Fishing

Vetka

The "Vetka" is a small Selkup boat. Interestingly, the Russians called this boat a "vetka". The Selkups themselves called the dugout boat anty. It was hollowed out entirely of wood, most often from cedar and very rarely from aspen or pine. The Selkups made boats in late spring, at the end of May. A raw, freshly felled tree without knots was being processed. Traditional tools of the peoples of the North are used in the manufacture of the branch. However, the Selkups have a plane of a special design. It is a processed piece of wood with a hole in the middle, over which a sharpened metal plate is fixed. Such a device allows you to perform work in two directions. The bark was removed from the log, the bow and stern were sheared with an axe. Then the recess was cut down with an axe and a cleaver. They built a bonfire, built two pairs of goats and on them, a branch was set obliquely near the fire, filled it with water, steamed, turning and slowly expanding. Supports were placed between the sides, gradually increasing their length. Thus, they achieved the desired width of the boat. At the end of the work, the final transverse struts were installed and the bow and stern were finished. The ends of the branch in the bow and stern were tightly tied with a cedar root so as not to crack. If there were small cracks on the boats, then the branch was tarred.


Budarka

To catch fish afloat, the inhabitants of the North use a wooden displacement vessel – a budarka (budara). The Budarka is stable on the water, unpretentious in maintenance. Previously, the boats were rowing, in Soviet times they began to be equipped with motors (oars are still used in steering).

Budarki is made in special workshops of fish factories. The material is spruce wood, which has great flexibility. The manufacture of the boat begins with the keel, then the frames are cut out and the bow is made. The sides are assembled with boards on each side. After the sides are completely sheathed, the booth is given waterproof properties using tow and impregnating the seams with resin.


Kaldanka

Kaldanka is a small wooden boat consisting of three parts: the bottom and two sides. Such a boat is used for hunting and fishing, it is a vehicle. The kaldanka is controlled by a double-sided paddle and stays fairly stable on the water.

There are very few craftsmen who make such boats now. Kaldanka is assembled in a special way. The bottom and sides of the boat are made of spruce. During assembly, individual parts are sewn with cedar roots. The tools used in the manufacture of the column are the most common: an axe, a plane, a drill, a chisel. Water resistance is ensured by impregnating the connecting seams with resin collected from coniferous trees. An experienced craftsman can make such a boat in a few days.

Fish is a favorite food of Siberians. The indigenous population before the arrival of the Russians did not have nets and seines, they fished with fishing rods, put locks on the rivers, made sleeve traps. A trap-sleeve made of twigs was installed off the coast. Pike and burbot were beaten with a spear in shallow water, illuminating the bottom of the river with torches. Fishermen rode dugout boats, which were hollowed out of a whole tree. Such boats could withstand up to eight people, but they were very unstable and required great skill to operate them. With the advent of the Russians, net traps became widespread. Netting and making clay kibas were widespread in Russian villages everywhere. Flax, nettle and hemp were used to make threads. The usual tackle was enough for one season. In the twentieth century, industrial production threads and ready-made meringue began to be used.

Three categories of salaried workers were employed in the fishery: 1) caravan workers who receive monthly pay (peasants-offshooters from Tobolsk, Tyumen and Turin districts, foreigners and exiles); 2) workers-shareholders, without pay (peasants, exiles); 3) "Nizovsky semi-farmers" (foreigners).

The peasants employed in the fisheries of the Irtysh and Ob were obliged to come to Tobolsk on May 1 at their own expense, however, some of them could not arrive at the gathering place and the economic clerks had to go after them through the villages, pick them up and deliver them to the center of the province at the expense of the owner. Workers were brought to the fields on pauses (a shallow river plank vessel) and barges. The journey sometimes took more than three weeks, depending on the remoteness of the fishery. Along the way, the workers were fed, everyone was supposed to have tea, dried meat, vegetables, bread. Either a special woman or one of the workers was engaged in cooking.

