Even an inveterate dweater remembers that there is a horse named after Przewalski. But not only the discovery of this wild horse is famous for Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky. What is he famous for?
An honorary member of the Geographical Society of Russia conducted several expeditions to Central Asia, discovering previously unknown lands with their population, nature and fauna to the Russian and European scientific world.
Many species of birds, fish, mammals and lizards that were discovered during travels are named after him. He was a real ascetic, whom, according to his contemporaries, was so lacking at that time. He is put on a par with Marco Polo and Cook. His legacy is still respected in the scientific community.
Representative of the noble family
The ancestor of the scientist, the Cossack Kornilo Parovalsky, arrived in Poland and changed his surname to Przewalski. As a successful warrior, he received lands, title and coat of arms as a reward for the battles he won. The descendants adopted the Catholic faith. But not everyone did that.
Casimir Przhevalsky fled and converted to Orthodoxy. In Russia, he was called Kuzma. His son Mikhail served in the Russian army and pacified the rebellious Poles in 1832. Four years later, due to poor health, he left the service, having retired. Michael moved to his father in the Smolensk region. Then he met a neighbor girl Elena from a wealthy Karetnikov family. Mikhail was not handsome, and besides, without money, but their hobby was mutual. The girl’s parents did not immediately, but agreed to a marriage. Soon their son Nikolai Przhevalsky was born (years of life - 1839-1888) - a future traveler and explorer. It was in childhood that his love of travel was born.
Childhood and youth
The first years of Nikolai Przhevalsky’s life passed in Otradnoye - the estate of his mother. His environment, it seemed, did not contribute to spiritual development. Parents were conservative landlords and did not delve into the scientific trends of those times.
Father died early, and his mother, being strong in kind, took control of the household into her own hands, and the rules of the old way. The second person after her on the estate was a nanny - Makaryevna, kind to the "panic" and grumpy for serfs. The latter had 105 souls who provided a poor, but well-fed life for the whole family.
Nikolai Przhevalsky grew up a real tomboy, for which mother’s rods often ran through him. From the age of five, Uncle Pavel Alekseevich took up his training, who, having subsided his estate, received shelter from his sister. He instilled in Nicholas a love of hunting and nature, which later grew into a fiery passion.
From the age of eight, teachers from the seminary came to Nikolai. Mother wanted to send her son to the cadet corps, but failed and had to go to the second grade of the gymnasium in the city of Smolensk. He graduated from high school at the age of sixteen. After a whole summer of hunting and fishing, in the fall, he was supposed to enter the Polotsk regiment. In service, the young man kept aloof. He devoted all his free time to the study of zoology, botany and dreamed of traveling.
Expedition preparation
Przhevalsky’s great desire to travel around Central Asia was not enough to convince the Geographical Society of Russia to help organize an expedition. Unfortunately, Nikolai Mikhailovich at that time still had no weight in scientific circles, and it was naive to count on the approval of the Society Council.
Pyotr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, which follows from the biography of Przhevalsky, advised him to go to the Ussuri Territory. Upon returning, the discoverer will have a much greater chance of convincing the Council to assemble an expedition. Which is what happened. The result of the Ussuri journey was several works and discoveries in the field of botany and ornithology. All this elevated Przhevalsky in the eyes of scientists. What they eloquently supported with an award - a silver medal of the Russian Geographical Society. Of course, a real recognition for Nikolai Mikhailovich was a trip to Central Asia.
First trip
The expedition led by the Russian naturalist Przhevalsky could not be easy. Beginning in 1870, it lasted three years. During this time, its participants covered at least eleven thousand kilometers. Later this expedition will be called Mongolian.
The following were investigated: Dalai Nur Lake, Suma Khodi and Yin Shan ridges. The naturalist was able to refute the data of old Chinese sources, which claimed that the Yellow River has branches. The participants of the expedition in Kalgan waited for winter.
In early March 1872, they passed from Kalgan through the Alashan desert and, reaching the Nanshan ranges, moved to Lake Kukunor. After Nikolai Mikhailovich walked along the Tsaydam Basin, crossed Kunlun and reached the Yangtze River.
In the summer of the last year of the first expedition, having made his way through the Middle Gobi, Przhevalsky arrives in Urga (now the capital of Mongolia - Ulan Bator). In early autumn, he returned from there to Kyakhta.
The expedition resulted in more than four thousand open plants, and many species of animals and reptiles were named after him. In addition, the Geographical Society awarded the traveler a gold medal, and he became a world celebrity.
Second journey
Having gained experience on the first trip, Nikolai Przhevalsky is planning a second expedition to Central Asia, with a larger scale. It was supposed to cover Tibet and Lhasa. The shaky health of Nikolai Mikhailovich, as well as the aggravation of political relations with China, made adjustments to reduce the route.
