Yenisei (), also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob River and the Lena River). Rising in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course to the Yenisei Gulf in the Kara Sea, draining a large part of central Siberia, the longest stream following the Yenisei-Angara-Selenga-Ider river system.

The upper reaches, subject to rapids and flooding, pass through sparsely populated areas. The middle section is controlled by a series of massive hydroelectric dams fuelling significant Russian primary industry. Partly built by gulag labor in Soviet times, industrial contamination remains a serious problem in an area hard to police. Moving on through sparsely-populated taiga, the Yenisei swells with numerous tributaries and finally reaches the Kara Sea in desolate tundra where it is icebound for more than half the year.

The maximum depth of the Yenisei River is and the average depth is . The depth of river outflow is and inflow is .

Upper Yenisei

See also:

Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station

Lake Baikal headwater

The 320 km (200 mi) partly navigable Upper Angara River feeds into the northern end of Lake Baikal from the Buryat Republic but the largest inflow is from the Selenga which forms a delta on the south-eastern side. The longest tributaries rise on the eastern slopes of central Mongolia's Khangai Mountains. Another tributary, the Tuul passes through the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator while the Egiin Gol drains Lake Khövsgöl (500 km) downstream, where the 124 m (407 ft) dam built in the 1960s produces 4500 MW. The resultant reservoir is nicknamed ''Dragon Lake'' because of its outline. The tributary Oka and Iya rivers, which rise on the north slopes of the Eastern Sayan Mountains, form the 'jaws' and 400 km (250 mi) of the Angara forms the 'tail'. There are newer dams almost as large at Ust-Ilimsk 250 km (155 mi) downstream (also damming the tributary Ilim river) and Boguchany a further 400 km (250 mi) downstream (not operational). Further dams are planned but the environmental consequences of completely taming the Angara are leading to protests which may prevent funding.

Angarsk, the center of the expanding Eastern Siberian oil industry and site of a huge Yukos-owned refinery, lies 50 km (31 mi) downstream of Irkutsk. A major pipeline takes oil west, and a new one is being built to carry oil east for supply to Japan from the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka. The exact potential of Eastern Siberia is unknown, but two new major fields are the Kovyktinskoye field near Zhigalovo 200 km (125 mi) north of Irkutsk and the extremely remote Verkhnechonskoye field 500 km (310 mi) north of Irkutsk on the Central Siberian Plateau.

Lower Yenisei

The Great Kaz joins the Yenisei 300 km (186 mi) downstream from Strelka. It is noteworthy for its connection to the Ob via Ob-Yenisei canal and Ket River. The river starts to widen, its bed being littered with islands as numerous rivers augment its flow, in particular 1,800 km (1,120 mi) Stony (Podkamennaya) Tunguska, and the 3,000 km (1,860 mi) Lower (Nizhnyaya) Tunguska at Turukhansk draining the desolate central Siberian Plateau from the east. The remote Tunguska (Тунгуска) region is most famous for the 1908 meteorite impact, but is now being explored for oil. Beyond Turukhansk, the river enters tundra territory.

The river is icebound for more than half the year, and if unchecked ice could dam the river causing major flooding. Explosives are used to keep the water flowing. The final town is Dudinka which is connected to Krasnoyarsk by regular passenger boat. The river widens to a 50 km (31 mi) estuary, the Yenisei Gulf, for its final 250 km (155 mi) and the shipping lanes are kept open by icebreaker.

During the ice age, the route to the Arctic was blocked by ice. Though the exact details are unclear, the Yenisei is believed to have flowed into a huge lake filling much of western Siberia, eventually flowing into the Black Sea. (See West Siberian Glacial Lake of the early Weichselian Glaciation)

Ecology

The Yenisei River valley is habitat for numerous flora and fauna, with Siberian pine and Siberian larch being notable tree species. In prehistoric times Scots pine, ''Pinus sylvestris'' was abundant in the Yenisei River valley circa 6000 BC. There are also numerous bird species present in the watershed, including, for example the Hooded crow, ''Corvus cornix''.

Navigation

The first team to navigate the Yenisey's entire length, including its violent upper tributary in Mongolia, was an Australian-Canadian effort completed in September 2001. Ben Kozel, Tim Cope, Colin Angus and Remy Quinter were on this team. Both Kozel and Angus wrote books detailing this expedition, and a documentary was produced for National Geographic Television.

