Discussion: Miklouho-Maclay, Nikolai Nikolaevich. "Great Ancestor" of the Papuans

Miklouho-Maclay - who is this? Despite the fame of this person, the issue still remains relevant, and on many forums you can find users looking for information about it. It must be said that the biography of Miklouho-Maclay does not just tell the insipid story of a person’s life, but captures and does not let go until the last lines. No wonder this man often became a guest of the emperor’s family, to whom he told interesting stories about the Papuans.

Biography of Miklouho-Maclay for children and adults

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was born in the small village of Yazykovo, which was located in the Novgorod province. Date of birth: June 17, 1846. The future traveler came from a noble family. Nikolai's father was a railway engineer, and therefore the family had to frequently move from place to place. The biography of Miklouho-Maclay, from an early age, tells about his travels through the regions of Russia. In 1856, my father was appointed head of the construction of the Vyborg Highway and, despite tuberculosis, set to work. The stress finally broke the health of the head of the family, and he died at the age of 41.

The family still had savings that were invested in shares, so the children were not left without an education. In addition, Nikolai’s mother was engaged in drawing maps, which brought in additional income. The biography of Miklouho-Maclay says that his education was carried out by teachers who were invited to his home. One of them even discovered the boy's ability to draw.

Biography of Miklouho-Maclay: gymnasium

In 1856, Nikolai and his brother Sergei went to school, in the 3rd grade. However, very soon he persuaded his mother to transfer them to a state gymnasium. The boy did not shine with excellent studies, and often skipped classes altogether. Even miraculously he was transferred to 5th grade. At the age of 15, he took part in a demonstration together with his comrades and brother, for which he was imprisoned. The brothers were released a few days later, citing a mistake during their arrest.

University

Miklouho-Maclay stayed at the gymnasium until 1863, after which he decided to enter the Academy of Arts, to which Nikolai’s mother reacted negatively. As a result, he ended up as a volunteer student at Moscow University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Nikolai studied diligently, paying special attention to the natural sciences.

A year later, Miklouho-Maclay was expelled from the university. The reason was a violation of the rules - Nikolai tried to get his friend into the building. As the traveler himself later stated, he was forbidden to study at any university in Russia.

Germany

After the offense, Nikolai had to look for a new place of study abroad. The choice fell on Germany, where institutions did not require educational documents. The family had a difficult financial situation, but the mother did her best, and already in the spring of 1864, young Miklouho-Maclay went to Germany.

At the University of Heidelberg, the young man was involved in the flaring uprising of the Poles. Nikolai took their side and even tried to study Polish, which was opposed by the mother, who saw a talented engineer in her son. Already in the summer of the following year, Miklouho-Maclay moved to Leipzig, where he began training to become a manager in agriculture and forestry. Here he spent the next 4 years of his life and moved to Jena, where he entered the Faculty of Medicine.

Canary Islands

In the spring of 1866, Miklouho-Maclay went on an expedition to Sicily, to which Haeckel, the scientific leader, was invited. Her goal was to study the Mediterranean fauna. However, the expedition was almost canceled due to the war. The travelers had to change their route, which now ran through England. By the way, there Nikolai Nikolaevich managed to communicate with Darwin himself. The final point was the island of Tenerife. Local residents were surprised by the guests, mistaking them for sorcerers. After this, the expedition reached Morocco, where Miklouho-Maclay remained to observe the Berbers.

He returned to Jena only in the late spring of 1867. Continues to act as Haeckel's assistant and produces his first scientific work, under which he signs as “Miklouho-Maclay”. The photo of the young traveler appears for the first time in serious works. The next year was his final year at the Faculty of Medicine. Nikolai Nikolaevich begins to actively study scientific work.

Expeditions

Miklouho-Maclay attempted to go on a polar expedition, but did not get into it. Therefore, he again arrived in Sicily, from where he came to the Red Sea and studied its fauna. Then there was a trip to Egypt and a lot of research work. In 1869, the traveler returned to his homeland, Russia.

First of all, he met with his family, who then lived in Saratov. Then he took part in several scientific conferences and was included in the Geographical Society of Russia. He came up with a project to study the Pacific Ocean, which was soon approved.

In the autumn of 1870 he began an expedition on the ship "Vityaz". Visited Brazil and some other places. By the autumn of 1871, he reached the shores where the guests were met by the frightened local population. He settled in a small hut and began to make contact with the aborigines. At first they were wary of the researcher, but by 1872 they began to accept him as a friend. Miklouho-Maclay named the surrounding area in his honor.

At the end of December, Nikolai Nikolaevich left the shores of New Guinea and went to Hong Kong, where the glory of an explorer awaited him. He traveled around Batavia for some time, and at the beginning of 1874 he decided to visit Guinea again. This time he stopped in Ambon and fought with local slave traders.

On the third and last time the traveler will return to “his” island in 1883. By that time, many of his Aboriginal friends had already died, the cause of their death being various diseases.

