"MAN FROM THE MOON" AND HIS EARTHLY WOMEN

HERO OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay. Famous Russian traveler, scientist, humanist. Many biographical books have been written about this man. Most of them belong to the section of children's literature. This is understandable: the life of the famous Russian traveler is full of adventure and exoticism. Well, what about “biographies for adults”? There are very few of them, and, moreover, they are clearly stingy with the facts of the traveler’s personal life. Maybe that's why everything we know about him comes from children's books. And this, you see, is too little.

However, even less is known about him abroad. One of the rare books about him was published not so long ago in Australia. It states that Miklouho-Maclay presented himself as a travel scientist only as a cover, but in reality he was... a well-covered spy, an agent of the tsarist government.

Who was Miklouho-Maclay really? What kind of person was this? And what did his “children’s” and “adult” biographers keep silent about?

Nikolai Nikolaevich showed himself to be a strange boy from childhood. Small in stature, frail and pale, he was incredibly active and energetic. For all his restlessness, he was silent, stubborn, daring and surprisingly brave. It seems that he was not at all afraid of pain: once, having argued with his friends at the gymnasium, he pierced his palm with a large sewing needle - and did not even groan. Among his classmates, who were taller and stronger, no one dared to offend him: despite his frail appearance, Nikolenka fought like crazy, sparing neither himself nor his opponent. He also gained boyish respect through his complete lack of disgust. A horse-drawn horse runs over a stray dog ​​- he’s right there: he’s already picking through the dog’s guts with a stick, trying to determine where the heart is, where the liver is, where the stomach is... He can easily put a frog or a large hairy caterpillar in his mouth. His school satchel is a real morgue for dead rats and crows.

His parents have only two problems with him: the boy eats almost nothing and often gets sick. At the table, just be careful not to slip your plate to one of the brothers. They will eat up everything you give, but try to please this one! I don’t want this, and I don’t want that, and in general, I dipped my spoon into the plate a couple of times - and that’s it: “I’ve already eaten!” And they showed him to the doctor - he prescribed some kind of bitter mixture - but he still doesn’t eat well, he’s just skin and bones!

Nikolai Nikolaevich will eat little and be sick a lot all his life. And endure pain just as steadfastly - almost always on your feet, working. How many times did the most experienced and best doctors examine him and find that the situation was hopeless? How often did he hear the recommendation to “put things in order” and “write a will.” But each time, in some incomprehensible way, he overcame his illness, got back on his feet and got back to work. “I have a very elastic nature...” he explained his recovery to the surprised doctors. Throughout his life, this man wrote about fifty wills.

After his death - Miklouho-Maclay lived only forty-two years - anatomists who opened the corpse of the deceased will be extremely puzzled. They won't find a single healthy organ! And the brain of the deceased will generally confuse them. For it will not be a brain, but some kind of terrible black mess - one continuous tumor...

What force lifted this strange man, suffering simultaneously from several dozen ailments, from his hospital bed? We can say that this strength is incredible will and determination. “Whoever knows well what he must do will tame fate.” This ancient Indian saying served as Miklouho-Maclay’s life motto.

HARD WORKER

When there are no friends, books are the best companions. It’s for the better: “reading is a conversation with the wise, and action is a clash with fools.” Chernyshevsky, Pisarev, Schopenhauer are favorite authors and, at the same time, teachers. Principled, it should be noted, teachers. No sentimentality. So as a student, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay became just as uncompromising: self-willed, impudent, disobedient... And, as a result, such an entry in the “Case of a volunteer student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics Nikolai Mikloukha”: “... be excluded without the right to enter other higher institutions of Russia".

Now it was possible to continue education only abroad. Having obtained a false certificate of lung disease through a doctor he knew, Maclay managed to obtain a foreign passport. The door to Europe was open.

Abroad, he will receive an excellent education and make his first trip - to Africa. This will come later, but for now, on the day of departure, he hides Chernyshevsky’s forbidden novel “What is to be done?” in the basket with his modest belongings. Soon this book will replace the Bible for him, and one of the heroes of the novel, Rakhmetov, will serve as the ideal that he will look up to.

Like Rakhmetov, from now on he will despise all chatter and other human “weaknesses” - love, home comfort, lovely family holidays. The meaning of his life will be concentrated in one word - benefit. Everything for the benefit of the fatherland and humanity, nothing for oneself. And even for relatives - it’s almost the same thing! His mother and his beloved sister Olga, both sick with tuberculosis and living very poorly, would turn their lives into a continuous collection of money for his travels. In response, Maclay will send them parcels... with his dirty laundry.

Dirty laundry is not at all an evil mockery or black ingratitude, but... a forced necessity. He was so busy working that he not only had no time, but also no place to wash his clothes. And there’s simply no reason to give it to the laundry! “Despised pennies,” as he liked to say, were needed for work, for the purchase of instruments, tools, drugs... Once in Constantinople, the Russian consul, having learned about the arrival in Turkey of Miklouha-Maclay, at that time a scientist-traveler already known throughout Europe , greeted him cordially and, in a fit of enthusiastic generosity, exclaimed: “Demand everything your soul desires!” Maclay thought for a second. “I would like to have my dirty laundry washed... at your expense,” he replied shyly. “I spent so much...” The Russian consul opened his mouth in surprise...

It can be said without exaggeration that Miklouho-Maclay was an obsessive workaholic. He worked not by the clock, but to the extreme stage of fatigue, to complete exhaustion. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep instantly, barely resting his head on the pillow.

Once he even managed to sleep through the famous Messina earthquake of 1869, and only the next morning he learned that most of the residents could not sleep a wink all night. Later, he recalled with a laugh how one evening, having come to the village of the Papuans, he, incredibly tired, lay down in the middle of the village and immediately fell asleep. He woke up from a strange sensation - the “ignoble” part of his back was very sore. Opening his eyes, he discovered that someone had severely stabbed his buttocks. Later the following became clear.

When he fell asleep, the frightened Papuans, coming closer to him, began shouting and hooting, wanting to scare the uninvited guest. But the guest did not react to the noise and threats. Because to kill a sleeping “moon-faced” man - who knows, maybe he is an evil sorcerer? - the Papuans did not dare, then, after a short meeting, they began to poke spears into his buttocks - the most, in their opinion, the safest place to live. And again the strange guest showed no reaction. They started poking harder - again no reaction. Maybe he died? And only when some daredevil tried to check this by thrusting a spear between the sleeping man’s teeth, Maclay suddenly muttered loudly, through half-asleep, something in an incomprehensible, “sorcerer’s” language. The Papuans, deciding that this was a terrible curse, threw down their spears and ran into the forest. And they didn’t bother him again until the morning, when he woke up.

“THONE WHO DOESN’T RISK ANYTHING WILL ACHIEVE NOTHING”

Probably not everyone can just lie down and sleep in the middle of angry cannibal savages. This, in addition to fatigue, also requires great courage. And Miklouho-Maclay, as we already know, was a man of rare courage and extraordinary courage. Indeed, “great heroes are always short,” as the Polish proverb notes.

Once in Germany, he dined in a small restaurant with his fellow student, Prince Alexander Meshchersky. A large group of German students sat next to their table. The local company was well drunk, and from there they heard every now and then with varying degrees of excitement: “Germany!.. Ah, Germany!.. Yes, Germany!..” Suddenly some huge student separated from it and, approaching Maclay, he declared defiantly: “You, gentlemen, seem to have your own opinion? That's what I heard, anyway. Maybe you’ll dare to say it out loud and then we’ll... um... argue?” All eyes of the drunken crowd turned to the two Russians. “If you don’t mind,” Maclay answered calmly, “first I will express my opinion to you personally. Come closer. Even closer." The drunken big man bent down very low to the little Russian. Then he straightened up with dignity. “Are you satisfied with my explanation?” - asked the Russian student. “Y-yes... quite!” - said the big man and returned to his company.

“What did you whisper to him?” - the slightly pale Meshchersky asked curiously. - “I said: “Prince Meshchersky will be my second. I hit the ace in ten steps. We’ll only shoot from ten... But maybe you still prefer to return to the table alive?” As you can see, he chose to return to the table alive.”

While traveling around the Arabian Peninsula, he joined a crowd of pilgrims going to holy places on one of the ships. In order not to arouse suspicion, Maclay shaved his head, put on a Muslim turban and changed into an Arab robe. He had no idea that, having boarded this ship, he would find himself surrounded by the most ardent religious fanatics - members of the “sacred brotherhood of Kadir”. By the time he realized this, it was already too late. In addition, there was not a single European on the ship - so there was nowhere to wait for help. One of the pilgrims, a gray-bearded qadir in a white robe and with a huge turban on his head, walked around the strange pilgrim several times and suddenly shouted:

There is an infidel among us! We must throw him overboard! Overboard!