History

Ancient nomadic tribes such as the Ket people and the Yugh people lived along its banks. The Ket, numbering about 1000, are the only survivors today of those who originally lived throughout central southern Siberia near the river banks. Their extinct relatives included the Kotts, Assans, Arins, Baikots, and Pumpokols who lived further upriver to the south. The modern Ket lived in the eastern middle areas of the river before being assimilated politically into Russia during the 17th through 19th centuries.

Russians first reached the upper Yenisei in 1605, travelling from the Ob River, up the Ket River, portaging and then down the Yenisei as far as the Sym River. In 1607 they went east up the Angara River and in 1608 south towards Krasnoyarsk. Yeniseisk at the Ket-Angara junction was founded in 1619 and Krasnoyarsk upriver in 1628. In 1607 the lower Yenisei was reached from Mangazeya, with the founding Turukhansk at the mouth of the Lower Tunguska. The mouth of the Yenisey was reached in 1610 and the Stony Tunguska some time before 1626.

During World War II, Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire agreed to divide Asia along a line that followed the Yenisei River to the border of China, and then along the border of China and the Soviet Union, the northern and western borders of Afghanistan, and the border between Iran and India (what is now Pakistan was then part of India). Since the Axis lost World War II, this plan was never implemented. See A-A line for more information.

Gallery

References

External links

Information and a Map of the Yenisei's Watershed

Bratsk Dam and Angara Photos

Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam

Krasnoyarsk Dam

Yenisei Nature Photos (Krasnoyarsk Area)

Category:Rivers of Krasnoyarsk Krai Category:Rivers of Khakassia Category:Drainage basins of the Kara Sea Category:Physiographic provinces

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Coordinates	38°59′52″N174°23′25″N
Name	Mikhail Lermontov
Birth place	Moscow, Russian Empire
Death date	(aged 26)
Death place	Pyatigorsk, Russian Empire
Occupation	Soldier, Poet, Novelist, Artist
Nationality	Russian
Movement	Romanticism
Influences	At the age of fourteen Lermontov moved to Moscow, where he entered a boarding school for the sons of the nobility. At the Moscow University he started to write poetry under the influence of Lord Byron, adapting the Byronic cult of personality. Ğabdulla Tuqay
Signature	Лермонтов Михаил автограф.JPG
Website	}}

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; – ), a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", has become the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature side by side with Pushkin and the greatest figure of Russian Romanticism. His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which has founded the tradition of Russian psychological novel.

Early life

Lermontov was born in Moscow to a respectable noble family of the Tula Governorate, and grew up in the village of Tarkhany (in the Penza Governorate), which now preserves his remains. According to one disputed and uncorroborated theory his paternal family was believed to have descended from the Scottish Learmonths, one of whom settled in Russia in the early 17th century, during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. The legendary Scottish poet Thomas the Rhymer (Thomas Learmonth) is claimed to be a relative of Lermontov. However this claim has been neither proved nor disproved, and thus remains a legend.

Lermontov's father, Yuri Lermontov, like his father before him, was a military man. Having moved up the ranks to captain, he married the sixteen year old Mariya Arsenyeva, to the great dismay of her mother, Yelizaveta Alekseyevna. A year after the marriage, on the night of October 3 (Old Style), 1814, Mariya Arsenieva gave birth to Mikhail Lermontov. According to tradition, soon after his birth, some discord between Lermontov's father and grandmother erupted, and unable to bear it, Mariya Arsenieva fell ill and died in 1817. After the daughter's death, Yelizaveta Alekseyevna devoted all her love to her grandson, always in fear that his father might move away with him. Either because of this pampering or continuing family tension or both, Lermontov as a child developed a fearful and arrogant temper, which he took out on the servants, and vandalising his grandmother's garden.

As a small boy Lermontov listened to stories about the outlaws of the Volga region, about their great bravery and wild country life. When he was ten, Mikhail fell sick, and Yelizaveta Alekseyevna took him to the Caucasus for its better climate, that originated his love for this region.

