Nikolai Vasilyevich Pinegin ( – 18 October 1940) was a Russian and Soviet writer, artist, and Arctic explorer. He was a member of Georgy Sedov's expedition on the ship St. Martyr Foka.Поморская энциклопедия: В 5 т. Т. I: История Архангельского Севера / Гл. редактор В. Н. Булатов; Сост. А. А. Куратов. — Архангельск: Поморский университет, 2001. — P. 304.
Pinegin was born in the family of a provincial veterinarian. He began his education in the Vyatka real school and continued it in the Perm gymnasium, from which he was expelled. Pinegin began to earn his own living at the age of 17. He entered the Kazan Art School and, in 1907, passed the exams to the Academy of Arts, but could graduate only in 1916. In 1909, he made his first trip to the Murmansk coast of the Kola Peninsula. In 1910, he took part in a trip to the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, where he met Sedov; in the same year he exhibited his paintings at the Academic Exhibition in St. Petersburg. In 1912–1914, he took part in Sedov's expedition as an artist, photographer and cameraman. On the basis of the materials collected during the expedition he made the first Russian film on Arctic themes and a number of paintings and sketches. In 1916, he became an artist of the and headed an art studio in Simferopol.
In 1920 he emigrated to Constantinople. From there he went to Prague and Berlin, where he worked as a theater artist and illustrator. In 1922, in Berlin, with the support of Maxim Gorky, he published his expedition diaries under the title "In the Icy Vastness". In 1923 he returned to the USSR and in the following year he took part in the Northern Hydrographic Expedition, making surveying flights together with Boris Chukhnovsky. In 1927–1930 he led the expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union to Big Lyakhovsky Island, where he wintered in the polar station established at Cape Shalaurov. Due to the failure of the expedition ship to Yakutia, the polar explorers had to return to the Arctic winter on their own. After his return, Pinegin worked at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, where he founded the Arctic and Antarctic Museum and served on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Arctic Institute. In 1932 he led an expedition on the icebreaker Malygin to Rudolf Island. In 1935 he was arrested "as a former White Guard" and sentenced to five years of exile in Kazakhstan. Due to the impossibility of working in academic structures, he returned to artistic and literary work. He died in 1940 after a long illness, not having had time to finish the documentary novel "Georgy Sedov". Pinegin was buried in the Volkovo Cemetery and his body was transferred to the Literary Bridges in 1950. A number of geographical objects bear Pinegin's name.
Formation. First travels (1883–1910)
Early years
The origin of the Yelabuga Pinegin family is unknown, the surname is not recorded in the district. Family legend says that they were related to the merchant family of Shishkins, from which the famous painter came. This explains to some extent the artistic aspirations of Nikolai. He was born on May 10 (New Style), 1883 in the family of a traveling veterinarian Vasily Pinegin and his wife Matryona Feodorovna. The family had three children. Vasily was widowed in 1893 and soon married a second time. This marriage produced four girls. Nikolai says that he never got close to his stepmother and that the memories of his father and childhood were unpleasant.Иванов А. Н. Николай Пинегин: очарованный Севером. — Елабуга: Елабужский гос. историко-архитектурный и худож. музей-заповедник, 2009. — 272 p. — P. 268-269. — .
Nikolai Pinegin studied at the provincial real school for some time. Then the family moved to Perm, and the boy was sent to the local gymnasium. Nikolai studied badly, and his character made itself known: he was expelled from the fifth grade "for disobedience" (refusal to attend church services). Finally, in 1900, Nikolai left his family for good and began an independent life. To get to Kazan, he earned money by painting portraits, played in a brass band (he was generally characterized by musicality and had great abilities), joined a traveling troupe. In 1901, he was admitted to the Kazan Art School as a free student without examinations. Pinegin's petition of February 27, 1902 for admission to the ranks of active students of the IV class and exemption from examinations in arithmetic and geography due to the existence of a certificate of completion of four classes of the gymnasium has been preserved. The petition was granted, and from the same document it is known that in terms of social stratification he was "the son of a civil servant", and his father lived at that time in Nozhyovka, Perm Governorate. Pinegin was also mentioned in the "General Alphabetical List" of the Art School for the academic year 1904–1905; at that time he lived in the house of Petrova at 1st Soldatskaya Street.Иванов А. Н. Николай Пинегин: очарованный Севером. — Елабуга: Елабужский гос. историко-архитектурный и худож. музей-заповедник, 2009. — 272 p. — P. 10-12. — .Прилепина О. Странная земля // Русский мир. — 2013. — Сентябрь. — P. 29.
