Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Categories: History | Nations |

In 1864, a young resident of Ohio, George Kennan, joined a group of researchers in search of a possible route for laying a telegraph cable from the Bering Strait through Siberia to Europe as an alternative to a cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Kennan spent two years exploring the cold and wild expanses of the Russian Empire and meeting many representatives of the local population. Plans for the construction of a telegraph line were forgotten as soon as the cable was laid on the bottom of the Atlantic.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

The frustrated American returned to his homeland with nothing, but his diaries, which he published under the title Tent Life in Siberia ("Tent Life in Siberia"), became a bestseller. In 1870, Kennan returned to Russia and traveled by ship from St. Petersburg along the Volga to the Caspian Sea. From there he traveled to the Caucasus Mountains, where he met Georgians, Armenians and representatives of many other ethnic groups.

Kennan worked in the USA as a journalist for more than ten years and in 1885 he came to Russia again. This time the researcher went from St. Petersburg to the east and traveled through Altai on the border with Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China, through Siberia to the gold mines along the Kara River. He described the terrible conditions of prisoners in prisons and camps in Siberia (because of which the authorities later expelled him from the country), and also collected hundreds of postcards depicting a huge variety of subjects of the Russian emperor - from city officials to recently freed serfs, religious leaders and soldiers on the periphery of the vast Russian Empire.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Chechen men at a wedding.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Afro-Abkhazian highlander.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Two Kazakh women, the bride on the left.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Burut.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Tatars in a small village near Minusinsk.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Georgian.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Persian.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

The Great lama of the Selenginsky Datsan.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Kazakh musician plays the dombra.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Kazakh horsemen.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Georgian.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Armenian.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

A man from Transcaucasia.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Tatar women and children.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Two musicians.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Bek of Ingushetia.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Men from Transcaucasia.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

A man with his daughters.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

A rich couple from Buryatia.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

A woman in a traditional dress.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Kazakh couple.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

An Arab man from Jerusalem.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Caucasian Gypsy.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Muezzin from a mosque in Tbilisi.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

An Armenian woman.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Mullah at the wedding.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Znamensky, the police chief in Minusinsk, with a stuffed wolf's head.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

A Persian man with a gun.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Georgians.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Georgians.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

A mail team in Siberia.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Highlander.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Christopher Fomich Makovsky, head of the Irkutsk police.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Dagestan highlander.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Alexander Alexandrovich Bunge, Russian traveler and Arctic explorer.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Georgians.

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Multinational wealth of the Russian Empire of the 1870s‑1880s

Alexander II, Emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881.

     

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