The meaning of Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky in a brief biographical encyclopedia. Explorers of Africa and their discoveries Kovalevsky discovered what

Brother of Evgraf K., writer, traveler, director of the Asian department, senator, chairman of the society for benefits to needy scientists and writers, b. in 1811, d. September 21, 1868 After graduating from a course at Kharkov University in 1828 with the title of full student, Kovalevsky entered the service in the department of mining affairs, but the following year he left, at the invitation of his older brother, to Siberia, where he took the position of manager of affairs in the chancellery head of Altai factories.

Then he moved to the position of superintendent of gold mines in the Yekaterinburg district, where he had previously been involved in opening gold mines for the treasury, and in 1836, when the entire mining department was transformed on a military basis, he was renamed captain.

Energetic | While fulfilling his official duties, Kovalevsky at the same time published a number of studies in the Mining Journal, and acquired a reputation as a promising young man.

In 1837, the Bishop of Montenegro, Petr Njegosh, a famous educator of his country, asked the Russian government for an experienced engineer to study the natural resources of Montenegro.

Just at this time, Kovalevsky arrived in St. Petersburg with a batch of government gold, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent him to Montenegro.

Here Kovalevsky, in addition to fulfilling the instructions given to him, had to intervene in the clashes between the Montenegrins and the Austrians: he participated in several border skirmishes, and at the same time, with excellent diplomatic advice, he contributed to the restoration of harmony between the warring parties.

Realizing that in this way he exceeded his powers and fearing severe punishment for this, Kovalevsky, returning to St. Petersburg, submitted to the Emperor, on the advice of Prince. A. M. Gorchakova, a detailed note about his actions in Montenegro.

Emperor Nicholas fully approved of his actions, writing in the margin: “Le capitaine Kowalewsky a agi en vrai russe.” From then on, Kovalevsky began to be given diplomatic assignments, mainly in the Slavic lands and in the East.

While performing them, he always took the opportunity to conduct research of a geographical, ethnographic and economic nature. On March 17, 1839, he was sent to Bukhara, but, unable to penetrate this Khanate, he joined the Khiva expedition of gr. Perovsky and participated in the difficult and dangerous defense of the Akbulak fortification.

In 1846, he accompanied Egyptian engineers sent to Russia by Mehmet Ali to the Urals to study mining, and in 1847 he himself went to Egypt to set up gold mines there.

He took advantage of this trip to provide services to the young Russian Geographical Society, of which he had just been elected: at his request, the society sent Tsenkovsky with him and they carried out a series of geographical and geological surveys in the Nile Valley. A report on these works was placed in the "Notes" of the Geographical Society (Book 4). Kovalevsky himself traveled into Africa to determine the headwaters of the Nile and visited Abyssinia.

The fruit of this expedition was the book: “Journey to Inner Africa” (St. Petersburg, 1849). In 1849, Kovalevsky accompanied the Russian spiritual mission to Beijing. In July 1850, he returned to Kyakhta, and six months later he again moved to China with a trade caravan along a new route, which had previously been closed to Russian merchants and was allowed by the Chinese government only at the insistence of Kovalevsky.

Previously, our caravans walked along the barely accessible Argalinsky sands, and the opening of a new and convenient “merchant route” ensured the further development of Russian-Chinese trade relations.

Even more important was the Kuldzha Treaty concluded with the participation of Kovalevsky in 1851, which opened western China to Russian merchants and gave us two points for the trading posts of Kuldzhu and Chuguchan.

The same treatise served as the basis for all further directions of the Russian-Chinese border and ensured the forward movement of the Russians in the Trans-Ili region. In the same year, Kovalevsky returned to St. Petersburg and the Emperor, pleased with the results he had achieved in China, granted him 600 rubles. lifelong pension; Subsequently, Emperor Alexander II increased this pension to 2,000 rubles. In 1853, on the occasion of Omer Pasha’s attack on Montenegro, Kovalevsky was sent there by the Russian commissar and received a snuff box from the Sovereign for his successful actions.

Upon returning from Montenegro, Kovalevsky stayed in St. Petersburg for only 4 months and in November 1853 he went to the Danube in the army of Prince. M. D. Gorchakova; Being on the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, he participated in the retreat of the army from the Danube and in the defense of Sevastopol until the Inkerman affair, after which he returned to St. Petersburg.

In June 1856, the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince. A. M. Gorchakov entrusted Kovalevsky with the management of the Asian department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and this appointment ended Kovalevsky’s activity as a “land traveler on the seas” (the title of one of his books), half-diplomat, half-lawyer; he becomes an influential statesman and finally settles in St. Petersburg.

In difficult times, Kovalevsky became director of the Asian department: the unfortunate Crimean campaign and the Peace of Paris greatly undermined the charm and weight that Russia had previously enjoyed in the East and especially among the Slavs.

Kovalevsky has an undoubted and enormous merit that in this difficult time he was able to maintain the prestige of the Russian name among the Eastern and Asian tribes and thereby significantly weakened the moral significance of the Peace of Paris in international relations.

And in the Far East, Kovalevsky led Russian policy with honor: the foundations of the Aigun treaty with China were prepared by him with such anticipation of all objections and knowledge of the matter that the conclusion of the treaty was significantly facilitated and its very existence was strengthened.

For this merit, Kovalevsky received in 1860 3,000 acres of land in the Samara province.

The expeditions of the Geographical Society, in which Kovalevsky was an assistant to the chairman from 1857 to 1865, also contributed to our better acquaintance with Asia and the strengthening of our position there. The expedition to Kashgar, equipped according to his thoughts and plan, was especially remarkable. In 1861, Kovalevsky was dismissed from his post as director of the Asian department and appointed senator.

Kovalevsky’s official activity alone, although prominent, does not exhaust his significance.

His contemporaries testify that he was important for his comprehensive and unusually sensitive responsiveness: “there was no such honest aspiration in Rus',” says Annenkov, such conscientious work and such a bright undertaking that he did not understand or did not know, to which he would remain cold and indifferent." Never confining himself to bureaucratic formalism and maintaining lively communication with vital public interests, Kovalevsky always used his influence and official position to support everything reasonable, even if it had absolutely nothing to do with his direct duties.

He was not only an administrator, but also a true member of society, keenly felt all its illnesses and passionately strove to heal them, without neglecting any of the tools of public re-education.

This impressionability from a young age pushed Kovalevsky onto the path of literature, which for him was not entertainment, but a serious matter, one of the types of public service.

He began his writing career with poetic attempts: in 1832 he published a collection of poems, “Thoughts about Siberia,” and a tragedy in 5 acts, “Martha the Posadnitsa.” But soon, having become convinced that he lacked a poetic gift, he took up prose, processing mainly material collected during his travels.

These are his books: “Four Months in Montenegro” (St. Petersburg, 1843; it imitates the literary style of Bestuzhev-Marlinsky), “Wanderer on Land and Seas” (St. Petersburg, 1843), and “Journey to Inner Africa "(St. Petersburg, 1849), "Travel to China" (St. Petersburg, 1853). But the best of his books is certainly his historical monograph: “Count Bludov and His Time” (St. Petersburg, 1866), which reveals mastery of presentation and characterization, a broad historical worldview and an unusually close study of facts.