Marriage and death

At the end of February 1884, Miklouho-Maclay married Margaret Clark, and in the fall they had a son. In 1886, the traveler returned to Russia, where he made plans to organize a colony on the shores of Guinea. However, Nikolai Nikolaevich's intentions were destroyed by illness - cancer, as it would later turn out. His health seriously deteriorated in 1887, and in early April 1888 he died.

Born on July 17 (July 5, old style), 1846, the village of Yazykovo-Rozhdestvenskoye, Borovichi district, Novgorod province - died April 14 (April 2, old style), 1888, St. Petersburg) - Russian ethnographer, anthropologist, biologist and traveler, studied indigenous people Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania (1870-1880s), including the Papuans of the northeastern coast of New Guinea (This coast in Russian-language literature is called the Miklouho-Maclay Coast). Miklouho-Maclay's birthday is a professional holiday for ethnographers.

Early years

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was born into the family of a railway engineer. The family had hereditary nobility, which was earned by Miklouho-Maclay’s great-grandfather, a native of the Chernihiv region Zaporizhian Cossack Stepan Miklukha, who distinguished himself during the capture of Ochakov (1788).

Later the family moved to St. Petersburg, where from 1858 Nikolai continued his studies at the Second St. Petersburg Gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium course, Miklouho-Maclay continued his studies as a volunteer at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. The study was not long. In 1864, for participating in student gatherings, Miklouho-Maclay was expelled from the university and, using funds raised by the student community, he left for Germany. In Germany, he continues his studies at the University of Heidelberg, where he studies philosophy. A year later, Miklouho-Maclay was transferred to the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig, and then the University of Jena. At the University of Jena, Nikolai meets the famous zoologist E. Haeckel, under whose guidance he begins to study the comparative anatomy of animals. As Haeckel's assistant, Miklouho-Maclay travels to Canary Islands and in Morocco. After graduating from university in 1868, Miklouho-Maclay committed independent travel along the Red Sea coast, and then, in 1869, returns to Russia.

Becoming a scientist

The young researcher's horizons expanded, and he moved on to more general issues of natural science - anthropology, ethnography, geography. In these areas, Miklouho-Maclay managed to achieve certain successes. Particularly interesting is his conclusion that the cultural and racial characteristics of various peoples are determined by the natural and social environment.

Miklouho-Maclay makes another major journey. In 1870, on the warship Vityaz, he went to New Guinea. Here, on the northeastern coast of this island, he spends two years studying the life, customs, and religious rites of the aborigines (Papuans). Miklouho-Maclay continues his observations begun in New Guinea in the Philippines, Indonesia, on the southwestern coast of New Guinea, on the Malacca Peninsula and the islands of Oceania.

In 1876-1877, the scientist again spent several months on the northeastern coast of New Guinea, returning to the tribe whose life he had observed earlier. Unfortunately, his stay on the island was short-lived and signs of anemia and general exhaustion forced him to leave the island for Singapore. The treatment took more than six months. Lack of financial resources did not allow Miklouho-Maclay to return to Russia, and he was forced to move to Sydney (Australia), where he settled with the Russian consul. Then Miklouho-Maclay lived for some time in English club and then moves into the house public figure, zoologist and chairman of the Linnean Society of New South Wales W. Macleay. Maclay helps Miklouho-Maclay implement the idea expressed by him at the Linnevsky Society to build an Australian Zoological Station. In September 1878, Miklouho-Maclay's proposal was approved and construction of a station began in Watson Bay, designed by Sydney architect John Kirkpatrick, which was called the Marine Biological Station.

In 1879-1880, Miklouho-Maclay made an expedition to the islands of Melanesia, in particular to the island of New Caledonia, and once again visits the northeastern coast of New Guinea.

In 1882, the scientist returned to Russia. Miklouho-Maclay's plans included the construction of a naval station and a Russian settlement on the northeastern coast of New Guinea (Maclay Coast). Miklouho-Maclay also proposed his own program of economic and social transformations in the life of the islanders. The audience with Alexander III did not bring results. The scientist’s plans were rejected, but he managed to resolve the issues of repaying debts and receive financial resources for further research and publication of his own works.

In 1883, Miklouho-Maclay left Russia and returned to Australia. In 1884 he married Margaret Robertson, the daughter of a large landowner and politician New South Wales. In 1886, the scientist returned to Russia again and again proposed to the emperor the “Maclay Coast Project” as a counteraction to the colonization of the island by Germany. However, this attempt did not bring the desired result. The researcher’s worn-out body weakly resisted disease, and on the evening of April 2, 1888, the great Russian scientist died at the Vilie Clinic in St. Petersburg.

Memory of the scientist

Miklouho-Maclay’s wife and his children, who returned to Australia after the scientist’s death, received a Russian pension until 1917 as a sign of the scientist’s high merits, which was paid from the personal money of Alexander III and then Nicholas II.

* In 1947, the name of Miklouho-Maclay was given to the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

* In 1947, directed by V. A. Razumny feature film"Miklouho-Maclay".

