Aliskerovo

Aliskerovo occupies broken hill and taiga country in western Chukotka, between the Maly Anyuy basin and the Ilirney and Kyrganay ranges. No permanent town stood here; the country is one of valleys, winter routes, and sheltered hunting grounds.

Before Russian expansion, this interior formed part of a wider Paleo-Siberian world. Yukaghir communities ranged from the Lena to the Anadyr, hunting deer, moose, and sable, fishing in rivers, and using reindeer for transport. Inland Chukchi moved seasonally across the tundra with their herds, while river valleys supplied meeting places and practical routes.

After a fort was established at Anadyrsk in 1649, the Maly Anyuy helped connect it with the Kolyma and Yakutsk. The indigenous peoples retained considerable independence, but trade drew them into relations with the Russian Empire. A fair on the Bolshoy Anyuy began in 1788, and expeditions led by Ferdinand von Wrangel and Fyodor Matyushkin surveyed both Anyuy rivers between 1821 and 1825.

Fur-bearing forests, fish, pasture, and river movement sustained this frontier economy. The older location belongs to mobile northern peoples rather than a fixed town.