Nikolai Przhevalsky illustrated in the Presidential Library’s materials

“There is a monument on one of the lawns of the Alexander Garden in Saint-Petersburg”, - writes F. Tarapygin in the publication “Famous Russian Traveler Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky” (1911), which is presented on the Presidential Library’s portal. - At the foot of the granite rock there is a camel loaded as if on a long journey, and on the top of this rock there is a bronze image of a young military man. His clever and beautiful face is involuntarily struck by the combination of extraordinary energy, inquisitiveness of mind and obvious firmness of character and willpower in him. This is the famous Russian traveler Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky”.

April 12, 2019 marks the 180th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky (1839–1888) - one of the greatest Russian naturalists and travelers. He devoted eleven years of his life to long expeditions. The total length of the Przhevalsky routes is 31,500 kilometers.

"Nikolai Mikhailovich was born on March 31, 1839 in the village of Kimbrov, 40 miles from Smolensk", - we read in the above-mentioned book The Famous Russian Traveler Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky. - Seven years old boy lost his father and remained in the care of a strict mother; Elena Alekseevna, a woman very clever and energetic, managed to give children a good upbringing and temper their character <...> they could leave the house in any weather and wander to a large extent through forests and swamps, run in the pouring rain, play freely and ride in the winter in the snow... The boy was born a hunter. The hardness of his hands and the loyalty of his eyes were astounding. Constant wanderings through forest jungle and swamps, having given his body a remarkable physical strength, have taught him from early childhood to endure all sorts of inconveniences and deprivations”.   

After graduating from high school, Nikolai entered the Ryazan Infantry Regiment. In 1856, Przhevalsky was promoted to ensigns and a year later went to Petersburg to hold an examination at the Academy of the General Staff. Enrolling in the Academy, he worked hard, many engaged in history and natural sciences. As a result, Przhevalsky wrote a number of research papers and was accepted into the Russian Geographical Society. The time of the graduation of the Academy fell on the period of the Polish uprising, in the suppression of which Przhevalsky had the opportunity to participate. He taught history and geography at the cadet school in Poland.

“His lectures were a great success”, - writes A. Skabichevsky in the collection “A. F. Pisemsky: his life and literary career" (1894), - the junkers from other departments of the class were going to listen to his lively, energetic speech. Amazing memory allowed him to quote the best pages of the authors who wrote about the subject matter. He skillfully aroused in his students the hunt for knowledge, so that many of them then entered the university. The result is eloquent if we take into consideration that young people entered the cadet school, who were more likely to avoid science than to strive for it”.  

In 1867–1869, Przhevalsky's cherished dream came true: he went as the head of a two-year expedition to Ussuri Region. Descending down the Amur River and climbing along the Ussuri River, Przhevalsky remained in these previously unknown places for a year and a half, proceeding the whole region in all kinds of ways. “By the way”, - writes F. Tarapygin, “he had to take part here in the war with the Chinese robbers who invaded our borders and plundered the settlers, did not let the caravans of merchants and pilgrims to pass”.  

All day long Przhevalsky explored the mountains and forests "while doing all their work with the soldiers with his own hands: when he came to sleep, he, along with them, pulled up horses, chopped wood for the fire and prepared bedding not to sleep on the ground".    

Upon his return to Petersburg, he was promoted to major general with the appointment of a member of the Military Scientific Committee of the General Staff. In the period from 1870 to 1885, Nikolai Mikhailovich conducted four expeditions to Central Asia.

The first familiarity with this region lasted three years and was devoted to the study of Mongolia, China and Tibet. Przhevalsky collected scientific evidence that the Gobi is not a plateau, but a hollow with a hilly relief, and the Nanshan Mountains are not a ridge, but a mountain system.

“The population of China - almost a quarter of all mankind - is crowded mainly in the southeast, while in the neighborhood with Russia endless deserts stretch. Barren steppes, replacing impassable swamps, as well as the harsh climate turned the journey along these edges into a continuous struggle ...".

Nikolai Przhevalsky was the first to penetrate deep into these deserts, he was the first to go where no European foot had ever walked. In these travels, he collected a lot of rare plants, birds and animals. Once, on the border of China with Russia, the merchant Tikhonov presented the traveler with the skin and skull of a horse, explaining that a wild animal was caught by the locals. Przhevalsky sent the remains to the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg, where they reported that they belong to an unknown species. The scientist I. S. Polyakov, who studied it, described the discovered animal and called the new species in honor of the discoverer the Przhevalsky horse.

In the course of the fourth expedition to Tibet in 1883–85 Przhevalsky, seizing typhoid fever, fell down according to the Presidential Library’s rare edition the Famous Russian Traveler Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky. Seven years of wandering in the desert undermined his mighty health, and no treatment could no longer help. The traveler gave his comrades last orders. “Bury me... certainly in Issyk-Kul on the shore, but not to be washed away with water. The inscription is simple: "Traveler Przhevalsky". "On the morning of October 20, 1888, Nikolai Mikhailovich died.

... On the steep bank of Issyk-Kul, a monument was erected at the foot of the Tien Shan gigantic wall: there are large blocks of marble here and a bronze eagle with a map of Asia under the claws and an olive branch in its beak mounted on top - a sign of science in this part of the world. A medallion with the profile of a scientist is built into the rock with the inscription: "Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky is the first researcher of the nature of Central Asia".