Gedenshtrom was born in
Riga, then part of the
Russian Empire to Mathias Hedenström (1733–1799), a Swedish political refugee from
Dalarna. Matvei Gedenshtrom himself was still a Swedish citizen in 1798. Gedenshtrom attended the
University of Tartu. He did not finish his studies and left his alma mater in favor of work at
Tallinn customs. Until 1806, he worked in Riga as a translator for
Count Friedrich von Buxhoeveden, the
Governor-General of the Baltic provinces. During the
Finnish War in 1808, while working as secretary to a customs inspector, he was arrested in connection with a bribery affair, tried, and then banished to Siberia. Later that year, Gedenshtrom arrived in
Irkutsk and received his first duty assignment by Minister of Commerce
Nikolay Rumyantsev, namely, the exploration of the coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Lacking necessary scientific background, Matvei Gedenshtrom had to study a lot in order to be able to reckon a
latitude and
longitude of a given location and use scientific equipment in general. Gedenshtrom led the
cartographic expedition to explore the
New Siberian Islands (together with
Yakov Sannikov and land
surveyors Pyotr Pshenitsyn and Ivan Kozhevin). The theory about the existence of
Sannikov Land somewhere northwest of the
Kotelny Island originated during this very expedition. Gedenshtrom established the presence of the
Siberian polynya – patches of open water in sea ice at the edge of the
drifting ice and continental
fast ice. In 1809, Gedenshtrom visited the eastern shores of an island, discovered by merchants Semyon and Lev Syrovatsky three years earlier, and named it
New Siberia (this name would be officially endorsed in 1810). Gedenshtrom charted the coastline between the mouths of the rivers
Yana and
Kolyma. He also made many trips across
Yakutia and areas east of the
Lake Baikal. In 1813, Matvei Gedenshtrom was employed by the secretariat of Irkutsk governor. Later on, he was appointed head of district police (исправник) in
Verkhne-Udinsk, which did not distract him from scientific research and compiling his mineralogical and botanic collection. Matvei Gedenshtrom was a smart, talented, educated, and kind man, who often helped local
peasants with advice and money. However, he was also known to have been an immoral person and a squanderer. He was one of the closest associates of
Nikolai Treskin (then-governor of Irkutsk) and made a sizeable fortune on bread purchases assigned to him by the governor's office. In 1819,
Mikhail Speransky (
governor general of Siberia) paid a visit to Irkutsk as part of his Siberian tour and exposed many instances of
official misconduct by local authorities. On 20 February 1820, Matvei Gedenshtrom was removed from his post for his autocratic style of management, embezzlement, extortion, and fraud. Speransky's report on his findings was examined by a special committee, established on 28 July 1821. The committee divided all of the offenders into ten categories. Gedenshtrom found himself in the third category, which meant he could never again be admitted to hold any public posts and had to be banished to an inner guberniya (
European Russia). However, it was soon decided not to send him away from Siberia and settle him in
Tobolsk. Willing to take advantage of Matvei Gedenshtrom's skills and experience, the administration of Western Siberia managed to obtain permission for him to join the public service. In 1827, Gedenshtrom was allowed to return to European Russia and then employed by the Medical Service Corps (Медицинский департамент) as a section chief. In the 1830s, Matvei Gedenshtrom was appointed a postmaster in
Tomsk. Upon his retirement, he moved to a village of Kaidukovaya near Tomsk and spent the rest of his days drinking. Matvei Gedenshtrom died in
extreme poverty on 20 September 1845, at the age of 65. He was interred in Tomsk three days later. ==Works==