* In 1996, the year of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Miklouho-Maclay, UNESCO named him a Citizen of the World.

* In the same year, on the territory of the University. A bust of the scientist was erected to W. Macleay (sculptor G. Raspopov).

“You are the first... to prove that man is man everywhere” - these words were addressed by L. N. Tolstoy to the still very young scientist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay. The biography of this is so interesting that it is read in one sitting. It was not for nothing that he was often invited to the royal court to tell the imperial family about his life among the aborigines of New Guinea.

Miklouho-Maclay: biography (family and childhood)

The future and ethnographer was born on July 17, 1846 in the village of Yazykovo, Novgorod province, into a noble family. In the next decade, he and his mother, brother and sisters often moved from place to place, following their father, who was a railway engineer. At the end of 1856, the head of the family was appointed construction manager. By that time, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay Sr. was already seriously ill with tuberculosis, but zealously set to work at his new place of work. This finally ruined 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 geographical maps, she managed to give her children a decent education by inviting teachers to her home. She even hired an art teacher for them, who discovered Nikolai’s artistic abilities.

Studying at the gymnasium

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, whose biography is full of interesting events, in 1858, together with his older brother Sergei, was admitted to the 3rd grade of the Annenshule school. However, soon the boys begged their mother to transfer them to a state gymnasium. To do this, the widow filed a petition to enroll her sons in the nobility in accordance with the rank of her late husband, which gave such a right.

At the Second Petersburg Gymnasium, Nikolai Miklukha studied very poorly and often played truant. As a result, he was transferred to 5th grade with great difficulty.

At the age of 15, during a student demonstration, Nikolai was arrested and, along with other high school students and his brother Sergei, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, after a few days the teenagers were released, as the investigative commission 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, the young man enrolled at Moscow University as a volunteer student in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, which was possible even without a document confirming completion of a gymnasium course. There he diligently studied the natural sciences, including physiology.

During a university meeting held in 1864, Nikolai tried to bring his classmate from the gymnasium, Sufshchinsky, into the building. They were detained by the administration, and the young man was banned from attending classes.

After it became clear that Nikolai would not be able to receive higher education in Russia, the mother agreed to send the young man to study abroad, to Germany. After much ordeal, the young man managed to obtain a foreign passport and travel abroad in April 1864.

Life in Germany

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay (the biography of the scientist was repeatedly corrected in Soviet era) after entering the University of Heidelberg, he was involved in political disputes between the Russian students there, associated with different views on the Polish uprising. His mother tried in every possible way to persuade her son to stay away from politics and become good engineer. Contrary to her wishes, the young man, along with lectures on mathematics, began to attend classes in social disciplines.

In the summer of 1865, Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay (his biography in his youth is known quite well) transferred to the faculty where they trained managers in the field of agriculture and forestry.

After taking 4 courses there, he went to Jena and entered the Faculty of Medicine, where he studied for 3 years.

Expedition to the Canary Islands

In the spring of 1866, Nikolai's scientific advisor E. Haeckel decided to visit Sicily to study the Mediterranean fauna and invited his favorite student and assistant on the trip. The war forced them to change their route, and the young man ended up in England, where he met Darwin himself. Then the expedition members sailed to Madeira, and from there to Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife.

The local population mistook the scientists for sorcerers. Upon completion 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 activities

In Jena, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay (biography of his youth is presented above) again became Haeckel’s assistant. In the summer of 1867, he published his first scientific article in the Jena Journal of Medicine and Natural History. It was signed "Miklouho-Maclay".

A year later, the young man graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Jena and began to actively engage in scientific work. In one of his articles, he hypothesized that evolution is differentiation, that is, a 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 (biography in recent years life is presented below) went to Sicily with Darwinian zoologist Anton Dorn.

In Italy, the 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 spent a long time research work, the scientist went to Russia, where he arrived in the summer of 1869.

Preparations for the first expedition to New Guinea

Having met with relatives who at that time lived in Saratov, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay (the scientist’s biography 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 the project he presented for an expedition to the Pacific Ocean was approved.

On May 21, 1870, Minister of the Navy Crabbe announced that it had been received Highest resolution deliver Miklouho-Maclay to Batavia on the corvette Vityaz.

Miklouho-Maclay Nikolai Nikolaevich: brief biography during the period Pacific Ocean

The Vityaz sailed on November 8, 1870. In Brazil, Miklouho-Maclay visited a local hospital for some time and examined representatives of the Negroid race of both sexes.

On July 21, Vityaz arrived in Tahiti. On the island of Miklouho-Maclay he purchased red calico, needles, knives, soap and received gifts from Bishop Jossan.

Then the traveler visited Apia, where he hired two servants: a sailor from Sweden, Olsen, and a young aborigine named Boy. Two months later, the scientist and his assistants reached the final destination of their journey. Miklouho-Maclay (a short biography of the scientist is like an adventure novel) landed on shore with his assistants and visited the village. All local residents took to their heels, except for a Papuan named Tui, who in the future became an intermediary between members of the expedition and the aborigines.

