Novitskii, V.F.: Through Southern Countries

Title

Po stranam poludennym, Sankt-Peterburg 1908

Through Southern Countries

Keywords

Summary

The book is divided into fifteen chapters, and details the author’s journey to North Africa (Egypt) and Asia (Ceylon, India). Photographs representing landscapes and cityscapes are included. Chapters 1-3 are devoted to Egypt. In the opening chapter the author describes the initial phase of his journey from Saint Petersburg to Odessa by train, then to Constantinople by steamboat. In chapter two he reaches Alexandria, describing the city as clean and very European, with plenty of cafes and restaurants. After a train ride he arrives in Cairo, of which he provides general information (population, climate, geography, etc.), coupled with his impressions of the Arab part of the city and of the pyramids. After visiting Nag Hammâdi and Asyut, he returns to Cairo, continuing the journey to Suez and subsequently sailing to Ceylon.

Bio

Vasilii Novitskii was a Russian general, traveller and orientalist. Due to his military career, he travelled extensively (India, Turkestan, China, Mongolia, Afghanistan), collecting geographical and ethnographic information. In 1905 he took part in the Russo-Japanese War. After the 1917 revolution, he sided with the Bolsheviks, becoming a member of the Red Army. A professor of the military academy both before and after the revolution, Novitskii was also one of the editors of the Military Encyclopedia published by Ivan Sytin (1911-1915).

Sources

V. Melikov, Zhiznennyi i tvorcheskii put’ V. F. Novitskogo, in Voina i revoliutsiia, I, Moskva 1929, p. 3-13;

L. Leonidov, Novitskii Vasilii Fedorovich (K 100-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia), “Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal”, 1969, 3, p. 77-85.

M.E.

Gallery