Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura Publ., 2011, 623 p., ill.

This magnificent book is just as difficult to assign to any genre, as it is to clearly determine the character and activity of its hero and his place in national history and science. For at first glance, the book is a scientific monograph based on archival materials and many other primary sources (documents, memoirs, the press of that-now distant-time). All this was studied by the author in Soviet (Russian and Ukrainian), German, Australian, English and French archives, museums and libraries. To this should be added the field observations and travel notes of D. D. Tumarkin, made by him back in the 70s of the last century during expeditions on the research vessel "Dmitry Mendeleev", when he visited the Coast of Maclay in New Guinea and a number of islands of Oceania. But as you read the book, you gradually realize that it is a living, well-written literary work.

As for the personality of the hero, in my opinion, D. D. Tumarkin for the first time in Russian (and in the world) literature devoted to N. N. Miklukho-Maklay, created a work in which this extraordinary person appears as he was in life. The fact is that the image of Nikolai Nikolaevich is shrouded in legends and fictions both in New Guinea (for the primitive society where fate threw him, or rather, where he threw himself, this is natural), and in Europe, and in Australia, but most of all in his own homeland. As D. D. Tumarkin writes, "the literature about him (popular science books, scientific and popular science articles) is characterized by his idealization and mythologization, narrowness of the source base, repetition of unreliable information, numerous factual inaccuracies, consideration of his life and activities outside the broad context of the modern era" (p. 3). they attributed interviews that he did not give, called him an adventurer who invented his trip to New Guinea, wrote about a harem on the island, where 147 native wives were waiting for the traveler. Later, in the Soviet era, Miklukho-Maklay was elevated as a world-class scientist and a fighter against racism, who was hindered in his activities by the tsarist government.

The author, who supervised the preparation and publication of the 6-volume academic Collection of works by N. N. Miklukho-Maklay in 1985-1999, quite reasonably wrote:: "In our monograph, the life and activities of a famous compatriot are presented in their entirety (here I do not quite agree with D. D. Tumarkin: well, how is it possible to present human life in its entirety? - V. T.) and for certain, against a broad historical background, the real image of the scientist is separated from legends, plans and other layers. When preparing the monograph, the author tried to avoid both idealizing his hero and downplaying his real merits" (p. 3).

From the first pages of the book, D. D. Tumarkin seeks to clear the image of his hero from mythologization and interpretation, depending on the ideological attitudes of a particular era, and also - and this is an undoubted merit of the author - to correlate this image with the specific historical realities of the time in which N. N. Miklukho-Maklay lived and acted.

It is fair to note that even in the information about the hero's ancestors (it should be said that most of this information was reported by the traveler himself at the end of his life or by other representatives of the Miklukh family), there is a variability of facts and the existence of different versions. D. D. Tumarkin, having done a huge archival work, came to quite reasonable conclusions. The real genealogy of the family begins with the great-grandfather of Nikolai Nikolaevich Cossack Stepan Miklukha, who rose to cornet - the first chief officer rank (in the infantry - second lieutenant). And although Miklukho-Maklay himself wrote in his dying autobiography that his great-grandfather was granted hereditary nobility in Starodub (Chernihiv province), the author convincingly proves that Stepan Miklukho was at best just a personal nobleman, and concludes that "the dubious noble origin of Miklukho-Maklay... to some extent, it influenced his socio-psychological attitudes and, possibly, some of his actions " (pp. 8-9). So, although the mother of the hero of the book Ekaterina Semyonovna achieved after the death of her husband - a captain of the railway troops - the right of hereditary nobility for her children, Nikolai Nikolaevich himself, until the end of his days, while in Russia, called himself a nobleman of the Chernihiv province.

Describing his high school and university years (in St. Petersburg, where the Miklukh family lived), D. D. Tumarkin resolutely departed from the fashionable not only in Soviet times, but also long before it - among the Russian intelligentsia - the desire of contemporaries and later authors to emphasize in every possible way the rebellious, revolutionary character of their characters. Nikolai Miklukha of the gymnasium and University did not escape this fate. Already his brother Mikhail claimed that Nikolai was expelled from the gymnasium for political reasons, and the traveler himself wrote in his dying autobiography that he was expelled from the university "without the right to enter Russian universities" (p. 36). Both statements are true, as D. D. Tumarkin concluded, who carefully studied the life path of his hero, do not fully correspond: Nikolai left the gymnasium, remaining in the sixth grade for the second year, and from the university, where he was a free listener, he was expelled for violating the rules of internal order and without any "wolf ticket". Another thing is that Nicholas in the early 1860s undoubtedly belonged to the Russian democratic youth, brought up on the "What to do?" Chernyshevsky and the" Bell " of Herzen. And it was hardly by chance that the young Miklukha became a free student of the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University in 1863: the young generation of the 1860s had a cult of natural science, which should transform the life of mankind.

