Nikolay Nikolayevich Miklukho-Maklay: biography short

"You are the first ... have proven that man is everywhere a man" - these words LN Tolstoy once addressed to a very young scientist Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai. The biography of this famous traveler is so interesting that it is read in one breath. No wonder he was often invited to the royal court, so he told the imperial family about his life among the aborigines of New Guinea.

Miklouho-Maclay: biography (family and childhood)

The future famous traveler and ethnographer was born July 17, 1846 in the village of Yazykovo Novgorod province, in a noble family. In the next decade, together with his mother, brother and sisters, he often moved from place to place, following his father, who was a railway engineer. At the end of 1856 the head of the family was appointed the head of the construction of the Vyborg highway. By that time Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai, Sr. was already seriously ill with tuberculosis, but zealously took up his job at a new place of work. This finally undermined his health, and a year later he died at the age of 41 years.

Since family savings were invested in shares, and the widow earned her living by drawing geographic maps, she managed to give the children a decent education, inviting teachers to the house. She even hired a drawing teacher for them, who opened artistic skills to Nikolai.

Studying at a gymnasium

Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai, whose biography is full of interesting events, in 1858, together with his older brother Sergei, was accepted into the third grade of the Annenshule school. However, soon the boys asked the mother to transfer them to the state gymnasium. To this end, the widow filed a petition for the enrollment of sons in the nobility, in accordance with the rank of her deceased husband, giving such a right.

In the Second Petersburg Gymnasium Nikolai Miklukha studied very badly and often skipped. As a result, with great difficulty, he was transferred to the 5th grade.

At the age of 15, during a student demonstration, Nikolai was arrested, along with other schoolboys and brother Sergei, imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. True, after a few days, the teenagers were released, since 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 the mother was able to dissuade him.

In September 1863, a young man enrolled in the Moscow University as an auditor at the Physics and Mathematics Department, which was possible even without a document on the end of the gymnasium course. There he diligently engaged in natural sciences, including physiology.

During the university meeting, held in 1864, Nikolai tried to put his classmate at the Sufshinsky Gymnasium in the building. They were detained by the administration, and the young man was banned from attending classes.

After it became clear that Nikolai could not get higher education in Russia, the mother agreed to send the young man to study abroad, to Germany. After much toil, the young man managed to obtain a foreign passport and go abroad in April 1864.

Life in Germany

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

In the summer of 1865, Nikolai Nikolayevich Miklouho-Maclay (a biography in his youth known well enough) was transferred to the University of Leipzig. There he enrolled in the faculty, where he trained managers in the field of agriculture and forestry.

After listening there 4 courses, he went to Yen and entered the medical faculty, where he studied for 3 years.

Expedition to the Canary Islands

In the spring of 1866, the scientific leader of Nicholas E. Haeckel decided to visit Sicily in order to study the Mediterranean fauna and invited his beloved student and assistant to travel. The war forced them to change the route, and the young man found himself in England, where he met Darwin himself. Then the expedition members sailed to Madeira, and from there to Santa Cruz to the island of Tenerife.

The local population took scientists for sorcerers. Upon completion of the work, a group of scientists, including Miklukho-Maklai, made their way to Morocco. There Nicholas stayed to study the life of the Berbers and returned to Yen only in May 1867.

Scientific activity

In Jena NN Miklouho-Maclay (biography in his youth is presented above) again became an assistant to Haeckel. In the summer of 1867, he published his first scientific article in the Jena Journal of Medicine and Natural Science. It was signed by Miklouho-Maclay.

A year later, the young man graduated from the Medical Faculty of the University of Jena and began to actively engage in scientific work. In one of his articles he hypothesized that evolution is a differentiation, that is, a transition from the original form of a living organism to other forms, but not necessarily the highest.

Expedition to Italy and the Red Sea

After the failure of numerous attempts to become a member of the polar expedition of Miklouho-Maclay (the biography in the last years of his life is presented below), he went to Sicily with the zoologist-Darwinist Anton Dorn.

