Krasnov, P.N.: The Love of an Abyssinian Woman

Title

Ljubov’ abissinki, “Niva”, 1900, 46 (p. 911-912, 914-915, 918) – 47 (p. 931-932, 934-935, 938)

The Love of an Abyssinian Woman

Separate edition in P. Krasnov, Liubov’ abissinki: povesti i rasskazy, Sankt-Peterburg 1903. Later republished as Terunesh (Terunesh), cf. for instance P. Krasnov, Terunesh. Aska Mariam. Povesti, Berlin 1921; P. Krasnov, Terunesh. Povest’, München 1947

Keywords

Summary

Young Ivan Andreev leaves for Ethiopia, sent by a Russian firm aiming to establish successful business relationships between the two countries. He leaves behind his wife Ania, whom he gradually forgets as he becomes a “true Abyssinian”, learning the language and living according to the local customs. He falls in love with Terunesh, a young girl whom he soon marries. They live happily for a while, but her ostensible neediness and lack of interests outside the marriage start to bother Ivan, who grows apart and begins to long for Ania. After learning about Terunesh’s pregnancy and receiving a letter from Ania, he decides to leave his Ethiopian wife and return to Russia, thus prompting Terunesh to end her own life before his eyes. The memory of her will haunt him forever, even though he does not consider himself completely responsible for Terunesh’s death.

The short story is illustrated by photographs, which have not been included in later editions.

Bio

Born in Saint Petersburg in a military family, he graduated from Pavlovsk Military School in 1888. He served as lieutenant-general in the Ataman regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. Soon after the Russian Revolution he was elected Ataman of the Don Cossacks and fought in the civil war alongside the White movement. He consequently left Russia and moved firstly to Germany and then to France (1923), where he was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth, a counter-revolutionary organisation. In 1937 he moved again to Germany, where he became a supporter of the Nazis. During WWII he worked for the Germans, helping in the creation of the 1^st Cossack Cavalry Division and serving with a Cossack force in the Italian Alps (Friuli region). Captured by the British, they were handed over to the Soviets, who sentenced them to death. Apart from his military career, P.K. was also a prolific writer of essays, novels and short stories, often devoted to Cossack life and enterprises, or to travels in distant lands (Siberia, Japan, China, India, the Middle East, Ethiopia). As a matter of fact, he travelled to Ethiopia in 1897-1898 as the leader of the Cossack escort to the First Russian diplomatic mission (1897-1899), headed by P. Vlasov. This experience prompted him to write memoirs as well as fiction (novels and short stories) set in Ethiopia.

Sources

M. Rait, Russkie ekspeditsii v Efiopii v seredine XIX-nachale XX vv. i ikh etnograficheskie materialy, “Afrikanskii etnograficheskii sbornik”, 1956, 1, p. 220-281;

C. Darch, P.N. Krasnov’s Journey to Ethiopia: A Note, “Africa: rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dell’Istituto italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente”, 1975 (30), 4, p. 600-601;

V. Korolev, K. Polivanov, “Krasnov Petr Nikolaevich”, in Russkie pisateli. 1800-1917: biograficheskii slovar’, ed. by P. Nikolaev, Moskva 1994, p. 133-135;

M. Maguire, Spectral Geographies in Russian Émigré Prose: The Cases of Petr Krasnov and Georgii Peskov, in Utopian Reality. Reconstructing Culture in Revolutionary Russia and Beyond, ed. by C. Lodder, M. Kokkori, M. Mileeva, Leiden-Boston 2013, p. 99-111;

P. Deotto, Stanitsa Tèrskaja, l’illusione cosacca di una terra, Udine 2020.

A.F.