It is the central one of three large Siberian rivers that flow into theArctic Ocean (the other two being theOb and theLena). The maximum depth of the Yenisey is 61 metres (200 ft) and the average depth is 14 metres (45 ft).
The Brekhovskie Islands (Russian-language article:Бреховские острова) lie in the Yenisey estuary and have an area of some 1,400,000 hectares. They provide a wetland habitat for rare and endangered birds and are an internationally important nesting and breeding area for several types ofwaterfowl.[14] The most north-easterly of the islands, Nosonovskij Ostrov ("Nose Island") was visited byFridtjof Nansen in 1913.[15]
The Yenisey valley is habitat for numerous flora and fauna, withSiberian pine andSiberian larch being notable tree species. Inprehistoric timesScots pine,Pinus sylvestris, was abundant in the Yenisey valleyc. 6000BC.[17] There are also numerous bird species present in the watershed, including, for example, thehooded crow,Corvus cornix.[18]
The Taimyr herd of tundrareindeer (Rangifer tarandussibiricus), the largest reindeer herd in the world,[19][20] migrates to winter grazing ranges along the Yenisey.[21]: 336 It had an estimated 800,000-850,000 individuals as of 2010, but has peaked at over one million.[22]
River steamers first came to the Yenisei River in 1864 and were brought in from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom across the icy Kara Sea. One was the steamerNikolai. The steamshipThames attempted to explore the river, overwintered in 1876, but was damaged in the ice and eventually wrecked in the river. Success came with the steamersFrazer,Express in 1878 and, the next year,Moscow hauling supplies in and wheat out. TheDalman reached Yeniseisk in 1881.
Imperial Russia placed river steamers on the massive river in an attempt to free up communication with land-locked Siberia. One,St. Nicholas took the futureTsar Nicholas II on his voyage to Siberia, and later conveyed Vladimir Lenin to prison.
Engineers attempted to place river steamers in regular service on the river during the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The boats were needed to bring in the rails, engines and supplies. CaptainJoseph Wiggins sailed theOrestes with rail in 1893. However, the sea and river route proved very difficult with several ships lost at sea and on the river. Both the Ob and Yenisey mouths feed into very long inlets, several hundred kilometres in length, which are shallow, ice bound and prone to high winds and thus treacherous for navigation. After the completion of the railway, river traffic reduced to only local service as the Arctic route and long river proved much too indirect a route.
The first recreation team to navigate the Yenisey's entire length, including its violent uppertributary in Mongolia, was an Australian-Canadian expedition completed in September 2001.Ben Kozel, Tim Cope,Colin Angus and Remy Quinter were on this team. Both Kozel and Angus wrote books detailing this expedition,[23] and a documentary was produced for National Geographic Television.
Nomadic tribes such as theKet people and theYugh people have lived along the banks of the Yenisey since ancient times, and this region is the location of theYeniseian language family. The Ket, numbering about 1000, are the only survivors today of those who originally lived throughout central southern Siberia near the river banks. Their extinct relatives included the Kotts, Assans, Arins, Baikots and Pumpokols who lived further upriver to the south. The modern Ket lived in the eastern middle areas of the river before being assimilated politically into Russia during the 17th through 19th centuries.[25]
Some of the earliest known evidence ofTurkic origins was found in the Yenisey Valley in the form ofstelae, stonemonoliths and memorial tablets dating from between the seventh and ninth centuries AD, along with some documents that were found in China'sXinjiang region. The written evidence gathered from these sources tells of battles fought between the Turks and theChinese and other legends. There are also examples ofUyghur poetry, though most have survived only in Chinese translation.[26]
The schoonerMV Iermak and theMV Embryo on their ill-fated 1862 voyage of exploration to the gulf of the Yenissei under Krusenstern
Wheat from the Yenisey was sold by Muslims and Uighurs during inadequate harvests to Bukhara and Soghd during theTahirid era.[27]
Russians first reached the upper Yenisey in 1605, travelling from the Ob, up theKet, portaging and then down the Yenisey as far as theSym.[28]
In 1862Paul Theodor von Krusenstern attempted to navigate with two ships fromMurmansk through theKara Sea to the delta of the river Yenissei, but unfortunately was shipwrecked before obtaining success.[29]
The first written mention of the Yenisei River, as "Kem", dates back to the 7th century inTang dynasty China, at the time of contact withYenisei Kyrgyz of this region. The wordJian shui (劔水, "Jian River")[31][32] appears inBook of Zhou, vol. 50, andHistory of the Northern Dynasties, vol. 99, whileJian he (劍河, "Jian River")[33] appears inNew Book of Tang, vol. 217. In addition,Qian he (謙河, "Qian River")[34] is found in the 14th-centuryHistory of Yuan, vol. 63. These contacts were made by the Chinese as they approached the upper Yenisei River from the south. The charactersjian "劔" (orjian "劍") andqian "謙" have been compared toKäm inOrkhon inscriptions[35] from the 8th century. The termKem كيم is also found in the 13th‒14th-centuryOirat Biography inJami' al-Tawarikh.[36]Furthermore, even in the 18th century, Chinese maps showᡴᡝ᠊ᠮ᠊ᠠ ᠪᡳ᠊ᡵᠠKem bira “Kem River” (the Kangxi Imperial Atlas of China (康煕皇輿全覧図) in 1717),ᡴᡝ᠊ᠮ᠊ᠠ ᡳ ᠪᠣ᠊ᠮKem-i bom "Cliffs of the Kem River" (the Yongzheng Atlas (雍正十排図) in 1727 or 1728), 伊克穆必拉 (yeke Kem bira) "Great Kem River" (the Ch'ien-lung Atlas (乾隆内府輿図) in 1769).[37]
The etymology ofKäm is not believed to be ofTurkic origin,[38] and although aSamoyed derivation has been proposed,[39] its precise origins remain unclear.
