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EA-Biography

(Felizia Seyd)

GERHARD FRIEDRICH MUELLER

        Gerhard Friedrich Mueller (1705-1783), German linguist and historian and

member of the Academy Section of Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition (Great

Northern Expedition 1734-43), was born October 18, 1705, at Herford, Westphalia.

He was graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1724, and in the winter of

1725 went to St. Petersburg to trach Latin and geography to students of the newly

founded Imperial Academy of Sciences. His erudition and capacity for work brought

him quickly into prominence, and almost from the start resulted in his active

participation in the affairs of the Academy. He also became editor of a news–

paper, the St. Petersburg News . In 1730-31, he went to Germany, Holland, and

England in search of promising young scientists for the Academy, and, while in

London, was elected a member of the Royal Society. On his return to St. Peters–

burg he was made a regular professor, and in 1732, he published Volume One of his

Sammlung Russischer Geschichte (9 vol., 1732-65), the first publication of its

kind to acquaint foreigners with Russian history. In 1733, Mueller left for

Siberia as a member of Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition, scheduled to survey

and map all of northern Asiatic Russia and adjacent parts on the American coast.

All the Siberian archives were to be searched, and all the native races and tribes

were to be described. Mueller, as head of the Academy Section of the expedition,

was in charge of historical, geographic, linguistic, and ethnographical research.

        Mueller spent nearly ten years in Siberia, covering large parts of the Irtysh,

Ob, and Lena regions as well as portions of Transbaikalia and of the Russian-

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EA-Biography. Seyd: Gerhard Friedrich Mueller

Manchurian broder. Long sojourns were made in the cities Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk,

Yeniseisk and Yakutsk, and others, an an immense collection of documents was

accumulated. While in Yakutsk, Mueller found the reports Dezhnev had written

to the Voyevoda I, Akinfiev in 1655, which established beyond doubt that Dezhnev

had rounded the northeast extremity of Asia in 1648. Mueller also discovered

the Siberian Annals of S. Remezov, Siberian cartographer, and his Siberian map

of 1697.

        In 1748, Mueller became a Russian subject and, appointed historiographer

of the Academy, began work on a history of Siberia, Description of the Siberian

Empire , the first volume of which appeared in 1750. That same year, however,

he suffered a temporary demotuon to adjunct and a reduction in salary from 1,000

to 360 rubles a year, due, apparently, to an attack upon him by the Academicians

M. Lomonosov, St. Krasheninnikov, and F. Popov, who had denounced an address of

his, Origin of the Russian People and their Name , as derogatory to Russia. The

speech, although already in print, was destroyed, but later appeared in Volume IV

of the Allgemeine Historische Bibliothek under the title of Origines Rossicae .

        Mueller, meanwhile, continued work on his Siberian history but was slow in

producing a second volume, although excerpts of it appeared in the Sammlung Russi–

scher Geschichte. The delay caused another "incident" in Mueller's career, that

is, the Academy entrusted the continuation of the work to Academician J. E. Fischer,

whose Sibirische Geschichte finally appeared in 1768. It gained considerable

credit for its author but has since proved to be merely a summarized version, if

not a complete plagiarism of Mueller's original work.

        From 1755 to 1765, Mueller was editor of the Academy's first popular publica–

tion, called Monthly Issues for Edification and Enjoyment (in Russian), which con–

tained a number of articles on Siberia, preparing between times Volume III of his

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EA-Biography. Seyd: Gerhard Friedrich Mueller

Sammlung Russischer Geschichte , dealing with a series of Russian sea voyages,

including Bering's expedition to America. (See: Bibliography .) He also supplied

Voltaire with extensive data for the latter's Histoire de l'Empire de Russie sous

Pierre le Grand .