The Kadirs began to shout, jumped up from their seats and surrounded Maclay. The young qadir came close to him and, contrivingly, grabbed him by the neck. Fortunately, the Russian traveler did not lose his composure. He gently but decisively moved the Kadir's hand away, untied the bag and took out the microscope. The Kadirs recoiled: the sight of an unfamiliar object scared them seriously. Maclay did not waste time: waving a microscope, he drove the gray-bearded troublemaker into the hold and slammed the hatch. And then, turning to the angry crowd, he shouted in Arabic: “I am a doctor!” This phrase saved his life: doctors are especially respected by Muslims.

And only when he found himself on the shore, he explained to the hapless members of the “sacred brotherhood” the purpose of the microscope. The Kadirs laughed, clutching their stomachs. The gray-bearded qadir also smiled through his mustache...

“Whoever risks nothing will achieve nothing,” said Miklouho-Maclay. One day one of the Papuans asked him if he was mortal? Maclay handed him a spear and suggested checking it out. Madman? Great psychologist? Probably both. When the spear was already raised to be thrown, other Papuans stood around Maclay in a ring: you cannot kill God! And even if not God, then a true friend.

"TAMO BILEN"

Courage alone is clearly not enough to win the respect of the Papuans. It was necessary to show wisdom, justice, and, if necessary, strength. Coping with this task turned out to be quite easy. It was enough to shoot a bird with a gun, or set fire to a bowl of water, quietly adding alcohol to it. It is much more difficult to win the trust and love of the natives. “Before,” Maclay noted in his diary, “they only said “tamo rus,” a man from Russia, and “kaaram tamo,” a man from the moon. Now most often they say about me “tamo bilen” - a good person. Maybe “tamo bilen” is more important than “karam tamo”... In any case, being “tamo bilen” is more difficult than “kaaram tamo” or “tamo rus”... "

He, indeed, performed a miracle: while other Europeans, landing on the shores of New Guinea, sought only one level of communication: “we are your mirror and whiskey, you are gold and slaves to us,” Maclay studied the life of the Papuans from the inside, becoming them a true friend and protector. He treated them, gave them the necessary advice, taught them useful skills, resolved disputes and stopped wars. He brought with him and sowed seeds of useful plants - pumpkin, watermelon, beans, corn - into the soil of New Guinea. Fruit trees have taken root near his hut. Many Papuans themselves came to his garden to get seeds. For this and for many other things, Maclay was loved. He was invited as a guest of honor to christenings, weddings, funerals and other important events. Holidays were held in his honor and newborns were named.

All this did not come in vain. Late at night, under the light of a flickering lamp, he writes in his diary: “I’m becoming a little Papuan; this morning, for example, I felt hungry while walking and, seeing a large crab, caught it and ate it raw... In the morning I am a zoologist-naturalist, then, if people are sick, I am a cook, a doctor, a pharmacist, a painter and even a laundress... One in a word, a jack of all trades... In general, in my present life, that is, when I often have to be a woodcutter, a cook, a carpenter, and sometimes a laundress and a sailor, and not just a gentleman involved in the natural sciences, my hands have a lot to do Badly. Not only the skin on them has become rough, but even the hands themselves have grown, especially the right one... My hands were not particularly tender before, but now they are positively covered with calluses and burns...”

“Happiness,” wrote Leo Tolstoy, “is pleasure without remorse.” Perhaps this difficult time, filled with dangers, labors and illnesses, was one of the happiest in the life of the Russian traveler. He achieved what he set out to achieve. He did good, and this good benefited everyone - both the people who surrounded him and the science he served.

When a ship came for him and he had to leave, all the Papuans came out to see Maclay off. From his hut to the very shore they ran after him and shouted:

Stay with us, Maclay! We will do whatever you tell us, just don’t leave! Don't leave us, brother! Stay with us!

Maclay's stern heart could not stand it and he burst into tears. For the first time I cried - in front of everyone! But now he no longer worried about what these people might think of him. About the “man from the moon” who cries like a mere mortal... Shaking hands with his friends, he told them:

I'll come back! Ballal Maklay hoodie! Maclay's word is one!

"DOCTOR! YOU ARE A SCAGAIN!”

Leaving the island, Maclay warned the Papuans:

Bad white people may come after me - they deceive, steal people and even kill. Listen to me and do as I say... If a ship appears at sea... send the women and children to the mountains. Hide your weapon. Go ashore without weapons. Because they have fire that kills, and your spears will not help...

What if Tamo Bilen, Maclay’s friend, arrives? - asked one of the Papuans.

Then this person will say two words: “Abadam Maclay” - “Brother of Maclay.” These will be our secret words...

A year later, the German naturalist, Dr. Otto Finsch, planning to visit New Guinea, met a Russian traveler in Sydney. Nikolai Nikolaevich, not knowing about the secret mission of his German colleague, himself gave him the password words. The Papuans, naturally, warmly welcomed the envoy of their white patron. And he hastened to remove the Russian flag from Maclay’s hut and hoisted the flag of his state on the coast. And then he announced the annexation of this territory by Germany.

Miklouho-Maclay's indignation knew no bounds. He sends a telegram to the German Chancellor Bismarck: “The natives of the Maclay Coast reject German annexation. Maclay." Another telegram is sent to Dr. Finsch: “Dr. Finsch, you are a scoundrel!” On the same day, Maclay writes a letter to Alexander III: “I ask that the natives of the Maclay coast be granted Russian protection, recognizing it as independent... in the name of philanthropy and justice, in order to resist the spread of human theft, slavery and the most unscrupulous exploitation of the natives on the Pacific islands... " There was no feedback from the named recipients.

Maclay did not calm down: he began to send articles and letters to all scientific journals and societies in Europe and America, exposing the predatory policies of the colonialists. He even planned to go to Berlin - perhaps he should invite “Herr” Finsch to a duel? - however, events developed too quickly. Less than a month had passed before Britain declared its protectorate over another part of the territory of New Guinea. Dreams of Papuan independence finally collapsed.

The only success: after his speeches in the world press, numerous letters and appeals to influential government and public figures in various countries, France and the Netherlands officially banned the slave trade in their colonies.

Abandoning his scientific studies and family, Maclay hurried to Russia. Having destroyed all obstacles, he made his way to Alexander III, who was vacationing in Livadia, and outlined to the tsar his plan for founding a Russian colony on the shores of Maclay or on one of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. “You are a diplomat, Miklukha,” said the king, after listening to the scientist. “But you can’t fool me with chaff... I’m not going to quarrel with Bismarck over some Papuans.”

Then Maclay decided on a last resort. He placed the following advertisement in several newspapers: “A famous traveler is gathering everyone who wants to settle on the Maclay Coast and on the islands of the Pacific Ocean...”

Was he planning to organize a commune in New Guinea? This is true. “Members of the commune,” he wrote in an article accompanying the announcement, “will begin to work the land together. Products will be distributed according to labor. Each family will build a separate house. You can only settle on lands not occupied by natives. Money is abolished... The colony will constitute a community with elected governing bodies: an elder, a council and a general meeting of settlers. Every year, all net profits from cultivating the land will be divided among all participants in the enterprise and in proportion to their position and work...” He prepared a detailed plan for the establishment of a “rational society”, where there will be no oppression of man by man, where everyone works and gets paid according to their work.

Imagine, this fantastic dream of a Russian traveler could well come true!

A STEP FROM YOUR DREAM

Something happened that even in his most ardent dreams he did not dare to hope for: Russia was shaken up. Within three months, two thousand volunteers applied! Prominent journalists and public figures became interested in the project. Leo Tolstoy showed a keen interest in this idea and even expressed his readiness to become one of the future colonists. To deliver people to the site of the future colony, the Naval Ministry even allocated a large warship... However, at the very last moment, when it seemed that the expedition to the Pacific Islands was a final and decided matter, the tsarist government suddenly became alarmed.

On the initiative of the tsar, a committee of representatives of all government ministries met in October 1886 to discuss Miklouho-Maclay’s proposals. As might be expected, the committee unanimously opposed the project. Alexander III imposed a resolution: “Consider this matter finally over; Refuse Miklouho-Maclay!”

Immediately after this, several official newspapers published mocking notes addressed to the traveler. Even the completely independent “Dragonfly” and “Alarm Clock” published cartoons of him: Maclay, with his hands on his hips, stands with one leg on the back of a Papuan standing on all fours. Signature under the picture: “His Honor Miklouho-Maclay, the new Pacific landowner.” Once again the yellow newspapers surprised with their metamorphoses: from “Russian pride and glory” he instantly turned into a “native king” and “famous adventurer”. The conservative newspaper Novoye Vremya published a huge article about Maclay entitled “Scientific Quackery.” And a completely inexplicable thing: the Academy of Sciences refused to accept the gift - that is, for free! - extensive anthropological and ethnographic collections of Maclay. Collections that scientific institutes in Britain, Germany, France and other most developed countries of the world could only dream of!

