Картографирование Якутской области во второй половине XIX века: к 150-летию Чукотской экспедиции Г. Л. Майделя

Abstract

The article is devoted to Chukotka expedition of 1868–1870 to the North-East of Russia under the leadership of G. L. Maydell, the official for special missions of the Eastern Siberia General Directorate, and is presented in connection with the 150th anniversary of its beginning. Along with administrative and management objectives the expedition was entrusted with a task of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Russian Geographical Society to conduct scientific observations and collect geographical data. The longest part of the expedition route passed through the territory of the Yakutsk province (oblast’), thus the bulk of scientific results concerns just to this region. Topographic, geodetic, and cartographic works performed during the expedition by G. L. Maydell, surveyor P. Afanasyev, and astronomer K. Neumann, as well as an in-depth analysis of maps published by Military Topographic Department of the General Staff for this area before, made it possible for G. L. Maydell to compile maps of the Atlas published by the Academy of Sciences as part of the expedition records. The maps of this Atlas are characterized and the methods are regarded of their compilation and original features. It is suggested that G. L. Maydell, being familiar with the advanced works by P. A. Kropotkin and E. A. Koversky, used some of their techniques to confirm the reliability and accuracy of the Yakutsk province (oblast’) map. The uniqueness and scientThe uniqueness and scientific significance of G. L. Maydell’s cartographic works are confirmed by the fact that the map of the Yakutsk province (oblast’), published in the Atlas of 1896, was recognized as the only relatively complete and accurate cartographic depiction of the area during nearly three following decades.