It is difficult to say, writes D. D. Tumarkin, what would have been the fate of the young man, " given the freedom-loving aspirations of the future scientist, his direct and open character "(p.39), if not for the choice of Nikolai, supported by his determined and strong - willed mother, to go to the German University in Heidelberg.

Chapter 3, "The Years of Maturation," begins with the story of how Nikolai Miklukha, turning into Miklukho-Maklay, becomes what he has become in our history - a natural scientist and traveler. D. D. Tumarkin traces the path of his hero step by step in German universities: Heidelberg, Leipzig and Jena. Already in Heidelberg, he moves away from political disputes among students and decides to devote himself only to science. After attending lectures on a wide range of subjects in 1864-1865 in Heidelberg and Leipzig, he finally settled on natural science, and once in Jena, Nikolai von Miklucho (as he begins to call himself) listens to lectures by major Darwinists-Karl Gegenbaur and Ernst Haeckel-and becomes a student and assistant to the latter. With Haeckel, he makes his first "field trip" to the Canary Islands, where he studies marine organisms in their habitat. When Nicolai von Miklouho returned to Jena in May 1867 (visiting Morocco and Spain on the way), he "firmly decided to become not a desk scientist, but a traveler-researcher" (p. 74).

It is extremely interesting and, I would say, tactfully and with full understanding, two subjects that are important for revealing the character and ambitions of the hero are highlighted: his contribution to science and the emergence of the name under which Nikolai Miklukha became famous. In the autumn of 1867, the Jena Journal of Medicine and Natural Science published Nikolai's first publication on the shark's swim bladder. Although contemporaries, especially Haeckel and Gegenbaur, highly appreciated the article, over time it turned out that the young researcher was too hasty with his categorical conclusions, and "today this article, like other works of Nikolai on zoology and comparative anatomy, deserves attention mainly from the point of view of the history of science" (p. 76). The article is not notable for its scientific value, it was signed by Miklucho - Maclay ,and since then both Nikolai Mikluch and Nikolai von Miklucho have ceased to exist. D. D. Tumarkin brilliantly considered all versions of the appearance of the second part of the surname, including the story about a Scot who was captured by the Cossacks in the XVII century, and he leaned towards the hypothesis of the Russian ethnographer N. A. Butinov, who believed that Miklukha, having discovered a new species of sponge in the Canary Islands, named it Guancha blanza and, according to tradition, added his abbreviated surname (Mel) to this name, and then transformed the abbreviation into its second part (p.79). Over time, but outside of his homeland, he increasingly used only the second part of the surname, adding a baronial title to it. And we should agree with D. D. Tumarkin: it was not only the vanity of Nikolai Nikolaevich (and it certainly was), but mainly that it helped him in his scientific and social plans.

Having described in detail the scientific activities of Nikolai Nikolaevich in 1868-1869 (publications, expeditions to Italy and the Red Sea coast), the author concludes that it was then that he finally strengthened his choice not of academic science, but of field research and travel - and unsuccessfully tried to get into the German Arctic expedition, hatched a plan to create marine biological stations I made my first, apparently immature, excursion into the field of ethnography and anthropology in connection with a visit to Jeddah. In June 1869, the naturalist and Pute-

Shestvennik Nikolay Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maklay returned to Russia and immediately found himself in the thick of events related to the development of Russian natural science.

Chapter 4, which describes the preparations for the New Guinea expedition, is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and significant parts of the book. It was here that the author most demonstrated his ability to connect the life of his hero with the environment in which he acted (in this case, with the Russian environment), with the people of this environment, perfectly and with full knowledge of the matter described by him. Starting from this chapter, the life of Nikolai Nikolaevich is convincingly integrated into two plans: scientific, natural science and socio-political. The result is not only an image of the hero with his characteristic bright personality, but also recreates the atmosphere of the era in which the great traveler lived and worked.