Kovalevsky managed to publish only the first volume of this work. Death prevented him from processing the extensive material collected for the second volume. The materials collected by Kovalevsky during the Crimean campaign and supplemented by subsequent research served as the basis for the study “The War with Turkey and the Break with the Western Powers in 1853 and 1854.” (SPb., 1866). In addition, Kovalevsky published a number of fictional works in various magazines, mostly under the pseudonyms: Nil Bezymyanny and E. Gorev. Towards the end of his life, Kovalevsky took up the history of Russia in the 19th century. and prepared an extensive work on this subject; an excerpt from this work entitled “Eastern Affairs in the Twenties” was published in the “Bulletin of Europe”, 1868, Vol. III. In 1859, Kovalevsky joined the group of people who designed the Society to benefit needy writers and scientists, and when this society (Literary Fund) was founded, he was elected chairman.

Remaining in this post until his death, Kovalevsky was his soul and a worthy representative before the authorities and the public.

Kovalevsky’s warm affection for this institution was based on the recognition that people of science and art have a high and important significance in public life. I. V. Annenkov, “Memoirs and Critical Essays”, vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1877; "Report of the Imperial Geographer.

Society for 1868"; "XXV years" (collection of the Literary Fund). - Obituaries in various newspapers and magazines in 1868; Gennadi - article in "Russk. Arch.", 1870, No. 11, p. 20. (Polovtsov) Kovalevsky, Yegor Petrovich - famous traveler and writer, brother of Evgraf K. and uncle P. M. K., (1811-1868). Having completed a course in philosophy Department of Kharkov University, entered the service in the mining department in 1829; in 1830 he was renamed a mining engineer and until 1837 he served at Altai and Ural factories.

In 1837, K. was sent, at the request of Bishop Peter, to Montenegro to find and develop gold-bearing strata.

In Montenegro, K., completely against his will, had to take an active part in border battles with the Austrians.

Realizing that he was threatened with severe punishment for this, K., on the advice of Prince A.M. Gorchakov, submitted a detailed note to Emperor Nicholas.

After reading it, the emperor wrote in the margins: “Le capitaine Kowalewsky a agi en vrai russe” (“Captain K. acted like a true Russian”). In 1839, K. participated in the Khiva expedition of Count Perovsky, and, cut off from the main detachment, he had to sit down with a handful of brave men in some old fortification and withstand a long-term siege of nomads, eating only horse meat.

In 1847, K., at the invitation of the Egyptian Viceroy Megmet Ali, carried out geological surveys in northeast Africa.

K. was one of the first to correctly speak about the geographical location of the sources of the White Nile, which were precisely determined much later. In addition, K.’s book: “Journey to Inner Africa” (St. Petersburg, 1849; 2nd ed. 1872) included a detailed description of Abessinia.

In 1849, K. accompanied a spiritual mission to Beijing and managed to insist on allowing our caravans to pass along a convenient “merchant route”, instead of the almost impassable Argalinsky sands, which provided invaluable convenience for trade and enriched geographical knowledge of Mongolia.

But even more important was the Kuldzha treaty of 1851, concluded through K., which laid the foundation for proper trade between Russia and Western China and served as the immediate reason for our subsequent acquisitions in the Trans-Ili region. At the beginning of 1853, during Omer Pasha’s attack on the Montenegrins, K. was sent to Montenegro as a commissar.

During the siege of Sevastopol, K. remained at the headquarters of Prince M.D. Gorchakov until October 1855 and collected materials for the history of this siege. In 1856, Prince A. M. Gorchakov entrusted K. with the management of the Asian department.

In 1861, K., with the rank of lieutenant general, was appointed senator and member of the council of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1856-1862. K. was assistant to the chairman of the Imperial Geographical Society.

K.'s literary activity began very early. He made his debut in poetry with books: “Thoughts about Siberia” (St. Petersburg, 1832) and a tragedy in 5 acts: “Martha Posadnitsa” (St. Petersburg, 1832), but, soon realizing that poetry was not given to him, he switched to prose. Various travels and historical research gave him material for several books, which were widely read in their time and have not lost interest to this day.

These are: “Four Months in Montenegro” (with pictures and map, St. Petersburg, 1841) - a book in which, according to the requirements of the censorship of that time, K.’s military adventures in Montenegro could not be included; “Wanderer on land and seas” (3 parts, St. Petersburg, 1843-1845); "Journey to China" (2 parts, St. Petersburg, 1853); "Count Bludov and his time. The reign of Emperor Alexander I" (St. Petersburg, 1866); "The War with Turkey and the Break with the Western Powers in 1853 and 1854." (SPb., 1866; German translation Chr. von Sarauw, Leipzig, 1868). These works of K. were included in the posthumous edition of his works (St. Petersburg, 1871-72; 5 volumes). In addition, K. published in magazines, mostly under pseudonyms: Neil Bezymyanny and E. Gorev, a number of fictional works: “Phanariot” (“Library for Reading”, 1844, vol. 67); “Petersburg Day and Night” (unfinished novel, ib., 1845, vols. 72-76; German translation by Ph. Lowenstein, Stuttgart, 1847); "Majorsha" (ib., 1849, vol. 93); “To live a century is not to cross a field” (novel, “Notes of the Fatherland” 1857, vols. 110 and 111), etc. In the last years of his life, K. decided to write the history of Russia in the 19th century; an excerpt from it, entitled “Eastern Affairs in the Twenties,” is placed in Book III. "Bulletin of Europe" 1868. Of all that K. wrote, the book about Bludov is of greatest importance.

Death prevented K. from releasing the second volume of this work, for which he had already collected material.

K. was one of the founding members of the society for benefits to needy writers and scientists (literary fund) and until his death he was permanently its chairman.

The same company has a capital named after Kovalevsky, the interest from which goes towards scholarships for students.

Wed. P. M. Kovalevsky, “Meetings on the path of life” (“Historical Bulletin” 1888, No. 2); P.M., "E.P.K." ("Bulletin of Europe", 1868, No. 10); Baron F. Osten-Sacken, “A Word in Memory of H.P.K., Pronounced at the Geographical Society” (Russian Inv., 1868, 147); "XXV years" (collection of the literary fund). (Brockhaus) Kovalevsky, Yegor Petrovich, younger brother of Evgraf Peter. Kovalevsky (see), also a mining engineer, diplomat, traveler and writer, lieutenant general, director of the Asian Department of the Min. foreign Affairs, Chairman of the General. benefits for writers, b. 1812, † 1868 20 Sep. (Polovtsov) Kovalevsky, Egor Petrovich - Russian. traveler, writer and diplomat; Corresponding member (since 1856) and honorary member. (since 1857) St. Petersburg.

AN. Brother of Evgraf Kovalevsky.

In 1828 he graduated from Kharkov. University; in 1829-37 he served at the Altai and Ural gold mining plants. In 1847-48 he conducted geographical studies. and geological research in the North-East. Africa; one of the first to indicate the correct geographical location. position of the sources of the White Nile. K. compiled a description of Mongolia and China - “Travel to China” (2 parts, 1853) - based on materials he collected during his travels to Beijing (in 1849-1850 and 1851). From 1847 - member, and in 1857-65 - assistant. prev Rus. geographical about-va. Works: Collected Works, vol. 1 - 5, St. Petersburg, 1871-72. Lit.: M.S., Obituary.

Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky "Bulletin: Europe", 1868, book. 10; Kovalevsky P. Meetings on the path of life. 1. Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky “Historical Bulletin”, 1888, February;

Babkov I.I. Across Africa.

Travels of E. P. Kovalevsky, V. V. Junker A. V. Eliseev, M., 1942; Valskaya B. A., Travels of Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky, M., 1956.

(1809 - 1868)

The famous Russian traveler, writer and diplomat E.P. Kovalevsky was one of the pioneers of exploring the Nile Basin. He was the first Russian scientist to penetrate deep into Eastern Sudan and Western Ethiopia. His book "Journey to Inner Africa" ​​contains much interesting and valuable information about the nature and population of Egypt, Sudan and Western Ethiopia.

Kovalevsky’s significance as a traveler and geographer is not limited to this. He gave the first geographical description of Montenegro and compiled maps of this country. In addition, he gave interesting descriptions of the nature, population and history of Central Asia even before its annexation to Russia in the book “Wanderer on Land and Seas.” His book “Travel to China,” published almost 20 years before Przhevalsky’s trip to China, provided valuable geographical information about this country.

Kovalevsky was a man of progressive views. He declared earlier than many that the tribes and peoples of the Negroid race are full-fledged and full-fledged representatives of the human race.

Kovalevsky was born in Ukraine, in the village of Yaroshevka [Dergachevsky district, Kharkov region]. After graduating from Kharkov University in the department of moral and political sciences, in 1829 he went into service in the department of mining and salt affairs. In 1830, Kovalevsky went to Siberia, where his older brother Evgraf Petrovich was the head of the Altai factories. In Altai, Kovalevsky was engaged in “finding gold.” From 1835 to 1837 Kovalevsky worked in the gold mines of the Urals.

In 1837, Kovalevsky was sent as an escort with a consignment of silver to St. Petersburg. There his career changed dramatically. Just at this time, Montenegro turned to the Russian government with a request to send an experienced person to study its natural resources. The choice fell on Kovalevsky. Kovalevsky described the relief of Montenegro and its geological structure: he gave a description of the classic region of limestone karst within Montenegro, discovered valuable mineral deposits and collected a rich collection of rocks. Of particular note are Kovalevsky’s achievements in the field of archaeology: his discovery and description of the ruins of Dioclea, a fortified city from the times of the Roman Empire.

Kovalevsky’s talented descriptions of the nature and population of Montenegro, his speeches in defense of the Montenegrin people and selfless love for them earned the gratitude and gratitude of Montenegrins.

In 1839 he was sent to Bukhara. While in Central Asia, Kovalevsky participated as part of Perovsky's expedition in the difficult and dangerous defense of the Ak-Bulak fortification. The result of his stay in Central Asia was his already mentioned travel notes, “Wanderer on Land and Seas.” This book was of great geographical interest, while possessing great literary merit. As Annenkov wrote, “Notes” gave Kovalevsky “an honorable name in literature.” The publication of “The Wanderer on Land and Seas” was welcomed by V. G. Belinsky.

In 1847, Kovalevsky received a business trip to Egypt in response to a request from the Egyptian government to send an experienced person to set up gold mines. In addition to this main assignment, Kovalevsky also received the task of collecting information on “meteorology, geognosy and mineralogy.”

At the beginning of 1848, Kovalevsky, together with the botanist Tsenkovsky, who was sent on this expedition by the Geographical Society and the Academy of Sciences, and with several other Russians, accompanied by Egyptian officers, set off from Cairo up the Nile to Kurusku, and from there on camels to Berbera, then to barges with a stop in Khartoum to Rosseros and then again on camels to the Tumatu River, a tributary of the Blue Nile, where he managed to find gold-bearing placers near the city of Kassan.

In an official report to Chancellor Nesselrode, Kovalevsky summed up the geographical results of the expedition in these words: “For geography, a huge space of the country of blacks has been acquired from the Blue Nile to the White Nile, where no European has ever penetrated, despite all the efforts of the London Geographical Society. Many altitudes have been measured barometrically and the latitudes of many points have been determined by means of a sextant. A map of lands hitherto unknown has been made, collections have been collected in many branches of the natural sciences...

Attaching a description of the current political and commercial state of Abyssinia and Eastern Sudan, I would like to add that I am currently engaged in putting my diverse collections in order, drawing up geographical maps and a detailed description of the lands I have visited.”

Travel to China in 1849 - 1850. Kovalevsky committed as a bailiff XIIIspiritual mission. While in Beijing, he managed to obtain permission from the Chinese government for a Russian mission to come to Gulja to negotiate trade with Western China. This trip to China was also important for science. Kovalevsky gave a detailed description of the new route from Kyakhta to Beijing (bypassing the Argalin sands), along which he managed to lead the expedition’s caravan. The traveler’s contemporaries noted that they “were indebted to Kovalevsky for such a clear and vivid picture of the areas of Mongolia and such a faithful description of its nomadic population, which we have never seen in either Russian or foreign literature.”

Of great interest are also the geographical description of Northern China, especially Beijing, the geological description of the Beijing coal basin and gold mining in China. Kovalevsky collected a valuable collection of rocks, a collection of seeds of grain, flower and garden crops, a collection of “teas” and, on behalf of the Academy of Sciences, delivered Chinese books, information about the animal world of Northern China and the plants from which fabrics were made there.

In 1851, Kovalevsky went to Gulja and, on behalf of the Russian government, concluded an agreement with China on the establishment of duty-free barter trade between both countries through Gulja and Chuguchak.

In 1853, fate again transferred Kovalevsky to the west to Montenegro, which was already familiar to him. During the Turkish-Montenegrin War, he, as a Russian commissar, contributed to the cessation of hostilities and the beginning of peace negotiations, which prevented the invasion of Montenegro by Omerpasa's army.

After this, Kovalevsky made his way to besieged Sevastopol and took part in its defense, for which he received a medal. Kovalevsky described the heroic defense of Sevastopol in the article “Bombardment of Sevastopol,” published in 1856 in Sovremennik. This article was highly appreciated by N. G. Chernyshevsky. In subsequent years, Kovalevsky worked a lot on the history of Russia inXIXcentury, as well as literary and social activities. In the field of fiction, Kovalevsky was the creator of a new genre - short popular science essays about countries and peoples, combining science and popularity, fascination and simplicity. Kovalevsky’s books contributed to the promotion of geographical knowledge among the general population; they instilled in Russian people patriotism and respect for the peoples of other countries.

The success of his travel descriptions was greatly facilitated by his remarkable literary talent and the special interest of the Russian public in the countries through which he traveled. Kovalevsky skillfully combined the implementation of diplomatic assignments of the Russian government in different countries with the interests of their scientific study. Kovalevsky was one of the founders of the Society for helping needy writers and scientists and for a long time served as the chairman of this Society.

Kovalevsky was admitted to the Geographical Society even before his trip to Africa on November 12, 1847. There he was assistant to the chairman from 1857 to 1864; from 1857 to 1861 he served as director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and provided great assistance to the Society in organizing expeditions to explore Asia.

