Matyushkin is brief biography

Matyushkin came from an old Russian noble family. Born in Germany, in Stuttgart, where his father was a court adviser at the Russian embassy. There was no Russian church in the city, and the boy was christened according to Lutheran custom. Mother left her son in the care of her father and left for Russia a mentor at the Moscow Catherine Institute. Matyushkin's childhood was not happy.

After her father's early death, his mother took the summer boy and placed him in a noble boarding house at the University of Moscow, where he received primary education. Thanks to the patronage of Empress Maria Fedorovna Matyushkin, they allowed exams to the newly -founded Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, in which it was allowed to accept only children from the noble and personally familiar to the king of families.

After successful passing the exam at the age of 12, Matyushkin became the lyceum student of the first, as he was later called the “Pushkin” set. The boy had a good -natured soft character, but strong will, excellent talents and excellent diligence. In the official tag, compiled on each of the graduates, Matyushkin says: “It is very well -owned, polite, sincere, good -natured, sensitive with all the ardor; Sometimes angry, but without rudeness.

" Already in the Lyceum, everyone noted his passionate love for the sea. Matyushkin aroused sympathy for both his comrades and teachers, was one of Pushkin’s closest friends during his studies and after the end of the lyceum. From the Lyceum Matyushkin was released by the college secretary. The director of the Lyceum E. Engelhardt, with the help of the Ministry of Education, helped Matyushkin to join the volunteer in the team of the Kamchatka sloop, which, under the command of V.

Golovnin, was sent to a two -year round -free voyage with Kamchatka and to Russian America. Getting on the ship to a strict and demanding Golovnin was considered a great honor even for honored naval officers. Everything was decided by a personal meeting with Golovnin, to whom Matyushkin came with a letter of recommendation from Engelhardt. After reading the letter, Golovnin said: “You are recommended here, but do not die dear?

And I’m boring, I will report to you, it will be, and it will be sick of pitching: you get yellow, lose your appetite, and what for the sake? And after a pause he added: “Didn't frighten? Well, in short, I’ll say: a little that I’ll land in England. I don’t give you any instructions yet. ” So Matyushkin’s cherished dream was fulfilled to become a sailor. He was accepted by a volunteer with the subsequent enrollment in the midshipmen, "if he has the opportunity to have the opportunity for that." Unfortunately, it turned out that a young sailor brutally suffers from seasickness.

Golovnin even offered him to stay in Portsmut, but Matyushkin assured him that he would endure everything, and there was no talk of leaving the ship. On board the Kamchatka, he met the future outstanding sailors and scientists - F. Litka and F.P. Wrangel. Young midshipmen, understanding the state of Matyushkin, as they could, supported him, talked about themselves, asked about the lyceum, about Pushkin.

They were connected by a craving for knowledge, a love of the sea, travel. The relations of young people with Golovnin became confident and warm. They retained friendship with him for many years. Swimming gave Matyushkin a lot. He became an experienced, hardened sailor. Softness and goodwill helped him easily converge with people. In Kamchatka and in Russian America, Golovnin entrusted him with trips to get acquainted with the life and morals of local residents.

Friendly relations were established by Matyushkin with the ruler of Kamchatka by the famous P. Rikord and his wife Lyudmila Ivanovna. The image of this beautiful woman remained in Matyushkin’s heart for life. He was looking for the same, but never found it, never creating a family: “Not because I don’t want to love anyone, but because the one that I love is inaccessible and prevents me from converging with others.” At the end of swimming, Matyushkin was awarded the title of midshipman.

Now he could fully say the same thing about himself that Litke was later said: “At the beginning of the campaign, I had no idea about the service: he returned to the real sailor, but the sailor of the Golovnin school.” Despite Golovnin’s excellent review, the official decision on enrolling him to the fleet was made only three months after the end of the navigation in December.

And only in February, after the petitions of Engelhardt and Prince Golitsyn Matyushkin, the Order of St. Anna of the 3rd degree, which his comrades had already received, was granted. In the year, an expedition was organized to invent the coast of Siberia east of the Kolyma River, the site is the least fully described in the process of all. In addition, it was necessary to explore the area north of the coast in order to search for land known for the stories of local residents.

