Siberia and the Netherlands


An ongoing quest

You wouldn't be the first to react kind of surprised to this combination. Not only does an enormous geographical gap exists, it's hard to imagine anything of a connection (besides the recent deal between Royal Shell and Gasprom) between the two. That's where I step in. During some small-scale historical research I found some interesting details. Most of them fitted nicely in existing historiography of Russian-Dutch relations, only filling in a few blank spots. But still, too many questions remain unanswered. And this bothers me, although answering them perhaps will not contribute on a structural level to the writing of Russian-Dutch history. So in the back of my mind the question linger, until I find the time, the money or the people that will help me to end this quest or, more likely, prolong it by raising new questions. To give you an example of unsolved matters:

  • How is it possible that in the Remezov Chronicle (late 17th century, on the Russian expansion in Siberia) features a picture, looking like a copy of some Dutch original, on which an angel is seen with a banner that carries the inscription 'VREEDE VREEDE' ('peace' in old Dutch)?

  • What part of the so-called 'Litva' (the general Muscovite term for foreigners in Siberia) was made up by Dutch?

  • Where and how did burgomaster Nicolaas Witsen get the information he gathered in his immense Noord en Oost Tartarye (Amsterdam 1695, 1705, and 1785)? Sure, he does mention some of his sources and informants by name. But he also in many places just states that his source was for example 'a certain tradesman in Hoksien', 'an envoy of the V.O.C. to the Persian king' and 'a certain Polish envoy'. A lot of research is to be done on this matter. An important link should be Witsen's contacts with his Russian/Dutch cousin Andrej Vinius, whose Dutch contacts I tried to track down during research in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA) in Moscow. Vinius was a close associate of Tsar Peter I and headed (as dumnyj d'jak) the Siberian Chancellery (Sibirskij Prikaz) between 1694 and 1703. (Advisable reading on this is: Igor Wladimiroff, 'Andries Winius and Nicolaas Witsen, Tsar Peter's Dutch Connection' in: Carel Horstmeier a.o. eds., Around Peter the Great. Three centuries of Russian-Dutch Relations (Groningen 1997) 5-24.)


    Nicolaas Witsen (1641-1717)

  • What was the exact role of Hendrik Busch (and perhaps some other Dutchmen) in establishing the shipyard in Ochotsk on the one hand, and the opening up of the sea-route to Kamcatka around 1715-1716 on the other hand? He is also known to have sailed eastward with Ivan Evrejnov and Fëdor Luzin in 1719, but further information lacks. More in general: what role did Dutchmen play in the eastward expeditions (in the Far East and the Pacific region) of the Russians?

  • Where did the Dutchman Simon Hardebol, who traveled to Jakutsk and Ochotsk to meet Dmitri Pavlutski and Afanasi Šestakov, but eventually missed their expeditions and got to Kamcatka, come from? Does genealogical information on this Hardebol, who most likely was born in the Dutch town Enkhuyzen around 1700, exist?

  • What was the position of Dutchmen in contacts of Muscovy with states like Japan and China, what kind of information did these people gather on these states and how did this information reach the fatherland?

  • And a more recent subject: where is the archive of the Dutch consulate in Vladivostok? My guess is, that it is gathering dust somewhere in Switzerland or in the U.S., but I am not sure.

    Currently, after publishing an article on the Dutch vice-consulate in Tomsk ('Opposition and opportunity: the Dutch vice-consulate in Tomsk, 1906-1919' in: Carel Horstmeier a.o. eds., Around Peter the Great. Three centuries of Russian-Dutch Relations (Groningen 1997) 48-58, I am making a detailed index of Witsen's Noord en Oost Tartarye. I hope to get a first survey of Witsen's sources.

    Now some of you may be wondering what this information is doing on the World Wide Web, source of Civilization and Culture (amongst other things). I am trying to locate people with further historical interest in Russian-Dutch relations in general, and knowledge of Siberian history and the role of Dutchmen in the Far East (Dal'nyj Vostok) in particular. I would like to exchange information on current research, archival materials and historical data, in a way that benefits historical science. I know, for example, that quite a few people are interested in Witsen's Noord en Oost-Tartarye. It was never printed in any language other than Dutch, though a Russian translation currently is under construction. 'There would seem to be a case for the Hakluyt Society,' remarks P.E.H. Hair,' linking up with the Linschoten Vereeniging to publish bi-lingual scholarly texts of Dutch authors, to the advantage of subscribers to each.' (R.C. Bridges and P.E.H. Hair eds., Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth. Studies in the History of the Hakluyt Society 1846-1996 (Londen 1996) 34, note 5).

    In the near future I hope to enlarge this provisional site with a lot of interesting links to places concerning Russian and Siberian history. In the meantime, if you want to react to this page, if you have some (provisional) answers to questions I have posed, or if you just are curious about my progress with Noord en Oost Tartarye, please get in touch with me!

    Maybe we meet in Siberia, where I will visit archives in Tyumen', Tobol'sk and Irkutsk somewhere in April and May 1998!

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