Who was the FIRST Russian female polar explorer?

“The Lieutenant’s wife”

In the 18th century, a woman’s role was largely confined to running the household and caring for children. Tatiana Kondyreva probably imagined her marriage would be just that. But, her husband turned out to be an extraordinary man.

Naval officer Vasily Pronchishchev was one of the best students at the St. Petersburg Naval Academy. He had taken part in Peter the Great’s Persian Campaign along the western and southern shores of the Caspian Sea and served aboard the 90-gun ship of the line ‘Friedrichstadt’.

In 1732, he was appointed leader of the Lena-Yenisei detachment of the Great Northern Expedition, organized by Vitus Bering. His mission was to explore the coastline and find a new sea route from the mouth of the Lena River to the Yenisei.

He set off for Yakutsk with his wife. They had been married in a church ceremony shortly before leaving Moscow. There was nothing unusual about traveling to the expedition’s starting point with one’s family. Usually, women stayed behind, waiting for their husbands to complete their assignments.

But, no woman had ever accompanied an expedition into uncharted territory to search for “whether rich metals and minerals might be found somewhere” or to “identify all good anchorages and harbors with forests”. Except for Pronchishcheva.

Why the expedition leader decided to take his wife on the expedition itself remains unclear. According to one account, a serf accompanying Pronchishchev escaped in Yakutsk, taking all of his master’s money with him. As a result, Pronchishchev simply had no means to send his wife home or rent a place for her.

And so, among the expedition members listed in the logbook of the double-hulled boat ‘Yakutsk’, an unnamed “lieutenant’s wife” appeared among the expedition members.

The Olenek Winter Camp

On June 30, 1735, the ship set out on a voyage down the Lena River. By August, it had reached the river’s delta. After producing detailed maps, the expedition stopped to spend the winter at the mouth of the Olenek River.

They lived in a log cabin they had built themselves. It was not until August of the following year that the sea ice melted enough for the ‘Yakutsk’ to continue its journey.

The expedition reached Khatanga Gulf and sailed along the eastern coast of Taimyr. As they mapped the newly discovered lands, the explorers reached 77° north latitude and realized that the ice made it impossible to go any farther.

Vasily Pronchishchev then decided to return to the mouth of the Olenek.

He went ashore to conduct reconnaissance, broke his leg and soon died from complications. Fourteen days later, the ship’s log recorded the death of his wife.

To this day, it remains unknown what caused her death – scurvy or another illness. But, in life and in death, the couple remained inseparable: they were buried together on the shore of Cape Tumul.

The unknown woman’s name

Vasily Pronchishchev’s detachment discovered islands along the coast of Taimyr, became the first to map the course of the Lena River and the coastline as far as Faddey Bay and described the region’s meteorological conditions and ice patterns.

At the same time, the expedition became the first to include a woman, albeit unofficially.

In 1913, Boris Vilkitsky, the leader of a hydrographic expedition to the Arctic Ocean, named one of the capes in the Laptev Sea off the eastern coast of Taimyr after Pronchishcheva.

The same name was later given to the bay and the polar station located there.