In 1858, with the participation of Kovalevsky, the text of the Aigun Treaty was developed, according to which vast territories north of the Amur River were assigned to Russia.

Kovalevsky's merits as a major traveler, geographer, writer and public figure were noted by the Academy of Sciences, which elected him in 1856 as a corresponding member in the department of Russian language and literature, and in 1857 as an honorary member of the Academy. Since January 1856, Kovalevsky was a permanent member of the Academic Council of the Corps of Mining Engineers and the Scientific Committee of the Mining Institute; in 1865, Kovalevsky was elected an honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society.

- Source-

Domestic physical geographers and travelers. [Essays]. Ed. N. N. Baransky [and others] M., Uchpedgiz, 1959.

THE FIRST RUSSIAN EXPEDITION TO AFRICA (1847-1848)

Kovalevsky's African Odyssey

In the small village of Yaroshevka, thirty kilometers from Kharkov, in the poor large family of the court councilor Pyotr Ivanovich Kovalevsky, on February 6, 1809, the youngest son Yegor was born.

There were four sisters, five sons. Two of them followed in the footsteps of their father, who devoted fifteen years to military service.

Both died: Ilya - in the Battle of Borodino in 1812, Peter - on the Caucasian front during the Crimean War, in 1853. The third son, Vladimir, was an official.

Perhaps the eldest of the brothers, Evgraf, an outstanding geologist and statesman, instilled a thirst for wandering in Yegorushka’s soul...

The youngest - and therefore the common favorite of the family, sickly and impressionable, Egor, nevertheless, since childhood he dreamed of traveling to distant countries. He gained his first experience as a researcher by collecting rock collections and herbariums on the outskirts of Yaroshevka.

In 1825, Yegor Kovalevsky went to Kharkov and entered the department of moral and political sciences of the Faculty of Philology of Kharkov University, the founder of which was his cousin, Vasily Karazin. Geography and history courses were taught by Professor P. P. Gulak-Artemovsky.

His lectures, as contemporaries testified, did not contain deep knowledge, but they were bright and exciting; It was they who strengthened Yegor’s desire to devote his life to travel.

In the form list of student Kovalevsky, along with the disciplines required for his department, subjects that were studied in other departments are indicated: physics, chemistry, physical geography, meteorology, botany, zoology... In the future, this allowed him to keep not just travel notes, but real scientific studies of the nature, population and economy of the countries along which the route of his expeditions lay.

The philological orientation of his studies was not in vain. Kovalevsky wrote and published a collection of poems, several stories and novels, but he still received all-Russian and foreign recognition thanks to his travel notes.

His books “Wanderer by Land and Seas”, “Journey to Inner Africa”, other works and articles dedicated to numerous expeditions, were written so vividly, in such a brilliant literary style, that they aroused approval not only among ordinary readers, but also among writers with world famous. Letters of praise to Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky were sent by L. N. Tolstoy, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, T. G. Shevchenko, I. S. Aksakov, V. F. Odoevsky, F. I. Tyutchev. ..

In 1828, Kovalevsky completed his studies at Kharkov University, and at the beginning of 1829 he went to St. Petersburg, where his brother Evgraf headed the Mining Cadet Corps and served as director of the department of mining and salt affairs.

There, working as an assistant to the head of the department, Yegor regularly attended lectures by outstanding teachers of the cadet corps and in a relatively short time received the specialty of a mining engineer. In 1830, Evgraf Petrovich was appointed head of the Altai mining district. Egor also went with him to Barnaul, where the district headquarters was located. This event can be considered the beginning of his wanderings.

It was in Altai that Kovalevsky gained his first experience in prospecting for gold deposits; an experience that later gave him the opportunity to receive numerous offers from the governments of many countries to search for gold and other valuable minerals. From 1830 to 1837, together with his older brother and on his own, Yegor Petrovich searched for gold in the Barabinsky steppes, in the mountains of the Kuznetsk Alatau, Salair and Abakan ranges, in the area of ​​Lake Teletskoye - and discovered four gold-bearing placers.

Kovalevsky led the Montenegrins

In 1836, 27-year-old Kovalevsky was promoted to captain of the corps of mining engineers.

This was a significant event, since the corps was staffed with “exceptionally excellent mining engineers” who were sent only to important and responsible work. Mining engineers were subject to military discipline and military laws.

A year later, Captain Kovalevsky was sent to Montenegro in search of gold deposits to “certify whether their development could provide the Montenegrin people with a new abundant source of income.”

The expedition was launched in connection with the appeal of the prince and metropolitan (spiritual and temporal ruler) of Montenegro Njegos Petrovich, but the Russian government took over its financing. Kovalevsky did not find gold, but discovered rich deposits of iron ore and corundum on the Tsernichka River.

An archaeological discovery also awaited the hero: at the confluence of the Zeta and Moraca rivers, Yegor found the ruins of Dioclea, a fortified city from the times of the Roman Empire. But the most dramatic events awaited Kovalevsky in Montenegro not as a geologist, but as a military man.

Montenegro waged a centuries-long, continuous war with Turkey for independence. Both farmers in the fields and shepherds in the pastures never parted with their weapons. Only two-fifths of the population died of natural causes, the rest died on the battlefield. But it was not only the Turks who tried to take over the country. Taking advantage of the difficult situation of Montenegro, Austria invaded the country in 1838.

The Montenegrins decided that the great brotherly Slavic country had sent Kovalevsky to defend their homeland from invaders - and insisted that he lead the defense. Yegor Petrovich tried to explain that he was only a mining engineer, but everyone saw him as a Russian officer.

And Kovalevsky led the Montenegrins who defended their freedom. Recalling this time later, he wrote: “I am Russian, and I was bound by my Russian name. Whatever happens, I do not repent of what I did, otherwise I would be a traitor, not a Russian.”

The gold miner turned out to be an excellent commander. Three hundred Montenegrins under the command of a Russian captain repelled the attack of a four thousand-strong Austrian detachment. The Austrians were forced to sign a peace treaty.

But perhaps this is just a legend, invented by analogy with the feat of three hundred Spartans of King Leonidas, who stopped the Persian army. Most likely, the Austrians, like the Montenegrins, having learned about Captain Kovalevsky, also mistook him for a military envoy of the Russian government - and decided not to engage in battle, so as not to anger the great power.

Captured by the Khivans

In September 1838, Yegor Petrovich left Montenegro, and a few months later he left St. Petersburg for Orenburg.

This was the beginning of the journey to Bukhara. The Emir of Bukhara asked the Russian government to help him search for “minerals and precious stones.” The expedition was again financed by Russia.

The places through which Kovalevsky’s detachment was supposed to pass were reputed to be restless. The troops of the Khiva Khan robbed Russian caravans and captured Russians.

This happened with Yegor Petrovich’s people. On November 17, after crossing the Emba River, they were captured by the Khivans. But a few days later, on a dark night, during a fierce snowstorm, Kovalevsky escaped from captivity along with his companions.

In less than three days, having galloped 300 miles and fought off a gang of robbers, the fugitives reached the Ak-Bulak fortification, where the Russian garrison was located.

