Afanasy Nikitin, merchant from Tver. He is rightfully considered not only the first Russian merchant who visited India (a quarter of a century before the Portuguese Vasco da Gama), but also the first Russian traveler in general. The name of Athanasius Nikitin opens the list of brilliant and most interesting sea and land Russian explorers and discoverers, whose names are inscribed in golden letters world history geographical discoveries.

The name of Athanasius Nikitin became known to contemporaries and descendants due to the fact that he kept a diary, or rather travel notes, throughout his stay in the East and India. In these notes, he described with many details and details the cities and countries he visited, the way of life, customs and traditions of the peoples and rulers ... The author himself called his manuscript "Journey beyond the three seas." The three seas are Derbent (Caspian), Arabian (Indian Ocean) and Black.

Quite a bit did not reach on the way back A. Nikitin to his native Tver. His comrades handed over the manuscript of "Journey beyond the Three Seas" into the hands of the clerk Vasily Mamyrev. From him she got into the annals of 1488. Obviously, contemporaries appreciated the importance of the manuscript, if they decided to include its text in the historical chronicles.

N. M. Karamzin, the author of the “History of the Russian State”, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, accidentally stumbled upon one of the chronicles of the “Journey ...”. Thanks to him, the journey of the Tver merchant A. Nikitin became public knowledge.

The texts of A. Nikitin's travel notes testify to the broad outlook of the author, his good command of business Russian speech. When reading them, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking that almost all the author's notes are completely understandable, although they were written more than five hundred years ago!

Brief information about the journey of Athanasius Nikitin

Nikitin Afanasy Nikitich

Tver merchant. Year of birth unknown. Place of birth too. He died in 1475 near Smolensk. Exact date the start of the journey is also unknown. According to a number of authoritative historians, this is most likely the year 1468.

Purpose of Travel:

an ordinary commercial expedition along the Volga as part of a caravan of river boats from Tver to Astrakhan, establishing economic ties with Asian merchants trading along the Great Silk Road passing through the famous Shemakha.

This assumption is indirectly confirmed by the fact that Russian merchants went down the Volga accompanied by Asan bey, ambassador of the sovereign Shamakhi, Shirvan Shah Forus-Esar. Shemakhan's ambassador Asan-bek was on a visit to Tver and Moscow with the Grand Duke Ivan III, and went home after the Russian ambassador Vasily Papin.

A. Nikitin and his comrades equipped 2 ships, loading them with various goods for trade. The commodity of Afanasy Nikitin, as can be seen from his notes, was junk, that is, furs. Obviously, ships and other merchants sailed in the caravan. It should be said that Afanasy Nikitin was an experienced, courageous and resolute merchant. Before that, he visited distant countries more than once - Byzantium, Moldova, Lithuania, Crimea - and safely returned home with overseas goods, which is indirectly confirmed in his diary.

Shemakha

one of the most important points throughout the Great Silk Road. Located on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. Being at the crossroads of caravan routes, Shemakha was one of the major trade and craft centers in the Middle East, occupying an important place in the silk trade. Back in the 16th century, trade relations between Shemakha and Venetian merchants were mentioned. Azerbaijani, Iranian, Arab, Central Asian, Russian, Indian and Western European merchants traded in Shamakhi. Shemakha is mentioned by A. S. Pushkin in “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel” (“Give me a girl, the Shemakhan queen”).

A. Nikitin's caravan enlisted travel letter from Grand Duke Mikhail Borisovich to move around the territory of the Tver principality and grand ducal travel charter abroad, with which he sailed to Nizhny Novgorod. Here they planned to meet with the Moscow ambassador Papin, who was also on his way to Shemakha, but did not have time to capture him.

Departed from the Savior of the holy golden-domed and succumbed to his mercy, from his sovereign from Grand Duke Mikhail Borisovich Tversky ...

It is interesting that initially Afanasy Nikitin did not plan to visit Persia and India!

Historical setting during the journey of A. Nikitin

The Golden Horde, which controlled the Volga, was still quite strong in 1468. Recall that Russia finally threw off the Horde yoke only in 1480, after the famous “standing on the Ugra”. In the meantime, the Russian principalities were in vassal dependence. And if they regularly paid tribute and "did not show off", then they were allowed some freedoms, including trade. But the danger of a robbery always existed, so the merchants gathered in caravans.