D. D. Tumarkin rightly believes that the lucky star of Miklukho-Maklay began to rise at the Second Congress of Russian Naturalists in Moscow in September 1869.Apparently, this was facilitated by the fact that at the congress he was presented as an assistant to E. Haeckel. Two reports in which Nikolai Nikolaevich declared himself a convinced Darwinist attracted the attention of the scientific community, especially the report on the need to create marine biological stations (p.108). Now, as the author notes, "Nikolai Nikolaevich... he chose to serve science as a public vocation... he kept aloof from politics" (p. 110). This helped him in contacts not only with moderate-liberal figures of that era (P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, N. A. Severtsov, K. M. Behr), but also with conservative ones (F. P. Litke, F. R. Osten-Sacken), which ultimately ensured that his project was supported by the Russian authorities.

The project was a trip to the still unexplored New Guinea, and as the project became more and more involved, the zoological component became more and more secondary, and the researcher's attention focused on ethnography and anthropology. By this time, writes D. D. Tumarkin, the speeches of those scientists and public figures who were ideological and scientific guidelines for Nikolai Nikolaevich (K. M. Baer, T. Huxley, N. G. Chernyshevsky, etc.)," defined the uncompromising anti-racist concept of Miklukho-Maklay " (p. 134). Using drafts and drafts of his unpublished article "Why I chose New Guinea as the field of my research" and taking into account the broad historical background, D. D. Tumarkin gives a convincing answer to the question contained in the title of the unpublished article by Miklukho-Maclay.

First, it is the desire of a scientist, clearly revealed since 1867, to go on a long and dangerous expedition that will enrich science and make him famous. New Guinea was an ideal choice: it was practically unknown to Europeans, reliable information about its indigenous population (Papuans) was interspersed with the most ridiculous inventions and rumors. Secondly, Nikolai Nikolaevich and his patrons managed to convince the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) that the exploration of New Guinea is only the initial stage of studying the waters of the Pacific Ocean, and in the future the traveler will explore the seas washing the Russian coast, that is, he will be able to explore the seas surrounding the Russian coast. Okhotsk and Japanese (p. 117). Both he and the secretary of the Russian Geographical Society, Baron F. R., who supported the scientist. Osten-Sacken was obviously lying: Nikolai Nikolaevich was not going to travel in the Sea of Okhotsk or the Sea of Japan - he would not have been a pioneer there. The third circumstance was connected with the diplomatic maneuvers of 1870, when, taking advantage of the Franco-Prussian war, Russia began to prepare a denunciation of the humiliating terms of the Paris Peace that ended the Crimean War. That is why, according to D. D. Tumarkin, in the newspaper "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" in August 1870. there was an official (!) note by Baron Kaulbars about the creation of a Russian colony in Melanesia, which was accompanied by a "Program for exploring the island of New Guinea". Although the authorities did not intend to embark on the path of colonial expansion in South Pacifica, the Russian Maritime Department reacted favorably to the Miklukho-Maclay expedition, which could demonstrate Russia's interest in the entire Pacific Ocean basin (p.138).

Starting with chapter 5, "To the shores of distant Oceania: Sailing on the corvette Vityaz", D. D. Tumarkin explores the life of Miklukho-Maklay-no longer a student or assistant, but a scientist who has defined the scope of his research interests. This chapter itself is a masterfully written essay, which, telling about international problems (the Franco-Prussian war and Russia's refusal to comply with the terms of the Paris Treaty), the state of natural science in Europe, visiting the coasts of South America and the islands of Oceania (Pitcairn, Mangareva, Tahiti, Samoa, Rotuma, New Ireland), conveys to the reader the atmosphere of that era. epochs, anxious expectation and determination of the hero of the book to learn-

the great feat of landing on the north - eastern coast of New Guinea, where no European had yet set foot, in the area that later became known as the Maclay Coast.

The chapters devoted to the traveller's sojourn in New Guinea (three visits to the Coast of Maclay, one to the Coast of Papua Koviai in the south-western part of the island, and one to the south-eastern coast of New Guinea) over the course of 12 years (1871-1883) are among the best sections of the book (however, this is relative, because the whole book is written perfectly, but the special flavor of these chapters is given by the author's visit in 1971 and 1977 to the places where the scientist visited). In the center of the study of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay's stay in New Guinea, of course, there are chapters that tell about the Maclay Coast, where our compatriot spent about three years in total. His finest hour was the first visit to the Maclay Coast in 1871-1872, after which his name became known not only in the world of science, but also among the circle that is called the public.

