“You were the first ... to prove that man is everywhere man” - these words L. N. Tolstoy addressed to the very young scientist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay at one time. The biography of this famous traveler is so interesting that it is read in one breath. No wonder he was often invited to the royal court to tell the imperial family about his life among the natives of New Guinea.
Miklouho-Maclay: biography (family and childhood)
The future famous traveler and ethnographer was born on July 17, 1846 in the village of Yazykovo in the Novgorod province, in a noble family. In the next decade, he, along with his mother, brother and sisters, often moved from place to place, following his father, who was a railway engineer. At the end of 1856, the head of the family was appointed head of the construction of the Vyborg highway. By that time, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay Sr. was already seriously ill with tuberculosis, but he eagerly got down to business at a new place of work. This finally crippled his health, and a year later he died at the age of 41.
Since family savings were invested in stocks, and the widow made a living by drawing maps, she managed to give a decent education to the children by inviting teachers to her home. She even hired a drawing teacher for them, who discovered Nikolai's artistic abilities.
Studying at the gymnasium
Nikolay Miklukho-Maklay, whose biography is full of interesting events, in 1858, together with his elder brother Sergey, was accepted to the 3rd grade of the Annenshule school. However, soon the boys asked their mother to transfer them to the state gymnasium. For this, the widow filed a petition for the enrollment of sons in the nobility in accordance with the rank of her deceased spouse, which gave such a right.
In the Second St. Petersburg Gymnasium, Nikolai Mikluha studied very poorly and often skipped. As a result, he was transferred to the 5th grade with great difficulty.
At the age of 15, during a student demonstration, Nikolai was arrested, and, along with other gymnasium students and his brother Sergei, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. True, a few days later the teenagers were released, as the commission of inquiry considered that they had been detained by mistake.
Studying at the University
In the summer of 1863, Nikolai left the gymnasium. He expressed a desire to enter the Academy of Arts, but his mother was able to dissuade him.
In September 1863, a young man enrolled at Moscow University as a volunteer at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, which was possible even without a certificate of completion of the gymnasium course. There he worked diligently in the natural sciences, including physiology.
During a university meeting in 1864, Nikolai tried to bring his classmate to Sufshchinsky Gymnasium into the building. They were detained by the administration, and the youth was forbidden to attend classes.
After it became clear that Nikolai could not get higher education in Russia, his mother agreed to send the young man to study abroad, to Germany. After a long ordeal, the young man managed to get a foreign passport and go abroad in April 1864.
Life in Germany
Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai (the biography of the scientist was repeatedly corrected in Soviet times) after entering Heidelberg University was involved in political disputes between the Russian students there related to different views on the Polish uprising. His mother tried in every possible way to persuade her son to stay away from politics and become a good engineer. Contrary to her wishes, the young man, along with lectures on mathematics, began to attend classes in public disciplines.
In the summer of 1865, Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay (a biography in his youth is well known), transferred to the University of Leipzig. There he entered the faculty, where managers were trained in the field of agriculture and forestry.
After listening to 4 courses there, he went to Jena and entered the medical faculty, where he studied for 3 years.
Canary Islands Expedition
In the spring of 1866, the scientific adviser of Nikolai E. Haeckel decided to visit Sicily in order to study the Mediterranean fauna and invited his beloved student and assistant to the trip. The war forced them to change the route, and the young man ended up in England, where he met Darwin himself. Then the expedition sailed to Madeira, and from there to Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife.
The local population mistook scientists for sorcerers. At the end of the work, a group of scientists, which included Miklouho-Maclay, reached Morocco. There Nikolai remained to study the life of the Berbers and returned to Jena only in May 1867.
Scientific activity
In Jena, N.N. Miklouho-Maclay (a biography in his youth is presented above) again became an assistant to Haeckel. In the summer of 1867, he published his first scientific article in the Jena Journal of Medicine and Science. She was signed by Miklouho-Maclay.
A year later, the young man graduated from the medical faculty of Jena University and began to actively engage in scientific work. In one of his articles, he hypothesized that evolution is differentiation, i.e., the transition from the original form of a living organism to other forms, but not necessarily higher ones.
Expedition to Italy and the Red Sea
After the failure of numerous attempts to become a member of the polar expedition, Miklouho-Maclay (a biography in the last years of his life is presented below) went to Sicily with zoologist Darwinist Anton Dorn.
In Italy, a future famous traveler learned about the completion of the Suez Canal and decided to study the fauna of the Red Sea.
After visiting Egypt, where he did a lot of research, the scientist went to Russia, where he arrived in the summer of 1869.