After arriving at the sands, each worker was given brodni (high-top boots), goose (warm men’s outerwear of the peoples of the North), ports and mittens. All this remained with the workers until the end of Putin.

Depending on the comfort of life in the fisheries, there were huts for workers, sheds for salting fish, bakeries and kitchens, a sauna, a barn for storing gear and food. There were barges and pauses at the crafts. Some crafts had Orthodox chapels.

In the fishery, every worker received bread, tea, fish, peas, porridge. Kvass was available in many industries. Workers were given tobacco.

Hired workers worked for Putin for 5−6 months. The duration of the working day was 12 hours. The same amount of time was required for rest. Part of it was devoted to easier work.

The wages of the first category of workers ranged from 11 to 40 rubles per month. Shareholders received 1/3 of the catch, half-breeders — 20 pounds of flour per person for each seine launch.

During the years of war communism, there was a huge demand for fish, but in the early 1920s there was a demand for furs, and fish prices fell. The state abandoned the monopoly on fish production and transferred it to various cooperative organizations. In 1921−1922, 62 521 poods of freshly frozen fish, 63 252 poods of salted, 7762 poods of dry and 686 poods of caviar were harvested in the North. In 1923, fish harvesting was introduced by the Fish Trust and the Cooperative. Private fishing was prohibited. For Khanty, Mansi, Komi, Nenets and Selkups, for whom fishing was one of the main sources of livelihood, there was no choice left — either to join a cooperative or to abandon fishing. By 1926, 24% of Mansi, 14% of Khanty and 3% of Nenets were united in cooperatives. Cooperation in the North was reorganized with the creation of collective farms. In 1929, the first collective farms were formed in the Berezovsky district — Shchekurya village "Iskra" and in Berezovo itself. By the autumn of 1930, there were 93 collective farms in the northern regions of the Tobolsk District, which included 2,293 farms, of which 72 were artels. By the beginning of 1931 The number of collective farms increased to 99, they united 2,484 farms. In June 1930, 41 960 tons of fish were harvested in the North. Procurement prices for fresh fish in the Obdorsky district were (per hundredweight): sturgeon and nelma — 41 rubles 40 kopecks, muksun — 29 rubles 30 kopecks, cheese — 12 rubles, Ob herring — 5 rubles 50 kopecks, burbot — 2 rubles 70 kopecks. For the North, in the summer of 1930, 20 booths, 6 boats, 5 motorboats, and 5 warehouses for fishing were built at the Tyumen shipyard. Accommodation and life of fishermen were organized in the fishing sites.

The fishing industry in Western Siberia before the Revolution

In 1883, the Danish merchant Brandt tried to open the first fish cannery in Siberia in Tobolsk. Following him, attempts to found canning establishments were made by the Ural merchants Paretz, engineer Drusvyatsky, merchants Novitsky. Tobolsk merchant S.M. Trusov purchased the cannery from Brant. The Trusov factory produced a variety of products of excellent taste and high nutritional value. The cost of canned food was available only to wealthy people. In 1893, Tobolsk canned food won a large silver medal at the first international exhibition of alcohol and nutritious products in Paris. In the following years, the monopoly of the canning business in the Ob North passed to the industrialists Plotnikov. In addition to Tobolsk, seasonal factories were opened in the Pitlyarsky, Sumutnelsky and Nanginsky fields. Equipment for factories was ordered from Paris, tin and tin were imported from London, Provencal oil was purchased in Italy, tomatoes – in Moscow. The cheapness of raw materials and labor recouped these costs and brought the owners substantial profits. Siberian canned food was sold far beyond the borders of the region, and at the international fisheries exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1902 they were awarded a gold medal. By the beginning of the First World War, the Carpenters kept 6 canneries with a total capacity of about 570 thousand pound and half-pound cans. After the October Revolution, the enterprises were nationalized.

