Rutskii, P.G.: To the Oases of the Sahara and across Italy

Title

K oazam Sakhary i po Italii, Riga 1898

To the Oases of the Sahara and across Italy

Keywords

Summary

The book features thirty-two illustrations of African landscapes and people. It is divided into nineteen chapters, prefaced by the author’s introduction and an initial overview of the journey’s circumstances. Chapters One to Nine report travelling around Europe, focusing on Warsaw, Vienna, the Austrian Alps, Italy, Venice, Italian Switzerland, and Marseille. Chapters Ten to Seventeen are devoted to African cities, whereas the final three chapters centre on Naples and Rome. In the opening pages, the author mentions that some travel notes were initially published as separate letters in the journal “Rizhskii Vestnik”, and are now being published as a book supplemented with photographic images of Africa. In the subsequent introduction, the author details the motivations behind the journey, listing curiosity and a longing to explore foreign lands. Accompanied by two close friends, the author ponders that travelling with a loved one would however be ideal. After providing general geographic and demographic insights into North Africa and Algeria, the narrative depicts the city of Algiers and its inhabitants in Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven offers details about Arabs and Bedouins, elucidating their lifestyles, appearance, and cultural practices. The following chapters report a journey to the Sahara desert and the city of Sétif, which surprises the author for its remarkable civility and European influence. Chapter Fourteen is devoted Biskra, the final station of the Sahara Desert railway, offering information about the city’s climate, geography, population, and the warmth shown by locals towards the Russian visitors. The narrative then proceeds to Tunis, of which a description enriched with information of the historical context is provided. The author explores archaeological sites and modern areas of the city, thus marking the conclusion of the African trip before the return to Europe.

Bio

Petr Rutskii was a Latvian state counsellor, employed by the Ministry of Education since 1891, and a director of folk schools, especially in the Governorate of Livonia. A well-known figure in Riga, he was a member of the Council for Orthodox rural folk schools in the Baltic provinces and of the Riga Peter and Paul brotherhood, both promoting education for the people. He published several works related to Riga and the education system (Societies of the Livonia Province, 1900; Training Courses for Secondary School Gymnastics Teachers and Instructors, 1916), as well as a guidebook (Riga and Its Surroundings, 1908). Though his date of death is unknown, he is still reported in service as of 1917.

Sources

Spisok lits, sluzhashchikh po vedomstvu ministerstva Narodnogo prosveshcheniia na 1917, Petrograd 1917, p. 710;

G. Sedova, Obrazovanie russkikh zhenshchin v Lifliandskoi gubernii i v Latvii v kontse XIX – pervoi polovine XX vv., “Na puti k grazhdanskomu obshchestvu”, 2022, 48 (4), p. 39-47.

A.F., M.E.

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