Historical cranberries Unfortunately, the berry cranberry blooms magnificently not only in the Russian cinema of recent years; Soviet directors also paid tribute to it. Instead of giving a complex, ambiguous, but true world of a distant historical era and its real sons, they chose to paint lubok, filling it with romantic love, insidious villains and knights without fear and reproach.
Such a knight is presented to the viewer and the hero of this film, to the real Dezhnev having a very remote relation. The absence of any data about his pre-Siberian years allowed the authors to weave a naive tale about pure love for a merchant daughter, whose father, aka an epic villain, sent the Family for three years on a distant campaign: “to become a solid person.” Other likhodei already in the Siberian land in every possible way prevented him from returning to his beloved, even attempted to live. And, of course, Dezhnev is depicted as a completely unselfish person, and even greedy for knowledge, who in his youth wanted to know where the “edge of the earth” is.
And now the historical facts. Dezhnev’s whole long service was subordinated to one goal: the collection of yasak from the native peoples. Yes, he tried to do it peacefully, without much bloodshed, but if he had to shoot, he didn’t hesitate. It is known that in that famous Chukchi voyage he volunteered precisely with the aim of collecting a good yasak; after he had a competitor who promised to collect 280 sable skins, Dezhnev threw ten more, and for loyalty wrote a complaint against a competitor, they say, a robbery-looking comrade, is it possible to trust this?
That's why Dezhnev swam. His and others’ sole purpose was to discover new unexplained tribes and rich lands, particularly walrus rookeries—no scientific research was ever thought of in the 17th century! Of course, the fact that Dezhnev did not receive his Cossack salary for 19 years, got into bondage debts, suffered “great needs” and nevertheless served the fatherland properly, is worthy of respect; however, let us not forget that of the 321 poods of “fish tooth” (walrus fangs) brought in the end by Dezhnev to Moscow, 32 poods (10%) were his personal prey, which seems very considerable, considering that not every year such wealth was delivered to the tsar. By the way, they paid Dezhnev 500 rubles for 30 poods - and this is 100 (!) annual Cossack salaries, however, according to current researchers, they still cheated at least three times. And, of course, the authors of the film did not mention the two Yakut wives of Dezhnev - much more romantic, when she is alone and the children are running nearby.
In short, only the behind-the-screen “unsubscribe” is true in this film. Seeds Dezhnev — speaking in modern terms, report to the king about the service and campaigns. And that read selectively, so that neither, nor about any amanats (hostage natives), taken by Dezhnev as a pledge of future payment of yasak, was not said, because our hero Yasaka does not take, but only in justice changes fur for cotton and bread. That’s how some directors hold their viewers for idiots, the story of those who do not know, are not interested and are able to swallow any cranberries without wrinkling.