It was difficult to resist such a stream of lies and dirt. “I have the impression that the Russian Academy seems to exist only for Germans!” - the scientist said in his hearts. There was some truth in this reproach: it was then that the great Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev was not elected as an academician...

The only thing that consoled him were the letters that came to him from all over Russia from his admirers. A letter from an unknown woman has survived:

“I can’t help but somehow express my deep respect for you and surprise as a person; not the kind of surprise that makes you run to see a new product, but the kind that makes you think why there are so few people who look like a person. Once again, please accept my deep respect and sympathy as a Russian. Russian".

Leo Tolstoy, trying to provide him with moral support in these dark days, wrote to him: “I am... touched and admired in your work by the fact that, as far as I know, you were the first, undoubtedly, to prove by experience that man is always man , i.e. a kind, sociable creature, with whom one can and should enter into communication only with goodness and truth, and not with guns and vodka. And you proved this with a feat of true courage. Your experience with wild (people) sets an era in the science that I serve - in the science of how people can live with each other...”

“EVERYONE WILL BE BORN WITH AN ASS FIT FOR THE THRONE”

Goethe, a German sage, philosopher and poet, wrote in his declining years: “National hatred is a strange thing. At the lower levels of education it manifests itself especially strongly and ardently. But there is a stage where it completely disappears and where you feel the happiness and sorrow of the neighboring people as well as your own. This level corresponds to my nature, and I strengthened myself on it long before I passed sixty...” Miklouho-Maclay gained a foothold at this level at the age of twenty-six.

The Russian scientist made an important discovery: those whom Darwin and other scientists called “wild” - the Papuans of New Guinea, the natives of Oceania, and the Australian aborigines - are the same “homo sapiens” as civilized peoples. Having carefully studied the biological and physiological properties of the brain of dark-skinned people, the structure of their skull, Miklouho-Maclay came to the conclusion: there are no racial differences in the structure and functioning of the “thinking machine”! The brain structure of all people, regardless of race, is the same. This is the brain - Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens) - a certain unified category. These or those differences in the pattern of cerebral convolutions, in the weight and size of the brain are of a private nature and do not have a decisive significance. The shape and size of the skull and brain do not provide grounds for distinguishing “higher” and “lower” races. Within large races there are groups with different skull shapes. Brain size and weight are also not reliable criteria for assessing intelligence.

Later studies confirmed this point of view. Today it is known, for example, that the weight of Turgenev's brain was 2012 grams, Academician Pavlov - 1653 grams, Mendeleev - 1571 grams, Gorky - 1420 grams, Anatole France - 1017 grams... As we see, the main thing is not the size of the brain, but the ability to use it use.

Miklouho-Maclay also made another important conclusion: the division of peoples into “dolichocephalic” and “brachycephalic” - that is, “long-headed” and “short-headed”, or, in the language of racists, into people of a higher and lower race, is a dangerous delusion. Among dark-skinned peoples there are both “long-headed” and “short-headed” - and almost to the same extent as among civilized Europeans. The Russian scientist risked putting forward his “anti-racial” theory. Its essence is as follows.

The shape of a person’s head is largely determined by what his many ancestors did. If among them were people primarily engaged in intellectual or minor physical work - for example, aristocrats, officials, bankers, landowners, merchants, writers - the shape of the head, in this case, may increase, “lengthen”. If the number of ancestors was dominated by people of heavy physical labor - for example, peasants, workers, soldiers, athletes - then their descendant’s head shape may decrease, “round up”. However, Maclay emphasizes, the main thing is not this, but the fact that even with such physiological transformations, the mental qualities of the brain in both remain practically unchanged. Consequently, “civilization” is not in the size of the head, but in skill. And skill, as you know, is an acquired skill. This is how the Russian scientist reasoned.

By the way, about ten years ago the German magazine Der Spiegel published the results of a scientific study. It completely confirms Miklouho-Maclay’s assumptions.

A group of scientists decided to subject the notorious “racial theory” to scientific revision. In nine countries - Great Britain, Germany, Ukraine, Mongolia, Japan, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Brazil - detailed anthropological measurements of the inhabitants of these countries were carried out over several years. In addition, attention was paid to the place of residence and occupation of the subjects. After processing all the data, which took a whole six months, the scientists stated with great amazement: in percentage terms, regardless of the country of study, the number of “long-headed” and “short-headed” turned out to be approximately the same. Namely: 35% to 65%. It has also been observed that the percentage of longheads becomes noticeably higher in large cities, and decreases in rural areas and small towns. It is curious that scientists have not discovered a connection between the shape of the head and a person’s profession. But they noted, although insignificant, the predominance of “long-headed” people - about 57% - among different levels of managers and superiors.

In their comments, scientists quoted Bernard Shaw, who noted that “each of us will be born with a backside fit for a throne.” And as a final summary, they cited the famous statement of Confucius, who twenty-six centuries before this scientific “discovery” argued: “the nature of people is the same; They are separated only by customs.”

“MACLAY DOESN’T NEED WOMEN...”

Arthur Schopenhauer once joked angrily: “The only man who cannot live without women is a gynecologist.” Miklouho-Maclay, a scientist to the core, was never one of the ladies' men, and in many ways shared the views of the German pessimistic philosopher. Under his influence, from the age of 18 he adopted a casual and patronizing manner in communicating with women. The fashion for “nihilism” also contributed to this. He, young Bazarov, chopping frogs, does not want to deal with trifles. He is a “man of action”.

When a certain Augusta, a young lady from the German province, begins to bombard him with love letters, Maclay will answer her completely in the spirit of Bazarov: “I write when I want to say or communicate something, and I write what I need, and not empty phrases..." And then: “I am a bored egoist, completely indifferent to the aspirations and lives of other good people, who is obedient only to my own desires, who considers kindness, friendship, generosity only beautiful words that pleasantly tickle the long ears of good people. Yes, dear young lady, I don’t look like the portrait that your imagination painted... In conclusion, I give you advice: when you want to see people beautiful and interesting, observe them only from afar...”

Later, on the islands of Oceania, Miklouho-Maclay would leave the following entry in his diary: “The women sat at a respectful distance, as befits “number two”....” And next to it: “... a normal attitude (toward a woman - A.K.) has been preserved in the Papuan world.”

What kind of normal attitude is this? We read further: “For Papuans, women are more necessary than for us Europeans. Their women work for men, but with us it’s the other way around. This circumstance is associated with the absence of unmarried women among the Papuans and a significant number of old maids among us. Here every girl knows that she will have a husband. This is why Papuans care relatively little about their appearance. And they get married early - at 13-14 years old.” Quite a strange thought for a European, isn’t it?

Is it easy for a young and sexually mature man to live without a woman? Probably not very much. Even if he declares that “we have no time to make love, we are in a hurry to reach the goal.”

When the Russian traveler first set foot on the shores of New Guinea, many Papuan women ran away when they saw him, leaving traces of “bear disease” on the ground. However, the women’s behavior soon changed: they vying with each other and began to flirt with the “man from the moon.” As soon as the scientist appeared somewhere, they emerged from nowhere, lowered their eyes, swam past, almost touching the “tamo rusa”. Moreover, their gait became shamelessly fidgety, and their skirts moved even more vigorously from side to side. That was real coquetry.

To all the marriage proposals that came from literally every village - who didn’t dream of becoming related to him! - Nikolai Nikolaevich invariably answered:

Maclay doesn't need women. Women talk too much and are generally noisy, and Maclay doesn’t like that.

One day, the Papuans of one of the villages decided to marry their great friend at all costs...

HOW TO MARRY “TAMO RUS”?

The most beautiful girl was chosen as the bride. Bungaraya, that was her name. When Maclay saw her for the first time, he involuntarily exclaimed: “Fairy!”

In general, according to Miklouho-Maclay’s descriptions, Papuan women were quite beautiful: “...The skin is smooth, light brown in color. Hair is naturally matte black. The eyelashes reach a considerable length and are beautifully curved upward... The breasts of young girls are conical in shape and remain small and pointed until the first feeding... The buttocks are well developed. Men find it beautiful if their wives move their rear parts when walking so that with each step one of the buttocks is sure to turn to the side. I often saw in villages little girls, seven or eight years old, who were taught this wagging of their butts by their relatives: the girls spent whole hours memorizing these movements. The dance of women consists mainly of such movements.”