The first trip of Nikolai Nikolaevich and his life in New Guinea, on the shore of the Astrolabe Bay, are repeatedly described in our scientific and popular literature (including by D. D. Tumarkin). It would seem that what new things can be added to this story? But the author was able to display the "first act of the New Guinea epic of Miklouho-Maclay" most reliably (in comparison with previous domestic and foreign publications) (p.205). In the process of writing, he critically used the articles of Miklukho-Maklay, fragments of his diaries, memoirs of Russian sailors of the clipper ship Izumrud, which took the scientist to Batavia (present-day Jakarta), the capital of the Dutch possessions on the Malay (Indonesian) archipelago, the works of German missionaries, travelers and colonial officials of the late XIX-early XX centuries., legends and legends of the local population, including those recorded by D. D. Tumarkin himself in 1971 and 1977.

In this chapter, the author focuses the reader's attention on two features of Miklouho-Maclay's activities during his first visit to New Guinea, which, as he later travels around the islands of Oceania and in the jungles of the Malacca Peninsula, finally form the scientific interests and practical activities of the scientist. The first of them is a gradual, growing concentration of attention on anthropology and ethnography and a certain departure from natural science research. Although on the Banks of the Maclay River he conducted meteorological observations, studied the animal world, and dried the leaves, fruits, and flowers of plants that interested him (although he did not begin to describe and publish his meteorological observations, faunal and floral collections until the mid-1880s, i.e., on the eve of his death), but more and more of his work was devoted to I was interested in ethnographic and anthropological research. "I have had the rare good fortune," wrote Miklukho-Maklay, "to observe a population that was still completely out of contact with other peoples, and at such a stage in the development of civilization when all tools and weapons are made of stone, bone, and wood" (p.223).

D. D. Tumarkin notes that in his diaries and articles, Nikolai Nikolaevich carefully and in detail described the economy and material culture of the aborigines of the Maklay Bank, their way of life, customs and customs, and art. Although the social system and religious beliefs are covered in less detail by the researcher, the traveler, who at the beginning of his scientific activity was inclined, like his teacher E. Haeckel, to put forward the most daring hypotheses and broad generalizations, now began to refrain from adding any guesses and hypotheses to his personal observations. The author of the book reasonably believes that this was largely due to Miklukho-Maclay's poor familiarity with the theoretical works of the 1860s in the field of the study of primitiveness. Tylor, J. Lubbock, and J. MacLennan), no less rightly points out that "even on the most complex aspects of Papuan society, there are many interesting observations in Mikluho-Maclay's notebooks, diaries, and articles" (p.225). We are talking about the social structure of the village-community (collective ownership, allocation of" big people " of Tamo boro), the description of the funeral rite, ritual sculpture and other sacred objects.

As for anthropological research, it was in New Guinea that Nikolai Nikolaevich finally (now not theoretically, as before, but on the basis of field material) became convinced that physically Papuans are the same people as whites, only at a lower stage of historical development. "But, perhaps," writes D. D. Tumarkin, " even more important was the fact that the traveler found a great similarity between Papuans and Europeans in everything that concerns mental properties. In his diaries and articles, Miklukho-Maklay called-

he makes the faces of Papuans kind, soft, intelligent, rejoices in their hard work, honesty and meaningfulness, emphasizes how easily they perceive new things " (p. 227).

Another feature of Miklukho-Maklai's activity, which first appeared during his first stay on the Maklai Coast , is the ability to establish friendly, trusting relationships with people who are not just of a different culture, but are at the stage of development that was prehistoric for those belonging to the "white race". An alien to racism, the researcher tested his perception of people of a different race and culture in practice and remained faithful to this credo until the end of his days. It was this feeling that was born in Astrolabe Bay that later prompted Nikolai Nikolaevich to sincerely (although in that situation doomed to failure) strive to protect the islanders from the invasion of colonizers, to try to declare himself the patron saint of the Papuans, to draw public attention to this problem and, finally, to advocate for the obviously hopeless project of creating a Russian settlement in Oceania.

