Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula, 1639–1856

2 Geographical Background: Physical and Cultural Setting of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula

2 GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND: PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL SETTING OF THE OKHOTSK SEABOARD AND THE KAMCHA TKA PENINSULA "The climate [of Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East] is everywhere extremely cold but in the so-called summer it is somewhat warmer." Stewart CuHn, ed., "Wonderful News of the Circumnavigation ," p. 507. "Siberia may be cold, but it is a warm and a cosy place for the servants of the government." F. Dostoyevsky, Notes From A Dead House, p. 9. Severity of the Physical Environment We have seen that the problem of provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula was largely a problem of the fur trade, which was the basis of Russian eastward expansion. And just as this problem cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of the region's history of occupation and exploitation, so is some awareness of the physical and cultural makeup of the region essential to complete comprehension.1 The physical environment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula is severe in physiographic, climatic, pedologic, and vegetational terms. Physiographically, the predominance of mountains and plateaus of moderate elevation and steep slope impeded agriculture and transport alike. At least nine-tenths of the region is mountainous . The seaboard comprises an extremely narrow coastal plain bounded gradually on the east by the cool, shallow Okhotsk Sea and abruptly on the west by rugged mountains and plateaus with summits of 34 GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND 35 2,000 to 3,000 feet. Numerous short, swift rivers have cut deep, narrow, devious valleys through this rampart, allowing difficult movement between the coast and the interior. Marshy floodplains along the lower courses of several of these rivers constitute the only sizable lowlands, apart from the negligible coastal strip. The southern half of the seaboard is regular; the northern half is well indented with headlands, peninsulas, bays, and islands that make movement along it difficult. Along the entire seaboard there are few good harbors; Magadan's fine harbor on Nagayev Bay was not developed until the Soviet period. Kamchatka, too, has little lowland. The peninsula is dominated by two parallel mountain ranges averaging 3,500 feet in elevation: the Western or Central Range running unbroken up and down the middle of the entire peninsula and the Eastern Range intermittently abutting the eastern coast. Both ranges drop steeply to the Kamchatka River Valley, an intervening graben, but slope gradually to either coast; both, too, are highlighted by picturesque volcanic peaks capped with glaciers and snowfields. Kamchatka is one of the world's foremost regions of volcanic , seismic, and geyseric activity. Earthquakes have especially threatened settlement; Petropavlovsk, for example, has averaged one tremor per year since 1790.2 There are three lowlands: open, boggy marine plains along the western and northeastern coasts and a somewhat marshy alluvial plain along the Kamchatka River, the peninsula's foremost watercourse. The Kamchatka River Valley afforded virtually the only suitable agricultural land in the peninsula, thanks partly to the protection of the surrounding mountains; at the same time, however, these lofty ranges, as well as the widespread marshiness, hampered transport, particularly in summer. With the exception of Petropavlovsk on superb Avacha Bay, Kamchatka's coasts offered the Russians very poor harbors in the form of exposed, shallow roadsteads. Even Avacha Bay, though spacious, deep, and sheltered, was handicapped, for its entrance was so confined and so hidden by the surrounding mountain rim that it was difficult to find; in addition, the steep mountain walls hindered access to the interior of the peninsula. The climate of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula is harsh, owing to the region'S high latitudinal position (51 0 -63 oN.) on the eastern coast of a huge land mass washed by cool ocean waters. The Okhotsk Sea, with its cold water, masses of ice, frequent fogs, and constant winds, as well as the cool Oyashio Current off Kamchatka, markedly condition the regional atmosphere. Strong, 36 PERSPECTIVE AND CONTEXT cold, and dry northwest winds blow from the center of high pressure over the superchilled interior of the continent from October through February; sometimes these winds have been so strong that men and horses could not walk against them.3 From May through July weaker southeast winds blow from the center of high pressure over the North Pacific, bringing warm and dry air to the peninsula but, after passage over the Okhotsk Sea, cool and damp air to the seaboard, which is...