ABSTRACT
Semen Ulianovich Remezov (1642–after 1720), a Cossack who became a Siberian noble, mapmaker, architect, engineer, and icon painter, succeeded in attaining an up-to-date education in remote Tobolsk decades before Peter the Great even suggested that administrators should master valuable sciences. Not unlike Columbus, who described the New World and its inhabitants using the images and terms that were familiar to him from the Bible, Remezov approached fledgling but unfamiliar Western science with images and terms that were familiar to him; namely, his experience as a Siberian frontline frontier Cossack. As if split between or bridging the continents, as well as the great ages of historical development of the medieval age and the early modern period, he copied maps and tried new instruments, lauding and recommending their usage. Nevertheless, in most cases he stuck to his locally well-established craft of medieval-looking Muscovite mapmaking. He mastered that craft to such a degree and utilized it so meticulously that not just Moscow but the world first learned Siberian topography, history, and ethnography from him. 1 Remezov is an obvious case study in institutional limitation: he had invested heavily in his cognitive and instrumental tools, which had the advantage of mirroring his worldview. Using them, he gained approval and, moreover, took part in empire building in a hands-on way as a Cossack, surveyor. He also functioned in many other roles. He acknowledged in theory that the Western instruments of mapmaking were indeed the best available and advocated scientific methods long before Tsar Peter supposedly “opened the window to the West” and sent young men to study at Western universities. Nevertheless, changing his ingrained habits and tools in fact may not just have been unnecessary from Remezov’s vantage point but was also more than could be asked even from the extraordinary individual he knew he was, “with all my due humility.”
