Minus 40 and "The Year Without a Summer": How a Climate Anomaly Gave Birth to "Frankenstein," Vampires, and Belarusian Mysticism
In the early 19th century, a catastrophic volcanic eruption on the other side of the world froze Europe and spurred writers to create some of the most famous monsters in history. In the first magazine published in Belarus, confirmation was found that the famous "Year Without a Summer" did not bypass our lands, leaving its mark not only in weather reports but also in Belarusian literature.
The volcanic eruption 10 thousand kilometers from Belarus likely served as an impetus for Jan Barshcheuski's creation of mystical literature. Collage based on Rob Wood's painting and Karal Zhukouski's portrait of Barshcheuski.
Historian-archivist Dzianis Liseichykau writes about this on his Facebook page, focusing on one of the first Belarusian magazines, "Miesięcznik Połocki," published from 1818 to 1820. Its editor, Yuzef Tsytovich, was a man of encyclopedic knowledge: a professor of chemistry, mathematics, architecture, and the head of the Polotsk Jesuit Academy museum. As a true scientist, he meticulously monitored the weather, and his surviving records today lead to unexpected parallels.
Title page of "Miesięcznik Połocki" magazine. Photo: Liseichykau's Facebook
Temperature Swings in Polotsk
Tsytovich recorded anomalous temperature fluctuations in Belarus in the early 19th century:
In July 1805, the heat reached a record +38.1 degrees Celsius (+30.5 Réaumur).
The Réaumur scale is a historical temperature scale, introduced in 1730 by the French scientist René Antoine de Réaumur, in which 0° corresponds to the freezing point of water and 80° to its boiling point. In the 18th-19th centuries, it was widely used in Europe, including, as we see, in scientific and meteorological observations on the territory of Belarus.
However, in January 1816, the thermometer column dropped to -40 degrees Celsius (-32 Réaumur).
These figures are not just statistics. The year 1816 went down in world history as the "Year Without a Summer," or, as it was called in the USA, "eighteen hundred and froze to death."
What Happened
The cause of the global cooling was the catastrophic eruption of the Tambora volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa in April 1815. It was the most powerful eruption in human history (7 out of 8 possible points on the VEI scale), which directly or indirectly claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In 1847, Swiss botanist Heinrich Zollinger traveled to the island of Sumbawa and ascended Mount Tambora. Most of the information about the eruption comes from his work. The map published therein shows abandoned and destroyed settlements near the volcano (names in parentheses), as well as new settlements that were built after 1815, as the entire island was almost completely depopulated as a result of the eruption.
From the epicenter of the eruption to Polotsk is about 10,700 kilometers, but the scale of the catastrophe was so vast that its consequences were felt even here.
About 150 km³ of volcanic ash ejected into the atmosphere caused a "volcanic winter" effect: a dust veil covered the Northern Hemisphere from the sun, resulting in snow, endless rain, and crop failures in Europe and North America in the spring and summer of 1816, followed by famine, economic crisis, and epidemics.
Entry into Ravensburg of the first wagons with harvest after the great famine of 1816–1817. Gottlob Johann Edinger, 1817. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
How Bad Weather Gave Birth to Monsters
It was this gloomy, cold, and rainy summer that became the catalyst for the emergence of iconic works of world horror literature.
Villa Diodati in an 1830s engraving. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In the summer of 1816, a group of friends — poet George Byron, writer Mary Shelley, and doctor John Polidori — were vacationing at Villa Diodati in Switzerland. Due to the anomalous cold and heavy rains, they couldn't leave the house. To pass the time, the company decided to write scary stories.
Mary Shelley conceived a plot about a scientist who brought dead matter to life — thus the novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" was born.
John Polidori wrote the short story "The Vampyre," which became the progenitor of the vampire prose genre in European literature. It was from here that Bram Stoker's "Dracula" later grew.
Caspar David Friedrich, "Two Men by the Sea," 1817. A painting in gloomy tones depicting the silhouettes of two men on a rocky shore under a cloudy orange sky. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Incidentally, volcanic ash in the atmosphere also influenced painting. The famous landscapes of William Turner and Caspar David Friedrich from that period are distinguished by unusually bright, yellowish-red, and unsettling sunsets — this is how the sky was seen through the dust of Tambora.
"Szlachcic Zawalnia" and Belarusian Mysticism
Dzianis Liseichykau draws an interesting parallel: the global anomaly might have also influenced the birth of Belarusian mystical literature.
Around this same gloomy time, about 1816, Jan Barshcheuski, a graduate of the same Polotsk Jesuits, began his travels across Belarus.
“The 'year without a summer' apparently also influenced his work. At least, in his "Szlachcic Zawalnia," there are plenty of eerie and terrifying stories,” notes the historian.
Book cover of "Szlachcic Zawalnia, or Belarus in Fantastic Tales." Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Thus, the fierce cold and darkness of 1816, documented in Polotsk by Professor Tsytovich, could have formed the atmospheric backdrop against which Belarusian mystical prose was born. The fear of nature's forces found its reflection both in the Gothic novels of England and in the classics of Belarusian literature.
Who was Yuzef Tsytovich
Liseichykau also conducted a genealogical study of the scientist's biography. It turned out that Yuzef Tsytovich came from an extensive Uniate priestly family. He was born in the village of Dobraye (modern Dobraye Sialo).
His father was likely Liavon Tsytovich — a priest of the local Uniate church. Dobraye Sialo was a unique place: it was one of only 14 parishes in the entire vast Polotsk Eparchy where, during the Russian Empire (as of 1828), Greek-Catholic nobility still persisted.
This place also gave the world other prominent figures. For instance, Symon Savinich, the future prelate of St. Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk and father of Jan Savinich, author of the textbook "Polish Grammar," began his career here.
«Nasha Niva» — the bastion of Belarus
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