Three days later, the Khivans attacked the Ak-Bulak fortification and besieged it. Kovalevsky, as a senior in rank, took command of the defense - and, again, successfully completed the military task.

Over two thousand attackers could not do anything with the 240 defenders of the fortification; in the end, they lifted the siege and retreated. The goal of the expedition was not achieved, but the scientific results still turned out to be significant and gained good fame for the warrior-geologist.

In Upper Egypt

In 1847, the Russian government responded to the request of the Egyptian Khedive (viceroy of the Turkish Sultan) Muhammad Ali to send a Russian engineer “to organize and supervise the development of gold placers discovered in Upper Egypt.”

The headquarters of the Corps of Mining Engineers made a decision: to send Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky to Africa.

The expedition's journey began in Alexandria, a city named after its founder, King Alexander the Great. From Alexandria, the expedition traveled on a small steamer along the Mahmudi Canal to the Nile. For the first time, the Russians found themselves in the African desert.

This is how Kovalevsky describes it in his book “Journey to Inner Africa”: “Everything was dead all around.

The very horizon on which the rays of the setting sun were fading, a pale, lifeless horizon, seemed only a continuation of the desert, and therefore the end of it was not visible. The transition from life to death is striking.”

On the Nile, Kovalevsky and his companions were waiting for a larger steamer, placed at their disposal by Muhammad Ali. A day later they reached Cairo.

Yegor Petrovich liked the capital of Egypt. Everything about it was pleasing to the eye: the bright greenery of the gardens, and the graceful minarets of numerous mosques, and carved chiseled balconies with thin lace lattices, and streets covered from the sun, sometimes with canvas, sometimes with wooden awnings; They are shady during the day and mysterious at night...

The majestic pyramid of Cheops, of course, examined by Kovalevsky with all the scrupulousness of an engineer, did not receive praise from him: “I admit, I looked not with delight, for which I was prepared by all the descriptions of travel in Egypt, but with involuntary horror at this bulk, which has been witnessing for five thousand years about the tyranny of the pharaohs."

Kovalevsky describes the nature of North Africa extremely figuratively and vividly. Relaying his conversation with Muhammad Ali, he briefly and succinctly shows the difference between the climate in Cairo, that is, in Northern Egypt, and in Sudan: “Here, he said among other things, I have to constantly change my underwear from sweat, but in In Sudan, as soon as it gets wet, it is already dry and rustles like paper - crack, crack!

And here is a description of the process of desert expansion: “Where the coastal mountains are low or narrow, desert sands are carried across them to the fertile banks of the Nile, in places displacing any vegetation, spreading devastation and death. Here and there stands a lone palm tree or mimosa bush; but soon everything will be swallowed up by the sweeping sands..."

The desert appeared in all its horror

The expedition reached Aswan by steamship. There the travelers went ashore, walked around the Aswan rapids by land and the next day continued their journey along the Nile on sailing barges - dahabiyas.

Near the city of Kurusku they went ashore again. The river here turns sharply to the west and describes a large arc. Therefore, Kovalevsky, in order to shorten the path, went with the caravan straight through the Nubian Desert.

“The next day the desert appeared in all the horror of destruction and death,” the traveler wrote. - The carcasses of camels and bulls came across every ten steps, sometimes more often. Not a worm, not a fly, not a withered blade of grass: as if there had never been life here!

Low-lying, isolated, scattered, half-covered mountains with sand had a perfect, striking resemblance to graves. Situated on a vast sandy plain, they gave it the appearance of a cemetery. I have never seen anything more terrible in my life!”

The travelers walked twelve to thirteen hours a day and suffered greatly from thirst and simoom, the desert wind. Samum or, as the Arabs call it, khamsin, blows from the south or southeast for five spring days.

When he overtakes the caravan in the desert, even the water in the leather bags dries up from the heat and decreased humidity. Moreover, the approach of khamsin is difficult to predict...

Halfway through the journey, near the bitterly salty wells, the caravan filled its leather bags with water, but it did not please the travelers much.

Kovalevsky describes the taste of this liquid as follows: “Take a glass of clean water, stir two spoons of dirt into it, add salt and part of a rotten egg, infuse it all with wormwood, and you will get water that is in every way similar to the one we have been drinking lately.” in a desert".

After ten days of a difficult journey through the desert, Kovalevsky and his companions again reached the waters of the Nile. To the city of Berbera, the Russians moved along the shore on camels and donkeys to get around the rapids, and then boarded the barges again. The vegetation became more and more diverse, and in the houses of even the poorest Arabs, wooden beds began to be found, albeit without bedding.

Kovalevsky explains that a bed there is not a luxury item, but an absolute necessity: “You cannot sleep on the ground: a lot of crawling insects, among which scorpions, snakes, tarantulas and other poisonous reptiles are very common, frighten even careless natives.”

Neglect of possible death

Berber is the first city in Sudan that Kovalevsky's expedition visited. Its distinctive feature is tukuli - round wicker houses with roofs. It is from Berber, notes Kovalevsky, that the cone-like roofs begin, protecting from powerful seasonal rains.

On February 20, travelers reached the city of Khartoum, built at the confluence of the White Nile (Bahr el-Abyad) with the Blue Nile (Bahr el-Azraq).

But already about three hours before this place, Kovalevsky noticed that the river seemed to consist of two streams: “The waters rolling along the right bank were white; the left one is bluish-green. The two rivers did not want to merge into one. Coastal residents prefer the water of the Blue Nile to the muddy White Nile, and therefore from the right bank they usually send for water to the left.”

Kovalevsky liked Khartoum: “The houses are scattered quite picturesquely, surrounded by gardens that require little care: they grow by the grace of a fertile climate and periodic rains; the streets are clean, the only square is spacious; The Blue Nile is right next to the walls, the White Nile is in plain sight. In a word, Khartoum, after Cairo and Alexandria, is perhaps the best city in Egypt.”

He also gives the simplest explanation for the name of the city: “The Nile near Khartoum bends in the shape of an elephant’s trunk, and the city is called the elephant’s trunk - Khartoum.”

From Khartoum to Roseires, the capital of Fazogli province, travelers again walked along the Nile on dahabiyas. It was on this part of the journey that perhaps the most formidable events of the journey took place. The path through the Nubian Desert was difficult, but there the travelers struggled only with thirst. In Fazogli, they were hunted by people, animals... and fever.

For some reason, Kovalevsky does not write anything in his book about the danger of an attack on the expedition by local, aggressive tribes. However, it is known that during Yegor Petrovich’s stay in Sudan, there were constant clashes between Sudanese troops and the Galla tribe.

27 years earlier, in these places, the eldest and beloved son of Muhammad Ali, Ishmael Pasha, died a cruel death at the hands of Galla warriors. He was burned alive in the town of Shendi. Most likely, Kovalevsky’s silence is explained by the fact that the expedition was accompanied by troops that were sent by the ruler of Sudan, Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali.

But the presence of troops did not avert the threat. In passing, as if it were something of secondary importance, the traveler says that only four days before their arrival in the city of Wad-Medina, “the blacks formed a conspiracy to kill all the whites, that is, the multi-colored ones, and retire to their mountains; but, despite the fact that there were up to 1000 blacks in the garrison and only 200 Arabs, Turks, etc., the conspiracy failed.”

