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Boyars’ decree “On making a draft of Siberia on a canvas…”
10 (20) January 1696 was announced a Boyars’ decree “To make a chart of Siberia on a canvas indicating cities, settlements, peoples and distances between holes”.
The decree stipulated: “… to order all Siberian cities and towns, uyezds, Russian villages, volosts and yasak volosts to draft charters on a canvas indicating the number of versts and days of walk between the cities and what Russian villages, volosts and yasak volosts are around that city, on the bank of what rivers are situated those cities, uyezds, yasak volosts and indicate all this information exactly on the charter; in Tobolsk to order a skillful master to make drafts of the whole Siberia and mark at the bottom the number of versts and days of walk there are between the cities; and define uyezds for every city and describe which peoples lead a nomad’s life where and what people have approached the borders of the country…”.
According to the decree, the drafts were to be “three arshins (0.71 m) long, two arshins wide…” and the entire charter of the whole Siberia was to be “three arshins long and four arshins wide”.
It was Semen Ulyanovich Remezov, a skillful cartographer, ethnographer, historian and artist, who was charged with drafting a charter of Siberia. Remezov summarized the drafts of Siberia made during the entire 17th century, taking into account geographic descriptions made by Russian men of service, along with oral evidences made by travelers, local residents and other Russian people of different ranks and foreigners, having added to this material his own drafts made from nature by use of exploratory survey.
Already in 1697–1698 the cartographer made a “Grand draft of all Siberia”. By 1701 the drafts were made for each part of this vast region. The author united all the drafts into an atlas – “Cartographical sketch-book of Siberia”. The first Russian geographical atlas included 23 maps of a large format: a draft of the city of Tobolsk, 18 drafts of Siberian uyezds, a draft of the Mongol “waterless and almost impenetrable stone steppe” along the southern border of Siberia, the general draft of Siberia, a draft of the north of the European Russian and an ethnographic draft. The atlas included about 7, 000 geographic names, the network of Siberian rivers was given in detail. On the map were drawn forests, a relief, zoological and geographical details, deposits of minerals; ethnographic data and characteristics of peoples settled in Siberia was also presented in detail. The drafts were oriented to the south (the south was on top, the north – at the bottom of the map).
The reduced copy of the “Grand draft of all Siberia” was included into the atlas under the name of “The draft of all Siberian cities, rivers and lands”. “The appendix to the sketch-book of Siberia” contained a list of maps included into “The sketch-book of Siberia”, “The address to the dear reader”, author’s explanations to certain sheets and the index of geographic names.
The atlas with a preface by author was issued by the Archaeographic Committee in 1882 in St. Petersburg. At present, the handwritten original is held by the Russian State Library. The facsimile edition of “The sketch-book” was issued in 2003.
Lit.: Зиборов В. К. Ремезов Семён Ульянович // Словарь книжников и книжности древней Руси. Вып. 3. Ч. 3. СПб., 1988. С. 195—196; Иннокентий Соколов. Ремезов, Семён Ульянович // Русский Биографический Словарь. СПб., 1913. С. 48–50; Лёвочкин B. Новая жизнь «Чертёжной книги Сибири». Из собрания РГБ // Тобольск и вся Сибирь. 2004; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.voskres.ru/info/levotschkin.htm; Мартынов Л. Н. Сын боярский // Мартынов Л. Н. Черты сходства. М., 1982.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Оглоблин Н. Н. Источники «Чертёжной книги Сибири» Семёна Ремезова. СПб., 1891;
Полное собрание законов Российской империи, с 1649 года. СПб., 1830. Т. 3 (1689-1699). № 1532;
Ремезов С. У. Краткая сибирская летопись (Кунгурская). СПб., 1880;