School years

The intellectual atmosphere in which he grew up was similar to that experienced by Pushkin, though the domination of French had begun to give way to a preference for English, and Lamartine shared popularity with Byron. In his early childhood Lermontov was educated by a Frenchman named Gendrot. Yelizaveta Alekseyevna felt that this was not sufficient and decided to take Lermontov to Moscow, to prepare for gymnasium. In Moscow, Lermontov was introduced to Goethe and Schiller by a German pedagogue, Levy, and shortly afterwards, in 1828, he entered the gymnasium. He showed himself to be an exceptional student. Also at the gymnasium he became acquainted with the poetry of Pushkin and Zhukovsky, and one of his friends, Katerina Hvostovaya, later described him as "''married to a hefty volume of Byron''". This friend had at one time been an object of Lermontov's affection, and to her he dedicated some of his earliest poems, "''Нищий (У врат обители святой)''" (''The Beggar''). At that time, along with his poetic passion, Lermontov also developed an inclination for poisonous wit, and cruel and sardonic humor. His ability to draw caricatures was matched by his ability to pin someone down with a well aimed epigram or nickname.

At the university

After the academic gymnasium, in August 1830, Lermontov entered Moscow University. That same summer the final, tragic act of the family discord played itself out. Having been deeply struck by his son's alienation, Yuri Lermontov left the Arseniev house for good, only to die a short time later. His father's death on such a note was a terrible loss for Mikhail, and is reflected in his poems: "''Forgive me, Will we Meet Again?''" and "''The Terrible Fate of Father and Son''".

Lermontov's career at the university was short-lived. He attended lectures faithfully, but he would often read a book in the corner of the auditorium, and rarely took part in student life. A prank pulled by a group of students against one of the professors named Malov brought his time at the University to an end. Several biographers see this incident as the reason for Mikhail's departure.

Young cadet - first poems

The events at the University led Lermontov to seriously reconsider his career choice. From 1830 to 1834 he attended the cadets school in Saint Petersburg, and in due course he became an officer in the guards. At that time he began writing poetry. He also took a keen interest in Russian history and medieval epics, which would be reflected in ''the Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov'', his long poem ''Borodino'', poems addressed to the city of Moscow, and a series of popular ballads.

Fame and exile

To express his own and the nation's anger at the loss of Pushkin (1837) the young soldier wrote a passionate poem, ''Death of the Poet'', — the latter part of which is explicitly addressed to the inner circles at the court, though not to the Tsar himself. The poem all but accuses the powerful "pillars" of Russian high society of complicity in Pushkin's death. Without mincing words, it portrays that society as a cabal of self-interested venomous wretches "huddling about the throne in a greedy throng", "the hangmen who kill liberty, genius, and glory" about to suffer the apocalyptic judgment of God.

The tsar Nicholas I, however, seems to have found more impertinence than inspiration in the address, for Lermontov was forthwith exiled to the Caucasus as an officer in the dragoons. He had been in the Caucasus with his grandmother as a boy of ten, and he found himself at home, with feelings deeper than those of childhood recollection. The stern and rocky virtues of the mountain tribesmen against whom he had to fight, no less than the scenery of the rocks and of the mountains themselves, were close to his heart; the tsar had exiled him to his native land.

Lermontov visited Saint Petersburg in 1838 and 1839, and his indignant observations of the aristocratic milieu, wherein fashionable ladies welcomed him as a celebrity, occasioned his play ''Masquerade''. His doomed love for Barbara Lopukhina was recorded in the novel ''Princess Ligovskaya'', which he never finished. His duel with a son of the French ambassador led to Lermontov being returned to the army fighting the war in the Caucasus, where he distinguished himself in hand-to-hand combat at the Battle of the Valerik River, the basis for his poem ''Valerik''.

By 1839 he completed his most important novel, ''A Hero of Our Time'', which prophetically describes a duel like the one in which he would eventually lose his life.

Death

On July 25, 1841, at Pyatigorsk, fellow army officer Nikolai Martynov, who felt hurt by one of Lermontov's jokes, challenged Lermontov to a duel. The duel took place two days later at the foot of Mashuk mountain. Lermontov was killed by Martynov's first shot. Several of his verses were posthumously discovered in his notebook.