The women were busy dressing the bride. The best tortoiseshell combs were brought, the best aprons of coconut fringe with black and red stripes, the most beautiful necklaces and bracelets and the most beautiful earrings in the form of chains and bone rings. Unaware of the conspiracy, the scientist, returning to his hut in the evening, spread a blanket, inflated a rubber pillow and, taking off his shoes, dozed off. In the morning, with the punctuality of a scientist, he wrote in his diary:

“I was awakened by a rustling sound, as if in the hut itself; it was, however, so dark that it was impossible to make out anything. I turned over and dozed off again. In a dream, I felt a slight shaking of the bunks, as if someone was lying on them. Perplexed and surprised by the courage of the subject, I extended my hand to make sure whether anyone really lay down next to me. I was not mistaken; but as soon as I touched the native's body, his hand grabbed mine; and I soon could not doubt that a woman was lying next to me. Convinced that this incident was the work of many and that dads and brothers were involved, etc., I decided to immediately get rid of the uninvited guest, who still did not let go of my hand. I quickly jumped off the barle and said: “No glee, Maklay nangeli avar aren.” (“You go, Maclay doesn’t need women.”) After waiting until my night visitor slipped out of the hut, I again took my place on the barl.

While I was awake, I heard rustling, whispering, and quiet talking outside the hut, which confirmed my assumption that not only this stranger, but her relatives and others took part in this trick. It was so dark that, of course, the woman’s face was not visible.

The next morning I did not consider it appropriate to collect information about the previous night’s episode - such trifles could not be of interest to the “man from the moon”. I could, however, notice that many people knew about it and its results. They seemed so surprised that they didn’t know what to think.”

Maclay's temptations did not end there. The Papuans probably decided: how could Maclay, in the darkness of the night, see who was predicted to be his wife? It is necessary to organize a show, and he himself chooses the path that suits his heart.

The bridesmaid ceremony was arranged, but Maclay again puzzled the Papuans. He said decisively:

Aren! No!

ALL FAIRIES BITE

And yet the affair with the “fairy” took place. One day he swam in the river at dawn, and by evening he was already lying with a fever. It was here that Bungaraya showed up to the sick scientist. Could the exhausted wanderer continue to resist his own nature and the magical charms of the young beauty? “I suppose,” Miklouho-Maclay wrote in his diary after the first night spent with her, “that Papuan caresses of men are of a different kind than European ones, at least Bungaraya watched my every move with surprise and although she often smiled, I don’t think that it was only a consequence of pleasure."

From that day on, she began to come to him almost every night.

Two more excerpts from Maclay's diary:

"May 10. In the evening Bungaraya came again. In the morning, when leaving, I gave her a piece of katun, which, it seems, she was not satisfied with... She said something, but I could not understand, it seems that she asked for money, wanted earrings, a bracelet. Hearing that I was laughing (it was dark), she began to mutter something angrily, and I laughed even more, she pushed me in the side several times, not too gently, then even intended to bite me twice out of frustration. I calmed her down..."

"may 13. It was 7 o'clock in the evening, I was sitting at my meager dinner, when for a moment my people both came out onto the back veranda. Bungaraya carefully made her way past me into the bedroom. I had to hide it, it’s good that the bed has a curtain. She brought a plate of eggs. It’s strange that she came, and even with a gift, when I didn’t give her anything the day before.”

Subsequently, Miklouho-Maclay no longer devoted space in his diary to his nocturnal adventures, getting off with short entries like “Bungaraya came again” or “Bungaraya comes every day.”

From letters and the few surviving diaries it is known that Bungaraya is not the only love of the Russian traveler. There was also Manuela, “a beautiful Peruvian from Callo,” and Mira, “a remarkably thick-lipped girl,” and Pinras, “not a pretty girl, even in the European sense.” And also Mkal, “an interesting object who turned out to be a pretty young woman.”

In one of the huts of the Oran-Utan tribe, he saw a girl whose face immediately caught his eye with her cuteness and pleasant expression. The girl's name was Mkal, she was 13 years old. Miklouho-Maclay said that he wanted to draw it. She hurried to put on a shirt, but he warned that this was not necessary. Soon Mkal stopped being afraid of the strange and bearded white man. In the evenings, when Miklouho-Maclay was working, she sat next to him. “Here girls become women early,” the traveler wrote in his diary. “I’m almost convinced that if I tell her: “Come with me,” and pay my relatives for her, the novel is ready.” However, he could neither tell her “come with me” nor take Mkal with him. He set too many tasks for himself as a scientist, and marriage and family are, in his opinion, “joy for a month and sadness for a lifetime.”

And then one day Maclay, amid the cries of the natives who wished him a happy journey, sat down with the servants in the pirogue. Mkal was also in the crowd; she stood silently on the shore. “I would willingly take her with me,” thought Miklouho-Maclay again. While the pirogue floated down the river, Miklouho-Maclay and Mkal did not take their eyes off each other.

RIDDLE OF THE SIX LETTERS

And yet, Maclay did not meet his true love in New Guinea or even in Russia. This happened in Australia. At this time, Nikolai Nikolaevich was 38. His chosen one, Margaret Robertson, the daughter of the Australian governor, was much younger and looked like a 13-14 year old girl.

In his numerous travels, Miklouho-Maclay completely undermined his health. The fever haunted him, and he decided to live a little in a country with a favorable climate - Australia. On December 4, 1881, walking through Clovely House Park, he saw old Robertson, a recent governor of New South Wales. Robertson was walking through the park with his daughter Margaret. Seeing her, Miklouho-Maclay was instantly captivated. A small, modest, shy and charming girl immediately won his heart.

Margaret's relatives and friends opposed the marriage and even demanded that Miklouho-Maclay give permission to marry from the Emperor himself. Alexander III favorably met Miklouho-Maclay's request, and the wedding took place in Australia.

A month after the wedding, Miklouho-Maclay wrote to his friend Alexander Meshchersky: “Indeed, I now understand that a woman can bring true happiness into the life of a person who never believed that it existed in the world.”

Margaret bore him two sons - Alexander and Vladimir. Nikolai and Margaret loved each other very much: he was a gentle and caring husband, she was a passionately loving, affectionate and devoted wife.

Their happiness was as short as a breath. They lived together for only four years. And their happiness turned out to be mercilessly difficult. It played and shone against the chilly, dim background of almost continuous illness and lack of money, bordering on real poverty. Margaret, who moved to her husband in St. Petersburg, deprived of friends and relatives, who did not speak Russian, felt both her body and soul chilling among the unusual Russian snows and under the gray St. Petersburg sky. A few lines from her diary: “January 18, 1888. I don't sing or play as often as I'd like, because the fireplace in the living room takes up so much wood, and we have to be very careful how we use it... March 22, 1888. This morning they sent me a request to deposit 12 rubles for the piano for the coming month. I had the fortitude to say that I no longer needed the piano, and they sent for it at 4 o’clock. It's gone! My poor room looks very gloomy and empty. I’m completely killed that I don’t have him anymore...”

He was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg. At Margaret's request, the carver engraved six capital Latin letters N.B.D.C.S.U. on the tombstone, which she once wrote on the first photograph given to him long before the wedding.

Margaret Miklouho-Maclay returned to her homeland and lived another 48 long years of sad life without him. She lived modestly - on a small income from the property that belonged to her husband in Russia. The revolution of 1917 put an end to this too... But Margaret always remembered Russia brightly and with love. She conveyed her reverent feeling for him to Nikolai Nikolaevich’s sons, Alexander and Vladimir.

What do those strange Latin letters inscribed on Maclay’s grave mean? Nobody knows the exact answer to this question. However, many biographers agree that, most likely, these are the initial letters of the words of the oath that Nicholas and Margaret once swore to each other: “None but death can separate us” - “Nothing but death can separate us.”

AMATEUR SPY

Well, what about the “espionage” of the Russian traveler? Was? Did not have? Let us follow the principle of Miklouho-Maclay himself: “lies were created to save slaves and cowards; the only true path of a free person is the truth,” and we honestly admit: yes, indeed, Nikolai-Nikolaevich sent reports to Russia that, generally speaking, can be called “spy.” Speaking in particular, several reservations should be made here.

Firstly, during the entire period of his “espionage” the Russian scientist sent a total of only three (!) reports to Russia.

Secondly: in collecting information for his reports, he used not the information that his friends and acquaintances - political and public figures in England and Australia - told him during personal meetings, but mainly Australian newspapers.

Thirdly: from a military point of view, Miklouho-Maclay’s reports show him as a complete amateur. He collects military information in an extremely careless and unprofessional manner. For example, when listing converted ships, he ends their list with the words “and others whose names I don’t remember.” Sometimes the “would-be-scout” himself is not sure of the reliability of his information: “There are (it seems) 3 small armored ships in Melbourne, 1 or 2 in Adelaide.” As for the actual secret data, the Russian scientist did not even try to reveal it.

Historian A.Ya. Massov in the book “Russia and Australia in the second half of the 19th century” writes: “Is it possible today, more than 100 years after the events described, to call the information activity of N.N. Miklouho-Maclay “espionage”, and he himself be classified as a “knight of the cloak and dagger”? Most likely no. The information he collected and transmitted to Russia was of a fairly innocent nature. This, in fact, has been the work of diplomats at all times, and in the absence of a full-fledged Russian embassy in Australia at that time, the Russian scientist only occupied a certain niche in the complex system of relations between the two empires - Russian and British.