In the first months, the natives were wary of the newcomers, 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 explorer named the explored territories after himself. This is how the Miklouho-Maclay Coast appeared on the world map.

Second trip to New Guinea

On December 24, the scientist left New Guinea on the ship “Emerald”. After some time, he arrived in Hong Kong, where he learned about the fame of a Papuan explorer that had fallen on him. After traveling around Batavia, Miklouho-Maclay set off on a second expedition to the Papuans and landed on Ambon on January 2, 1874. There he began to fight slave traders.

In May 1875, the scientist wrote a letter to Emperor Alexander II with a request to take the aborigines of New Guinea under his protection, to which he received a negative response.

After spending 17 months on the islands, Miklouho-Maclay went to Australia. There Miklouho-Maclay managed to interest local authorities in the project of organizing a biological station in Watsons Bay. Since it was not possible to collect the required amount, the scientist again went to the South Seas.

In Melanesia

At the beginning of 1880, the traveler landed on the Louisiades archipelago, but contracted a fever there and was miraculously saved by missionaries who took him to Brisbane. A year later, Miklouho-Maclay returned to Sydney and headed the Marine Biological Station.

At the same time, he protected the population of New Guinea as best he could. In particular, his intervention saved an Aboriginal village from massacre, near which three missionaries were killed.

Return to Russia and trip to Europe

In Sydney, Miklouho-Maclay (the scientist’s short biography does not contain information about his fleeting romances) met the widow 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. There he was eagerly awaited, and his lectures were a huge success. In addition, the traveler was introduced to Alexander the Third, who settled his financial problems.

Deteriorating 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 marry the scientist. However, instead of going to his beloved, the scientist visited New Guinea for the third time. Disappointment awaited him there, since many of his Papuan friends died. Miklouho-Maclay planted garden crops in Bongu - 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 resolve the problems associated with the marriage between him and the Protestant Clarke. On February 27, 1884, they got married, and in November their first child, son Alexander, was born.

Return to Russia and death

After receiving the order to vacate the building of the biological station, Miklouho-Maclay decided to return to his homeland and arrived in Odessa in mid-spring 1886. In Russia, the scientist tried to implement a project for organizing a resettlement colony on the Maclay Coast, but his plans were not destined to come true.

In 1887, the health of the famous traveler deteriorated sharply. Despite this, he managed to bring his family to Russia. However, the disease (as it later turned out to be cancer) progressed, and in April 1888 Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay (you already know his short biography) died.

Funeral

IN last path The traveler was accompanied by many prominent scientists of that time and members of the Russian Geographical Society. Miklouho-Maclay was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery next to his father and sister Olga.

Now you know who Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was. Brief biography This man's story, even in its most condensed form, takes up many pages, as he lived a life incredibly rich in adventure.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay (1846-1888)

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay is a famous Russian traveler who made a number of expeditions to previously unexplored New Guinea and other islands of the Pacific Ocean, a researcher of primitive culture who collected a wealth of materials about primitive peoples. Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was born on July 17, 1846 in the village of Rozhdestvenskoye, near the town of Borovichi, Novgorod province. His father, Nikolai Ilyich Miklukha, was an engineer-captain, and his great-grandfather Stepan was a cornet of one of the Little Russian Cossack regiments, who distinguished himself during the capture of Ochakov in 1772. His mother Ekaterina Semyonovna was also from military family. Nikolai Ilyich Miklukha had four sons and a daughter. Nikolai Nikolaevich was second. All children bore their father's surname. But Nikolai Nikolaevich with teenage years began to call himself Miklouho-Maclay. Miklouho-Maclay's father died when the boy was 11 years old. During his father's life, he studied at home. After the death of his father, his mother sent him to school in St. Petersburg, and then he was transferred to the 2nd St. Petersburg gymnasium.

N. N. Miklouho-Maclay did not graduate from high school; Due to frequent misunderstandings with teachers and arguments with them, he was forced to leave the 6th grade. In 1863, seventeen-year-old N. N. Miklouho-Maclay entered the University of St. Petersburg as a volunteer student in the department of natural sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, from where in the spring of 1864 he was dismissed “for repeated violations of the rules established for students.”

To continue his education, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay went abroad. For two years he listened to physicists and naturalists and partly to lawyers and philosophers at the University of Heidelberg. In Leipzig, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay diligently studied anatomy at the medical faculty, while simultaneously listening to lectures on natural sciences and other faculties. He retained his interest in comparative anatomy throughout his life. Even having devoted himself entirely to the study of primitive peoples, he did not abandon anatomical work. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay continued his medical education in Jena, where he attended lectures by the famous Ernst Haeckel, then a young professor of zoology, who influenced him beneficial influence in the development of independent scientific research.