Works

Lermontov's poetic development was unusual. His earliest unpublished poems that he circulated in manuscript through his friends in the military were pornographic in the extreme, with elements of sadism. His subsequent reputation was clouded by this, so much so that admission of familiarity with Lermontov's poetry was not permissible for any young upper-class woman for a good part of the 19th century. These poems were published only once, in 1936, as part of a scholarly edition of Lermontov's complete works (edited by Irakly Andronikov).

During his lifetime, Lermontov published only one slender collection of poems (1840). Three volumes, much mutilated by censorship, were published a year after his death. His short poems range from indignantly patriotic pieces like ''Fatherland'' to the pantheistic glorification of living nature (e.g., ''Alone I set out on the road ...'') Lermontov's early verse has been termed by some puerile, for despite his dexterous command of the language, it usually appeals more to adolescents than to adults. Mikhail attempted to analyse and bring to light the deeper reasons for this metaphysical discontent with society and himself. His poem "Mtsyri" ("The Novice") tells the story of a young man who finds that dangerous freedom is vastly preferable to protected servitude.

Both his patriotic and pantheistic poems had enormous influence on later Russian literature. Boris Pasternak, for instance, dedicated his 1917 poetic collection of signal importance to the memory of Lermontov's ''Demon'', a long poem featuring some of the most mellifluous lines in the language, which Lermontov rewrote several times. The poem, which celebrates the carnal passions of the "eternal spirit of atheism" to a "maid of mountains", was banned from publication for decades. Anton Rubinstein's lush opera on the same subject was also banned by censors who deemed it sacrilegious and stupid.

Lermontov's major works, which can be readily quoted from memory by many Russians, suffer to other readers from poor quality or scarcity of translations - Lermontov therefore, remains largely unknown to English-speaking readers, save for his novel ''A Hero of Our Time''.

Bibliography

Spring, 1830, poem

A Strange Man, 1831, drama/play

The Masquerade, 1835, verse play

Borodino, 1837, poem

Death of the Poet, 1837, poem

The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov, 1837, poem

Sashka, 1839, poem

The Novice, 1840, poem

A Hero of Our Time, 1840, novel

Demon, 1841, poem

The Princess of the Tide, 1841, ballad

Valerik, 1841, poem

Legacy

Lermontov's ''Cossack Lullaby'' "went the whole round: from the original folklore source to literature, and from literature to the living folklore. ... For one and a half centuries people have performed these literary lullabies in real lulling situations [in Russia]."

The minor planet 2222 Lermontov discovered in 1977 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after him, as is the town of Lermontov, Russia.

See also

"Un Coeur en Hiver" film by Claude Sautet based on one of the episodes in "A Hero of Our Time"

"The Princess of the Tide" - a poem by Lermontov

Sergei Parajanov - filmed ''Ashik Kerib'', a 1988 film based on a short story by Lermontov

''A Hero of Our Time'' - English translation by Irwin Paul Foote, Penguin Classics.

Barbara Bakhmetev, Lermontov's beloved and tragic muse

Lermontov (crater) - crater on the planet Mercury named after him

Mikhail Lermontov (ship)

References

Further reading

External links

English-language links

Short biography with links to other Lermontov material

Short biography

Short biography

Translations of various poems by Mikhail Lermontov

Translation of "Borodino"

Translation of "A Sail"

Translation of "The Prisoner"

Translation of "The Dream"

Translation of "Cossack Lullaby"

Translation of "We parted..."

Translation of "Because"

State Lermontov Museum and Reserve at Tarkhany

Dual-language links

Various Lermontov poems in Russian with English translations, some audio files

Various Lermontov poems, many in Russian, some English translations, at ''Friends & Partners''

Russian text of various poems with English translations

Russian text of «Смерть поэта» ("Death of the Poet") with English translation

Russian text of "Cossack Lullaby" with English translation

Russian-language links

Online Lermontov shrine

Short biography at Russian Biographical Dictionary

Short biography at Megabook

Texts of various Lermontov works

Lermontov Museum, Moscow

Photographs of State Lermontov Museum and Reserve at Tarkhany

The ancestors of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov

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Category:1814 births Category:1841 deaths Category:19th-century Russian people Category:Deaths by firearm in Russia Category:Duelling fatalities Category:Duellists Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia Category:People from Moscow Category:Romantic poets Category:Russian-language poets Category:Russian novelists Category:Russian Orthodox Christians Category:Russian poets Category:Russian painters

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