The documents of the Siberian Office contain reports that the local residents collected “Siberian rock oil” on the Yenisey and along the banks of Lake Baikal. It flowed out of the rocky river banks, floated on Baikal, and was thrown up on its shores by the wind. Siberian rock oil was used as an ointment against rheumatic diseases and for healing wounds. It was even shipped to Moscow, as recorded in the entry for 1650 in a customs book: “The Ustyi native Roman Yevdeyev came from Siberia on someone else’s ship... in addition to soft materials, he brought half a pound of rock oil.” Incidentally, we know from the archives that one pound of rock oil was worth 10 kopecks in Yeniseysk in 1649.
In 1684, the Siberian Office, on the basis of a decree by tsars Ivan Alekseyevich and Peter Alekseyevich, directed the chief administrator of Irkutsk, Leonty Kislyansky, to “question all ranks of people and taxpaying foreigners about gold and silver, and about copper and tin and lead ores, and about iron and about diamonds, and mica and dye, and about saltpeter, and about other resources.”
Leonty Kislyansky had a very successful career in medieval Russia. He was born in Poland, entered Russian service in 1671 after adopting the Orthodox faith, and was granted perpetual citizenship by Tsar Aleksey Mikhaylovich. He served from 1671 to 1677 in the Embassy Office and the Weapons Board as a master of painting, where he first encountered the use of petroleum in iconography. In 1680, Kislyansky was assigned to serve in Yeniseysk, and then in 1683, he was sent to Irkutsk as an administrator.
At the time, the stockaded town of Irkutsk was relatively small. It was surrounded by a wooden wall with six towers and bridges, one of which contained a treasury barn, which held a copper cannon, rifles, and various ammunition. The town had only 40 farmsteads. The Russian ambassador to Beijing, Nikolay Sparafy, stopped at Irkutsk in 1675 and noted that there were no moorings at the mouth of the Angara, only cliffs and rocks, and “in a word, groves—exceedingly terrible, in particular to those who first of all had not been there, because everywhere around are very high snowy mountains and impassable forests and rocky cliffs.”
Among Leonty Kislyansky’s duties were: to collect “tributes”—sable, fox, and beaver pelts—from tributary local tribes; “not to be harsh, impudent, or offensive;” “to seek out new lands for the state’s exalted hand;” and to trade with the Bukhars and other foreign merchants, “but to ensure that they did not carry off rifles, powder, and lead to their own lands.” In addition, he was charged with the special mission of baptizing locals wishing to adopt the Orthodox faith, and “to disburse three rubles and one piece of fabric apiece” to each newly baptized person and “enlist them into service.”9
In fulfilling the instructions of the Siberian Office, Leonty Kislyansky, with the assistance of service people, found mica in Siberia along the banks of the Ura and Angara Rivers and in the Baikal region, as well as graphite and lapis lazuli on the banks of the Vitim River, and was the first to report “oil shows,” or visible indications of petroleum in Siberia.
This is reflected in his report to the Yenisey governor, Prince Konstantin Shcherbatov, dated 1684, and excerpted here: “But in the stockaded town of Irkutsk, the Irkut residents literally said in conversation before me: behind the stockaded Irkutskaya Creek, fire supposedly comes out of the mountain from who knows where, and in that place snow does not live in winter and grass does not grow in summer. And against their warnings, I went from Irkutsk not far, only a verst [0.93 miles]10 or less, and vapor came from the mountain, and if you put your hand on it, you cannot hold it for long, and from far off you sense the stench from this petroleum vapor, and when you approach this vapor and the well, there comes a direct stench of real petroleum from the well, and if you dig the hole a little deeper, a little more heat comes from the well, and then you know that there is real petroleum.” Impressed by the abundant resources, Leonty Kislyansky began planning for the extraction of the petroleum, only hoping that, “God willing, there will be no trouble from the unfriendly Mongols and Chinese, and based on those supposed signs and rifts I will dig and earn a living with all solicitude.”
After that, apparently, it was precisely his hostile “neighbors” that prevented the Irkutsk administrator from realizing his far-reaching plans. Somewhat later, he reported to Yeniseysk: “I have not dug any petroleum to date because I intend to produce it in great quantities, but I have yet to find the men to carry out the work.”
Later Leonty Kislyansky, for his diligence in the service of the state, received the title of stolnik, and was appointed to a high post in Moscow, and we know of his participation in a series of Russian military campaigns. Unfortunately, at the time there was no one among his comrades-in-arms who could continue further exploration of surface oil shows, so the treasury of Siberian “black gold” remained untouched until the mid-20th century.
Peter the Great and Oil
For most Russian and foreign historians, the grand achievements in Russia in the early 18th century are seen as a period of great Petrovian reforms. It was in this century that, according to the noted foreign researcher J. Blum, Russian industrial development was equal to and sometimes even superior to that of the rest of Europe. Russian historian and Academician Yevgeny Tarle (1874–1955) even went so far as to deem the extensive vigor of Russian history in the late 18th century as one of the most important and great phenomena of world history.
Along with all the reforms and developments of this era, Emperor Peter I (Peter the Great, 1672–1725) was also responsible for the first attempts at the practical use of petroleum in Russia.
On August 24, 1700, a decree from the tsar founded the Mining Office, which came to supervise all activities in the development and exploitation of the Russian Empire’s minerals. In another decree dated November 2, 1700, Peter the Great clearly defined the objectives of this state mining institution, which encompassed all phases of the prospecting, exploration, and development of mineral deposits.
Efforts to find ore riches were undertaken throughout Russia at Peter the Great’s initiative. By January 2, 1703, the newspaper Vedomosti [“Gazette”], edited by the tsar himself, reported: “They write from Kazan that much oil has been found on the Sok River.”
In 1713, Peter the Great wrote a letter to his closest associate, the diplomat Pavel Yaguzhinsky (1683–1736), demanding the procurement in Baku of 10 vedros (32.5 gallons; or about 101 kilograms)11 of oil and the delivery of the same to St. Petersburg. When the oil was purchased, it became clear that the price of oil had risen considerably, reaching 30 kopecks a pound by 1713. After a thorough search, Yaguzhinsky managed to purchase 16 vedros (52 gallons; or about 164 kilograms) of oil at 25 kopecks a pound from the trader Ivan Fëdorovich of Syromyat Sloboda [Syromyat Free Settlement].
Faced with the high costs of importing oil to Russia, Peter the Great turned his attention to developing petroleum sources within the country, focusing on the potential oil-bearing lands between the Terek and Sunzha Rivers. He ordered the preparation of an expedition to the region, but the expedition’s departure was postponed due to the emperor’s upcoming trip to Europe.
It was during this extended visit to Europe that Peter the Great met with eminent European scientists and miners. These meetings and his introduction to the state of affairs in Western economics led the tsar to certain conclusions on the necessity for prompt modernization in Russia, including the mining industry.
After his return home, Peter the Great signed a decree forming the Manufacturing and Mining Board,12 and appointed his close associate Yakov Bryus [Jacob Bruce] (1670–1735), later given the title of count and the rank of general field marshal, to head it.