Having completed his natural history education, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay devoted himself to the study of the broadest scientific problems devoted to the origin of life, the development of species, and the laws of evolution of the organic world. Together with E. Haeckel, whose assistant he became in 1866, he made his first trip to the Canary Islands. Here he studied the anatomy of sponges and the study of the brain. cartilaginous fish. Returning from an expedition in 1867, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay conducted comparative anatomical work in Messina, where he went with Dr. Dorn, a promoter of the organization of marine zoological stations. In 1869, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay traveled along the shores of the Red Sea, collecting material for his great generalizations. To avoid persecution by the Arabs, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay transformed himself into a Muslim: he shaved his head, painted his face, put on an Arab costume, and acquired some familiarity with the language and external Muslim customs. In this form he wandered around coral reefs Red Sea with a microscope, alone, exposed to many hardships and dangers. I had to endure temperatures over 35°, fever, grief and, to top it all, hunger. But, despite all this, N.N. Miklouho-Maclay managed to collect rich zoological and comparative anatomical materials. Soon he headed to Constantinople and Odessa, visited the southern coast of Crimea and visited the Volga, collecting materials on the anatomy of cartilaginous fish. From here he came to Moscow for the 2nd Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors, where he made a report on the need to organize Russian zoological and biological stations on the Black, Baltic, Caspian and White Seas, on the Volga and other rivers. This idea of ​​N. N. Miklouho-Maclay met with sympathy at the congress. Soon Russian zoological stations began to appear. But the completely broad plan of scientific research proposed by N. N. Miklouho-Maclay was not implemented due to lack of funds.

From Moscow, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay arrived in St. Petersburg and was warmly received at the Academy of Sciences, where he was offered to take up a collection of sponges from rich academic collections. At a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay made a report on the features of the Red Sea, its fauna, the nature of the shores and the life of the population. It was then that he conceived the idea of ​​traveling to the vast territories of the Pacific Islands to study the life and customs of primitive peoples. She distracted N. N. Miklouho-Maclay from processing the enormous natural history materials he collected. But for him, the “field of scientific observations” still remained “white”, unexplored. Neither personally collected materials nor academic collections seemed sufficient to him for the grandiose generalizations that fascinated him. A young and energetic traveler, obsessed with the desire to give science more and more wealth of factual material, rushes into the “field”, which this time for him is the Pacific Ocean.

"Choosing in 1868 that part globe, to which I intended to devote my research, - writes N. N. Miklouho-Maclay in his message to the Russian Geographical Society in 1882, - I stopped on the islands of the Pacific Ocean and mainly on New Guinea, as the least known island..., having in In appearance, the main goal is to find an area that, until 1868, had not yet been visited by whites. Such an area was the northeastern coast of New Guinea, near Astrolabe Bay." N.N. Miklouho-Maclay called it: "Maclay's Coast." Explaining the reasons why he left zoology and embryology and devoted himself to ethnology, N.N. Miklouho-Maclay writes: “Still, I considered it more important: to draw my attention to the status praesens of the life of the Papuan, believing that these phases of the life of this part of humanity, under some new conditions (which can appear every day), are very quickly passing. The same birds of paradise and butterflies will fly over New Guinea even in the distant future."

On October 27, 1870, the Russian military corvette Vityaz set out from Kronstadt on a circumnavigation of the world. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay also went on a long journey on it. The Vityaz's route lay through the Strait of Magellan, and this gave N.N. Miklouho-Maclay the opportunity to engage in scientific observations at different points in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In September 1871, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay arrived on the northeastern coast of the huge (785,000 square kilometers) desert island of New Guinea in Astrolabe Bay, where he settled in a small hut with two servants.

N. N. Miklouho-Maclay was greeted with hostility by the native Papuans. They gestured towards the sea, demanding his removal. “It got to the point,” wrote N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, “even to the point that almost every day, for fun, they shot arrows that flew very close to me.” But soon the Papuans loved him so much that when the Russian military corvette "Emerald" came for him in December 1872, the natives did not let him in and persuaded him to stay with them forever; they took him around the villages, declared their friendship, promised to build for him new home Instead of the hut, which had collapsed by this time, any girl was offered as a wife. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay promised his new friends to return. “Having considered completely objectively all the circumstances of my first stay among the natives and subsequent acquaintance with them,” writes N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, “I came to the conclusion that I owe the good result of relations with the savages mainly to my restraint and patience.” . The truthfulness of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, his attentive friendliness towards the Papuans amazed and charmed them, and they decided that he was special person, "kaaram-tamo", which means "man from the moon". They also considered his homeland, Russia, to be on the Moon.

