Dolganev, E.E.: The Country of Ethiopians (Abyssinia)

Title

Strana efiopov (Abissiniia), Sankt-Peterburg 1896

The Country of Ethiopians (Abyssinia)

Keywords

Summary

With this essay, Dolganev provides an insight into Ethiopian history and society. After a chapter entirely devoted to history, he focuses his attention on the systems of administration (political, ecclesiastical, judicial), on education and religion (including monasticism and asceticism), on everyday customs. The book is accompanied by three appendixes: an essay on Ethiopian music by B. Bystrov (pseudonym of Evfimii Shvidchenko), a glossary of Ethiopian words, a map of the country. In the foreword, the author states that “Our interest is to tell the pure truth, so that the representation of reality is the most truthful and accurate. Unfortunately, even the best works we have on Abyssinia by European authors confuse the reader with the most contradictory remarks. We have found a way out of all these contradictions and doubts in the tales by the very Abyssinians. The mistake of those who describe Abyssinia is that they, describing the life of a rare and unique population (for their way of life and ethnographic peculiarities), use analogies and terms borrowed from the contemporary life of educated peoples or from the life of Oriental peoples who, while more known to us, are not substantially similar to Abyssinians”. Dolganev quotes Western works he has consulted (by Eduard Rüppel, Henry Salt, Mansfield Parkyns and Job Ludolf), stressing their unreliability but at the same time stating that he has occasionally used them to verify statements by Ethiopians. He also maintains that there are still very few works about this country written by Russian authors.

Bio

Efrem Dolganev was a Russian archpriest, canonised saint and martyr in the 2000s. Born in the Kherson governorate, he was the brother of the episcope Hermogenes, a supporter of the Union of the Russian People and of the Black Hundreds. He studied at the Odessa Theological Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy, graduating from the latter in 1897 with a thesis devoted to the Ethiopian church. Between 1908 and 1918 he officiated in Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. He was arrested by the Bolsheviks after trying to pay the bail for his brother, who was arrested and imprisoned in Ekaterinburg. Soon after he was shot.He is also the author of Sovremennaia Abissiniia (Modern Ethiopia, 1897), a shorter book consisting of The Country of Ethiopians’ last chapters.

Sources

“Efrem Efremovich Dolganev”, in Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia, t. 19, Moskva 2008, p. 51.

A.F.