Travels in 1904–1909. First publications
The origin of N. Pinegin's polar aspirations was rooted in the Nordomania common in Russian culture at the turn of the century and the popularity of Knut Hamsun's works.Агапов М. Г., Клюева В. П. «Север зовёт!»: мотив «северное притяжение» в истории освоения Российской Арктики // Сибирские исторические исследования. — 2018. — № 4. — P. 9-10. — doi:10.17223/2312461X/22/1.Капинос Е. В., Лощилов И. Е. Кнут Гамсун в Сибири // Критика и семиотика. — 2020. — № 2. — P. 317, 321. — ISSN 2307-1737. In his notebooks Nikolai mentioned that he was a good hunter and had wilderness survival skills. While still a student in Kazan he introduced a regime of austerity to save money for an artistic journey to the North. His plans were supported by his comrades: Semyonov, a student of natural science; Marosin, a topographer; and Kachalov, a wanderer who planned a trip for the summer of 1904. Semyonov suggested applying to the IRGS and wrote a letter to its chairman, Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich. The letter outlined a plan for surveying the Northern Catherine Canal, for which the young men requested maps, geodetic instruments and 50 rubles for equipment.Пинегин Н. В. Записки полярника. — 2-е изд.. — М.: Географгиз, 1952. — 496 p. — P. 13.Иванов А. Н. Николай Пинегин: очарованный Севером. — Елабуга: Елабужский гос. историко-архитектурный и худож. музей-заповедник, 2009. — 272 p. — P. 13-14, 16. — . In the reply the grant was refused ("for lack of information about the abilities of the persons you indicate to carry out the intended research"), but the expedition was accepted under the auspices of the Geographical Society and received an official letter obliging the local authorities to support the young people. The money saved was used to buy supplies. A tent was borrowed from an acquainted surveyor. The comrades reached Usolye, where they bought a boat for three rubles from a local resident, on which they continued their journey. The boat was usually pulled by string. The young traveler wrote the following about his impressions:After the mouth of the Kolva River, where we immediately reached very sparsely populated areas, we were left to our own devices. The time for dreaming of adventures and heroic deeds was over, and it was time for simple everyday work. Every day, we would conscientiously pull a heavily loaded boat for twelve hours, climb into the water to pull the boat out of countless shallows, wade through waist-deep rivers and streams, and, surrounded by clouds of mosquitoes and gnats, try to make photographs and sketches. <...> All the game we had counted on had disappeared. We walked from morning to night, wet to the skin, cold and gloomy. We made fires at rest stops and tried to dry ourselves. And we grimly munched on tyurya made of breadcrumbs, topped with bits of butter.Пинегин Н. В. Записки полярника. — 2-е изд.. — М.: Географгиз, 1952. — 496 p. — P. 13-14. The journey (which was pretentiously called the "Volga-Dvinsk Expedition") ended in tragedy. At first, in the village of Kanavnaya, the locals thought the young men were carrying gold: here an official letter came in handy. The next day, while packing cartridges, Pinegin injured his hand (one of his fingers was permanently disfigured) when gunpowder exploded on the filling machine. He was sent by steamer to Cherdyn and had to be treated by his relatives in Perm. Semenov decided to return with him; two days after their departure, Marosin was mortally wounded by his own double-barreled shotgun, which he had slung over his shoulder. Kachalov was suspected of his murder, and only after much delay was he allowed to return home. Pinegin did not cool to the North, but came to the conclusion that it was necessary to increase his own knowledge and prepare thoroughly for campaigns.Пинегин Н. В. Записки полярника. — 2-е изд.. — М.: Географгиз, 1952. — 496 p. — P. 16.Соколов-Микитов И. С. Полярный художник [Н. В. Пинегин] // Давние встречи : воспоминания. — Л. : Советcкий писатель, 1976. — P. 182. — 318 p.Иванов А. Н. Николай Пинегин: очарованный Севером. — Елабуга: Елабужский гос. историко-архитектурный и худож. музей-заповедник, 2009. — 272 p. — P. 16-19. — .
Pinegin's first two years back were financially difficult. To earn money, he managed to get a job as a draftsman for the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1906, and in 1907 he moved to the Saratov Artel as a surveyor. He continued to draw intensively and continued his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts.Иванов А. Н. Николай Пинегин: очарованный Севером. — Елабуга: Елабужский гос. историко-архитектурный и худож. музей-заповедник, 2009. — 272 p. — P. 19. — . In the summer of 1909, Pinegin visited his relatives in Arkhangelsk. Here he joined the newly founded Society for the Study of the Russian North; the chairman, A. Shidlovsky, wrote the young artist letters of recommendation, an open sheet for boats, and provided free transportation to Murman. Nikolai Vasilievich sailed along the White Sea and the Kola coast on the steamer "Nikolai", which was specially designed for official trips, made many sketches and wrote a detailed report.Вехов Н. В. «Страна чудес — волшебный Север». О ныне практически забытом полярнике Николае Васильевиче Пинегине (1883—1940) // Московский журнал. — 2011. — № 3 (243) (март). — P. 15. In addition, in 1909 and 1910 two essays were published in "Izvestiya Arkhangelskogo Society for the Study of the Russian North": "Ainovy Islands" and "From the Tales of the Lapland North". After the publication in the magazine "Sun of Russia" essay "In the Land of the Midnight Sun" in 1910 Nikolai Pinegin received a fee of 100 rubles and, having joined them savings in amount of 20 rubles, went on another trip.Иванов А. Н. Николай Пинегин: очарованный Севером. — Елабуга: Елабужский гос. историко-архитектурный и худож. музей-заповедник, 2009. — 272 p. — P. 19-21. — .Иванов А. Судьбоносная статья Николая Пинегина. ГБУК «Елабужский государственный историко-архитектурный и художественный музей-заповедник» (23 May2018).
Journey to Novaya Zemlya