Perhaps such disregard for possible death can be explained by the character of Yegor Petrovich - a brave, dedicated officer.
Kovalevsky pays much more attention to the danger from predators, but one gets the impression that this is more likely not fear, but the interest of the naturalist.

This is how he describes his meeting with crocodiles. “On February 22 we left Khartoum. Rounding the island opposite it, we saw several dozen crocodiles lying in the sun with their mouths open, enjoying the fun.

From here, up the Nile, there are extremely many of them, but those that devour people are few: they are in abundance. For example, this year one appeared near Khartoum itself; a crocodile lives near Ouad-Medina for ten years, which kidnaps several people every summer.”

Local residents, according to Kovalevsky, treat river predators surprisingly carelessly and “take some precautions against them” only where a man-eating crocodile appears. In other places, “residents do not pay the slightest attention to crocodiles: they swim and swim across the Nile in full view of them.”

From the sources of the Blue Nile to the White Nile...

Yegor Petrovich saw the consequences of such neglect with his own eyes. Hereas he describes the attack of a crocodile on a man: “There was no wind; the Arabs wandered knee-deep and deeper in the water, dragging the barge with a towline.

Suddenly one of them disappeared and then appeared on the water; not even a minute had passed before he went deeper again, quickly as lead.

Everyone guessed what was happening: they started shouting, making noise, starting shooting, and the Arab again appeared on the water, the bloody ferede trailing behind him; They hastily dropped the rope, and he somehow swam to the barge; blood and water flowed from him.

It turned out that the crocodile first grabbed him above the knee; but, probably, he got entangled in the fereda, which the local residents wrap several times around the lower part of the body, and missed his victim, leaving teeth marks on the body; another time he grabbed him by the toes of the same foot, but the screams and noise frightened him; the crocodile bit off three fingers, as if cutting them off with a knife.”

The reaction to this incident on the part of the Arabs is surprising: the victim himself refused medical help, saying that there was a healer at home, and most of all he was upset not by the loss of three fingers, but by the fact that the crocodile had seriously damaged his ferede.

Three Arabs carried him home, and the rest went into the water to pull the dahabiya, as if nothing had happened. “Glorious land! - Kovalevsky sums up. - You cannot approach the shore for fear of lions and hyenas; You can’t stay in the water for fear of crocodiles.”

The lions, indeed, were nearby all the time and accompanied the expedition from the time it reached Sudan. “In the evening we landed on the shore,” writes Kovalevsky, “suddenly the roar of a lion was heard nearby; another responded to his voice, and finally a third, and closer and closer, even the shadow of one of them flashed in the darkness...

Some of ours were on the shore, and we were very afraid for them; Finally, on the opposite side, people appeared in a row walking along the shallows: they were ours. They heard the roar of lions as close as we did, and decided to go around them by water, risking bumping into crocodiles on the road: the visible danger is worse.”

We managed to protect ourselves from both people and animals. But the third danger - tropical fever - still overtook the travelers.

This is what Yegor Petrovich writes to the headquarters of the Corps of Mining Engineers from the city of Kezan, located on the Tumat River (the left tributary of the Blue Nile): “In the camp, most of the sick: this is a difficult time before the rains, the thermometer in the sun constantly shows 350 according to the reomur, it reaches 390 "You can barely breathe." One degree of the Reaumur scale is equal to 1.250 C; consequently, the temperature reached 440 - 490 Celsius!

In Kezan, Kovalevsky immediately began building a gold mining factory. The deposit there was previously discovered by Egyptian engineers Dashuri and Ali, whom Yegor Petrovich trained in exploration and gold mining back in the Urals.

Having established the construction of the factory, Kovalevsky, accompanied by troops, set off along the dry riverbed to the sources of Tumat in search of gold and the sources of the Nile. He found three gold placers, but had to abandon plans to search for the sources of the Nile. The brave traveler was struck down by an acute fever...

Having recovered a little, Kovalevsky set off on the return journey - and on June 11, 1848, he arrived in Alexandria. Muhammad Ali was seriously ill, the country was led by his son, Ibrahim Pasha. He expressed “special gratitude” to Yegor Petrovich and awarded him the Order of Nishan el Iftigar in the form of a gold medal with a diamond image of the Sultan’s monogram, crescent and star.

The Russian government also awarded Kovalevsky “for the fulfillment of a specially entrusted to him ... foreign assignment” - the Order of Anna of the second degree. One of Yegor Petrovich’s comrades, congratulating him on the award, wrote that “to receive such an award, it seems there was no need to travel so far.” It is unknown what Kovalevsky answered him...

In the official report on the results of the expedition, the traveler wrote: “Neither dangers nor hardships, nor even illness stopped me on my way. Knowing that the attention of the scientific world was constantly drawn to the expedition entrusted to me (as shown by the reviews of scientific journals and the hopes of the ruler of Egypt, concentrated in me), I tried to maintain the dignity of the Russian and justify the choice of the authorities.”

This was not the last trip of Yegor Petrovich. There were still expeditions to Central and Central Asia, detailed descriptions of which were significantly useful to future explorers of these regions - G. N. Potanin, N. N. Przhevalsky, P. K. Kozlov, V. A. Obruchev and others.

Kovalevsky did not forget about his craft as a warrior. When the Anglo-French troops began the siege of Sevastopol in 1855, he achieved transfer to the active army. For the courage and heroism shown during the defense of the Black Sea stronghold, Yegor Petrovich was awarded a medal.

Then his life proceeded peacefully. From 1856 to 1861 Kovalevsky headed the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1861 he was appointed senator and member of the board of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 1857 to 1865 Egor Petrovich served as assistant to the chairman of the Russian Geographical Society; in 1858 he was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1859 - its honorary member. Kovalevsky ended his career in 1868 with the rank of lieutenant general of the Corps of Mining Engineers.

1809-02-18

1868-10-02

Russian traveler, diplomat and writer. For eight years (1857 - 1865) he was assistant to the chairman of the Russian Geographical Society, and from February 1865 - its honorary member. During his trip to Africa (1847 - 1848), he made a great contribution to the resolution of the “Nile problem”.

Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky belonged to those few whose passion was travel as such. However, he never wandered idlely. A mining engineer, a skilled diplomat, a gifted writer, a researcher by nature, he willingly took on a variety of assignments, and most often he was accompanied by success and recognition.

After graduating from Kharkov University (Faculty of Philosophy), Kovalevsky specialized in gold exploration and mining in Altai. In 1839, the Russian government sent him to search for gold in Montenegro, and then on an important mission to Bukhara, the capital of the Khanate, which was almost closed to Europeans.

Kovalevsky's mobility is amazing. Today - at the southern outskirts of Europe, tomorrow - in the depths of Asia. The Urals, Dalmatia, Afghanistan, the Carpathians, Kashmir, later Mongolia, China, Africa... It was not an entirely ordinary matter that brought Kovalevsky to Africa. The ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, was obsessed with the idea of ​​replenishing his depleted treasury by finding the mysterious country of Ophir. There, according to legend, treasures were mined for King Solomon and the Egyptian pharaohs. An ancient Arabic manuscript prompted Muhammad Ali to send people on a search to the distant region of Fazoglu. The envoys of the ruler of Egypt actually found gold deposits, but very scarce ones.