At the head of the expedition, Wrangel was set up, who invited Matyushkin as his assistant. They had to change the side of the ship to sledges with dog sledges, and ocean spaces on a snowy tundra and icy throats. The expedition went from St. Petersburg at the end of March and arrived in Moscow, the path from Moscow to Irkutsk was overcame in a month and a half.In Irkutsk, Wrangel and Matyushkin were represented by the Siberian governor General M.

Speransky, who took an active part in the organization of the expedition. Matyushkin went north earlier than the main part of the expedition for the purchase of food and the construction of wintering at Cape Baranov Stone and the Observatory. Upon arrival in Nizhnekolymsk, he discovered that the local authorities did nothing from what was prescribed to them, putting the expedition in a very difficult position.

Only the efforts of Matyushkin began the construction of the observatory, and he himself went to the mouth of Kolyma for the purchase from local residents of fish for dogs. In November, after almost an eight -month path through Siberia, the expedition participants reached Nizhnekolymsk. Having completed the preparation, Wrangel, Kozmin and three Cossacks went along the coast to the Chayun Bay, from the mouth of Kolyma to the east to the Shelag Cape, the eastern entrance cape of the Chaun Bay.

They had to solve one of the tasks of the expedition - to establish whether there is an isthmus between Asia and America, as some foreign geographers claimed. Matyushkin went to the fair in the village of Ostrovnoy, where he was supposed to meet with the elders and ask them about the unknown land alleged north of the mouth of the Kolyma. The solution to this issue was the second main task of the expedition.

Only one of the elders, the jack painted the island north-east of Cape Shelagsky in the snow. Returning to Nizhnekolymsk, we immediately went on a new campaign, now to the north to resolve the riddles of the Andreev land. Overcoming the parallel ridges of the Thoros, deep, filled with snow, crevices between them, suffering from snowy blindness, the travelers retired for kilometers from the shore and, not meeting new lands, were forced to turn back and engage in describing the bear islands.

Matyushkina’s detachment described the island of four -stage. In the summer of the year, the expedition examined the Kolyma region, the Matyushkin detachment described the Bolshoi Anyui basin, the right lower tributary of Kolyma. The third campaign on ice was taken in the spring of the year from the Cape of Big Baranov, located east of the mouth of the Kolyma River.

We went ashore in May after daytime wandering on ice. In the summer of the year, the Matyushkin detachment spent the Tundra east of the mouth of the Kolyma and investigated the area of ​​Maly Anyuya. A year later, in the spring, the fourth, last trip to the north was made, now from Cape Shelagsky. Matyushkin did not participate in it. He was given the task of inventing the coast from the Chaynsa Bay to Cape Severny now Schmidt.

Matyushkin’s detachment and Wrangel’s detachment, returning from a campaign to the north, met on the coast, and this meeting was truly saving for Wrangel. They miraculously survived, falling on the shallow drifting ice, but lost almost all of their food, and there were miles to the nearest ground warehouse. Travelers, arriving at Cape Yakan, peered to the north for a long time, but they did not see the lands.

Now we know that she is there. Matyushkin went north, but did not achieve success. After 25 years, this land was discovered by the American captain G. Kellett and named after his ship the Earth of the Plawer. After another 19 years, American Kitoba T. Long called this deserted land "Wrangel". With the same right, she could be called the "land of Matyushkin." Matyushkin was delighted with the honesty of the American, but bitterness also mixed up with joy.

In the year, the order of the Admiralty College came to end the expedition. Based on the results, her Wrangel published a book, which compounded two reports of Matyushkin. Pushkin has repeatedly advised him to take up the writing of a big book. The years spent in the north, Matyushkin himself considered the most outstanding in his life, but did not write the book.

After the expedition, Matyushkin was sent to the service in Kronstadt. He was in a depressed state: it was not the case with production to the next officer rank, it was sad to realize that all the successes of the expedition were attributed to one Wrangel. His chief in the expedition also had their grounds for sadness. He was sad that he was not able to step on the land that they were looking for four years.

Golovnin helped out, who offered Wrangel a round -the -world journey by military sailing “Mole” to the shores of Kamchatka: “Take Matyushkin with you. And God forbid you to glorify the Fatherland with a new howl.

” Matyushkin received an invitation to Wrangel almost simultaneously with the news of his production in lieutenants. Swimming continued during - gg. The return of Matyushkin to his homeland was sad. Many of his comrades were convicted of participating in the uprising on Senate Square. Fate saved Matyushkin, there is no doubt about his sympathy for the Decembrists.