202 POLAR PROBLEMS 



Gradual Deterioration in Initiative of the 

 Descendants of the Cossack Conquerors 



In many spiritual qualities the Russian population closely ap- 

 proaches the natives. The change in this direction was already 

 noticeable even in the eighteenth century. 



The first Russian colonists were stubborn people, hardy, not 

 inclined to yield either to the authorities or to the severity of their 

 environment. They subjugated the natives with an almost lightning- 

 like swiftness. For instance, the conquest of the enormous territory 

 in the extreme northeast was accomplished within some eighteen 

 years, from 1632 to 1650. 



The Cossack conquerors were men of quite indomitable courage 

 and of a certain elemental initiative. Like the Spanish conquistador es, 

 they advanced irresistibly in their search for the sable that was not 

 less valuable than American gold. They moved in small companies, 

 covered with rusty mail and armed with "fire fight," unseen and terri- 

 fying for the natives, conquering and destroying village after village, 

 tribe after tribe. 



They moved mostly by land, psCssing from one river system to 

 another; but some of them reached the northern sea and became 

 navigators. The sea campaigns of the Cossacks are almost fabulous. 

 They "went it blind," with no compass, no charts, no navigating 

 experience, on clumsy, roughly constructed kochas as if predestined 

 for shipwreck. However, on such kochas Dezhnev and Alekseev 

 rounded the Asiatic continent long before Bering. 



Nevertheless, several scores of years later the character of the 

 Cossack conquerors began to change. The naval campaigns were 

 finished as unexpectedly as they were begun. At the end of the 

 seventeenth century we find indications of this in the Cossack re- 

 ports, "Our ships are weak, and the sails are small; and we don't 

 know how to build large ships as formerly." At that time all the 

 Russian population passed from a state of fusion into immobility, 

 as if crystallized. Initiative and activity disappeared, and boldness 

 evaporated into timidity. 



At the beginning of the second half of the eighteenth century 

 this change was already quite marked. It coincided with the failure 

 of the Cossack campaigns against the Chukchis, which ended in a 

 catastrophe and the destruction of Shestakov and Pavlutski. After 

 that, in the nineteenth century, the descendants of the Cossack con- 

 querors became government serfs, slaves of every government official 

 sent north in punishment for faults of office. In fact, in many vil- 

 lages the Russian population has become quite degraded and spir- 

 itually abject, regarding officials, as the natives do, with panicky terror 

 and resigned obedience. In addition to this, it has become subject 

 to nervous diseases, fits, and polar hysteria. 



