Nikolai Przhevalsky

Nikolai Przhevalsky

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Nikolai Przhevalsky

Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (), also spelled Przewalski and Prjevalsky (; — ), was a Russian geographer and explorer of Central and Eastern Asia. Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet, he traveled through regions unknown to the west, such as northern Tibet, modern Qinghai and Dzungaria.^[1] He significantly contributed to European knowledge on Central Asia and was the first known European to describe the only extant species of wild horse.^[2]

Biography
Imperialism
Urban legends
References
External links

Biography

Przhevalsky was born in Smolensk into a noble Polish family (hence the Polish spelling of his name: Przewalski), and studied there and at the military academy in St. Petersburg. In 1864, he became a geography teacher at the military school in Warsaw.

In 1867, Przhevalsky petitioned the Russian Geographical Society to be dispatched to Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia. His intention was to explore the basin of the Ussuri River, a tributary of the Amur. This was his first expedition of importance; it lasted two years. Przhevalsky published the diary of the expedition as "Travels in the Ussuri Region, 1867-69."

In the following years he made four journeys to Central Asia:

1870–1873 from Kyakhta he crossed the Gobi desert to Peking, then exploring the upper Yangtze (Chang Jiang), and in 1872 crossing into Tibet. He surveyed over 7,000 square miles, collected and brought back with him 5,000 plant, 1000 bird, and 3,000 insect species, as well as 70 reptiles and the skins of 130 different mammals.^[3]
1876–1877 travelling through Eastern Turkestan he visited what he believed to be lake Lop Nor, which had reportedly not been visited by any European since Marco Polo. ^[4]
1879–1880 via Hami and through the Qaidam basin to lake Koko Nor. Then over the Tian Shan mountains into Tibet to within 260 km of Lhasa before being turned back by Tibetan officials;
1883–1885 from Kyakhta across the Gobi to Alashan and the eastern Tian Shan mountains, turning back at the Yangtze. Then back to Koko Nor, and westwards to Khotan and Lake Issyk Kul.

The results of these expanded journeys opened a new era for the study of geography in Europe as well as the studies of the fauna and flora of this area that was relatively unknown to his Western contemporaries. Among other things, he reported on the wild population of Bactrian Camels as well as the Przewalski's Horse and Przewalski's Gazelle named after him in many European languages. Przhevalsky's writings include Mongolia, the Tangut Country (1875) and From Kulja, Across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).

Przhevalsky died of typhus during his fifth journey at Karakol on the shore of lake Issyk-Kul in present day Kyrgyzstan. The Tsar immediately changed the name of the town to Przhevalsk. There are monuments to him there and in St. Petersburg.

Less than a year after his death, Nikolay Yadrintsev (who succeeded Przhevalsky at the head of his expedition) discovered the remains of Genghis Khan's capital Karakorum. Przhevalsky's work was continued by his young disciple Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, described as "the young man who had been eluding [Przevalsky] all his life: alert, submissive, loyal, and handsome".^[5]

Monument to Nikolai Przhevalski in Saint Petersburg

Imperialism

According to David Schimmelpenninck Van Der Oye's assessment, Przhevalsky's books on Central Asia feature his disdain for the Oriental - particularly, the Chinese - civilization. Przhevalsky supposedly portrayed the Chinese as cowardly and lazy, and in all respects inferior to the "European civilization".^[6] He purportedly argued that Imperial China's hold of its northern territories, in particular Xinjiang and Mongolia, was very weak and uncertain, and openly called for Russia's annexation of bits and pieces of China's territory.^[7]

Urban legends

There is an urban legend that Joseph Stalin was an illegitimate son of Nikolai Przhevalski ^[8] ^[9]. The legend is supported by the similar appearance of both men, probably exaggerated by the propaganda efforts to make canonical images of Stalin more Slavic-like^[10] . On the other hand, Przhevalsky has not been known to have dated a woman and was described by his biographers as essentially asexual.^[5] His visits to Georgia are not recorded, either.