He was certainly driven by patriotic aspirations and a sincere desire to promote territorial acquisitions and strengthen Russia’s position in the South Pacific. Moreover, the Russian scientist wanted the indigenous inhabitants of the northern coast of New Guinea, so dear to his heart, to become subjects of the Russian crown and to be protected from European adventurers, including gold hunters, who often invaded new British colonies, destroying the traditional way of life indigenous tribes. Note that gold had already been found in New Guinea by that time. It is possible that a certain role in the participation of N.N. Miklouho-Maclay’s collection of military-political information was influenced by his desire to thank Alexander III for subsidizing his scientific activities in the past and to morally justify applying for a new scholarship.”

“Ultimately,” concludes Massov, “N.N. Miklouho-Maclay remained in history as an outstanding scientist and traveler. The informal side of his activities, of course, which did not remain a secret for the Australians, did not prevent them from recognizing his scientific achievements and significant contribution to the development of Russian-Australian relations.”

THE MYSTERY BURNED IN THE FIREPLACE

Shortly before his death, Miklouho-Maclay asked his wife to fulfill his last wish: to burn his diaries. Margaret did not dare refuse him. She burned them in the fireplace without even trying to find out what terrible secret they kept. It would seem that everything that the Russian traveler wanted to keep silent about turned into a handful of ash in an extinguished fireplace. But, as they say, there is nothing secret that would not someday become apparent.

The first who managed to lift the veil over the mystery of the burnt diaries was the Russian writer and historian Boris Nosik. No matter how shocking this may sound, the truth is this: Miklouho-Maclay was sexually attracted to underage girls and boys... Now it becomes clear where his strange, unfounded hostility to women - mature women - came from.

“If Maclay realized back in his student years,” writes Boris Nosik in the book “The Mystery of Maclay,” that he was “badly coping with this interest,” he could not help but think about the consequences of this “interest.” In Europe, and especially in Russia, such “interest” could end badly. Maclay already knew from books that in tropical countries, among the natives, his “interest” would not seem criminal to anyone. Girls mature there for love at 13, and at 12, and at 10 years old... And he decided that he had only one thing left - escape to the tropics... Or death (like Tchaikovsky)... He was talented, energetic, furious... He turned the course of his life. He fled to the tropics."

Prince Meshchersky is probably the only person privy to this intimate secret of Maclay. In letters to him, Nikolai Nikolaevich is extremely frank. Here is a letter dated May 11, 1871, sent by Maclay from Valparaiso: “We have been here in Valparaiso for 3 weeks. In the meantime, I became very interested in one girl of 14 and a half years old - and sometimes I do a bad job of dealing with this interest. She asked, among other things, yesterday to get her some Russian stamps; Please send her about 12 different, but already used, stamps with the following address... I will be very grateful. Do not forget! You may smile when reading this request - but I so rarely meet people I like that for them I am ready to do a lot and even am ready to bother you with these trifles.”

The prince was probably not embarrassed by his friend’s “interest”, nor by the strange request, nor by the red-hot impatience in his tone...

Here is a letter dated June 21, 1876: “I am not sending the portrait of my temporary wife, which I promised in the last letter, because I did not take one, but the Micronesian girl Mira, who is with me, if ever she will be, will not be earlier than a year.” Another letter from South America: “There were two girls here, very (physically) developed for their age; the eldest, who was not yet 14, only needed a man with the largest possible penis; the youngest, who was hardly 13 years old, had beautiful, full breasts... The night was well spent in the hut of Señor Don Mariano Gonzalez.”

It would be possible to quote other “revelatory” letters, but... Let's stop there. After all, in the words of Maclay himself, “to see people as beautiful, one should only observe them from afar.” And we seem to have come too close.

Be that as it may, small things should not detract from the great things that exist in a person. After all, “not everyone,” Boris Nosik draws a line under “Maclay’s secret,” “who fled to the tropics, became Maclay, a pioneer of science, a discoverer of new paths, a humanist, a defender of the downtrodden, a friend of the natives and their saint, a hero, an adventurer, a winner, a great son of his homeland. Not everyone was able to ultimately curb themselves and “take a wife” in order to finally return to the world of Christian civilization. He turned out to be capable of this too. Honor and glory to him..."

Alexander KAZAKEVICH

NIKOLAY NIKOLAEVICH MIKLOUKHO-MACLAY

The great traveler Miklouho-Maclay was born on June 17, 1846 in the village of Rozhdestvenskoye near Borovichi, Novgorod province. He was the second child in the family.

With the birth of Kolya, the Miklukh family (as they were called then) moved to St. Petersburg, where three more children were born. The eldest Miklukha, Nikolai Ilyich, became an engineer-captain and was appointed head of the passenger station and station of the St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway. The family settled right in the station building on the second floor. Of course, life was hectic, but still we got our own home. Nikolai Ilyich, usually gloomy, now joked a lot, took his family out of town, and acquired a good library. In addition, he decided to seriously engage in raising children, who, in his opinion, should know foreign languages, history, literature, and also engage in painting and music. Teachers were hired for this purpose.

Nikolai Ilyich had been suffering from a cough for a long time, but did not pay attention to it. He cared more about the health of his children. But doctors soon discovered Nikolai Ilyich had pulmonary tuberculosis, from which he died in December 1857.

The family found itself in a difficult situation. Ekaterina Semyonovna had to sell the furniture and rent a more modest home

on Bolshaya Meshchanskaya street. Seryozh and Kolya managed to get a job at a school at the Lutheran Church of St. Anne, where teaching was conducted in German. Thus, the children, according to the will of the late father, could master a foreign language. But Nikolai flatly refused this idea. Then an acquaintance of the mother, Valentin Miklashevsky, who at that time was studying at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, undertook to prepare the boys for admission to the gymnasium. In 1858, Nikolai Miklukha passed the exams for the 3rd grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg gymnasium.

Nikolai studied just at a time when the situation in the country became tense, serf uprisings and student unrest often broke out. Mother was worried about Kolya, since he took an active part in gatherings. Her anxiety especially increased when the uprising broke out in Poland. Several hundred Russian soldiers and officers went over to the side of the rebels, and the “Committee of Russian Officers in Poland” was created.

When the uprising was defeated, a wave of chauvinism swept across the country, affecting the Miklukh family: Nicholas was expelled from the gymnasium, and Ekaterina Semyonovna was threatened with expulsion from St. Petersburg.

The mother consulted with their family doctor, Pyotr Ivanovich Bokov (this conversation took place during Kolya’s sudden illness). But Nikolai said that he could recover later, but now he needed to get permission to travel abroad.

Ekaterina Semyonovna persistently, but to no avail, went to various authorities. The officials did not allow him to leave because Nikolai had just been expelled from the university and had no right to enroll anywhere else, and they were afraid that he would create some kind of secret organization abroad.

Finally, Bokov gathered a council of his familiar doctors, who decided to send Nikolai Miklukha for treatment to Switzerland or the Black Forest. So the young man received permission to travel abroad.

In the spring of 1864, Nikolai Miklukha settled in Germany. In material terms, he lived hard, there was no work, the money was running out. In addition, Nikolai was not entirely healthy.

In Germany, Miklukha entered the philosophy department of a university in the small town of Heidelberg. Here he first managed to get a pretty decent job: he found his former teacher Valentin Valentinovich Miklashevsky, who was finishing his education in Heidelberg. The latter helped Miklukha find housing to give him the opportunity to study.

In the end, Miklukha joined the Polish emigrant society and seriously, to the great displeasure of his mother, began to learn the Polish language.

When the mother wrote that the idol of Miklukha, N.G. Chernyshevsky was sent to Siberia for seven years, he responded by saying that he wanted to help Nikolai Gavrilovich with money. Through strict savings he managed to save a small amount, but it was not enough. Then Nikolai decided to go on vacation to the mountains, to the Black Forest, where life was cheaper, and save money.

Nikolai Miklukha settled in a small hotel in the mountains, where he was almost completely alone. The only people he interacted with were the owners and two workers.

Miklukha walked almost the entire southern Black Forest, climbed its highest point - Mount Feldberg, and admired the Alps and Vosges.

Miklukha managed to save quite a large sum for Chernyshevsky - 180 rubles. He handed this money to Miklashevsky, who was leaving for Warsaw. But Miklashevsky could not send them to Chernyshevsky, since the Polish uprising had been completely suppressed by that time, all sorts of repressions had begun in the country, and everyone feared arrest.

Miklouha settled in Leipzig, where he changed his last name and became Miklouho-Maclay. In his own words, it was a family name. The fact is that Miklukha’s ancestors lived in Little Russia, and in every Little Russian settlement it was customary to have a nickname in addition to a surname. One of the ancestors often wore an eared hat - malakhai, which over time became “makhalay”, or “makhlai”. But since the word “makhlai” also meant “oaf,” Nikolai’s great-grandfather, Stepan, began to sign his name everywhere instead of “Miklukha-Makhlai” - “Miklouho-Maclay.”