Why does a Russian merchant address Mikhail Borisovich, Grand Duke of Tverskoy, as a sovereign? The fact is that at that time Tver was still an independent principality that was not part of the Muscovite state and was constantly fighting with it for primacy in the Russian lands. Recall that finally the territory of the Tver principality became part of the Moscow kingdom under Ivan III (1485).

P consolation A. Nikitin can be divided into 4 parts:

1) travel from Tver to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea;

2) the first trip to Persia;

3) a trip to India and

4) the return journey through Persia to Russia.

Its entire path is clearly visible on the map.

So, the first stage is a journey along the Volga. It went well, right up to Astrakhan. Near Astrakhan, the expedition was attacked by robber gangs of local Tatars, the ships were sunk and looted

And I passed Kazan voluntarily, we didn’t see anyone, and I passed the Horde, and Uslan, and Saray, and I passed the Berekezans. And we drove to Buzan. Then three filthy Tatars ran into us and told us false news: "Kaisym Saltan guards the guests in Buzan, and with him three thousand Tatars." And the ambassador of the Shirvanshin Asanbeg gave them a single coat and a linen to take them past Khaztarakhan. And they, filthy Tatars, took one by one, but they gave the news to Khaztarakhan (Astrakhan) king. And the yaz left his ship and climbed on the ship for a word and with his comrades.

We drove past Khaztarakhan, and the moon was shining, and the tsar saw us, and the Tatars called to us: "Kachma, don't run!" And we didn’t hear anything, but we ran like a sail. Because of our sin, the king sent his entire horde after us. Ini overtook us on Bohun and taught us to shoot. And we shot a man, and they shot two Tatars. And our smaller ship was on the move, and they took us and plundered us that hour , and mine was small junk all in a smaller vessel.

The bandits took away from the merchants all the goods, bought, obviously, on credit. Returning to Russia without goods and without money threatened with a debt hole. Comrades Athanasius and himself, in his words, " crying, yes, they dispersed in different directions: whoever has something in Russia, and he went to Russia; and who should, and he went where his eyes carried.

Reluctant traveler

Thus, Afanasy Nikitin became an unwilling traveler. The way home is booked. Nothing to trade. There was only one thing left - to go to intelligence in foreign countries in the hope of fate and one's own enterprise. Having heard about the fabulous riches of India, he directs his steps precisely there. through Persia. Pretending to be a wandering dervish, Nikitin stops for a long time in each city, and shares his impressions and observations with paper, describing in his diary the life and customs of the population and rulers of those places where his fate brought him.

And the tongue went to Derbent, and from Derbent to Baka, where the fire burns unquenchable; and from Baki you went across the sea to Chebokar. Yes, here you lived in Chebokar for 6 months, but in Sarah lived for a month, in the Mazdran land. And from there to Amily, and here I lived for a month. And from there to Dimovant, and from Dimovant to Ray.

And from Drey to Kashen, and here I was a month, and from Kashen to Nain, and from Nain to Ezdei, and I lived here for a month. And from Dies to Syrchan, and from Syrchan to Tarom .... And from Torom to Lara, and from Lara to Bender, and here there is a refuge of Gurmyz. And here is the Indian Sea, and in the Parsian language and Gondustanskadoria; and from there go by sea to Gurmyz 4 miles.

The first journey of Athanasius Nikitin through the Persian lands, from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea (Chebukara) to the shores of the Persian Gulf (Bender-abasi and Hormuz), lasted more than a year, from the winter of 1467 to the spring of 1469.

Russian travelers and pioneers

Again Travelers of the Age of Discovery

Every time I get on the sailboat "Americo Vespucci" I feel wild delight. How nice and well arranged it is! Everything shines and sparkles like new, everything is so dear that it’s simply impossible not to take your eyes off and get off the ship. I noticed that girls in trousers serve on the "Americo Vespucci". Maybe I can do that too in the Sea? I want it very much. I was obviously mixed up at birth. Kidding. Exactly on such a ship my great-grandfather also went, my grandfather often told how they served with the Italians and knew the Italian language ;-), he loved makori in naval language, as he called pasta with garbage.

