STEAMSHIP COMMUNICATION ON THE YENISEI RIVER IN THE 19th CENTURY: A STORY OF ONE DIARY
Steamship communication on the Yenisei River was launched in the latter half of the 19th century. By the mid-1880s, merchants from the areas along the Yenisei River were sending commercial expeditions to Its lower reaches on a regular basis. Although they used steam-driven vessels, the overall organization of these expeditions, including their equipment, was at a very low level. As of today, the history of the development of steam navigation on the Yenisei River - an important link between the Northern Sea Route and the Trans-Siberian Railway - remains poorly studied. We were unable to find any historical research papers discussing the organization or material and technical resources of steam navigation on the Yenisei River in the 19th century. This can be explained by the lack of historical records that survived to the present day. As steamship communication was not controlled by the state until the1890s, most documents were held in private hands. Unfortunately, the majority of merchants and crew members failed to keep records of any sort. Thus, the bulk of information was received from travellers and explorers, including foreigners, who had visited that part of Siberia in the 19th century. Therefore, the recovered diary of Nikolay Ignatyevich Kytmanov - a member of a dynasty of merchants and steamship owners and a participant of the 1885 commercial expedition to the lower reaches of the Yenisei River - is an important source allowing us to see the issue under study through the eyes of a Siberian entrepreneur. This article analyses the conditions of the trips described in Kytmanov’s diary, which reveals the crucial aspects of the expedition’s work, including navigation methods, maintenance of the vessel, and everyday life on board the ship. The diary was kept on a daily basis and covered the reasons of short and long stops and delays, as well as interesting meetings and observations about the nature of the Yenisei North.