The publication in "Library. Golden Shelf" consists of three parts: the article by Alexander Elert, Doctor of Science in History, an expert in decoding, translation and research of manuscripts of the 17-18th centuries; a fragment of the Steller’s travel diary published in Russian for the first time, and the article by Alexander Panfilov, Cand. Sc., "Moving beyond the Horizon, or a Prayer for Overcoming".

Description of the City of Irkutsk and its Suburbs

Georg Wilhelm Steller (translation and publication by Alexander Elert)

Everyone knows the names of the first explorers of Siberia: Daniel Gotlieb Messerschmidt, Vitus Bering, Academicians Georg Mueller and Iohann Gmelin. Recently Novosibirsk researcher Alexander Elert has deciphereed travel diaries and expedition notes of Georg Wilhelm Steller, a bright representative of the galaxy of explorers who remained in the «academic shadow" for almost 200 years...

He died at the age of 37 years, of which 12 years he devoted to the exploration of Siberia. He contributed a lot to the success of the expedition. But for Steller, any participant of the Second Kamchatka expedition headed by Bering would not come ashore at Alaska. Thanks to his mighty will and outstanding temper the scientist managed to persuade the desperate commodore to let him disembark alone (!) at the Kadyak island (to study and introduce tens of plant and animal species, animal including the well-known Steller’s sea cow), he even rescued the lives of many participants of the expedition.

Even today an expedition with the itinerary similar to that of Steller’s journey across Siberia is feasible for well equipped and numerous group of researchers only – from Tobolsk via Tara, Narym, Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Kyakhta, Nerchinsk, Yakutsk, and Okhotsk to Petropavlovsk and the Kadyak island - the same is valid for the scope of basic research that has been carried out by the romantic and pedantical scientist. "Irkutsk Customs and Life-Style" is the fragment of the Steller’s epic "Description of the City of Irkutsk and its Suburbs" in which the author demonstrated individual style, distinctive language, notable ability to ponder and generalize...

More information on these and other subjects you can find in the printed version of our journal.