It suddenly became interesting to me, after whom the ship is named, if Americo Vespucci was never a sailor?
It turned out that Amerigo Vespucci did not discover America at all and did not become famous for anything at all. ;-) And here is our Athanasius Nikitin, just at the same time he went on ships with merchants across the three seas and is clearly more involved in the discovery of America. Apparently it was America that discovered, and not India, Indians, not Indians ;-) I am absolutely sure that it was Russian navigators who discovered America, and that is why we are now blatantly, contrary to all logic, lying that we did not have a fleet at all, therefore, we are automatically excluded from any thought of discovering America.
How could it happen that a huge continent is named after an ordinary Florentine merchant Amerigo Vespucci, although this person has nothing to do with America, let alone its discovery. And now such a handsome ship bears his name?
I'm trying to figure it out.
Who was this Americo and why is good coffee, diluted in half with water, the Italians with a smile called americano. ;-)

Amerigo Vespucci (1454 - 1512) (Amerigo Vespucci - Italians, like Russians - used to write Russian words in Latin) was born on March 9, 1454 in Florence (Now Florence is Italy)
Americo was from a family of a poor Florentine official. His father, Anastasio Vespucci, was a public notary. (just like our Athanasio, Athanasius, Afonya ... Athos Monastery)
He received home schooling in sciences and languages ​​from his uncle, Giorgio Vespucci, a Dominican monk, whose labors bore fruit. V - Americo learned and became an employee of a trading house, in our opinion, a clerk not from someone, but from the Medici himself!

In 1492, the Medici sent Amerigo Vespucci to serve in their trade missions in Seville and Cadiz (this territory is now part of the state of Spain). Apparently, according to historians, the trading house of Gianoto Berardi also belonged to the same trading network. This respected lord died suddenly in 1495, and Vespucci was forced to deal with his affairs. It is known that Berardi took part in financing the second, largest, expedition of Christopher Columbus (1493-96). From this, the researchers conclude that Amerigo Vespucci could even personally know Christopher Columbus. And, apparently, not only Columbus, but also other navigators, whose names entered the history of the “Great Geographical Discoveries”.
So, it was the Medici trading house that financed expeditions to the shores of the New World. The Medici were looking for new markets for the investment of capital. New lands promised new opportunities. Amerigo allegedly succumbed to the euphoria that prevailed at the end of the fifteenth century. All active people of that era, with the advent of new ships, dreamed of new lands, for the purpose of making money. It was no longer necessary to forcibly gather crews of ships and drive criminals there. Impoverished nobles and just adventurers from all over Europe themselves lined up to get into the expedition for any money. It got to the point that in Portugal there was no one to complete the armada teams that went to India for silks - all professional sailors were already at sea and seized new lands.
There is a version according to which Amerigo Vespucci participated in one of the expeditions that passed along the coast of the South American continent in 1497. But pay attention to the date. The third expedition of Columbus to the New World, during which he discovered the island of Trinidad and "hooked" part of the continent in the Orinoco Delta, started on May 30, 1498 and returned in 1499. Thus, they deliberately wanted to emphasize that Vespucci had visited the continent before Columbus, and became may have a full moral right to the name of the continent, but there is no evidence for this fact.
Allegedly, Amerigo Vespucci asked for an expedition to the famous admiral Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. The only question is, in what capacity was the Florentine merchant on board? He was not a sailor, just as we are told that Afanasy Nikitin was not a sailor and a pilot, he was not marked by any maritime exploits. Maybe he went as a sales representative, like Afanasy Nikitin on the ships of his friends? To establish trade contacts and conclude agreements in the newly discovered territories, in principle, just such enterprising people were really needed.
The expedition of Ojeda (1499) discovered the mouth of the Orinoco River, the coast of Guiana, the island of Curacao and the bay of Venezuela, and already in the next 1500 safely returned to Cadiz. By the way, the famous navigator, navigator, pilot and captain Juan de la Cosa, the owner and commander of Columbus's famous flagship Santa Maria, was on the same expedition. Juan de la Cosa also became famous as a cartographer who drew the outlines of many new lands on paper, but the Russians were the best cartographers!
Further “inventors writers new history” note that Amerigo Vespucci was invited by the Portuguese king Manuel I and took part in two Portuguese expeditions to the coast of the New World in 1502-1504. In these expeditions, he was something like a geographer, he was engaged in the description of new lands. Recall that according to the Treaty of Tordesillas on the division of spheres of influence, the lands east of the dividing line were the patrimony of Portugal. Therefore, Portugal had its "legitimate" land on the new continent, which the Spaniards did not even have the right to encroach on. It was the eastern part of South America, which eventually received the name Brazil. Now all South America speaks Spanish, and Brazil still babbles in Portuguese.
Since 1505, Amerigo Vespucci again allegedly enters the service of the Spanish crown (then there was no such strict division of territories and borders as it is now. In 1508, for some reason, he was appointed chief pilot of the kingdom. His duties included certification of pilots, navigators and captains of the royal fleet A very strange appointment for a person who has nothing to do with the sea and was on a ship, only as a passenger.
The researchers, who are very easy to bribe, with the help of the same powerful Medici family, agreed that Amerigo Vespucci was off the coast of America. Let it be unclear in what capacity, but they decided that there was, so there was a point. And not only he was, he also entrepreneurially described his impressions on paper to one of his friends. It is precisely these letters that are the only documentary evidence of the involvement of Senor Vespucci in "Terra incognito" in the West Atlantic. (Brothers, in short, write letters to friends more often!)
And then I thought, what a pity that the letters and copies of Afanasy Nikitin's notes were burned and the originals are stored in the safes of London, rewritten a hundred times, of course, in their favor and are now from us with seven seals.
Now, according to everyone, it is customary to call Amerigo Vespucci the first discoverer of America. It was he who allegedly suggested that the open lands were not Asia, not islands, but a new huge mainland.