Preparing for the first expedition to New Guinea
Having met with relatives who at that time lived in Saratov, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay (the biography of the scientist was subsequently translated into several languages) went to the capital and spoke at several scientific conferences. Soon he was accepted into the ranks of the Russian Geographical Society and approved the project of the expedition to the Pacific submitted to him.
On May 21, 1870, the Minister of the Sea, Krabbe, announced that he had received the highest permission to deliver Miklouho-Maclay to Batavia on the Vityaz corvette.
Miklukho-Maklai Nikolay Nikolaevich: a brief biography during his life on the islands in the Pacific Ocean
The departure of Vityaz took place on November 8, 1870. In Brazil, Miklouho-Maclay visited the local hospital for some time and examined the representatives of the black race of both sexes.
On July 21, Vityaz arrived in Tahiti. On the island of Miklouho-Maclay, he acquired a red calico, needles, knives, soap and received gifts from Bishop Zhossan.
Then the traveler traveled to Apia, where he hired two servants: a sailor from Sweden, Olsen, and a young native named Boy. Two months later, the scientist with assistants reached the final destination of his journey. Miklouho-Maclay (a short biography of the scientist is similar to an adventure novel) landed on the beach with his assistants and visited the village. All the locals started off, except for a Papuan named Tui, who in the future became a mediator between the members of the expedition and the natives.
In the first months the natives were wary of strangers, but in 1872 Miklouho-Maclay (a short biography cannot give a complete picture of his life full of adventure) was accepted by them as a friend.
The traveler named his explored territory by his own name. So on the world map appeared Miklouho-Maclay Coast.
Second trip to New Guinea
December 24, on the ship "Emerald" the scientist left New Guinea. After a while, he arrived in Hong Kong, where he learned about the fame of the explorer of the Papuans who fell on him. After traveling around Batavia, Miklouho-Maclay went on a second expedition to the Papuans and landed on Ambon on January 2, 1874. There he began to fight with the slave traders.
In May 1875, the scientist wrote a letter to Emperor Alexander the Second with a request to take under the protection of the Aboriginal New Guinea, to which he received a negative answer.
After spending 17 months on the islands, Miklouho-Maclay went to Australia. There, Miklouho-Maclay managed to interest the local authorities in the project of organizing a biological station in Watsons Bay. Since the required amount could not be collected, the scientist again went to the South Seas.
In Melanesia
At the beginning of 1880, the traveler landed on the Louisiana Archipelago, but he contracted a fever there and was miraculously saved by the missionaries who brought him to Brisbane. A year later, Miklouho-Maclay returned to Sydney and headed the Marine Biological Station.
At the same time, he, as he could, defended the population of New Guinea. In particular, his intervention saved the Aboriginal village from reprisal, near which three missionaries were killed.
Return to Russia and a trip to Europe
In Sydney, Miklouho-Maclay (a short biography of the scientist does not contain information about his fleeting novels) met the widow of Margaret Robertson-Clark, the daughter of an important colonial official, with whom he began an affair. However, he had to leave the young woman and return to Russia, where he arrived in January 1882. He was eagerly awaited there, and his lectures were a huge success. In addition, the traveler was introduced to Alexander the Third, who settled his financial problems.
The deterioration of health forced Miklouho-Maclay to go to Europe for treatment. During the trip, he received a letter from Margaret Clark, in which she agreed to a marriage with a scientist. Nevertheless, instead of going to his beloved, the scientist visited New Guinea for the third time. There he was disappointed, as many of his Papuan friends had died. Miklouho-Maclay planted in Bongu garden crops - mango, breadfruit, orange, lemon and coffee beans. However, despite the requests of the Papuans, he left them, promising to return.
Marriage
On June 10, 1883, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay returned to Sydney and began to solve the problems associated with the marriage between him and Protestant Clark. On February 27, 1884, they were married, and in November their first-born son, Alexander, was born.
Return to Russia and death
After receiving an order to vacate the biological station building, Miklouho-Maclay decided to return to his homeland and arrived in Odessa in the middle of spring 1886. In Russia, the scientist tried to implement a project to organize a resettlement colony on the Maclay Coast, but his plans were not destined to come true.
In 1887, the health of a famous traveler deteriorated sharply. Despite this, he managed to bring his family to Russia. However, the disease (as cancer later turned out to be) progressed, and in April 1888 Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay (a brief biography is already known to you) passed away.
The funeral
The last journey of the traveler was carried out by many prominent scientists of that time and members of the Russian Geographical Society. Miklouho-Maclay was buried in the Volkovsky cemetery next to his father and sister Olga.
Now you know who Miklouho-Maclay Nikolai Nikolaevich was. A brief biography of this man, even in its most concise form, takes many pages, as he lived a life incredibly rich in adventure.