Nikolai Nikolaevich really liked this surname, and he decided to take it for himself.

Soon Miklouho-Maclay, on the advice of his friend, Prince Meshchersky, moved to Jena, where he met Professor Ernst Haeckel, an ardent supporter of the teachings of Charles Darwin.

Nikolai began to attend his lectures with pleasure. Comparative anatomy became his other passion. The range of his scientific interests was finally determined: Miklouho-Maclay became interested in the problem of changes in the forms of organisms under the influence of the external environment.

One day, Professor Haeckel called Miklouho-Maclay and a certain Heinrich Fohl, a student from Geneva, to visit him and announced to them that he was working with sponges and needed assistants, which he invited Maclay and Foly to become. Haeckel also explained that he would have to go to Africa to work.

In July 1866, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay turned 20 years old. Soon, as Haeckel promised, they went on a trip to the Canary Islands.

On November 25, 1866, the difficult ascent to the then snow-covered Tenerife Peak began.

Miklouho-Maclay began searching for and studying fish and sponges. The latter were the lowest representatives of multicellular animals that led a sedentary lifestyle and did not have nervous tissue.

Miklouho-Maclay managed to discover a new species of sponge, unknown to science, which he called “Guancha blanca” - in honor of the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands, the Guanches, who were destroyed by the colonialists by the beginning of the 17th century.

Three months later, Haeckel, Vol and Miklouho-Maclay went to Mogador, on the coast of Morocco.

A week later, Haeckel left for Germany, and Miklouho-Maclay and Fol, dressed in Berber costumes, set off on foot to the capital of Morocco.

Fol and Maclay stopped at various villages along the way. They immediately established friendly relations with the Berbers. In some villages they stayed and treated the local population, since they were doctors after all.

In the end, the travelers visited Rabat, and then returned to Mogador to collect the property and collections they had left behind. Soon they boarded an English ship bound for Europe.

Miklouho-Maclay also decided to examine zoological collections in European museums. For this purpose, he visited France, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

In Sweden, Nikolai Nikolaevich learned that the famous polar explorer Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld was going on another expedition. Miklouho-Maclay asked him for permission to join the expedition, but received a categorical refusal and returned to Jena, upset.

Here he began to study human anatomy and physiology even more persistently.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay graduated from the university in 1868. Soon he met the young German zoologist Anton Dorn. The latter planned to establish a zoological station somewhere on the Mediterranean coast, open to scientists from all countries. Miklouho-Maclay liked this idea, and he and Dorn left for Messina.

There Nikolai Nikolaevich decided that the local fauna did not interest him and that it would be better to go to the Red Sea.

The only problem was money. Mother sent 300 rubles with great displeasure.

In March 1869, Miklouho-Maclay arrived in Egypt. Here he initially had a very hard time due to the hostility of the local population, but soon the Arabs learned that he was a doctor and came with good intentions, and became friends with him.

From Egypt, Maclay moved to Saudi Arabia, visited the town of Yambo el-Bar, and wandered around the coral shallows of Jeddah.

In Jeddah, Nikolai Nikolaevich rented a cozy room where he could work calmly, because life here was three times cheaper than in Egypt.

Miklouho-Maclay is increasingly fascinated by the study of the local population: their way of life, habits, customs. For this purpose, he left Jeddah and walked on foot to Ethiopia, to the town of Massawa. Here Miklouho-Maclay first fell ill with fever and scurvy, but nevertheless set out on foot across the Nubian Desert to Sudan.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay returned to his homeland only at the age of 23, but his scientific works were already known in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The collections he collected were also of great value.

Miklouho-Maclay planned to engage in research in the North Pacific Ocean, in the Sea of ​​Japan and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. However, he became interested in studying the life of the peoples of Oceania, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia.

Miklouho-Maclay zealously began to implement his plans. He fell ill with fever again, but, having recovered a little, decided to go to Down to meet Charles Darwin. However, this trip was canceled due to a new attack of illness.

Miklouho-Maclay left for Jena. But he did not have money to return home, so he was again forced to ask his mother to send it. Ekaterina Semyonovna, much to the displeasure of her older brother Sergei, sent the small amount that she managed to save to leave St. Petersburg, since she had discovered the first signs of tuberculosis.

The Council of the Russian Geographical Society allocated 1,200 rubles to Maclay, which, unfortunately, would not have been enough to purchase the necessary tools. Miklouho-Maclay also received notification of acceptance onto the corvette Vityaz for a voyage to the shores of the Pacific Ocean; but again he had to eat at his own expense.

Nevertheless, Miklouho-Maclay, having previously approved his program at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society, got ready to go to New Guinea, “to the cannibals,” which shocked many.

The corvette Vityaz set off on a circumnavigation of the world on October 27, 1870. On November 2 he arrived in Copenhagen.

Here Miklouho-Maclay became very ill. However, he did not give up his idea, so once in Holland he obtained permission for research from the Minister of Colonies.

The captain of the "Vityaz" Nazimov patronized Miklouho-Maclay. The latter suffered greatly due to attacks of fever, and Nazimov tried in vain to persuade him to sail on a corvette to Japan.

But Miklouho-Maclay stubbornly wanted to get to New Guinea. The Vityaz arrived there on September 19, 1871.

On the morning of September 20, Nazimov landed Maclay in New Guinea. The latter took with him nothing but a four-boat, as well as two assistants, Boy and Wilson.

Nikolai Nikolaevich had a hard time in New Guinea. The sailors were very wary of him at first, but soon got used to it. Rumors about Miklouho-Maclay were transmitted from one village to another, each more fantastic than the other. The natives began to call him “friend,” “brother,” “father.”

Once again Miklouho-Maclay fell ill. He was almost dying when doctors advised him to go to Sydney. Here in Sydney, the scientist finally recovered from his illness. And here he learned that the British were trying to enslave the peoples of Oceania, Melanesia and New Guinea, and therefore a protest was sent to the Commissioner of Western Oceania, Arthur Gordon.

In Sydney Maclay met his future wife. She was the daughter of a fairly influential man, Sir John Robertson. Margaret-Emma (or Margarita, or Rita) Robertson has been a widow for 5 years. She fell in love with Nikolai Nikolaevich at first sight, and the feeling was mutual.

But the father unexpectedly opposed his daughter’s wedding and declared that the beggar Maclay was not a match for her.

However, Margarita insisted on her own, and the wedding took place on February 27, 1884 (four years before Maclay’s death).

Life required Miklouho-Maclay's intervention in the political affairs of Oceania. Nikolai Nikolaevich at that time stood at the head of the “anti-slavery” movement.

Defending New Guinea and Oceania from the tyranny of foreign colonialists, Miklouho-Maclay played a great political game: he sought to set the imperialists at odds with each other, using their own contradictions.

The last years of his life Maclay lived with his wife and two sons in Russia. He made money by writing articles for newspapers.

In 1887, Nikolai Nikolaevich’s illness worsened.

In 1888 he was admitted to the Willie Clinic, where he nevertheless continued to work.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay died on April 14, 1888 at the Willie Clinic, at the age of 42. The newspaper reported that “...death found Nikolai Nikolaevich when he was processing the second volume of notes about his travels.”

During his lifetime, Miklouho-Maclay wrote about 50 wills, but did not leave a single one at the moment of his death.

This text is an introductory fragment.

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Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay

“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 famous traveler is so interesting that it can be 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

On April 14, 1844 in Moscow in the Resurrection Church on Sretenka N. I. Miklukha married Ekaterina Semyonovna Becker, daughter of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Colonel Becker, who then served as an official of the Moscow Order of Public Charity.

The groom was 25 years old, the bride was eight years younger than him. The newlyweds went to their place of service - the village of Yazykovo, Borovichi district, Novgorod province. Here the couple rented a room on the Rozhdestvenskoye estate, owned by the landowner N. N. Evstifeev. On July 2, 1845, the couple had their first child, Sergei (died in 1895). On July 17, 1846, a second son was born, named Nikolai. He was baptized in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Shegrina Gora; successor - Major General A. N. Ridiger, came from a family that in the future will give Russia a patriarch.

On August 10, 1846, Nikolai Ilyich Miklukha was appointed assistant to the head of the experimental railway track; In the fall, the Miklukh family moved to St. Petersburg to a government apartment. On March 18, 1848, N. Miklukha was appointed head Nikolaevsky railway station and the first 12 miles of the road to Kolpino.