A sincere friend of primitive people, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, living with the Papuans, remained himself all the time, a cultured European, a scientist. Having settled on the shore, between the two villages of Gorendu and Gumbu, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay lived in his Garagasi hut independently of the natives. But they visited him more and more often and more willingly. When they were threatened by war with the natives of more distant villages, they brought their wives and children to him and left them under his protection. Maclay's (as the natives called him) knowledge of their language greatly helped Maclay (as the natives called him) to get closer to the Papuans of New Guinea; He studied their language amazingly patiently, carefully, without allowing himself any inventions of his own regarding its sound composition, grammatical forms and meaning of words. It was big scientific achievement, thanks to which the Melanesian language of the Papuans for the first time in its true form became known to European science. But N. N. Miklouho-Maclay studied not only the Melanesian language of the Papuans in general, to which the language of the Papuans of the Maclay Coast belonged, but also the Malay language, which helped him use Malay translators in relations with the tribes of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

Not only knowledge of the language and delicate treatment of savages brought N. N. Miklouho-Maclay closer to them, but also his close participation in their life, which was not deprived tragic moments. Thus, he achieved an end to internecine wars between separate groups savages. “My influence on the natives,” says N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, “turned out to be so strong that I was able to completely stop, for the entire time of my stay, constant internecine wars. These wars are more in the nature of murders... The wars terribly harmed everything population, so that the natives were afraid to leave their villages for several hours. Due to my authority as “the man from the moon,” I had the opportunity to positively prohibit wars and soon saw the good result of this prohibition.”

N. N. Miklouho-Maclay visited New Guinea five times. And he invariably attracted the attention and friendly feelings of the population of this part of Melanesia. However, at each new place we had to be on our guard. Thus, on his second trip to New Guinea, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay chose for landing the coast of Papua Koviai, the inhabitants of which were widely discussed among the Malays. horror stories as about cannibals, sea ​​pirates, robbing ships and eating sailors. Leaving about 10 people here in his hut, N.N. Miklouho-Maclay and the rest of the people set off into the interior of New Guinea. When he returned, everything turned out to be plundered by local Papuans on the shores of Papua Koviai, people were killed, fresh water sources were poisoned. "Despite, however, this unpleasant episode", - wrote N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, - I decided to stay in New Guinea." For a whole month, he did not abandon his intention to punish the main instigator of the attack. "Although this man," says N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, "was three times stronger than me, but my nerves turned out to be stronger, and I managed to capture him alive. My appearance before him among the savages surrounding him was so unexpected that when I ordered my people to tie up the robber, I did not meet the slightest resistance from the crowd of Papuans, who even helped my people transfer the rest of my things and the prisoner to the urumbai (sailing boat with a cabin )".

Essentially, the Papuans of the Papua Koviai coast, on which N. N. Miklouho-Maclay settled on his second trip to New Guinea, were the same peaceful savages as the Papuans of the Maclay coast. But the Europeans and Malays, who visited them and traded slaves, changed their peaceful life, sowing civil strife and mutual extermination among them. In the end, the Papuans who lived near the coast abandoned their huts and plantations and turned into water nomads, wandering in pirogues along the shores. Taking advantage of the hospitality of Governor-General Loudon, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay described to him in a semi-official letter the plight of the Papuans of the coast of Papua Koviai and the unacceptable treatment of them by the Malays engaged in the slave trade, so that the Dutch government took measures to eradicate the slave trade.

N. N. Miklouho-Maclay tried to fight against the ruthless exploitation of the Papuans by treadors (merchants from white Europeans) and the activities of teachers, i.e. missionaries who consisted mainly of Malays and were mainly engaged in trade operations. Teachers and traders vaccinated primitive people bad habits - the habit of vodka and tobacco, spread diseases among them and exterminated them, exported them to European colonies.

When N. N. Miklouho-Maclay first came to New Guinea and settled on the banks of the Maclay, he found the Papuans of this area in an almost primitive state. “The natives of this coast,” wrote N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, “before my arrival were not in contact with either the white or the Malay races,” while on other islands of Melanesia the Papuan race was more or less mixed with other races. The Papuans of the Maclay Coast in his time lived the life of the Stone Age. They did not even know how to make fire and always kept a fire or a burning log, once lit from burning wood received from the Malays or whites. When migrating and wandering, they carried a burning log with them. All family and social life Papuans, described by N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, is characterized by its primitive simplicity, which others wrote about. But in his descriptions there is nothing artificial or subjective, whereas in the descriptions of missionaries and random travelers there is a significant amount of fantasy, fiction, a deliberate desire to highlight the Papuans as a race doomed by fate itself to exploitation and extinction. This attitude towards primitive tribes outraged and saddened N.N. Miklouho-Maclay, a man with a big heart and a sincere friend of primitive peoples. At every appropriate opportunity, he raised his voice of protest against the barbaric attitude towards them, speaking out in defense of primitive people.

Tirelessly thinking about their protection, helping them, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay at the same time continued his scientific quest in the field of genuine primitive culture, its various modifications from racial mixing and under the influence of the influence of European civilization on it. He set out to study anthropologically the entire Melanesian group, which included the Papuans. The curly hair of the Papuans, in contrast to the straight hair of the Malays, Polynesians and Micronesians, the structure of the skull, skin color, height and other anthropological characteristics were carefully studied by N. N. Miklouho-Maclay. Having encountered an indication in the literature that the Papuans’ hair does not grow all over their heads, but in tufts, leaving bare hairless spots, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay decided to check this indication, on the basis of which opponents of the principle of the unity of the entire human race argued that The Papuans are a “lower race”, completely excluding the possibility of raising their level of development to the European level. As a result of careful observations of the nature of hair growth among the Papuans, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay says: “I was positively convinced that among the Papuans at any age there is no special tuft-like grouping of hair.”

