page_title: Jonas Lied
section_title: The Siberian Company
hierarchical_section_title: Jonas Lied / The Siberian Company
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: «Correct» møter en russisk lekter og slepebåt «Turukhansk» ved munningen av Jenisej. Her forlot de reisende skipet, men Jonas Lied ble igjen om bord. Ett av bildene fra reisen til Sibir i perioden 2. august-26. oktober 1913. Fridtjof Nansen startet sin transsibirske reise med et handelsskip fra Oslo til Jenisej. Ferden gikk gjennom deler av nordøstpassasjen som skulle åpne for en kortere handelsforbindelse mellom Vest Europa og Det Fjerne Østen. Depicted person&#58; &#32;Lied, Jonas (1881-) Depicted place&#58; Russland, Nosonovskij Pesok
context_page_description: Jonas Marius Lied was a Norwegian entrepreneur, businessman, diplomat, author and art collector. He obtained a short vocational business education and was proficient in English, French, German and Russian. Lied was also a noted athlete, for instance in 1906 together with Erik Ole Bye he won the Lyle Cup for double sculls. He established The Siberian Steamship, Manufacturing & Trading Company in 1912 with the purpose of importing and exporting goods through a new northern shipping lane and the Ob River and Yenisei River. He obtained Russian citizenship with the help of Grand Duke Alexander, but regained Norwegian citizenship in 1931 when he left the difficult times in the Soviet Union. According to the Russian tradition, he long used the signature "I.G. Lid" after his father Hans.
  The first expedition through the Kara Sea was completed in 1913 with explorer Fridtjof Nansen and Siberian industrialist Stephan Vostrotin as prominent passengers. The journey was a great success and the international press reported from the trip. Both Nansen and Lied gave several lectures. Lied lectured in Russian in St.
context_section_description: Lied's idea for a sea route to Yenisei came from the English businessman Alfred Derry and from Joseph Wiggins’ book on the Northeast passage. Lied terminated his employment with the Burroughs Adding Machine Company and in 1912 founded The Siberian Steamship, Manufacturing & Trading Company). The company’s main office was in Krasnoyarsk and eventually offices in St Petersburg (26 Nevsky Prospect across the street from Kazan Cathedral), London, New York, Moscow, Novosibirsk og Arkhangelsk. The initial share capital was  142,000 NOK, and gradually expanded to 8 million in 1917. Lied’s plan was to transport goods through the great rivers of Siberia, and exchange goods to West European ocean vessels at these rivers' arctic mouth. From Krasnoyarks the Yenisei is 2500 km og there was at that time no roads or railways along the river. Because of ice this northern route could only be used July through September.
  In the summer of 1914 Lied organized the transport of river steam ships built in England and Germany to Siberia. The small convoy that should gather at Tromsø also included cargo ships with 30,000 barrels of cement to the Transsiberian railway. By late July 1914 Lied was still waiting for the last documents and instruments to be able to leave Cuxhaven. In bad weather on 30 July the boats left the German harbour even if the low river boats could hardly travel across the open ocean. The Tsar awarded Jonas Lied honorary citizenship of Russia for this bold operation. In Tromsø the German crew discovered that they were at war and they were replaced by Norwegian sailors. In Murmansk slight panic occurred as the small convoy of cargo ships was mistaken for German navy. At Dikson Island Lied encountered Otto Sverdrup that had run aground with his ship Eclipse. Sverdrup was on a search and rescue mission for the missing Sedov and Brusilov. Sverdrup's ship was pulled free with the help of Lied's boats.
  In 1916 he set up a complete "Bolinder" saw mill from Sweden in the town of Maklakovo (now Lesosibirsk) at Yenisei. About 200 men were employed there when Lied set the saw mill in operation. On the same site one of Russia's largest saw mils are still in operation. In 1917 one of his ships were sunk by a submarine and Jonas' brother Hjalmar perished. His Russian citizenship allowed Lied to take control over Russian companies, including the shareholder majority for all private boats on Yenisei and some 50 river boats and 140 barges on Ob. Lied also built a fish canning factory in the same area.
  On a trip to the US in March 1917 he had meetings with Theodore Roosevelt. Lied planned to invite Roosevelt on an expedition to Siberia, just like he had done with Nansen a few years earlier. In the meantime the February Revolution took place. The plan involving Roosevelt was never completed.
caption: Lied's ship «Correct» and Russian boats at Yenisei, 1913
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