By that time, the family had expanded - on May 11, 1849, daughter Olga was born (died in 1880). In August 1849, the head of the family was appointed head of the experimental route between Vyshny Volochok and Tver, its length was 112 miles. However, in October 1850, N. Miklukha displeased the head of the Southern Directorate of the Nikolaev Road and was removed from business, awaiting a new appointment for more than a year. Nevertheless, in December he was awarded the Order of St. Anna 3rd degree.

Finally, on October 9, 1851, engineer-captain Miklukha, without promotion, was appointed head of the VI department of the Nikolaev railway, stretching from Spirovskaya station to Klin. The family lived in Tver. On May 31, 1853, another son was born - Vladimir. In the period 1853-1855, N. Miklukha received several commendations and a medal “For excellent and diligent service” for the uninterrupted transportation of troops during the Crimean War. However, on his 39th birthday, October 24, 1855, he was removed from his position. Presumably, this was done at his own request due to his sharply deteriorating health: tuberculosis developed.

At the end of 1855, the Miklukh family moved to St. Petersburg, to an apartment near the Tauride Garden. Here, on April 12, 1856, the last son, Mikhail, was born, who later became the collector and keeper of the family archive. The head of the family was in charge of the Aleksandrovsky Mechanical Plant at the Nikolaev Railway. In December 1856, he was appointed head of the construction of the Vyborg Highway, which finally undermined his health. On December 20, 1857, N. I. Miklukha died at the age of 41.

Since family savings were invested in stocks, and the widow made a living by drawing geographical maps, she was able 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.

Brothers and sisters

Older brother Sergei Miklukha(1845-1895) - lawyer, in -1894 he was a local magistrate (3rd precinct,

Sister Olga Miklukha(1849-1881) - artistic painting on porcelain.

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.

In In second St. 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, his mother agreed to send the young man to study abroad, in 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, after entering the University of Heidelberg, 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 a 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 transferred to Leipzig University.

There he entered the faculty, which trained managers in the field of agriculture and forestry. After attending 4 courses there, he went to Jena and entered the Faculty of Medicine, where he studied for 3 years.

Expedition to the Canary Islands

The acquaintance took place, and Huxley turned out to be especially kind. Only on November 15, the expedition members sailed to Madeira: Haeckel intended to conduct an initial acquaintance with the pelagic and littoral fauna of the Atlantic there, and then go to the Canaries. It turned out, however, that communication with the islands was interrupted due to cholera. The travelers were rescued by Russian frigate "Niobe", who was on a training voyage; its commander was the nephew of a professor of botany at the University of Jena.

After staying in Funchal for only two days, the travelers were taken to Santa Cruz on the island. Tenerife November 22.

On December 9, the team landed in the harbor of Arrecife on the island. Lanzarote, and because of the storm, the voyage lasted 4 days instead of 30 hours.

A flurry of activity unfolded in the harbor: jellyfish, crustaceans and radiolarians that lived in the surface layer of water were collected with nets, and the net was used to obtain samples of benthic fauna. Student von Miklouho studied sea sponges and as a result discovered a new species of calcareous sponge, naming it Guancha blanca in honor of the indigenous inhabitants of the islands. Samples of the studied fish were most often purchased from fishermen at the market; as a result, N. Miklukha collected data on the swim bladders of fish and the brain of sharks.

Local residents were wary of German zoologists, considering them either Prussian spies or sorcerers. The latter rumor led to Haeckel being regularly approached with requests for healing and prediction of the future. The team's rented house was infested with insects and rats; Haeckel estimated that he killed more than 6,000 fleas in January 1867 alone. It was decided to wind down work and return to Europe, but this could only be done through Morocco. On March 2, Haeckel and Gref reached Morocco on an English steamer, then spent two weeks in Algeciras, studying marine fauna. They took the train to Paris, where they visited the World's Fair, after which they returned to Jena.

Miklouha and Fol decided to travel around the Sultanate of Morocco: having bought Arabic costumes and hired a guide-translator, they reached Marrakesh with a caravan, where Nikolai was especially interested in the life and life of the Berbers. Next, the travelers went to Andalusia. Arriving in Madrid, Nikolai wished to live in a gypsy camp, but did not provide details. Haeckel noted on one of Miklukha’s letters that he became very ill in Madrid. Nicholas returned to Jena via Paris at the beginning of May 1867.

Scientific activity

In Jena, N. N. Miklouho-Maclay again became Haeckel's assistant.

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 failing numerous attempts to become a member of the polar expedition, Miklouho-Maclay went to Sicily with Darwinian zoologist Anton Dorn.

In Italy, the future famous traveler learned about the completion of construction Suez Canal and decided to study the fauna of the Red Sea.

After visiting Egypt, where he carried out extensive 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 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.

21 May 1870 Minister of the Navy Nikolai Karlovich Krabbe reported that the Highest permission had been received to deliver Miklouho-Maclay to Batavia on corvette "Vityaz".

Life on the Pacific Islands

On October 29, “Vityaz” visited great Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich Romanov, who had a long conversation with Miklouho-Maclay.

It was decided that a year after the landing, a Russian warship would visit New Guinea; in the event that the researcher was not alive, it was supposed to take away the manuscripts packed in hermetic cylinders. On the day of sailing - November 8, 1870 - 24-year-old Miklouho-Maclay sent letters to Prince Meshchersky and his mother.

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 landed on shore with his assistants and visited the village.

19 September 1871, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, the high bank of N opened New Guinea near Cape King William, and the next day, at four o’clock in the afternoon, the corvette “Vityaz” dropped anchor not far from the shore, in Astrolabe Bay.

I went ashore with two servants, and in one of the villages lying near the shore, from which most of the inhabitants fled when we arrived, I met the first Papuans. With great fear they offered me various gifts: coconuts, bananas and pigs.

Since the corvette was in a hurry to Japan and it was impossible to visit several places on the eastern coast of New Guinea to choose from, I decided to stay here. The next day I chose a place for the hut, and the corvette carpenters began to build it. The next four days were spent building the hut, clearing the forest around it and transporting things.

The commander and officers of the corvette helped me with great courtesy and even supplied me with various things and supplies that I lacked, for which I offer my sincere gratitude to all of them. On the morning of September 27, the corvette left.

All the local residents took to their heels, except for the 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 was accepted by them as a friend.

The explorer named the explored territories after himself. This is how it appeared on the world map Coast of Miklouho-Maclay.

Second trip to New Guinea

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, a traveler landed on Louisiades archipelago, however, he 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 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 met a widow Margaret-Emma 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 was born - son Alexander.

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 20 hours 15 minutes April 2 (14), 1888 Miklouho-Maclay died

Funeral

Many prominent scientists of that time and members of the Russian Geographical Society accompanied the traveler on his final journey. Miklouho-Maclay was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery next to his father and sister Olga.

Now you know who Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay was. A brief biography of this man, even in its most condensed form, takes up many pages, since he lived a life incredibly rich in adventures.

Name: Nikolay Miklukho-Maklay

Age: 41 years old

Place of Birth: Yazykovo village, Novgorod province

A place of death: Saint Petersburg

Activity: ethnographer, anthropologist, biologist and traveler

Family status: was married

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay - biography

Arriving at the native shore, Miklouho-Maclay invited the Papuans aboard the corvette Vityaz, where he presented gifts as a sign of favor. It seemed that contact had been established, but everything was spoiled by a volley greeting the natives. They mistook the roar for the anger of an evil spirit and rushed in all directions...

There was a legend in the family of engineer Nikolai Mikloukha that the founder of their family was the impoverished Scottish nobleman Michael Maclay. Allegedly, in the battle he was captured by the Cossacks and remained in Little Russia. The legend was adopted by his son Nikolai, making the surname double - Miklouho-Maclay.

Nikolai Miklukha lost his father at the age of 11, leaving him with three brothers and a sister in the care of his mother. Ekaterina Semyonovna did everything to give them a good education. At first they were taught by visiting teachers, and later the eldest sons, Sergei and Nikolai, were sent to a gymnasium for children of nobles. It was then that it turned out that in the books of the Chernigov noble assembly there is no record of the noble origin of the Miklukha family. But Ekaterina Semyonovna ensured that, on the basis of her husband’s merits, his children were included in the nobility of the St. Petersburg province.

At the gymnasium, Nikolai often missed classes. As he himself later admitted, not only due to ill health. Twice he stayed for the second year, but never finished the sixth grade, having submitted a petition for expulsion. Being a freethinker, he spent three days in the Peter and Paul Fortress for participating in a student demonstration.

At the age of 17, the young man became a volunteer student at St. Petersburg University. He often changed courses of study, remaining active in social and political life. As a result, Miklukha’s entrance to the university was closed for a number of actions. On the advice of his mentor, Nikolai decided to go to study in Germany.

