September 26: In memory of traveler Pyotr Kozlov, who discovered the "dead city" of Khara-Khoto
On September 26, 1935, 71-year-old Pyotr Kozlov, a traveler, archaeologist, and ethnographer, died in Peterhof. He was an explorer of Mongolia and Tibet and the discoverer of the Tangut language. Khara-Khoto ("dead city").
I can't imagine putting down your pilgrim's staff and forgetting about it even under the best of circumstances.
Childhood in the Smolensk region
Was born in Smolensk He was born in the province in 1863, into a poor, illiterate family. He had been accustomed to traveling since childhood—he often traveled with his father, a cattle trader.
After finishing 6th grade school, he was unable to receive a government scholarship to study at the institute and worked part-time at a distillery.
How Pyotr Kozlov became a traveler
At the age of 18 I accidentally met Nikolai Przhevalsky, who came to his estate in the Smolensk region. He invited him to Central Asia. To embark on his first expedition, Kozlov passed the exams for the real school course as an external student and enlisted in an infantry regiment: because of the warlike nomads, Przhevalsky took only military personnel with him.
In one of his first battles, repelling attacks by the Tangut nomads, he earned the St. George Cross.
From this two-year journey, my first, I returned as a different person - Central Asia became my life's goal
After Przhevalsky's death, his teacher and patron was the geographer and traveler Petr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky.
Having graduated Petersburg Infantry cadet school and having received the rank of officer, he held command positions and led independent expeditions.
Six expeditions to Central Asia
He made 6 major expeditions in Mongolia, Western и Northern China, Eastern TibetHe personally led three of them. In total, he spent almost 17 years traveling.
He collected important ethnographic materials on the peoples of Mongolia and Tibet. Thanks to him, the major mountain ranges in Eastern and Central Tibet were mapped.
Secret missions and a meeting with the Dalai Lama
Leading expeditions to Tibet, he obtained information for the General Staff, as Russia competed with Britain for influence in Central Asia at the end of the 19th century. He participated in secret missions and met with the spiritual leader, the 13th Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama is a remarkable man; he is intellectually superior to all his ministers and secretaries; he lacks only European polish, although in terms of his affairs he is better than a certified diplomat.
The Dead City of Khara-Khoto
In 1907–1909, he discovered the ruins of the ancient Tangut city of Khara-Khoto (the "dead city") in the Mongolian desert—a rich library of scrolls, a collection of printed paper money, cult statues, and more than 300 Buddhist images on wood, silk, linen, and paper.
The desert knows how to keep secrets
General, Commandant, Commissioner of Askania-Nova
For Nicholas II He rose to the rank of major general. He was an honorary member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and was awarded its highest award, the Konstantinovskaya Gold Medal. He also received the Przhevalsky Medal and the Royal Geographical Society Medal.
During the First World War, he was a military commandant and purchased cattle in Mongolia for the needs of the army.
He captured and transported Przewalski's horses from the Mongolian steppes for a private reserve. Askania-Nova (near Kherson)—it was there that they produced the first litter in captivity. He later helped replenish the reserve with exotic animals and plants and wrote several books about it.
After the October Revolution of 1917, at the request of the Bolshevik government, he guarded Askania-Nova as a commissar.
He called himself a "scientific spy."
The Last Expedition
He was unable to carry out his last expedition to Tibet; in 1923, he was denounced to the OGPU with accusations of “White Guard sentiments.”
The Soviet leadership deemed entry into Tibet, under British control, too risky. The expedition was redirected to Mongolia. There, Kozlov made scientific discoveries of global significance. He excavated burial grounds of the Xiongnu (Hunnic) aristocracy in the Noinulin Mountains, dating back 2000 years. Among the archaeological finds were a unique collection of textiles and carpets, ancient bronze and ceramic items.
In recent years he retired from research work. He lived in a village near Novgorod and LeningradHe died in a sanatorium from cardiac sclerosis.