Zashiversk

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Zashiversk is a deserted town once located north of the Arctic Circle in what is now the Sakha Republic, Russia. It sits on the right bank of the Indigirka River where the river makes a sharp bend. The name comes from the river’s rapids, called Shivery, so Zashiversk means “below the rapids.”

Founded in 1639 by the Siberian Cossack Postnik Ivanov, Zashiversk began as a fortress town and later became an administrative center. In 1803, the government moved the administration to Verkhoyansk, and the town slowly fell into decline. Repeated smallpox outbreaks finished it off, and it was completely depopulated by 1898 (some sources say as early as 1863).

The town’s famous church, Spaso-Zashiverskaya, was built around 1700. It was moved to Novosibirsk by explorer Alexey Okladnikov and is now in a museum. Zashiversk had a strong trading role, serving as a crossroads for river and land routes. Russian fur traders found sable and fish here, and the local Yukagir and other natives paid yasak (fur taxes).

The Lamuts, a native people, repeatedly revolted against the Russian settlement in 1668 and 1679, but the Russians held the town with a wooden stockade. By 1700 the wooden church stood, and over time Zashiversk grew into a market town with an annual fair. In 1786 it gained uezd (district) administration, bringing a town hall, a prison, a police force, and a tavern. Its population reached about 500, including soldiers and clergy. The town’s coat of arms, approved in 1790, showed a golden fox, reflecting the fur trade. Overhunting and a drop in fur trading contributed to its decline.

In 1820 explorer Ferdinand von Wrangel noted that after the merger of Zashiversk and Verkhoyansk, the town had shrunk to only a few houses. By 1822, John Dundas Cochrane found only seven households but praised the locals’ hospitality and their fishing.

Smallpox outbreaks in 1816 and 1840 killed most inhabitants. A Siberian legend says a chest left at the fair was opened after a shaman’s warning, bringing misfortune. In 1879 officials learned the town no longer existed when a government traveler reached it; the news reached authorities after a long journey.

Officially, Zashiversk ceased to exist in 1890. By 1902 its ruins were still visible. In 1969–71 archaeologists, led by Alexey Okladnikov, rediscovered and studied the remains. They found the church still in good condition and helped move it to Akademgorodok for an open-air museum, though interiors had not been restored as of 2006. A replica of the Zashiversk church now stands in the Sottintsy open-air museum in the Sakha Republic. The site and its history are described in the book Ancient Zashiversk (1977).