Fishing industry of the Ob-Irtysh region before the war

Following the restoration of industry in 1922, the Tobolsk Cannery resumed its work, the team of which was headed by an experienced master F.K. Pashin. In the three following years, the Nanjing Floating, Aksarkovskaya and Pitlyarskaya seasonal canneries began operating. Almost 90% of the catch was subjected to coarse salting, so the factories experienced difficulties in raw materials. Nevertheless, the volume of canned food production grew, and their quality improved. If in 1924 135 thousand cans were produced, then in 1929 — about 600 thousand. Siberian canned sturgeon, muksun and nelma were famous for their excellent taste and earned international recognition. In 1923, the products of Siberians were presented at the All-Russian Exhibition of Agriculture and handicraft industry in Moscow, and two years later canned fish won the diploma of the international exhibition in Denmark, were exported to Germany.

In 1930, in the village Obdorsk cannery was founded. In the early 1930s, Novoportovsky, Puykovsky, and Shuginsky fish factories were founded. In 1931, the Ob Trust began fishing for beluga whales in the lower reaches of the Gulf of Ob, the extraction of seals, walruses, and sea hares in the Baydaratskaya Bay. The meat of marine animals was used for cooking edible and technical fats, sausages and other products.

In 1933, the Obdorsky combine, in connection with the renaming of the district center to Salekhard, became known as the Salekhard Fish Cannery. In May 1939, 4,300 cans of Siberian canned food were sent to the World’s Fair in New York. In 1940, the production of canned food reached 3.5 million cans.


The fishing industry of the region during the Great Patriotic War

During the war, the North increased the harvesting of especially valuable fish — sturgeon, sterlet, and nelma. The Tobolsk fish factory was harvesting high-value products: chilled, salted, dried, pickled fish, baloney products, black and red caviar, edible fat. Social competition was launched between enterprises in Western Siberia. For example, in the Khanty-Mansiysk district, 12 fish factories, 2 canning enterprises, 6 MPCs, 87 vessels and fishermen of commercial and agricultural artels fought for the fulfillment of their obligations. The winners of the All-Union competition have repeatedly been the Berezovsky and Puykovsky fish factories, the Salekhard Combine. During the war years, enterprises of the Tobolsk, Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamal fish trusts produced 14.5 million cans of canned food, produced hundreds of quintals of fish, caviar, edible and technical fat.

Fishing industry of the Tyumen region after the war

In the post-war years, enterprises increased their output, as the war-ravaged country needed food. Along with the increase in output, a lot of work was carried out on the reconstruction of workshops and improvement of technologies. Machine refrigerators were built instead of primitive ice-salt ones. The largest base refrigerator in the region was put into operation at the Labytnangi railway station, and the country’s first permafrost refrigerators were built in the New Port and other areas. After the commissioning of new production lines at the plants, the replacement output increased from 15 to 71 thousand cans. The fishing enterprises of the Tyumen region achieved great success in 1958−1969. In 1961, the Committee of the VDNH of the USSR noted the achievements of specialists and craftsmen of the Ob-Irtysh basin. For the development of technology and the development of new types of canned food "Pike in jelly" and "Meatballs from small fish", bronze medals were awarded to masters and technologists of the Berezovsky and Salekhard plants. Employees of the Khanty-Mansiysk Combine received commemorative medals for the development of canned food "Small particle in tomato sauce". The teams of the Ob-Irtysh region have mastered 24 new types of canned food, minimizing the production of salted fish.

In 1965, 10 fish factories, 5 fish processing plants, 1 fish processing base and 1 receiving and transport fleet base operated in the Tyumen region.

In the late 1960s, enterprises began to produce canned food and semi-finished products at the expense of imported raw materials from oceanic fish. In 1968, 12.2 thousand tons of fish and herring were processed.