Consistently, step by step tracing the life of Miklukho-Maklay, D. D. Tumarkin highlights the traveler's stay in Java, in Beitenzorg - the country residence of the governors-general of the Netherlands East Indies. Fascinating, with elements of intrigue (love), the author described the relationship of Nikolai Nikolaevich with the wife and daughters of Governor-General J. Loudon, in whose palace Miklukho-Maklay lived, as well as the journey of his hero to the Moluccas. These chapters (chapters 9 and 10) focus on Nikolai Nikolaevich's journey to the Coast of Papua Koviai in southwestern New Guinea, where he observed the Papuan population already in contact with the outside world - in this case, the Indonesians of the Moluccas. Maclay called them Malays - Malay has been the lingua franca of the Archipelago's merchants since time immemorial. It was here that Mikluho-Maklay first acted as a defender of the Papuans, arresting the leader ("captain"). Sasi, who attacked the traveler's camp during his absence and killed the Papuans who settled near his cabin (pp. 276-278).

Although due to the short duration (February-April 1874) of the stay on the Coast of Papua Koviai, the expedition turned out, as D. D. Tumarkin writes, "to be less effective than the stay on the Coast of Maklay... his main task-an anthropological study of the local population in comparison with the Papuans living in the Astrolabe Bay area-was completed" (p. 250). In addition, the author believes that the observation of Miklukho-Maklay about the deformation of the local population's way of life under the influence of external factors and the conclusion that " the relations of the Papuans < - Koviai> for many centuries with the more civilized Malays (i.e., with the Malay-speaking Moluccans. - V. T.) did not matter at all. It is very doubtful that contact with the Whites in the future will have better results" (p.280).

For a short time, tempted by the idea of developing complex research (anthropological and ethnographic, physical and geographical, botanical, zoological, etc.) in Java, Nikolai Nikolaevich decided to follow his plan of 1870-to trace the spread of the Papuan race outside of New Guinea. On October 5, 1874, he wrote to Baron F. R. Osten-Saken: "Having thoroughly met the Papuans of different areas of New Guinea (Nikolai Nikolaevich was a person who was fond of and not a stranger to some increased self-esteem, as D. D. Tumarkin repeatedly mentions. But having made sure of their stay in the Philippine Islands, returning from the Coast of Maklay (the traveler during the six-day stop of the clipper ship "Izumrud" in Manila Bay visited the camp of the primitive population of the Philippines - aeta and measured about 20 heads, after which he attributed aeta to the "Papuan race". - V. T.), it seems important to me to get acquainted with the inhabitants mountains of the Malacca Peninsula, where many scientists assume the presence of Papuan (?) population" (p. 290). And on November 20, 1874, the indefatigable traveler sailed from Batavia to Singapore.

Chapter 11, "In the Jungle of Malacca," tells the story of Mikluho-Maklay's two journeys through the Malacca Peninsula, its southern and eastern parts, as well as his stay in Singapore. D. D. Tumarkin believes that the records, drawings and dictionaries of key words of the dialects of the Malacca aborigines are a major contribution to the anthropological and ethnographic research. study of the latter. Nikolai Nikolaevich became the discoverer of two Senoic tribes and one Semang, collected a huge amount of material about the Malays: "In these three months I got, I think, a more correct idea of the Malays and their character than during my almost 3-year stay in the Dutch colonies of the Malay archipelago" (p.317). It is significant that if in the articles of 1875-1876 the traveler spoke in sufficient detail about the aborigines of the peninsula, then he practically did not report anything about the life of the Malays. This was explained, according to the author of the book, by a principled position

D. D. Tumarkin, justifying his conclusion, quotes lines from a letter in which the traveler, saying that he had collected a large amount of material on the political situation in the Malay sultanates, which could be used by the British, wrote:: "But the intrusion of the Whites into the countries of the colored races, their interference in the affairs of the natives, and finally the enslavement or extermination of the latter, being in complete contradiction to my convictions, I could not in any way, although I was able, be useful to the English against the natives" (p.318). Nikolai Nikolaevich, as the author suggests, "turned out to be almost the only Russian scholar who in the XIX century knew the language, way of life and culture of the Malays; he can be considered one of the founders of Russian Mala studies" (p.319).

The chapter gives a picture of Singapore at that time: the life of the European settlement, the hero's stay in the country house of the most colorful figure of Singapore society - the Chinese rich merchant Whampoa (Hu Ah Kei), honorary consul of Russia. In the center of the "Singapore story" is the life of Mikluho-Maklay in Johor Bahru, the capital of the South Malay principality of Johor, which once included the island of Singapore. My almost unique criticism of the book relates to this story. For the author, the ruler of Johor, Abu Bakar, was "a Malay ruler sold to the British," and all the affairs in the principality were managed by his secretary, the Englishman Howl, who was introduced to the Maharaja by the governor of Straits Settlement , a British possession on the Strait of Malacca centered in Singapore. It was Howl who ordered Abu Bakar to sell a plot of land (Tampat Senang) on the seashore to Miklukho Maklay for the establishment of a zoological station there (p. 310).