        After the mid-sixties, Mueller spent several years in Moscow, Appointed

chief supervisor of the Moscow House of Education in 1765, and head of the Moscow

Archives of the Foreign Affairs College (Ministry) in 1766, he superintended the

publication of numerous geographical and historical works, including Polunin's

Geographical Dictionary and Krashininnikov's History of Kamchatka , and compiled

a Collection of Russian diplomatic Documents . He died in St. Petersburg October

11, 1783. Paralyzed during the last ten years of his life, he nevertheless re–

mained mentally active until the day of his death, at work to the last on his

innumerable projects, including a history of the reign of Peter the Great.

        By all accounts, Mueller was difficult to get along with, uncontrolled in

his temper, and inconsiderate in his dealings with others. However, his achieve–

ments in the field of history cannot be contested. Probably few men of his time

were equal to him in learning and capacity for work, linked to which was an extra–

ordinary sense of detail. Known primarily as the author of Sammlung Russischer

Geschichte , which has become a classic, he deserves equal if not greater credit

as a collector of a vast amount of vital source material, for which scholars and

institutions all over the world are grateful to him to this day. Apart from his

books and articles, all of which are extremely well documented, he left a large

manuscript dealing with the history of the Academy (published in extenso in St.

Petersburg, 1890), and 258 folders containing valuable documents for the study

of the history, ethnography, statistics, and trade of Russia and Siberia.

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EA-Biography. Seyd: Gerhard Friedrich Mueller

---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mueller, G. F. "Nachrichten von Scoreisen, und zur See gemachten Entdeckungen,

die von Ruszland aus laengstden Kuesten des Eiszmeeres und

auf dem oestlichen Weltmeere gegen Japon und Amerika geschehen

sind." Sammlung Ruszischer Geschichte , Vol. 3, parts 1, 2, 4.

Academy of Sciences. St. Petersburg, 1758.

----. Voyages from Asia to America, for Completing the Discoveries

of the North West Coast of America . To which is prefixed a

Summary of the Voyages made by the Russians on the Frozen Sea,

Im search of a Northeast Passage. Transl. from the German.

London, 1761.

----. Voyages et D e é couvertes Faites par les Russes le long des c o ô tes

de la Mer Glaciale et sur l'Oc e é an Oriental, tant vers le Japon

que vers l'Am e é rique. On y a joint l'histoire du Fleuve Amur...

Transl. from the German. Amsterdam, 1766.

----. Same in Danish. Copenhagen, 1784.

----. "Auszug aus den Reisen und Entdeckungen laenge den Kuesten des

Eismeeres und auf dem morgenlaendischen Meere, so wohl gegen

Japon als Jegen America zu." [?]

[?] Allgemeine Historie der Reisen , vol. 20, 1771. Excerpt

from Mueller's Sammlung Russischer Geschichte , Vol. III.

----. "On the first Russian voyages and Missions to China," (in Russian),

Monthly Issues for Edification and Enjoyment . St. Petersburg,

1755.

----. "On Siberian Fairs. Monthly Issues .... 1756.

----. "History of the Amur River Countries," Monthly Issues ... 1757.

----. "Explanation of Misunderstandings between the Russian and Chinese

States." Monthly Issues ... 1757.

----. "Description of Sea Voyages across the Arctic and Eastern Oceans,

effected from the Russian side." Monthly Issues .... 1758.

Steller, G. W. "Geographic und Verfassung von Kamtschatka aus verschiedenen

schriftlichenund muendlichen Nachrichten gesammelt zu Jakuzk,

1737." Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka . St. Petersburg,

1774.

Vize, V., Semen Dezhnev. Izvestia of all the All Union Geographic Society,

Vol. 80, Issue 6. Nov.-Dec. 1948, p. 565.

Stejneger, L. Georg Wilhelm Steller . Cambridge, 1936.

Gmelin, O. Johann Georg Gmelin 1700-1755 . Muenchen, 1911.

Efron and Brokhaus Encyclopedia . St. Petersburg 1896. vol. 37.

       

Felizia Seyd