Many people are familiar with the story of how Mikhail Lomonosov walked on foot in winter with a fish train from his native village to Moscow - he was so eager for knowledge. We decided to check how plausible this story is.
In 2018, President Vladimir Putin during teleconference at the Kazan Federal University called Mikhail Lomonosov the best example of the pursuit of knowledge and the realization of his dreams, since he “reached St. Petersburg on foot from Arkhangelsk.” Lomonosov drew attention to the erroneous destination TJournal. Nevertheless many It is still believed that Lomonosov walked the entire way to Moscow. Some enthusiasts even try repeat Lomonosov's path, walking more than 1000 km from the Arkhangelsk region to Moscow.
Mikhail Lomonosov was born not in Arkhangelsk, as many believe, but 80 km from it - in the village of Denisovskaya Arkhangelsk province. The distance to the center of Moscow is approximately 1160 km. This is exactly the distance that 19-year-old Lomonosov covered in three weeks of travel - from December 1730 to January 1731. That is, the average distance that Lomonosov had to cover per day is 55 km. With an average human walking speed of 5 km/h, such a long forced march seems difficult to accomplish. At the same time, it is also worth remembering that in those days, winter roads were most likely broken and swept away. And in December, which usually falls on the winter solstice, travel time was limited by short daylight hours.
Two volunteers who in 2010 repeated Lomonosov's path from his home village to Moscow also covered the distance in 21 days: from December 5 to 26. True, in the 21st century, enthusiasts used a GPS navigator, instead of a broken road, they followed the Moscow-Kholmogory highway, and hitchhiked part of the road.
So how then did Lomonosov get to Moscow, if not on foot? IN notes The first biographer and friend of Lomonosov, Yakov Shtelin, wrote: “In the seventeenth year*, on a winter night, he secretly left his father’s house, following a convoy with fish that was leaving for Moscow. He caught up with him the next day, 80 miles from his village, on a high road. The clerk did not want to take him with him; but he asked with tears to give him a chance to look at Moscow.”
*Subsequently biographer Nikolai Lyubimov clarified, that Lomonosov nevertheless left home at the 20th year of his life, and not at the 17th.
Another biography of Lomonosov, attached to the academic edition of his works in 1784 and also based on Shtelin’s notes, gives more detailed description those events: “For a long time he harbored a desire to escape to one of the above-mentioned cities in order to delve into the sciences there. I was impatiently waiting for an opportunity. At the age of seventeen, he finally opened up. From his village a caravan with frozen fish set off for Moscow. Concealing his intention in every possible way, in the morning he looked, as if out of sheer curiosity, at the departure of this caravan. The next night, while everyone in his father’s house was asleep, putting on two shirts and a sheepskin coat, he chased after him. He did not forget to take with him his kind books, which then made up his entire library: grammar and arithmetic. On the third day he overtook him at seventy miles. The caravan steward did not want to take him with him at first, but, having been convinced by a request and tears to let him see Moscow, he finally agreed. Three weeks later we arrived in this capital city. <...> At home, meanwhile, they searched for him for a long time and, not finding him anywhere, considered him lost until the convoy returned along the last winter journey: then they already knew where he was and what he was.”
According to the text by M.I. Veryovkin, Lomonosov caught up with the convoy on the third day of the journey, 70 versts (75 km) from the village. That is, in fact, Lomonosov walked only about 6% of the way, and the rest of the distance he traveled on a horse-drawn cart as part of a trade caravan.
Mostly not true
Image: N.I. Kislyakov. The young man Lomonosov is on his way to Moscow. 1948. Source: Kultura.ru
Read on the topic:
- TASS: Lomonosov's journey to Moscow (infographics)
- "Kultura.ru": From Kholmogory to Moscow: Lomonosov Road
- "History.rf": Myths and facts about the life of Mikhail Lomonosov
- Did Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov say that mathematics “puts your mind in order”?
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