Gvozdarev Ivan Yakovlevich

(1812-1851)

Industrialist, navigator, explorer of the Arctic.

Born in the village of Soroka, Kemsky district, Arkhangelsk province, in a family of Pomorians. He first went hunting in the New Earth together with his younger brother in 1831. In 1832, he took part in the expedition of Pakhtusov in the detachment of Lieutenant Krotov, when Gvozdarev was to deliver a log cabin to Matochkin Shar on his boat. On the way, Gvozdarev went to Kostin Shar, where he hunted walrus until August. On the way to Matochkin Shar, Gvozdareva's boat suffered greatly during the storm, which forced him to place a hut in Greater Karmakulah, after which he returned to Arkhangelsk.

In 1834, Gvozdarev sailed off the coast of Novaya Zemlya again, and in Mityushikha Bay he found the remains of a broken vessel without a trace of the lost expedition of Lieutenant Krotov. In 1835, Gvozdarev traded around the Gorbovye Islands when he met with Pakhtusov, who was provided with valuable information about Novaya Zemlya. In particular, he gave Pakhtusov the eye-seeing maps of the Mityushikha Bay, the Gulf of Melky and the peninsula of the Admiralty. In 1838, Gvozdarev sailed to Novaya Zemlya as part of the Tsivolki expedition, when he delivered the cargo to Melky Bay.

In 1842, Gvozdarev reached the Barents Islands along the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, from where he traveled about 70 miles to the north on the Karbas.

Gvozdarev ended his life tragically. In May 1851, he stepped out on his own schooner "Gregory the Theologian" from the White Sea to Spitsbergen. The crew of the schooner included, besides Gvozdarev, the Kem citizens Druzhinin, Mykhin and Bartsevich and the Kem peasants brothers Vasily and Yakov Isakov, Ivan Tihanov, Mikhailov, Grigory Antipin and Andrey Kashkin. August 18 (n. Art.) "Gregory the Theologian" entered Bellsund (Clombay, as this bay was called Russian). In September, the ship returned to Arkhangelsk, having only three people on board - the Isakov brothers and Druzhinin. The rest, they said, were killed by accidents.However, it later turned out quite different. In May 1852, a Norwegian skipper visited a Russian hut in Belzund and found two bodies there that, judging by the clothes, belonged to Russians. Here the Norwegian found a gun in the hut, on the butt and the bed of which some inscriptions were cut out in Russian letters. This gun, along with several pieces of wood, on which there were also inscriptions, the skipper sent through the Swedish Embassy to Arkhangelsk. Here it was not difficult to disassemble the inscriptions. On the butt of a gun was cut: “Forgive us sinners, the villains left, God pay them. To inform our families”.  The inscription on the rifle's box was: “We two mourned our bitter fate, went to Rynbovka, it was in Klombay in 1851. On August 8, we drove for deer from the schooner and left the goods. Here the owner with 2 people [Gvozdarev, Tihanov, Kalinin] walked along the shore for 3 days, then arrived. Gvozdareva shot Kolup on August 11th. Ivan Tihanov escaped. Andrei Kalinin escaped. Shot Ivan Gvozdareva Kolup dog".

The arrested Isakovs and Druzhinin showed the following. Wanting to take possession of the schooner, they shot Gvozdaryov on the shore (his own adoptee, Antipin, killed Gvozdarev), but Kalikin and Tihanov were left to fend for themselves. On the way to Norway, the Isakovs and Druzhinin threw overboard Mykhin, Antipin and Bartsevich, whom they were not sure of. In Berlevog (Norway) another industrialist was strangled with a towel - Mikhailov. Abandoned in Svalbard Kalikin and Tihanov died of hunger. Thus, out of ten people who were on the “Gregory the Theologian”, only three returned to Arkhangelsk. Here the villains suffered a well-deserved punishment.Each of them was sentenced to 6000 strikes by gauntlets and hard labor.

The river on Novaya Zemlya (between the Admiralty Peninsula and the Humpback Islands). Named by industrialists.