Then a message was sent to the Russian Tsar with a request to urgently send a knowledgeable mining engineer. This is how Kovalevsky ended up in Africa. Together with him, Siberian and Ural foreman and miners arrived in Egypt.

The conqueror of Arabia, Syria, Sennar and Kordofan spent time in conversations with Russian guests, asking them about the life of Russia and its northern regions.

Preparing his expedition to Africa, Kovalevsky in the Urals taught two young Egyptians assigned to him the art of searching and mining gold. One of these students, named Ali, accompanied Kovalevsky on his wanderings in Africa.

The route of Kovalevsky's expedition went mainly along the Nile, its tributary - the Blue Nile and the Tumat River flowing into the latter from the left. From Alexandria to Cairo we traveled the usual route along the Mahmudiye Canal and the Rosetta branch of the Nile Delta. Kovalevsky with his companions Tsenkovsky, foreman Borodin and gold panner Fomin left Cairo on a large Nile steamer on January 20, 1848. On the fifth day they were in Aswan, from where the voyage along the Nile continued on sailing barges - dahabiye. But they failed to pass through the rapids of the Nile above the city of Kurusku, so it was decided to go through the Great Nubian Desert along the caravan route.

In Nubia, Kovalevsky climbed the Libyan Mountains, and then went deep into the Great Nubian Desert, where, as he testifies, the hot air seemed purple. Along the entire route through the hot Great Nubian Desert, sun-bleached skeletons of camels and bulls lay scattered, frightening travelers. The caravan walked continuously for twelve to thirteen hours a day. Kovalevsky felt the desert “in all the horror of destruction and death.” However, the nomads said: a good rain is enough - and everything around is covered with greenery. “This means that this desert is not doomed to eternal death. If nature can so quickly snatch it from the hands of death, then man, through the power of labor and time, can achieve the same.”

Only on the tenth day of the journey the desert ended and the river welcomed travelers again. On barges they slowly moved towards the city of Khartoum, where the White Nile and Blue Nile, merging their waters, give rise to the Nile proper.

Khartoum is the capital of Sennar and all of Eastern Sudan. Here Kovalevsky began studying the history of Sennar. Sennar - a region with a city of the same name - occupied the interfluve between the White and Blue Nile before their confluence at Khartoum, forming a huge triangle. Kovalevsky called this triangle the Sennar Peninsula. Meadows with herbs as tall as a man, lush steppes, virgin forests where the roar of a lion was heard - such was the appearance of this country. In the Sennar forests, he discovered a new type of palm tree - duleb, and collected seeds and roots of useful plants.

Leaving the Blue Nile, the Russian detachment headed to the tributary of this river - Tumat. Before Kovalevsky, not a single Egyptian had been on the banks of the Tumat, not to mention Europeans. He opened this country to science.

The Tumat region in its geological structure and conditions of occurrence of gold-bearing rocks was reminiscent of Pyshma and Miass in the Urals. Russian geologists unerringly found gold in greenstones, in the hollows and tributaries of an African river.

The Ural experience, applied in distant Africa, was crowned with complete success. A Russian foreman discovered a rich gold mine. In the very heart of Africa, a gold processing plant was built following the model of Ural and Altai enterprises.

But Kovalevsky dreamed of a different kind of success. An Arabic proverb solved one of the mysteries of Africa very simply: “The source of the Nile is in paradise.” By the time Kovalevsky traveled to Africa, they already knew that the Blue Nile began in Ethiopia. Before leaving Cairo, Kovalevsky heard that the travelers Abbadi brothers had finally managed to find the sources of the White Nile, and not far from the sources of the Blue Nile.

Kovalevsky found this strange. But if the Abbadi brothers are right, then along the dry bed of the Tumat River you can walk from the gold miners’ camp to the source of the great river.

They tried in vain to dissuade the Russian from this idea, threatening him with a meeting with the warlike Abyssinian Galla tribe. In the mountains around the first bivouac of his expedition, lights flashed on and off throughout the night. Somewhere in the distance, drums rumbled, transmitting alarming news about foreigners from village to village.

Soon, Egyptian soldiers captured three highlanders, intending to turn them into slaves. Kovalevsky ordered the prisoners to be released. The rumor must have spread far and wide. Gaul was not touched by the aliens. The caravan passed unhindered to where weak springs gushed out from under the damp ground. None of Kovalevsky’s companions had ever seen where the Tumat River flows from.

“No one has penetrated so far into Africa from this side,” Kovalevsky wrote in his diary. Before Kovalevsky’s travels, the Upper Nile region was known only from the maps of cosmographers of the ancient world - Ptolemy (2nd century AD) and al-Idrisi (1154), but the maps compiled by them, of course, did not in any way meet the needs of 19th-century geography.

To the south of the sources of Tumat lay a new country discovered by Kovalevsky. From the east it was limited by the peak of Fadasi, behind which the Abyssinian Highlands rose. The Moon Mountains rose at the southern border of the new country. How many legends have been written about the Moon Mountains, at the foot of which the sources of the Nile have been located since the time of Ptolemy! Kovalevsky rejected the erroneous statements of the ancients and believed that the sources of the Nile should not be sought here.

Subsequently, it turned out that Kovalevsky was right in his assumptions - the Moon Mountains turned out to be the main mountain system of Inner Africa. Kovalevsky described the Tumatsky ridge that he discovered, which was part of these mountains. It was crossed by Russian geologists in all directions. The gold deposits of Inner Africa were concentrated here.

The new country south of the Moon Mountains was named Nikolaevsky by Kovalevsky.

The Nevka River appeared on the map of the Russian discoverer. It flowed through the “country of Nikolaev”.

“This name,” Kovalevsky wrote about the Nevka, “can serve as an indication of what places the European traveler reached and what nation he belongs to.”

According to Abbadi's assumption, the Nile should flow at the foot of the mountains located south of the sources of Tumat. “But this is physically impossible: from the northern slope of these mountains originate rivers flowing directly to the north, such as Yabus and even Tumat itself, which would certainly meet on the way with the White Nile, if it were here, and would merge with him, and meanwhile they safely reach their goal after a long journey to the north, that is, they flow into the Blue Nile.

So, if the river discovered by Abbadi really constitutes the source of the Nile, then he must make a sharp turn and extraordinary efforts at his very, so to speak, birth, when he was not strong enough and was not enriched by extraneous waters, in order to break through the mountains, which at this turn must to oppress him from everywhere in Abyssinia and in the land of Galla at the latitude indicated by Abbadi. If we assume that it flows along the southern side of the mountains and, having already gone around them, breaks through to the north, then it should meet Gokhob or Omo on its way...” Kovalevsky further writes that d’Abbadi apparently took the Nile as the source a small river also named Bahr el-Abiad, but flowing from the right into the Blue Nile. A small lake located somewhat to the south is also known by this name.

Based on his personal observations, Kovalevsky concluded that the main river is not the Blue Nile, but the White Nile.

