В статье анализируется российский период в жизни и деятельности известного английского инженера сэра Самуэля Бентама (Sir Samuel Bentham), который прибыл в Россию по приглашению князя Г. А. Потемкина и находился здесь на службе с 1780 по 1791 г. Вначале он занимался строительством кораблей, конструировал разнообразные механизмы и экспериментировал с методами производства стали. В 1781–1783 гг., пользуясь покровительством Потемкина, он предпринял первое путешествие в Сибирь, проделав путь от Петербурга до Кяхты через Архангельск, Пермь и другие города. Он изучал работу многих уральских и сибирских заводов и рудников, изобретал для них новые механизмы. С 1783 по 1789 г. Бентам принимал участие в Русско-турецкой войне, был награжден. Второе путешествие Бентама в Сибирь состоялось в 1789–1791 гг. Он побывал в киргиз-кайсакских степях, сотрудничал с Г. И. Шелиховым, основал полковую школу в крепости Кудар. Доклады Бентама представляли большой интерес для Екатерины II. Его «Сибирские дневники» не были изданы и хранятся в Британской библиотеке.
The author deals with a history and modem state of studies on the history of geography in Western Europen, American and Russian literature. An enfluence of the philosophy of science (theory of scientific revolutions, for example) on the development of geography is shown as well as importance of some recent currents in geographical thought, such as radical geography and some post-modern enfluences. It is proved that a theoretical orientation notwithstanding, nowadays the majority of historians of geography is keen on looking for impor tance of ideological, phsicological, sociological, cultural and other external factors for the development of geography. On the other hand, for the educational aims it is very essential to study an «internal» history of geography as a science and a field of human practics especially in regards to the development of ideas and methods of this science. Eurocentrism is pointed out as a real lacuna in the foreign histori ography of geography.
For 17 th and 18 th century Europeans, the territory of Russia, especially its eastern parts neighboring China and Central Asia, were largely terrae incognitae. Maps and detailed geographical knowledge of the area had strategic significance for countries and governments and were often handled with secrecy. Among the foreigners invited to Russia by Peter the Great was the French astronomer Joseph Delisle, who subsequently played a leading role in establishing scientific astronomy in the country and participated in some cartographic projects. Clandestinely, Delisle spent much of his time copying maps and geographical materials by other Russian geodesists, which he then took with him to France. The Delisle collection in Paris is of great historical importance as it includes many documents that have not survived in Russian archives. It has been studied by Konstantin Salishchev and Garriy Utin. This essay draws attention to some previously overlooked Russian sources from the Paris collection, in particular textual documents rather than maps. These include: 1) pre-Petrine geographical and historical descriptions of Eurasia; 2) projects for the mapping of the Russian Empire; 3) adopted methods and procedures of geodesic and cartographic work; 4) lists of existing maps; 5) materials of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions; and 6) Russian and Chinese materials related to the border treaty of 1689, including a copy of the first Chinese (Jesuit) maps of Amur and the Maritime Provinces (1706-1711), officially presented to the Russian government by the Chinese authorities in the 1720s. It is hard to overstate the historical and geographic importance of these documents, which should become the topic of a joint Russian-French research project leading to a bilingual publication.
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Высшая аттестационная комиссия
При Министерстве образования и науки Российской Федерации
Научная электронная библиотека