Vanya Popov, the future bishop, apostle and metropolitan Innokenty Veniaminov, lived as a child from the age of 6, who, having graduated from Irkutsk theological seminary, mastered more than 10 languages of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and America, and made an outstanding contribution to Orthodoxy. The house, built in 1800, is in fair condition, with all the trappings of its period.
Zhigalovskaya pier
Then we returned to the highway and not far from Verkholensk we visited the famous Shishkinsky writings, where on the rocks along the banks of the Lena for several kilometers there are a lot of ancient writings from thousands of years ago.
Our further path lay in Zhigalovo. Here we first saw four deserted post stations - Tyumentsevskaya, Korkinskaya, Petrovskaya and Novomarevskaya, where only a few dilapidated houses and fields overgrown with weeds remained, which reminded us that people once lived here.
At the border of the Zhigalovsky district, we were met with bread and salt by the hospitable head of the district, Igor Fedorovsky - my acquaintance from the time of the V Erdyn Games, a real epic Siberian hero, two meters tall, loud, with jokes and jokes, a wonderful hunter, fisherman and a true connoisseur of his district.
Zhigalovo (founded in 1723) is also an old postal station at shallow waters on Kachuga and Verkholensk. Mail and people were delivered here by horse-drawn transport, and the summer waterway already began from the Zhigalovskaya pier. In the 18th–19th centuries, the Zhigalovskaya pier was an object of supply for the Yakut region and the beginning of a real dear life.
The Lena in these places is still quite narrow - from 100 to 200 meters wide, and shallow. Sailing along our nurse Lena, we saw real indescribable natural beauty and exoticism. The forest in these places is very large and dense, starting literally from the banks: cedar, fir, spruce, pine, birch, huge rowan trees, bird cherry and other shrubs. The water on the river is clean.
I asked the head of the district, Igor Nikolaevich, who accompanied us on his boat, if we had taken bottled water to drink. He replied: “You offend me, my friend, here’s a mug for you, take it from Mother Lena and drink as much as you like. And in addition, you see, this is a real Siberian drink, infused with pine nuts and various natural wild berries and herbs, at 40 degrees of strength. We, self-respecting people, don’t buy water or vodka from the store here, everything here is our own, natural.”
At the Gruznovskaya postal station we examined the old house of the Evdokimov family, a typical typical building of the 19th century, a large five-wall building with a preserved adobe stove. Zakamenskaya, Shamanovskaya and Golovskaya postal sites are almost deserted or inhabited by several families, mostly hunters and fishermen, but many ancient houses have been preserved.
Ust-Kutskoe tract Lupilovo
Then the baton of accompanying our expedition was picked up by the Ust-Kut region in the person of Alexander Viktorovich Dushin, a candidate for mayor of the city of Ust-Kut. He put us in his modern diesel water-jet boat "Rossomakha", with a 350 horsepower engine, and we rushed at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour to his site in the Lupilovo tract between the former postal stations Dyadino and Basovo, which turned out to be deserted, but Several ancient houses have also been preserved.
On July 17, early in the morning we set off on a long journey by boat. From here began the ancient Kirensky district, which covered 56 postal stations to the border of the Olekminsky district, or by today's standards these are the territories of the Ust-Kutsky, Kazachinsko-Lensky, Kirensky and Mamsko-Chuysky districts of the Irkutsk region and our Lensky district.
We visited three more post stations: Tarasovskaya, Boyarskaya, Omoloevskaya. At these post stations, ancient buildings, post houses, and barns have been preserved. Having covered 240 kilometers of travel, in the evening we arrived in the city of Ust-Kut (founded in 1631) as an Ust-Kut settlement, and then a postal station. Nowadays about 40 thousand people live there, the city stretches along the coast for 30 kilometers. Ust-Kut is a real transport hub: there is the Lena railway station and the Osetrovo river port. The lion's share of goods for our republic and further transportation by river vessels are delivered by rail. Cargo is delivered along the Lena River throughout our republic. There is an airport and all the relevant infrastructure for the city. We were accompanied around the city by the deputy head of the district, Elena Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova, who turned out to be a distant relative of our Pripuzov coachmen from the Ulah-An post station. We visited a good local history museum, then there was a meeting with the public and old-timers of the city. Three amateur artistic groups performed before us, including one folk group.
Kirensk - the center of the ancient district
On July 18, we left early, at 6 o’clock in the morning, from the city of Ust-Kut to the city of Kirensk on the high-speed ship “Polesie,” which belongs to our LORP. This day is one of the inconvenient days for our expedition, since we were traveling with passengers, and we did not have the opportunity to stop at each post station, and the distance was about 300 kilometers and 13 post stations. The operator and I took a higher place and filmed all the stations on video, I simply commented on them. So, without a meeting, we passed through the whole region, since the ship from Ust-Kut was already full of passengers, so there was no stop even in the regional center of Kazachinsko-Lensky in the village of Markovo.
In the afternoon we arrived in the ancient city of Kirensk, the former center of a huge county. The city with a population of about 15 thousand people is located on an island with very good scenery. The city was founded in 1630 by the Cossack Vasily Bugor. We were accompanied around the city by Deputy Head Sergei Yurievich Leshchinsky. We visited the Trinity Cathedral, which was built in the 18th century. We had a very good impression from visiting the city local history museum, where there is a very rich collection of objects of life and everyday life of the 17th–19th centuries, a huge collection of Russian samovars, more than 30 collections of bottles of various capacities from 50 liters to 0.5 liters, an ancient horse harness, hunting and fishing tools, various machines, including the indigenous peoples of the North are well represented. It was in this museum that we took a historical photograph for ourselves, moving back in time 100 years ago.
Milk the cows and - on Lena cheeks
On July 20, early in the morning, our girls even took part in milking the cows, took pictures with piglets, calves, and after an excellent breakfast on the hacienda of V.V. Trachuk. we drove towards Vitim. On this day we had to travel 260 kilometers and 11 post stations. For the journey we were loaded with fresh sour cream and cottage cheese, which we enjoyed for two more days, and there was still some left for the ship's crew.
Our next stop was at the Korshunovskaya postal station, where we examined a number of preserved ancient houses. A family lives in one of the houses, a very typical old house with an old Russian stove and a huge cellar for potatoes. The house, built 150 years ago, with a hipped roof, carved shutters with patterns, is very well preserved.
After that, we had to drive through very interesting places through the Lena cheeks - this is the narrowest place on the Lena: sheer cliffs on both banks, sharp turns, and a very fast current.
The former postal station Pyanobykovskaya is located at this place and there is a very fast current here, all ships move according to schedule so that there is no oncoming traffic. Here you can’t help but wonder how the coachmen passed this place (about 20 kilometers), especially against the current in the summer
By 10 o'clock in the evening we arrived at the last station in the Irkutsk region, Chuyskoye, the 63rd postal station, 1500 km covered. ways. Several families live in Chuya, but because of the shallow water and the onset of darkness, they were unable to land and moved on. By 12 o'clock at night we crossed the border of our republic and landed for the night near the village of Vitim. This is the first settlement on the territory of our republic.
Read about the journey along the Irkutsk-Yakutsk highway, now through the territory of Yakutia, tomorrow.