The oldest enterprise in the region and the largest incubator of whitefish species in the country. The fish nursery is located near the village of Alemasova in the Tobolsk district

The enterprise originates from the fish breeding group at the Tobolsk fish factory, created by the order of the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU and the executive Committee of the Regional Council of Workers' Deputies dated June 27, 1959 "On the development of fish farming in the southern regions of the region."

Despite its advanced age, its production facilities can produce up to 500 million pieces of whitefish larvae per year. Among the "wards" of the enterprise are such whitefish species as muksun, pel/ chir, chir, nelma, peled, whitefish, tugun, ryapushka.

A lot has changed over the years, but the main difference between the company is that it managed to maintain stability. Thus, according to the results of the 2014−2015 incubation season, the loading level of the workshop is higher than its production capacity and amounts to 900 million pieces of whitefish caviar. 583.3 million pieces of whitefish planting material were received, including: 400.0 million pieces of river pelage, 85.2 million pieces of pel/chira, 63.2 million pieces of lake pelage, 18.5 million pieces. muksun, 10.1 million pieces of chira, 5.2 million pieces of pyzhyan and 0.42 million pieces of tugun.

Not only our compatriots are interested in Tobolsk fish, but also residents of Kazakhstan and China. Tobolsk fish farmers plan to expand the enterprise and develop new floodplain lakes. The oldest enterprise in the region and the largest incubator of whitefish species in the country. The fish nursery is located near the village of Alemasova in the Tobolsk district

The enterprise originates from the fish breeding group at the Tobolsk fish factory, created by the order of the Tyumen Regional Committee of the CPSU and the executive Committee of the Regional Council of Workers' Deputies dated June 27, 1959 "On the development of fish farming in the southern regions of the region."

Despite its advanced age, its production facilities can produce up to 500 million pieces of whitefish larvae per year. Among the "wards" of the enterprise are such whitefish species as muksun, pel/ chir, chir, nelma, peled, whitefish, tugun, ryapushka.

A lot has changed over the years, but the main difference between the company is that it managed to maintain stability. Thus, according to the results of the 2014−2015 incubation season, the loading level of the workshop is higher than its production capacity and amounts to 900 million pieces of whitefish caviar. 583.3 million pieces of whitefish planting material were received, including: 400.0 million pieces of river pelage, 85.2 million pieces of pel/chira, 63.2 million pieces of lake pelage, 18.5 million pieces. muksun, 10.1 million pieces of chira, 5.2 million pieces of pyzhyan and 0.42 million pieces of tugun.

Not only our compatriots are interested in Tobolsk fish, but also residents of Kazakhstan and China. Tobolsk fish farmers plan to expand the enterprise and develop new floodplain lakes.

Fishing was quite a profitable business. One of the largest fishing grounds on the Ob River were the "sands" of the Carpenter merchants. They owned the "sands" "Pitlyar", "Oxarovsky", "Murinsky", "Shchuchy", where 60 or more hired workers from peasants worked. The fishermen of poorer countries rented lakes from the Russian and Tatar populations.

Fresh fish was sold to dealers at a price per pood: sturgeon — from 2 rubles 60 kopecks to 4 rubles.; muksun and nelma — from 2 rubles 20 kopecks to 3 rubles 20 kopecks.; ide — from 80 kopecks to 1 ruble. Salted fish were handed over piece by piece: muksun and nelma went for 10 kopecks, ide — for 1 kopeck. During Putin’s reign, a fishing gang of 12−15 people produced an average of 300 pounds of fish, worth 438 rubles.

South of Samarovo, up the Irtysh, fresh fish were allowed into "cages" before winter, hollowed out in winter and taken for sale to Tobolsk, Ishim, Irbit. The sale of fish accounted for a significant part of the income. According to the Tobolsk Provincial Statistical Committee, in 1911, 378,940 pounds of fish were extracted (in the amount of 799,949 rubles), in 1912 — 442 186 (in the amount of 948,263), in 1913 — 560 012 (in the amount of 1382,122).