Today, the word survives only inSayan Turkic languages: inTuvan asxem хем, meaning "river",[40] and in its sister language,Tofa, ashem hем, also meaning "river".[41] These languages are considered to have had close contact with those mentioned above in ancient times.[42][43] Additionally, there are just over 50 river names containing the suffix-kem -кем in theAltai Republic,[44] and the termKim (Ким) as inKim suğ (Ким суғ), meaning "Yenisei River" barely exists inKhakas.[45] All of these instances are confined to the region in and around the present-dayRepublic of Tuva.
Meanwhile, in the 17th century, Russians reached the lower part of the Yenisei River from the northwest; along the way, by 1600, theTobolskCossacks built FortMangazeya by theTaz River. It is believed that the name of the Yenisei River was transmitted, either directly or indirectly, from Samoyed-speaking peoples in the region with whom the Russians had contact. This contact eventually led to the adoption of the name "Yenisei", with a Russian accent.[46]
Additionally, by the end of the 16th century, the Yenisei River was already known toDutch navigators, who referred to it as "Gilissi", "Gelissi", or "Geniscea", among other names. Although the exact spelling varied, these are phonetically similar to "Yenisei".[47] In particular, the modernDutch pronunciation of "Geniscea" as [xɛnisə] is quite close to "Yenisei". The term "Yenisei" (Енисей) appeared in Russian literature slightly later, around 1600, in the form that is still used today.[48] Unlike in Dutch, the Russian spelling has been relatively stable since the 17th century, with only minor variations such as "Yeniseya" (Енисея) or "Yenisya" (Енися).[49]
The etymology of "Yenisei" remains unclear.
RenownedlinguistMax Vasmer, for instance, has suggested that theNganasan word "Jentajea", theEnets "Jeddosi", and theSelkup "N'andesi", all meaning "Yenisei River", might correspond to unidentified Samoyed languages,[50] probably quotedMatthias Castrén's vocabulary.[51] V. K. Nikonov has proposed that the word could derive from "iondessi" (иондесси), meaning "big river" in Selkup,Khanty, or evenEvenki.[52] More recently, some have speculated that "Yenisei" is acompound word of unconfirmedOld Kyrgyz (or inspired by Tuvan language?)ene (эне), meaning "great-grandmother; nanny" +say (сай), meaning "gravel; ford".[53]
However, the above considerations, except Vasmer's, remain speculativefalse etymologies, as they do not refer to the reliable modern dictionaries of the respective languages.[54] Researchers are encouraged to conduct more detailed studies based on proper contemporary linguistic sources andhistorical documents.[55]
Studies have shown that the Yenisey suffers from contamination caused by radioactive discharges from a factory that produced bomb-gradeplutonium in the secret city of Krasnoyarsk-26, now known asZheleznogorsk.[56]
^Russell, D.E.; Gunn, A. (20 November 2013). "Migratory Tundra Rangifer".Arctic Report Card. NOAA Arctic Research Program.
^Kolpashikov, L.; Makhailov, V.; Russell, D. (2014). "The role of harvest, predators and socio-political environment in the dynamics of the Taimyr wild reindeer herd with some lessons for North America".Ecology and Society.20 (1).JSTOR26269762.
^Fisher, Raymond Henry (1943).The Russian Fur Trade, 1550-1700. University of California Press.
^Naufrage du lieutenant Krusenstern dans les glaces de la mer de Kara (1863, in Le Tour du monde Volume 8 pp.203-208)
^Weinberg, Gerhard L.Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders Cambridge, England, United Kingdom:2005--Cambridge University Press[1]Archived 17 September 2011 at theWayback Machine
^Молчанова О. Т., Топонимический словарь Горного Алтая // Горно-Алтайское отделение Алтайского книжного издательства. 1979. С. 55—62.
^Чанков Д. И., Русско-хакасский словарь: 31000 слов // Государственное издательство иностранных и национальных словарей. 1961. с. 960.
^Müller G. F. 1778 Sammlung rußischer Geschichte des Herrn Collegienraths Müllers in Moscow; S. 517‒518.
^Бурыкин А. А. 2011 Енисей и Ангара. К истории и этимологии названий гидронимов и изучению перспектив формирования географических представлений о бассейнах рек Южной Сибири // Новые исследования Тувы. 2011, № 2—3. с. 286.