The careful anthropological research of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay was the reason for his numerous travels to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, the materials of which, even in the form of diaries, would have formed a multi-volume publication. Among these travels, the famous journey of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay across the Malay Peninsula is especially remarkable. The diary of the first trip (22/XI 1874 - 2/II 1875) was published in the Russian edition by the USSR Academy of Sciences. This journey was associated with extraordinary difficulties and enormous hardships, but it glorified the name of Miklouho-Maclay throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, who made excellent sketches in all his travels, also left many original sketches of heads, figures, buildings and much more from his Malayan trip.

After his tiring travels, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay repeatedly came to Sydney to rest. Here he married Margaret Robertson in 1884; from this marriage he had two sons: Alexander-Nils and Vladimir-Ollan. In May 1887, completely ill, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay with his wife and children came from Sydney to St. Petersburg. Here he died at the 42nd year of his life on April 14, 1888.

Diaries and reports on travels, scientific observations and laboratory biological research of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, his anthropological and ethnological collections are a rich scientific treasure that is still awaiting its full disclosure: the legacy of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay has not even been published in full . He himself managed to publish 76 works, which brought him wide fame. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay was a man of great scientific horizons, a man of great ideas about truth and justice in the kingdom of a single human race. Everything is attractive about N. N. Miklouho-Maclay as a scientist: scientific passion, the scope of routes, and a highly scientific understanding of primitive culture as an early stage of mental and spiritual development humanity, through which all the peoples of the world passed, and exclusively honest attitude N. N. Miklouho-Maclay to these child peoples. But “civilization” burst from Europe into the childishly naive world of the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay deeply realized this tragic collision. “Civilized” businessmen, slave traders and other exploiters and oppressors destroyed the last traces of human dignity of the Papuans and other “savages”, mercilessly exterminated them, forever destroyed the harmonious and integral world of their primitive culture, depriving science of the opportunity to reveal the secrets of the early stage of human civilization.

N. N. Miklouho-Maclay sought to take a number of decisive actions in order to preserve at least the Papuans of the Maclay coast until a more favorable future, in which he believed and could not help but believe. N. N. Miklouho-Maclay addressed the emperor Alexander III with a request to take the Maclay coast under the sovereign protectorate of Russia and protect the Papuans from the exploitation of traders and oppressors. The Tsar ordered the formation of a special committee on this matter. The committee, however, rejected Maclay's request. Then he turned to the Russian intelligentsia, who had not yet forgotten the utopian “going to the people.” He called on her to create a voluntary colony in New Guinea and to be honest and beneficent bearers of a bright human culture among the Papuans.

The dreams of a true science enthusiast, who gave his life to the idea of ​​equality, freedom and friendship of peoples, could not be realized in the conditions of a misanthropic capitalist society.

The main works of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay: Admiralty Islands. Essays from a trip to western Micronesia and northern Melanesia, St. Petersburg, 1877. Travels: vol. 1. Oceania. New Guinea, M.-L., 1940; Vol. II. Oceania. Indonesia, M.-L., 1941.

About I. N. Miklouho-Maclay:Vodovozov N., Miklouho-Maclay, M., 1938; Korotkov E., Wonderful Russian traveler, friend of the wild ones N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, M., 1915; Lebedev N.K., Alone among the savages. Life and travels of Miklouho-Maclay, M.-L., 1928; Markov S. N., Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay ( Biographical sketch), M., 1944; Yanchuk N. Ya., N. N. Miklouho-Maclay and his scientific works, St. Petersburg, 1913; Berg L. S. Essays on Russian history geographical discoveries, M.-L., 1946. His own, All-Union Geographical Society for a Hundred Years, M.-L., 1946.

(July 5, old style) 1846 in the village of Rozhdestvenskoye (now Yazykovo-Rozhdestvenskoye, Okulovsky municipal district, Novgorod region) in the family of an engineer.

In 1863 he entered St. Petersburg University, from where in 1864 he was expelled without the right to enter higher education for participation in the student movement. educational institutions Russia.

In 1864 he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, in 1865 at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leipzig. In 1866 he moved to Jena, where he studied comparative animal anatomy at the university's medical faculty. As an assistant to the German naturalist Ernst Haeckel, whose lectures he attended at the university, he visited the Canary Islands and Morocco. In 1868, Miklouho-Maclay graduated from the University of Jena.

In 1869 he traveled to the Red Sea coast to study marine fauna. The same year he returned to Russia.