The start of the expedition of Nikolai Przhevalsky began in Kuldzhi. Crossing the Tien Shan mountain ranges, passing the Tarim Depression, he reaches the reed lake Lobnor. Przhevalsky writes in his writings that the length of the swamp lake is one hundred kilometers and the width is about twenty kilometers. He is the second white explorer here after Marco Polo. In addition to geographical studies, ethnographic studies were also performed. In particular, the life and beliefs of the Lobnors were studied.
Third journey
Przhevalsky made his third - Tibetan - journey in 1879-1880. His detachment of thirteen men passed the Hami desert, and the Nan-Shan ridge proceeded.
The discoveries of Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky impressed the geographical community. Participants discovered two ranges called Humboldt and Ritter, explored the Yellow River in northern Tibet. Several animals were discovered, including the Dzungarian horse, known to everyone from school textbooks, named after in honor of Przewalski. Although from the records of the scientist it appears that these horses had a local name. The Kirghiz called it kertag, and the Mongols called it.
Upon his return, Przewalski is awarded various honorary titles, awards and degrees. And then she retires from the bustle of the city in the village, where she starts work on the materials collected in the expedition and sets out the results in a book.
Fourth journey
Tibet again. The tireless explorer embarks on his fourth journey in 1883, which lasted until 1885. Here new adventures awaited him. He explored lakes Orin-Nur and Jarin-Nur, the sources of the Yellow River, the Tibetan ranges of Moscow, Columbus and Russian. The collection of unknown species of fish, birds, reptiles, animals and plants has expanded. Przhevalsky's labor biography was set forth in the next book, which he wrote on the Sloboda estate.
Fifth journey
It would be foolish to be surprised that at almost fifty years old Nikolai Mikhailovich embarked on a new expedition to Central Asia. Unfortunately, this ends the adventure-soaked biography of Przewalski. On his last trip, he sailed along the Volga, the Caspian Sea. Arriving in Krasnovodsk, sent to Samarkand and Pishpek (Bishkek). From there - to Alma-Ata.
Negligent death
In the fall of 1888, Nikolai Mikhailovich with the whole detachment arrives in Pishpek. Camels were scored here. With their friend Roborovsky, they notice that there are many pheasants in the area. The friends could not deny themselves the pleasure to stock up on feathered meat before sending. Hunting in the valley of the Kara-Balta river, he, having already caught a cold, drinks water from the river. And all winter, the Kyrgyz people everywhere suffered from typhoid fever. Preparing for the trip, Przhevalsky did not pay attention to changes in health status, they say, he caught a cold earlier, it will pass by itself.
Soon the temperature rose. On the night of the 15th to the 16th, he slept restlessly, and in the morning, as described in Przhevalsky’s biography, he was still able to get out of the yurt in which he slept and shoot the bar.
The Kirghiz murmured, believing that it was a sacred bird. The next day, the scientist did not get out of bed. The doctor who arrived from Karagol issued a verdict - typhoid fever. And on his deathbed Przhevalsky showed unprecedented stamina. He confessed to friends and fellow travelers that he was not afraid to die, as he had met with the bony one more than once.
The last request was to bury him on the shore of Issyk-Kul. 10.20.1888 the life of Nikolai Mikhailovich was cut short. A year later, a monument was erected on his grave: an eight-meter rock made up of twenty-one stones, according to the number of years given to the traveler's research and scientific activities, above which a bronze eagle rises.
Merits in Science
The books of Przhevalsky Nicholas describe his studies of the geographical and natural-historical orientation of the following objects:
- Kun-Lun - mountain system;
- ridges of Northern Tibet;
- the origins of the Yellow River;
- Pools Lob Nora, Kuku Nora.
The naturalist discovered many animals for the world, among which one can distinguish a wild camel and a horse. All botanical and zoological collections that the traveler collected were described by specialists. They contained many new forms of flora and fauna.
The discoveries of Nikolai Mikhailovich were appreciated not only in his homeland, their importance was recognized by academies and scientists around the world. He is also considered one of the significant nineteenth-century climatologists.
Name of Researcher in Science
The name of the traveler Nikolai Przhevalsky was preserved not only in his writings. Natural objects, a city, a village, streets, a gymnasium in Smolensk, a museum are named after him.
Also, many representatives of flora and fauna bear his name:
- horse;
- pestrus - a sand animal of the hamster family;
- nuthatch - a bird;
- Buzulnik - herbaceous perennial plant of the aster family;
- sage;
- zhuzgun;
- scutellaria.
Monuments and busts were erected in memory of the traveler, medals and commemorative coins were established, and a film was made.
With his own life, he proved that he should strive for a dream. Belief in goals, hard work and perseverance can overcome many obstacles to the desired goal. Such distant North Asia opened up its spaces to the Russian naturalist.