That’s just the nature of the son was not happy.
For eighteen years, future famous traveler much already knew. He recalled how his friend, who was born near Molodechno famous scientist Benedict Dybowski, “Chersky was a good gymnast, dexterous and skillful rider, graceful and even elegant dancer. He is a model owned a bayonet and a sword, had a lovely front bearing, was musical, played the piano, but later this game was thrown”1. Still painted well, languages in early youth, learned a lot, Russian and Polish fluent in, but had been Belarusian2.
But in 1863, when the plan was already studied in Vilna in the noble Institute, in those places flared liberation uprising, he joined the rebels, and destiny made the first sharp turn: exile in Siberia, deprivation of noble dignity and rank and file service in Omsk.
the family estate was confiscated. The manor house in Soline placed under the office of Dinaburg-Vitebsk railway. Only after twenty years of Chersky will be able for a while to come to their homes.
Omsk tour lasted for six years. Released in 2016 on the TV channel “Culture” a documentary film on the Left was shown in a cycle “Geniuses and villains”. In Omsk a young man from a villain in the eyes of the authorities began to turn into genius. The protection of local “dead house”, described by Dostoevsky, and other hardships of service, he has combined with persistent reading, lit candle a candle in a long Siberian night. Under this inconsistent, uneven light, spoiling the already myopic eye, the penalty recruit swallowed the thick scientific books in different languages and have achieved: “to deal with large, compiled by the program, which included all sections of natural Sciences – from astronomy to anthropology”3.
the petition to return home, the Plan refused to enroll in the University of Kazan was banned. Exiled to the nugget remained nothing how to study independently. Anatomical classes in ramshackle bath-house. Chemical laboratory barracks warehouse…
And after a few years the scientific community gasped in Siberia was born a scientist! Moreover, he was impressed by his vast knowledge in a variety of disciplines – from Geology and paleontology to Zoology and Ethnography. Nugget in a military overcoat is pitching in to help the Siberian explorers Grigory Potanin and Nikolai Yadrintsev, the Russian geographical society and its East Siberian Department in Irkutsk.
in 1869, Ivan Dmitrievich due to health problems not recognized as fit for military service and dismissed.
in 1871, after moving to Irkutsk and received a modest place in the Geographical society, Chersky began vigorously to prepare for his famous expeditions. Two years later he went in withthe first howl in the mountains of the Eastern Sayan and the Kuznetsk Alatau. Then explored all the coast of Baikal lake, were studied Siberian postal route, rivers of Siberia, described and explored many mountain ranges.
the pioneer never regretted, but for ordinary Siberians in their distant wanderings were treated with the same warmth: “Chersky had a special gift to win over all. But he was particularly fond of Siberian peasants and the Buryats”4.
the Expedition will become a way of life for almost two decades. He dies in the last of them on Board the vessel at the mouth of the tributary of the Kolyma river called the money pit…
Already had the name in a scientific environment, Ivan Dementievich astounded people reverent attitude to breech every ruble allocated for his journey. Irkutsk colleague Mikhail Zagoskin sincerely was surprised: “He knew well the scarce resources of the division and keeping them even at the expense of the necessary expenses of the expedition and came up with a cheap means of travel: all four-year study of the Baikal shores he made on his own boat, where he was also a rower”5.
the results of the travel soon became known throughout Europe. The pioneering works of Chersky on the Geology of lake Baikal made a splash at the international Congress in Venice, where the author as an exiled, of course, did not even think to let. A humble devotee of science Ivan Dementievich his theory of the origin of the great lakes at the end of prolonged subsidence of the earth’s crust convincingly refuted the views of famous German Alexander von Humboldt, who believed that Baikal is a remnant of an ancient sea.
Chersky managed during the journey, family waves to be a pioneer. Being stationed in Irkutsk, in a small house near the local river Ushakovka, it is not just love smart the daughter of the moor and Ivanov married her; he developed in the Siberian girl real research talent. According to Zagoskin, “managed from a girl’s simple and almost illiterate to prepare their own beautiful assistant, who was able to collectivity, and make observations, and rewrite without the slightest error his works with complicated scientific terms and Latin”6. Mavra Pavlovna, who bore her husband a son, Sasha, was a reliable companion of Ivan Dementievich in all his travels and endeavours. She bravely shared forwarding and the harsh everyday life and the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg the life and times in the 14th line of Vasilievsky island, where Chersky was able to move shortly before his death in commemoration of the scientific merit.
In front of her and the son he died in Kolyma fateful evening of 25 June 1892 from another ailment to cure which in those parts there was no one. A young widow, in spite of all difficulties, managed to complete the expedition, and then until his death in 1940, became a zealous guardian of the p��of memory about her husband, not forgetting his Belarusian roots.
Mavra Pavlovna went to live first in Vitebsk, then in the Orsha district. The Bolsheviks, the owner of a modest farm Kazimirova of Orsha was considered a “landowner”7, but parallel to the entire Soviet country rattled legacy Chersky. Posthumous honour to those indefatigable native Belarusian lands, as often happens, turned out to be louder in vivo, is not photosnew in the twenty-first century.
P. S.
Manor Chersky in the current Verkhnedvinsk district of Vitebsk region have not survived. In its place a memorial sign.
the name of the scientist are ridges in Transbaikalia and North-Eastern Siberia, the volcano in Tunka basin, separate peaks on Komarin and Baikal ridges, two glaciers in the Baikal ridge, the shore of lake Baikal (the Barguzin nature reserve), a stone near the village of Listvyanka, Bank of the Irtysh (Omsk village New Village), the valley between the Eastern Sanam and Yenisei ridge.
the Street is named after Chersky in six cities and towns, but in Yakutia there is a village of Chersky.
1. The Dybowski B. Yan Chersky (Biography) // I. D. Chersky. Unpublished papers, letters and diaries. Articles about I. D. Chersky and A. I. Cerskij. Irkutsk, 1956. P. 336.
2. Ermolenko V. A. Belarusian and Russian North. Minsk, 2009. P. 4.
3. The Dybowski B. Decree. CIT. Pp. 328-329.
4. Ibid. P. 331-332.
5. Zagoskin IIR. Ivan Dementievich Chersky // Eastern Outlook. 1892. N 39. 27 Sep.
6. Ibid.
7. Shishanov V. A. moor Cerska: time memories // Arch tion heritage Vseobschey Yak krynta vysochana glory edge. Mnsc, 2002. S. 111-120.