Miklouho-Maclay's first scientific research was devoted to comparative anatomy sea ​​sponges, shark brain and other zoological issues. During his travels, he also made valuable observations in the field of geography. He was inclined to the view that the racial and cultural characteristics of peoples are formed under the influence of the natural and social environment. To substantiate this theory, Miklouho-Maclay decided to take a trip to the Pacific Islands in order to study the “Papuan race”. With the assistance of the Russian Geographical Society, at the end of October 1870, he got the opportunity to travel to New Guinea on the military ship Vityaz. First he visited the northeastern coast of New Guinea (1871-1872), which has since been called the Maclay Coast. Miklouho-Maclay lived among the Papuans for 15 months and won their love and trust with his friendly and tactful behavior.

In 1873 he visited the Philippines and Indonesia. In 1874 he visited the southwestern coast of New Guinea. In 1874-1875 he traveled twice around the Malacca Peninsula, studying the Semang and Sakai tribes. In 1876, he traveled to Western Micronesia (islands of Oceania) and Northern Melanesia (island groups in the Pacific Ocean). He spent 1876 and 1877 again on the Maclay Coast; from there he wanted to return to Russia, but due to a serious illness he was forced to settle in Australia (Sydney), where he lived until 1882. He founded Australia's first biological station near Sydney. During the same period, he made a trip to the islands of Melanesia (1879) and visited the southern coast of New Guinea (1880); in 1881 the second time was on the southern coast of New Guinea.

In 1882, Miklouho-Maclay came to Russia and read a number of public reports about his travels at the Geographical Society. The Society of Amateurs of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography awarded him a gold medal.

Having visited Berlin, Paris and London, where he introduced the results of his research to the scientific community, Miklouho-Maclay again went to Australia. Along the way, he visited the Maclay Coast for the third time (1883).

The scientist spent 1884-1886 in Sydney, Australia, and returned to Russia in 1886. In the last years of his life, he prepared his diaries and scientific materials for publication. In 1886 he donated the ethnographic collections he collected in 1870-1885 to the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (now in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography).

On April 14 (April 2, old style), 1888, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay died in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Volkov cemetery.

The scientist’s greatest scientific merit is that he raised the question of species unity and kinship human races. First time given detailed description Melanesian anthropological type and proved its wide distribution in Western Oceania and the islands of Southeast Asia. For ethnography great value present descriptions of the economy, material culture and life of the Papuans and other peoples of Oceania and Southeast Asia. Many of Miklouho-Maclay's observations, distinguished by great accuracy, still remain almost the only materials on the ethnography of some regions of Oceania.

During Maclay's lifetime, there were more than a hundred of his works on ethnography, anthropology, zoology, anatomy, geography and other sciences, but not a single one of his major works was published. The travel diaries of Miklouho-Maclay were first published in 1923. The collected works in five volumes were published in 1950-1954.

Since 1884, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay was married to Margaret Clark, the daughter of the famous Australian politician, multiple premier of the colony of New South Wales, Sir John Robertson. In November 1884, the first-born Alexander Nils was born into the family, and in December 1885 the second son, Vladimir Allen, was born. After the death of the scientist, Margaret never married again. On the memorial plate on the grave of Miklouho-Maclay at the Volkovo Cemetery, at the direction of his wife, latin letters: N.B.D.C.S.U., which meant “Nothing but death can part us.”

A mountain and a river in New Guinea, a section of the northeastern coast of New Guinea from Astrolabe Bay to the Huon Peninsula (Miklouho-Maclay Coast), as well as an underwater mountain in the Pacific Ocean and a bay on Wilkes Land in Antarctica were named in honor of the scientist.

In 1947, the name of Miklouho-Maclay was given to the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences (RAN).

In 2014, the Russian Geographical Society established the Gold Medal named after N.N. Miklouho-Maclay as the highest award of society for ethnographic research and travel.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the scientist’s birth, 1996 was proclaimed by UNESCO as the Year of Miklouho-Maclay. That same year, UNESCO named him a Citizen of the World.

A bronze monument to Miklouho-Maclay was erected in the city of Okulovka, Novgorod region.

A bust of Miklouho-Maclay was installed in Australia on the territory of the University of Sydney, near the William Maclay Museum.

Bust of a scientist from white stone was opened in Sevastopol in front of the building of the Institute of Biology South Seas named after Kovalevsky.

In the city of Malin, Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, a monument to Miklouho-Maclay was erected in 1986.

A monument to the scientist was unveiled in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, on the territory of the Russian Center for Science and Culture.

In 2010, in Ukraine, not far from Kyiv, in the village of Kalityanskoye, Chernigov region, in the homeland of Miklouho-Maclay’s father, Nikolai Mikloukha, the first private museum of the traveler was created.

In 2013, in the village of Kacha near Sevastopol, the Miklouho-Maclay Museum “The Shore of Maclay” was created.

In 2014, the Historical and Cultural Center "Sails of Maclay" was opened in the city of Baturin, Chernigov region.

In 2015, in the city of Malin, Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, another Miklouho-Maclay museum was opened in a building that belonged to the scientist’s relatives.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources