Demid Pyanda
Russian explorer / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Demid Sofonovich Pyanda (Демид Софонович Пянда) or, according to some sources, Panteley Demidovich Pyanda (Пантелей Демидович Пянда),[1] also spelled Penda (Пенда)[2] (? – after 1637) was among the first and most important Russian explorers of Siberia. According to few historical documents and later reconstructions based on them, Pyanda, in 1620–1623, while leading a party which was hunting for Siberian furs and buying them from the locals, became the first known Russian to ascend the Lower Tunguska River and reach the proximity of the Lena, one of the world's greatest rivers. According to later legendary accounts, collected a century after his journey, Pyanda allegedly discovered the Lena River, explored much of its length, and via the Angara River returned to the Yenisey, whence he came.
Thus, in three and a half years from 1620 to 1624 Pyanda explored some 1,430 miles (2,300 km) of the Lower Tunguska's length, and possibly some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Lena and some 870 miles (1,400 km) of the Angara (the Lower Tunguska and Angara both are Yenisey's largest tributaries). In total, Pyanda may have discovered about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of hitherto unknown large Siberian rivers.[3] He may have discovered Yakutia and was possibly the first Russian to meet Yakuts as well as Buryats. He also proved that the Angara (a Buryat name) and Upper Tunguska (Verkhnyaya Tunguska, as initially known by Russians) are one and the same river.