Preservings $20 Issue No. 26, 2006 - Home at Plett Foundation

Comments on the map of the route taken by
Hoeppner and Bartsch 1786-1787
Edwin D. Hoeppner, Winnipeg
Danzig to Riga
By sailing ship with Skipper Kedtels.
Riga to Dubrovno
The land route up the western Dvina
(Düna) River, now known by the Latvian
name, Daugava, was on its right bank. In the
18 th century it is likely that the route crossed
from Vitebsk to Orsha on the Dnieper River.
Dubrovno to Kremenchug
According to the 1 December 1786 letter
of Bartsch to his wife the delegates were accompanied
by a courier for this segment of the
trip (David H. Epp. Die Chortitza Mennoniten,
13, and Mennonite Historian in References).
The Danzig-West Prussian Mennonite emigrants
of 1788/89 followed this route and they
most likely were using the route used by the
delegates in 1786.
Kremenchug to Kherson
David G. Rempel and others have stated
that the delegates followed the Dnieper River
southward to Kherson, but this is rather unlikely.
Oleksandr O. Melnyk, Principal Research
Officer of the Krivyi Rih Museum of
Regional Studies and History, has recently
pointed out that in 1775, immediately after the
end of the Russian-Turkish war in 1774, the
Russian authorities opened a new postal road
connecting Kremenchih (sic) with Kinburn.
On 25 April/8 May that same year a postal
station was established on this road “ in the
tract Krivyi Rih” (see References). This is
confirmed by Hans Halm in his list of all the
place names on the route taken by Catherine II
and Potemkin on their return from the Crimea
via Berislav - Kremenchug. Halm comments,
“Das ist also die grosse Poststrasse”.
The road south from Kremenchug followed
the height of land (i.e. the Wasserscheide)
between the Ingulets and Saksagan
Rivers to Krivoi Rog, then down west side
of the Ingulets valley to Davidov Brod and
then to Berislav and to Kherson. The delegates
will also have travelled this route on
their way northward to hand in their petition
to Potemkin at Kremenchug, and to be
presented to Catherine.II. (the possibility
of which had been hinted at by the Russian
Consul General at Danzig in 1786. See Zwei
Dokumente, 15.)
Kremenchug to Kherson to Crimea to Kremenchug
( in Catherine II’s entourage)
Simon Sebag Montefiorie tells us that
Catherine and her entourage departed from
Kiev by river barges, specially constructed
for this purpose at Krichev, and arrived at
Kremenchug 30 April/11 May 1787 (see
References). Here Bartsch and Hoeppner
were presented to Catherine on 13 May N.S.
At this time also they received an offer they
felt unable to refuse – an imperial invitation
to journey in her entourage to the Crimea.
The entire route of Catherine II’s famous
Dnieper-Crimea jurney is shown on a map
by Count de Segur, Ambassador of France,
who was among those invited for the trip (see
References). This map, as well as Montefiore’s
excellent book, have been used to reconstruct
the route of the delegates .
The journey by barge ended when some of
the barges ran aground some distance short of
Kaydak which itself was a short distance upstream
from Ekaterinoslav. Montefiore states
at one place that the grounding was 25 miles
from Kaydak and later states that it was 30
versts (approximately 30 km.). Kaydak appears
to have been absorbed by urban sprawl
but it can be found on a topographical chart as
Novo Kaidaki; it should not be confused with
Stari Kaidaki downstream from Ekaterinoslav.
From near the grounding the main party travelled
overland along the west or right bank
of the Dnieper via the site of Khortitsa and
Berislav to Kherson. It is not known whether
all of the entourage travelled by land also, or
whether they were constrained to endure their
passage through the Dnieper rapids, and down
the river to Kherson.
Kremenchug to St Petersburg
The delegates continued their return from
Kremenchug apparently alone, but possibly
accompanied by Trappe northward, most
likely along the route of Segur’s map via
Chernigov and Krichev, the center of another
of Potemkin’s large estates. The road from
Smolensk to St. Petersburg was new; it was
completed in 1787.
St. Petersburg to Riga to Warsaw
According to Erik Amburger, the most
important route into Russia went via Riga
and Pskov (see References). Roads run both
ways so Trappe and the delegates will most
likely have diverged from the new route south
at Luga to head toward Pskov. However it is
possible that Trappe and the delegates may
have departed from St. Petersburg by the older
route which went via Krasnoi Selo-Kingisepp
(Jamburg)-Gdov to Pskov so these places are
included on the map (see References – Amburger,
1980). Peter Hildebrand recorded (see
Zwei Dokumente, p.22) that the party travelled
from Riga to Warsaw. The detour from Riga
to Warsaw has not been acknowledged by
Mennonite map makers to this day. Perhaps
they are waiting for appropriate research in
the Polish government archives to confirm
Hildebrand who is in effect our only published
“eyewitness”.
Warsaw to Danzig:
In a 1989 article Heinz Lingenberg discusses
Prussian postal routes. It appears that
a route southward from Danzig may have
connected with a Polish route at Thorn. Most
likely Trappe and the delegates used this route
to arrive at the Russian Consulate General
at Langgarten 74, Danzig , announced by
post-horn fanfare, on Saturday, 10 November
1787.
References
*Amburger, Erik, Die Anwerbung ausländischer
Fachkräfte fuer die Wirtschaft
Russlands vom 15. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert
(Wiesbaden, 1968), 60.
*Amburger, Erik. Ingermanland: Eine
junge Provinz Russlands im Wirkungsbereich
der Residenz und Weltstadt St. Petersburg-
Leningrad. I Teilband (Köln-Wien, 1980),
134-137.
*Baer, Max, Westpreussen unter Friedrich
dem Grossen. Band I (Leipzig, 1909).
*Halm, Hans, ed. Die Russen oder Versuch
einer Reisebeschreibung nach Russland und
durch das Russische Reich in Europa (1787-
88) by Johann Philipp Balthazar Weber
(Innsbruck: Hans Halm, 1960), Footnotes 106
and 110, 63, 65.
*Hildebrand, Peter, Erste Auswanderung
der Mennoniten aus dem Danziger Gebiet
nach S üdrussland in Victor Peters, ed. Zwei
Dokumente: Quellen zum Geschichtsstudium
der Mennoniten in Russland (Winnipeg:
1965), 12 - 46.
*Hoeppner, Edwin D., “Some Eighteenth
Century Units of Measurement for Danzig,
West Prussia and Russia for Translation and
Interpretation”, Mennonite Historian XXXI
(March, 2005), 8-11.
*Hoeppner, Edwin D., “A Letter from Hoeppner
and Bartsch to Potemkin,”Mennonite
Historian XIV (December, 1988), 4.
*Lingenberg, Heinz, “Die Preussenkarten
des Franz Josef von Reilly”, Westpreussen
Jahrbuch 39, 1989.
*Melnyk, Oleksandr O., Historical
Chronicle of Events (Kryvyi Rih City). Available
on the Internet.
*Montefiore, Simon Sibag, Prince of
Princes: The Life of Potemkin (London,
2000). Chapter 24.
*Segur, Louis Philippe, Comte de. Memoirs
and recollections of Count Segur, Ambassador
from France to the courts of Russia and
Prussia, etc etc written by himself (London,
1825-27 and New York, 1970). Map.
*Simas Suzheidels and Juozas Jakotas,
eds. Encyclopedia Lituanica Vol. IV (1975).
See article “Roads.”
84 - Preservings No. 26, 2006