At the University of Heidelberg he took courses in geometry, political economy and law. A year later he transferred to the University of Leipzig, and four months later he moved to Jena, where he began to study natural sciences and became interested in Darwinism. On this basis, the student became close to Professor Ernst Haeckel, who fascinated him with the theory of the origin of species and medicine. Nikolai even tried to treat the sick. One of his patients, a girl in love with him, bequeathed her skeleton to Nikolai after her death. Miklukha treated him like a practical naturalist. He covered the skull, placed on the ulna bones, with a green lampshade, creating a table lamp.

Seeing scientific potential in the 20-year-old student, Haeckel invited him on an expedition to the Canary Islands. At that time, Miklukha was interested in sea sponges and even discovered a new type of calcareous sponge.

In the Canaries, local residents, seeing corpses of animals and insects in the house of scientists, mistook them for sorcerers and often asked for help in treating and predicting the future. The researchers had to play their role to the end.

After finishing his work, Haeckel sailed to Germany, and Miklukha and his student friend conceived an adventure. Having bought an Arabic dress in Morocco, they set off with a trading caravan to Marrakech. From here Nikolai sailed to Andalusia, where he lived in a gypsy camp for several weeks. The expedition enriched the young scientist not so much in the natural sciences as in the ethnographic sense. Upon arrival in Jena, he published an article in German, where he signed his name for the first time as Maclay.

Having read in newspapers in 1869 about the completion of the construction of the Suez Canal, Nikolai became eager to study the fauna of the Red Sea. In Suez, he had to shave his head and grow a beard to blend in with the local population. And even despite this “disguise,” he risked being killed by Islamic fanatics (which almost happened once) or being enslaved.

Returning to St. Petersburg, Nikolai convinced the vice-chairman of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), Admiral Litke, to send him to the Pacific Islands. It was assumed that the scientist would find convenient bays there for the Russian fleet. But the state allocated him only 1,200 rubles when the need was 5,000. As a result, Miklouho-Maclay collected instruments and books from friends and patrons.

On September 20, 1871, the corvette Vityaz approached the shores of New Guinea. The welcoming salvo from the cannon frightened the natives: they decided that an evil spirit had arrived on the ship. The sailors from the Vityaz helped the scientist build a hut on Cape Garagasi, far from the village where he was conducting research.

When Nikolai, together with his servants - the Swedish sailor Nils Olsen and the black boy Boy, arrived at the Papuan village, it turned out to be empty. The only daredevil was an aborigine named Tui, who became Miklouho-Maclay’s guide to the new world. Further attempts to establish contact were viewed with caution by the Papuans. Only after 4 months was he allowed to arrive in the village of Bongu, where gifts were exchanged.

The turning point came when Nikolai healed Tui from a serious injury. The Papuans changed their opinion about the scientist and began to invite him to holidays. It's funny that, having once seen a massive fight and unable to break it up, Nikolai poured alcohol into a bowl and set it on fire. The Aborigines instantly stopped fighting and rushed at his feet so that the “miracle worker” would not set the sea on fire. The Papuans began to call Miklouho-Maclay “kaaram tamo,” which means “moon man.” Moreover, not a man from the Moon, for the Papuans have a small, insignificant body, but a man with skin the color of the Moon.

When the Russian ship Izumrud entered the bay a year later, its captain did not expect to see the scientist alive. St. Petersburg newspapers even published an obituary! However, he did not even think about dying. After a short absence from Manila and the Moluccas, Miklouho-Maclay visited the Papuans for the second time. At this time, the European press began to write about his expedition, and, contrary to the belief that the savages should have eaten him, the scientist continued his research.

In 1865, Miklouho-Maclay arrived in St. Petersburg, where he presented to Emperor Alexander II a project for the Russian colonization of the island of Papua New Guinea. He rejected the project, not wanting to worsen relations with Britain.

Seven years later, the scientist addressed the new project to the new Emperor Alexander III. In March 1883, Miklouho-Maclay, together with Rear Admiral Kopytov, arrived in the Palau archipelago. By that time, most of his Papuan friends had already died, and the villagers were fighting with each other. Kopytov did not find a single harbor convenient for setting up coal warehouses for Russian ships. The project was again rejected.

That same year, 35-year-old Miklouho-Maclay proposed to the daughter of ex-Governor of New South Wales Margaret Robertson-Clark. Margaret's father was against the Russian groom because of his poverty and poor health, and he did not want him to take his daughter away from Australia. In addition, Margaret was a Protestant, and Nicholas was Orthodox. But the scientist managed to obtain permission for the marriage from the Synod, and then Margaret’s parents came to terms with their Russian son-in-law. A year after the wedding, the couple had a son, Alexander, and a year later, Vladimir.

When the authorities of New South Wales took away his research station from Miklouho-Maclay, and anti-Russian sentiments intensified in Australia, he realized: it was time to go home. Unfortunately, by the age of 40, his health had been seriously undermined, and he returned to Russia almost an old man. In St. Petersburg, the researcher continued to work on his scientific works, but felt worse and worse and died on April 2, 1888. Later, during the exhumation, it was determined that the scientist was killed by jaw cancer.

The widow handed over her husband's archives to the Russian Geographical Society and returned to Australia with her sons. Until 1917, Russia paid the Miklouho-Maclay family a substantial pension of 5,000 rubles a year.

Navigator Miklouho-Maclay

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay was an ethnographer who studied the life of the tribes inhabiting tropical islands. Showing great courage and fearlessness, he managed to make friends with the Papuans of New Guinea, and to this day, after almost a century and a half, his memory is sacred there.

The scientist’s success can be explained by the fact that he considered the natives to be the same people as himself, and treated them with respect, without the feeling of superiority that was characteristic of some travelers. With his works he proved the unscientific nature of racism.

Miklouho-Maclay studied at St. Petersburg University, at universities in Germany, where he studied philosophy and medicine. He lived from hand to mouth, but worked unusually hard. His first scientific trip was to the Canary Islands in 1866. For two years he worked there with the great zoologist Ernest Haeckel, then on the island of Sicily and on the almost completely unexplored Red Sea.

He was already an experienced zoologist when his main interest became anthropology - the science of man, and then ethnography. This science made him a navigator.

He set off on his first voyage at the age of 24 - to the shores of New Guinea on the corvette Vityaz. During the ship's visit to England, he managed to obtain several instruments and conducted research in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans: he measured depths, water temperature and salinity at different levels. Also the first were his meteorological observations on the coast of New Guinea, which is now designated on the world map as the Maclay Coast. From 1871 to 1883, Maclay made more than 15 voyages and spent a total of about three years in the ocean, visiting nine seas and covering about 175 thousand kilometers in the tropics alone. If we add to this the transitions from St. Petersburg to the southern seas and back, then the journey would reach three hundred thousand kilometers. This is almost the distance from the Earth to the Moon. And on all kinds of ships he had to sail: - on Russian warships, and on passenger ships from different countries, and on very small fishing schooners, and on native boats.

N. N. Miklouho-Maclay

For the Papuans, Mac Lai was, as we would now say, an alien, and for him they were also people of a different civilization. And the problem was the same as when the inhabitants of different planets met: to find contact, to discover something common, connecting. After all, those who destroyed blacks and Indians, enslaved them, did not consider them to be people, at least not full-fledged people.

This is how he described his first meeting with a Papuan, when he was left alone on the shore of Astrolabe Bay: “I heard a rustling... I saw a few steps away, as if a man had grown out of the ground, who looked in my direction and rushed into the bushes. Almost running after him along the path, waving a red rag... He looked around and, seeing that I was alone, without any weapons and with signs asking him to come, he stopped. I slowly approached... and silently handed him a red rag. He accepted it with visible pleasure and tied it on his head...”

When Maclay was invited to a native village, he hesitated for a long time: whether to take a revolver with him, because he did not know how the islanders would react to him, and at the same time he understood that a weapon could destroy all hopes of establishing contact. It became clear to him that “...strength should lie in calmness and patience.” And he left the revolver in the hut.

Papuans of New Guinea (from drawings by Miklouho-Maclay)

The Papuans nevertheless attacked him, arrows whistled around him, the tip of the spear stopped right next to his face, Maclay thought: “It’s good that he left the weapon at home...” He found the only right solution: he unlaced his boots, unfastened his belt, lay down on the mat, and closed his eyes. and... fell asleep. He slept for two hours, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that the natives were sitting peacefully around and looking at him. He defeated aggression with trust and defenselessness...

Miklouho-Maclay lived for fifteen months among the Papuans of New Guinea. And then he returned when it was necessary to protect them from the colonialists. He tried to form a state - an independent Papuan Union, but this was completely impossible.

Only 12 years later, in 1882, Miklouho-Maclay returned to Russia - sick and completely in debt. A public subscription announced in the newspapers helped pay them off, at least partially; It was attended by the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery Pavel Tretyakov, writer Ivan Turgenev and many others. Leo Tolstoy wrote to him:

“Your experience of communicating with people will constitute an era... in the science of how people can live with each other...”

Miklouho-Maclay lived only forty-two years and was buried in St. Petersburg.