Moreover, he points out all this in a letter not to anyone, but to the Medici himself, and with exact dating ;-) It was in 1503 that Amerigo Vespucci allegedly reports:
“These countries should be called the New World! Most of the ancient authors said that south of the equator there is no mainland, but only the sea, and if some of them recognized the existence of the mainland there, they did not consider it inhabited. But my last journey proved that their opinion was erroneous and completely contrary to the facts, since in the southern regions I found a continent more densely populated by people and animals than our Europe, Asia or Africa, and, moreover, the climate there is more temperate and pleasant than in any of the countries known to us...”

It was this phrase, which naturally went around the whole world, and became a decisive argument in favor of the fact that the territories discovered in the west began to be called not by the name of their discoverer Columbus, but by the name of an unknown trading agent.

Brothers, we know that it was the Russians who called the new lands New Holland - new lands... New Earth, new cities - Novgorod. It was with us that Lord Veliky Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Verkhny Novgorod, aka Stockholm, was. There and now on the map, now in Sweden, our Novgorod remains ....
It is the Russian people who have the ability to easily break away from the earth and seek freedom and adventure in the New Lands, and it is thanks to this that we still have the largest territory in the World ;-) And the Italians still do not understand where the Etruscans went, where they share?

But the fact that the name of the continent America was given to the merchant Americo Vesputchi from the Medici expedition, I checked out. and the reason for this was just a small essay called "Introduction to Cosmography", published in 1507 by a certain Martin Waldseemüller, which included the writings of supposedly Amerigo Vespucci himself!

It is in Waldseemüller’s book that the name America is first encountered: “... a fourth part of the land was discovered by the great Amerigo Vespucci ... and I don’t see why, who and by what right could forbid calling this part of the world the country of Amerigo or America.” Waldseemüller's book was reprinted several times and widely distributed throughout Europe in a huge edition, which was given and inherited. Soon there appeared a series geographical maps, where the name America was affixed to the new continent. Including on one of the first globes of Johann (Ivan) Schener in 1511 a new continent appeared.
“The root cause of everything was the veil of secrecy that the discoverers themselves and their owners tried to keep around the newly discovered lands in order to keep competitors out.” “Rediscovered Lands”

Neither maps nor reliable information about the new lands were published in the press. Yes, and the printing itself was then still only in its infancy - they could not make paper, and when did printing presses appear?
Therefore, the principle worked - whoever shouted louder, he was pan. And it was Amerigo Vespucci who shouted the loudest, or rather, the publisher Martin Waldseemüller, or rather the sponsor and magnate of the Medici himself. The paradox lies in the fact that at the beginning of the 1500s the names of Columbus, Diasha, and Gama, which every schoolchild now knows, were generally unknown in Europe at that time. The name of Columbus became widely known only half a century after his discoveries.

The question of whether Amerigo Vespucci was actually off the coast of the new continent or not remains open. If there was no such trip at all, and someone fascinatingly described his impressions to him, for example, our merchants, like the same Athanasius Nikitin, who transported goods from the Varangians to the Greeks, with whom Americo had to deal with organizational matters, prove or disprove this already impossible. If we assume that Amerigo Vespucci really did not participate in the campaigns, then he was ahead of the most famous storyteller - Jules Verne, who never went anywhere, not beyond the Three Seas, but wrote so reliably that everyone absolutely believed in his presence.
And Amerigo Vespucci has an alibini - in one document there is no mention at all that he was any initiator of imposing his name on his discoveries.