Thus, Yegor Petrovich was one of the first, if not the first, who restored the correct belief, which had been shaken at that time in the geographical world, that the sources of the White Nile should not be found between 3 ° and 10 ° N, that is, in places where The map showed the Moon Mountains, much further south.

The banks of the Nevka were the extreme southern border of Kovalevsky’s routes along the Sennar Peninsula, the land of the Galla blacks in the Nikolaev country. He reached the edge of the Abyssinian Highlands. No one had made such daring journeys at that time. But this is not the end of the wanderings and discoveries of the Russian geologist and the Ural ore miners.

In the same 1848, they were seen between the Blue and White Nile in the mountains, as if surrounded by a scarlet border, in thickets of ebony and wild bananas. Near the high mountain Dul, Kovalevsky visited the only fortress in the Sennar region, the garrison of which consisted of Albanians, Tatars and Balkan Slavs. Whitewashed huts stood on the soil of the Black Continent, and the sounds of Slavic harp were heard in them under the African sky.

On the way back to Alexandria, in the vastness of the Lesser Nubian Desert, Kovalevsky discovered the Abudom River, a left tributary of the Nile. This discovery refuted the opinions of the famous German geographers Humboldt and Ritter, who argued that the Nile has only one tributary - the Atbara River.

Accompanied by Albanian horsemen and devoted black guides, a detachment of Russian explorers entered Alexandria. Kovalevsky carried bags of high-grade bright yellow Tumat gold and scientific collections, including stone tools from ancient African miners who mined gold for the pharaohs.

Kovalevsky's research brought some clarity to the orography of the western part of the Abyssinian Highlands. Eastern Sudan, or, as Kovalevsky called it, the Sennar Peninsula, a vast territory in the form of a triangle, enclosed between the lower reaches of the White and Blue Nile rivers, was put on the map by him based on his own observations. (This map is given as an appendix to Kovalevsky’s book “Journey to Inner Africa”.)

During his travels through Egypt, Nubia, Sudan, Abyssinia and Inner Africa, Kovalevsky conducted diverse scientific research. He determined the latitude and longitude of various areas, worked with a barometer, conducted meteorological observations, studied the composition of the water and sediments of the Nile, and collected data on the geology of the Nile Delta.

Soon after returning from the campaign, he wrote the work “The Nile Basin Geologically and Gold Placers of Inner Africa.” And only much later - in 1872 - Kovalevsky’s book “Journey to Inner Africa” was published. This book contains a lot of wonderful information about the people and nature of countries unknown to Europeans and is imbued with warm sympathy for the black inhabitants of Africa.

It is interesting to note that feature of many rivers in this part of Africa, which Yegor Petrovich repeatedly pointed out in his book. In the dry season, these rivers (even such significant ones as the Tumat, and especially small rivers - Nevka, Yabus) are dry riverbeds, but it is enough to dig only a small depression in the riverbed to get good drinking water. Consequently, rivers flow under a layer of sand. During the rainy season, these rivers are full of water.

In 1849-1851, Kovalevsky traveled to China as a diplomatic representative. With his assistance, an agreement was signed under which Dzungaria was opened to Russian trade. The signing of the treaty greatly contributed to the geographical study of this part of Western China.

Kovalevsky wrote more than one book during his remarkable life. He knew the world from the Adriatic to the deserts of Central Asia, from the Mountains of the Moon to Northern China.

) - Russian traveler, writer, diplomat, orientalist, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1857), first chairman of the Literary Fund (since 1859).

Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky
Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky, 1856. Photo by S. Levitsky.
Date of Birth	18th of Febuary(1809-02-18 )
Place of Birth	Yaroshevka village, Kharkov province, Russian empire
Date of death	2 October(1868-10-02 ) (59 years old)
A place of death	Saint Petersburg , Russian empire
Nationality	Russian empire Russian empire
Occupation	traveler, writer, diplomat, orientalist,

Biography

Born on February 6 (18), 1809 in the village of Yaroshevka, Kharkov province, into a noble family (now Ukraine).

In 1825-1828 he studied at the philosophy department of Kharkov University. After graduating from the university, in 1829 he entered the service in the Mining Department. In 1830 he received the rank of mining engineer. Until 1837 he worked at Altai and Ural factories.

In Montenegro

In China

In 1849, Kovalevsky accompanied a spiritual mission to Beijing and managed to insist on allowing our caravans to pass along a convenient “merchant route”, instead of the almost impassable Argalinsky sands, which provided invaluable convenience for trade and enriched geographical knowledge of Mongolia. But even more important was the Kuldzha Treaty of 1851, concluded through Kovalevsky, which contributed to the development of Russian trade with western China and served as the basis for the subsequent expansion of influence in the Trans-Ili region.

During the Crimean War

Since 1856 - corresponding member, since 1857 - honorary member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1861, Kovalevsky, with the rank of lieutenant general, was appointed senator and member of the council of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Literary activity

Kovalevsky's literary activity began very early. In 1832 he began to publish as a poet, also wrote novels and stories, but gained fame as the author of essays about trips to Central Asia, Southern Europe, East Africa and East Asia. He made his debut in poetry with books: “Thoughts about Siberia” (St. Petersburg, 1832) and a tragedy in 5 acts: “Martha Posadnitsa” (St. Petersburg, 1832), but, soon realizing that poetry was not given to him, he switched to prose. Various travels and historical research gave him material for several books, which were widely read at one time and have not lost interest to this day. These are: “Four Months in Montenegro” (with drawing and map, St. Petersburg, 1841) - a book in which, according to the requirements of the censorship of that time, K.’s military adventures in Montenegro could not be included; “Wanderer on land and seas” (3 parts, St. Petersburg, 1843-1845); “Travel to China” (2 parts, St. Petersburg, 1853); “Count Bludov and his time. The Reign of Emperor Alexander I" (St. Petersburg, 1866); "The War with Turkey and the Break with the Western Powers in 1853 and 1854." (SPb., 1866; German translation Chr. von Sarauw, Leipzig, 1868). These works of Kovalevsky were included in the posthumous edition of his works (St. Petersburg, 187 1 -72; 5 volumes). In addition, Kovalevsky published in magazines, mostly under pseudonyms: Nil Bezymyanny and E. Gorev, a number of fictional works: “Phanariot” (“Library for Reading”, 1844, vol. 67); “Petersburg Day and Night” (unfinished novel, ib., 1845, vols. 72-76; German translation by Ph. Löwenstein, Stuttgart, 1847); “Majorsha” (ib., 1849, vol. 93); “To live a century is not to cross a field” (novel, “Notes of the Fatherland” 1857, vols. 110 and 111), etc. In the last years of his life, Kovalevsky decided to write the history of Russia in the 19th century; an excerpt from it, entitled “Eastern Affairs in the Twenties,” is placed in Book III. "Bulletin of Europe" 1868. Of all that Kovalevsky wrote, the book about Bludov is of greatest importance. Death prevented Kovalevsky from releasing the second volume of this work, for which he had already collected material. Kovalevsky was one of the founding members of the society for benefits to needy writers and scientists (literary fund) and until his death he was its permanent chairman. The same company has a capital named after Kovalevsky, the interest from which goes towards scholarships for students.