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

After visiting Egypt, where he conducted a large research work, the scientist went to Russia, where he arrived in the summer of 1869.

Preparation for the first expedition to New Guinea

Having met relatives who were living in Saratov at the time, Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai (biography of the scientist was subsequently translated into several languages) went to the capital and spoke at several scientific conferences. Soon he was accepted into the ranks of the Russian Geographical Society and approved the draft expedition to the Pacific presented to them.

May 21, 1870, Marine Minister Krabbe reported that the highest permission was obtained to deliver Miklouho-Maclay to Batavia on the corvette "Vityaz".

Miklukho-Maklai Nikolai Nikolaevich: a short biography in the period of life on the islands in the Pacific Ocean

The sailing of the "Knight" took place on November 8, 1870. In Brazil, Miklouho-Maclay visited the local hospital for a while and was engaged in examining representatives of the Negroid race of both sexes.

July 21, "The Knight" arrived in Tahiti. On the island of Miklukho-Maklai he bought a red calico, needles, knives, soap and received gifts from Bishop Jossan.

Then the traveler visited Apia, where he hired two servants: a sailor from Sweden Olsen and a young aborigine named Boy. Two months later, the scientist and his assistants reached the final destination of their journey. Miklouho-Maclay (a brief biography of the scientist is similar to an adventure novel) landed on shore with his assistants and visited the village. All the locals started off, except Papuans by the name of Tui, who in future became an intermediary between the members of the expedition and the aborigines.

In the first months, the natives were wary of the newcomers, but in 1872 Miklouho-Maclay (a brief biography can not give a complete picture of his life, full of adventures) was adopted by them as a friend.

Explore the territory of the traveler named his name. So on the map of the world appeared Miklouho-Maclay Coast.

The second trip to New Guinea

On December 24, the scientist left New Guinea on the ship "Emerald". After some time he arrived in Hong Kong, where he learned about the glory of the explorer of the Papuans who fell on him. After traveling around Batavia, Miklouho-Maclay went on a second expedition to the Papuans and landed on Ambon on January 2, 1874. There he began to fight slavers.

In May 1875, the scientist wrote a letter to the Emperor Alexander II asking him to take over the protection of the Aborigines of New Guinea, 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 the Bay of Watsons Bay. Since the required amount could not be collected, the scientist again went to the South Seas.

In Melanesia

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

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

Return to Russia and a trip to Europe

In Sydney, Miklouho-Maclay (a brief biography of the scientist does not contain information about his transient novels) met with the widow of Margaret Robertson-Clark, the daughter of an important colonial official with whom he began an affair. However, he had to leave a 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.

Deterioration of health forced Miklouho-Maclay to go to Europe for treatment. During the trip, he received a letter from Margaret Clark, in which she gave consent to a marriage with a scientist. Nevertheless, instead of going to his beloved, the scientist visited New Guinea for the third time. There he was disappointed, as many of his friends of the Papuans had died. Miklouho-Maclay landed in Bongu garden crops - mango, breadfruit, orange, lemon and grains coffee. However, despite the requests of the Papuans, he left them, promising to return.

Marriage

June 10, 1883 Nikolay Miklukho-Maclay returned to Sydney and engaged in solving problems associated with the marriage between him and Protestant Clark. February 27, 1884, they were married, and in November their first-born son Alexander was born.

Returning to Russia and Death

After receiving the order to release the building of the biological station, Miklouho-Maclay decided to return to his homeland and arrived in Odessa in the middle of the spring of 1886. In Russia, the scientist attempted to implement the project of organizing the resettlement colony on the Maclay Coast, but his plans were not 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 turned out later cancer), progressed, and in April 1988, Nikolay Miklukho-Maclay (a brief biography you already know) passed away.

The funeral

The last traveler's route was carried out by many prominent scientists of the time and members of the Russian Geographical Society. Buried Miklouho-Maclay at the Volkov cemetery near his father and sister Olga.

Now you know who was Miklukho-Maklai Nikolai Nikolaevich. Brief biography of this man, even in the most compressed form, takes many pages, as he lived a life incredibly rich in adventure.