Amerigo Vespucci died in Seville in 1512, when the name of the continent had not yet been given and America was not yet on the maps at all.
deeply explored this issue, the famous scientist Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859), who traveled extensively in America, concluded:
“As for the name of the great continent, universally recognized and illuminated by use for many centuries, it is a monument to human injustice ... The name America appeared due to a combination of circumstances that remove any suspicion against Amerigo Vespucci ... A combination of happy circumstances gave him fame and opportunity to name a continent after him.
...: But it was just invented and said, right after Crimean War- after dividing the vast Empire into new countries and new spheres of influence.

It is known that Christopher Columbus until the end of his life stubbornly called the new lands he discovered Asia and the West Indies. (I can't get rid of the thought that it was Afanasy Nikitin)
No separate name for all the lands that he himself discovered as a result of 4 expeditions, Columbus himself or Nikitin did not offer.

You know, I saw the house of Columbus in Genoa. Haza Columbus is located in Genoa, not in Spain. I was then amazed by the huge port in Genoa and it is not clear why the merit in the opening is not attributed to the Italians and why do they live so poorly then? And everyone knows that the Etruscans lived there ;-) And the Etruscans are Russians, ours! The Russians Discovered America It is not for nothing that the Italians are now en masse learning Russian in order to understand, like us, their stolen past.
If the Historians are trying to convince us of a complete hoax of facts that are not confirmed by anything at all, it is worthwhile for us to conduct a real study ourselves and finally prove that we are America. Then everything will fall into place and so, you look, and men will have faith in themselves and our Fleet will surface before Peter I, otherwise it’s a shame for the State. If the entire fleet was Dutch and English, then why do we have the largest territory and not theirs?
If at least a few sour and ceased to believe in themselves Russians will again have wings, it will already be great. Stop sitting on the stove, anyway, after all, we are going to rake up what they are doing now, and it is for us, the Russians, to save the whole world again.
After all, we were the one Great Empire, which is crushed into pieces, is first divided into different languages united Europe, after the December 1825 revolution, the republics were withdrawn and, as the next experiment, the remnants of the remaining Empire were divided into the republics of the USSR, now they are withdrawing from the USSR and they dream of dividing the rest of Russia or already divided it. They don’t tell us what they are doing and where they are now again dividing the money
Brothers, we should at least defend the remaining territory of Russia and not hand over an inch of our land to the Chinese.
This territory was ours, from time immemorial and will remain ours! Russia stood on that and will stand!
As for coffee, it was the Americans who made it bad, out of greed, well, they don’t like to drink strong coffee, according to the east.
But here's what's interesting even in my childhood in Sochi and on the entire Black Sea coast, there was still the most favorite drink of children - Coffee milk - this is chilled milk with sweet coffee - the most favorite breakfast of all times and peoples - in Italian Cafelate Now for some reason it is not like no real milk.
It is necessary to name a beautiful ship by the name “Afanasy Nikitin” and draw a capital letter “X” on board. On Russian sails, the letter "X" under Afanasy Nikitin looked like the St. Andrew's flag in the Khokhloma pattern, drawn in red paint. This image is redrawn and distorted hundreds of times, but it lives in the memory of the ancestors. And in Venice, our Khokhloma curls also remained on the flag. This is a separate issue.

I can clearly see this new, beautiful ship, bearing the proud name of Afanasy Nikitin. It is not fair that Americo Vespucci has his own ship, but our true traveler does not! The monument that the descendants of the cunning Medici erected and erected exactly the merchant on foot, next to the rostra of the crashed ship in the homeland of Athanasius in Tver, emphasizing that he walked, apparently do not know that the ships of the Russians go, and do not swim, and they also installed a miserable semblance sculptures of Athanasius in Feodosia - a shameful squalor that destroys the honor and dignity of Russian sailors. Of course, now, even the sailors do not believe that we had a fleet! But most of sailors do not understand how it could happen that we celebrated 300 years of the Navy? This is pure lies. Where did the best hydrographic schools and the best hydrographs in the world come from, namely the Russians, who raised the Transas Marine!
From time immemorial, merchants have sailed on ships. and in Russia, therefore, until now there were no roads! They were not needed. It was easier for the Russians to build canals.
It is high time for Afanasy Nikitin to put up a fitting monument, in the form of a real ship and the captain is Athanasius with a telescope. And all Russians should rightly be proud of their great ancestor, sailor, romantic, traveler Afanasy Nikitin!