Johan Gustaf Renat (1682–1744) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

and cartographer. He is primarily known for his role in bringing detailed maps of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

to Europe after close to two decades in captivity.

Early career and Russian captivity

Renat was the son of

Dutch Jewish The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the 16th century when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the J ...

immigrants to Sweden, who took Swedish nationality in 1681, the year before his birth. During the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, he served in the army of

Charles XII Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...

as a warrant officer (''styckjunkare'') in the artillery. He was taken prisoner after the

Battle of Poltava The Battle of Poltava; russian: Полта́вская би́тва; uk, Полта́вська би́тва (8 July 1709) was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. A Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeate ...

in 1709. In 1711 Renat was sent to

Tobolsk Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and i ...

where many Swedish officers were kept as prisoners of war. He entered Russian service on the condition of not fighting against Sweden. Renat helped produce maps of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

for the Russian government. In 1716 Renat and other Swedish prisoners-of-war took part in Ivan Buchholz's expedition to explore the gold deposits around Lake Yamysh on the

Irtysh River The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'erj ...

. The expedition was ambushed by a

Dzungar Dzungar may refer to: *Dzungar people, Oirat tribes in the Dzungar Khanate *Dzungar Khanate, a historical empire * Jungar Banner, an administrative division of China *Junggar Basin The Junggar Basin () is one of the largest sedimentary basins in ...

force, and Renat spent the following seventeen years in Dzungar captivity.

Dzungarian captivity and return to Sweden

Dzungaria Dzungaria (; from the Mongolian language, Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') is a geographical subregion in Northwest China that corresponds to the northern half of Xinjiang. It is thus also known as Beijiang, which means "Northern Xinjiang" ...

, Renat helped the khans

Tsewang Rabtan Tsewang Rabtan (from ''Tsewang Rapten''; ; ; 1643–1727) was a Choros (Oirats) prince and the Khong Tayiji of the Dzungar Khanate from 1697 (following the death of his uncle and rival Galdan Boshugtu Khan) until his death in 1727. He was mar ...

and

Galdan Tseren Galdan Tseren (; ?–1745) was a Choros (Oirats) prince and the ''Khong Tayiji'' of the Dzungar Khanate from 1727 until his death in 1745. Galdan Tseren was the eldest son of Tsewang Rabtan. After the assassination of his father by rival faction ...

organize their campaigns against

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

rule in Central Asia. Among other things, he organized an artillery regiment and helped the Dzungars to cast cannons. Renat also met a Swedish woman who was also a Dzungar captive. This was

Brigitta Scherzenfeldt Brigitta Christina Scherzenfeldt, as married Bernow, Lindström, Ziems, and Renat (1684 – 4 April 1736), was a Swedish memoirist and weaving teacher who was captured during the Great Northern War and lived as a slave over 15 years in the Dzung ...

, who hailed from

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

. Twice widowed, she had married a German prisoner who had taken Russian service and been assigned to Siberia. Their convoy was seized by Dzungar raiders in 1716, who killed her husband. She later married Renat. In 1733, Renat and his wife were allowed to leave. They returned the following year to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, accompanied with four Dzungar female servants, who were baptized when they arrived in Sweden. Renat's family bought a house in

Gamla stan Gamla stan (, "The Old Town"), until 1980 officially Staden mellan broarna ("The Town between the Bridges"), is the old town of Stockholm, Sweden. Gamla stan consists primarily of the island Stadsholmen. Officially, but not colloquially, Gamla stan ...

where they settled down. In 1739, Renat was promoted to the rank of captain in the Swedish army. The same year, he remarried the industrialist

Elisabet Fritz Elisabet Fritz née ''Lenström'', also known as Elisabet Renat (died 1752) was a Sweden, Swedish Business magnate, industrialist.Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013 She managed the Fritz ...

Central Asian maps

Renat brought two detailed maps of Central Asia back to Sweden. But these maps were left in relative obscurity for many years. In 1878, copies of the maps were discovered by the Swedish author

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...

, then an assistant librarian at the

Swedish Royal Library The National Library of Sweden ( sv, Kungliga biblioteket, ''KB'', meaning "the Royal Library") is Sweden's national library. It collects and preserves all domestic printed and audio-visual materials in Swedish, as well as content with Swedish ...

. He sponsored their republication in Russia in 1881. A decade later the originals were discovered in the library of

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

, where they are still held. Strindberg remained interested in the maps for many years.

Media

* His book is not available in English. * He appears in a Russian film called ''The Conquest of Siberia'', but it completely changes his story.

References

Sources

* Baddeley, John F. ''Russia, Mongolia, China ...''. vol. 1-2, London: Macmillan and Company, 1919. Reprinted New York: Burt Franklin, 196-. Reprinted Mansfield Centre, Conn.: Martino Pub., 2006. . * Perdue, Peter C. ''China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia''. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. * Poppe, Nicholas. "Renat's Kalmuck Maps." ''Imago Mundi'' 12 (1955): 157-59. Available through

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

.
Selling, Gösta. "Artur Hazelius födelsehus I." ''Fataburen: Kulturhistorisk tidskrift'' (1926): 65-118. (in Swedish)
*Åberg, Alf, and Göte Göransson. ''Karoliner.'' Höganäs: Bra böcker, 1976. (In Swedish.)

Work

*Renat, Johan Gustaf. ''Carte de la Dzoungarie: dressée par le suédois Renat pendant sa captivité chez les kalmouks de 1716-1733.'' St. Petersburg: Societé Impériale Russe de Géographie, 1881.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renat, Johan Gustaf Swedish cartographers Swedish Jews 1682 births 1744 deaths 18th-century cartographers Swedish people of Dutch-Jewish descent Battle of Poltava Swedish military personnel of the Great Northern War Swedish prisoners of war Prisoners of war held by Russia Explorers of Siberia History of Kalmykia Explorers of Central Asia Caroleans