Sleptsov, A.A.: To India by Sea

Title

Po moriu do Indii, Sankt-Peterburg 1901

To India by Sea

Keywords

Summary

The volume, part of the series “Knizhka za knizhkoi”, is dedicated to the progressive discovery of the route to India by circumnavigating Africa, starting with the explorations of Prince Henry the Navigator (Henrique of Portugal, 1394-1460). The book features an introduction, a main section and an appendix. In the introduction, Sleptsov provides information on how Europeans understood the world in the 14^th-15^th centuries, the attractiveness of India to Europe and the spread of different faiths (Christianity, Islam) across the various territories. The main section retraces the stages of the circumnavigation of Africa, the establishment of the slave trade, Portugal’s growing influence and sudden demise. The appendix consists of geography-oriented information.

Bio

Aleksandr Sleptsov was a writer, publisher and public figure, one of the founders of the populist organisation “Zemlia i volia”. Born into a family of the landed gentry, he graduated from the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo (1856) and began his career in state service, which led him to an 11-month mission to Europe. This experience gave him the chance to meet Herzen and Mazzini in London, Turgenev in Paris. After his return to Russia, he resigned from his post and began to be involved in the populist movement, dedicating himself to spreading the knowledge amongst the masses through public schools and reading rooms. One of the founders of “Zemlia i volia”, in later years he became disillusioned with the revolutionary movement, and resumed service. He worked as a teacher for different institutes, while continuing to promote education to the masses through the establishment of (or collaboration with) several periodicals (“Delo”, “Priroda i liudi”, “Sovremennoe obozrenie”, “Novoe slovo”, etc.). For his services he was awarded the Order of St. Anna and the Order of St. Stanislaus (1^st class). He is the author of popular literature and essays on pedagogical questions.

Sources

“Sleptsov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich”, in Russkie pisateli. 1800-1917, t. 5, ed. by P. Nikolaev, Moskva 2007, p. 649-650.

A.F.