In reality, Abu Bakar was not an English puppet, he tried to preserve the independence of Johor as much as possible (at least in internal affairs), and during his lifetime an English resident did not appear in the principality. The author wrongly believes that Howl played the role of a resident at the court of Abu Bakar, he was only a secretary, and the resident, or rather adviser, appeared in Johor only in 1914, and even after that, the administration of the principality-sultanate was largely in the hands of the Malays.

As for the purchase of a plot for a zoological station, then no machinations of Howl (so the author believes) it wasn't: it was just that the ruler of Johor had always been opposed to selling land to foreigners (Abu Bakar even forbade this to his heir in his will), and besides, Nikolai Nikolaevich, "having once again shown frivolity and impracticality in business" (p.310), took the politeness characteristic of Malays and unwillingness to offend the guest for consent.

Starting with chapter 12, D. D. Tumarkin focuses not so much on the scientific as on the social activities of Miklukho-Maklay. This is quite natural: although the scientist continued to conduct naturalistic and anthropological-ethnographic observations, collect botanical and zoological collections during his travels in New Guinea, the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia, he became increasingly immersed in the problems associated with protecting the indigenous population of Oceania from European predation. Already in 1875, after returning to Singapore after a trip to Malaya, Miklouho-Maclay, having read in the newspapers about the plans of Australian and English planters and gold prospectors to capture the eastern part of New Guinea, appealed to the Russian Geographical Society with a proposal that Russia protect the natives of the Maclay Coast, taking them under its protection. Naturally, after rejecting Baron Kaulbars ' project as early as 1870, the Russian government preferred not to take any further actions in the distant Southern Seas (pp. 324-325). P. P. Semyonov, Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, responding to Miklukho-Maklay, expressed regret that the traveler is moving "from the scientific to the practical soil" (p. 326).

Although, after returning to Java, and then during a new trip to the Coast of Maklay, Nikolai Nikolaevich joined the body of publications about his two New Guinea expeditions and became one of the pioneers of anthropological and ethnographic research in Western Micronesia and North-Western Melanesia (Yap, Palau, Ninigo Island, etc.), an increasingly important place in his activities D. D. Tumarkin reports that Mikluho-Maklay wrote a note to the Governor-General of the Netherlands Indies about the need to end the slave trade in Papua Koviai, " asking "in the name of humanity and justice" to take some measures to alleviate the sad situation of the inhabitants of these areas " (p. 329). In articles and reports about the voyage to the Coast of Maklay, the topic of denouncing the atrocities of European skippers and merchants in Oceania is becoming louder, moreover, in a letter to P. P. Semenov, the traveler came up with "a project to establish stations for military vessels for

international patronage of the natives of the Pacific Islands" (p. 337). The author reasonably believes that, although this letter was received, the Foreign Ministry preferred not to involve Russia in international actions in the Pacific (p. 338). And on his second trip to the Maclay Coast, Nikolai Nikolaevich went to declare: "The Papuan Union (which never existed) on the Maclay Coast wants to remain independent and will protest against the European invasion until the last opportunity" (p. 331).

Chapter 13 "The second Stay on the Banks of the Maclay" is an excellently written work that conveys the hero's nostalgic feelings somewhere. D. D. Tumarkin managed to "use all the sources that have come down to us... restore the main aspects of it (Miklukho-Maklay.- V. T.) activity during this period" (p. 341). Now the traveler did not have to cross the chasm that separated him from the locals at first acquaintance. "Taking advantage of the trust and friendship of the inhabitants of all the surrounding villages, Nikolai Nikolaevich was able to expand and deepen his knowledge in the field of anthropology and ethnography of the Maklay Bank," the author writes (p.342). Miklukho-Maklay plunged into the world of Papuans, who ceased to be a subject of research for him, he began to feel like their leader and patron. Perhaps this is largely due to the fact that he described the second expedition in less detail than the first. The chapter convincingly explains how and why Nikolai Nikolaevich began to think more and more often about the future of his Papuan friends, how he resolutely opposed (it was during this trip) the statement that "the dark races, as the lowest and weakest, should disappear, give place to the white variety Species Homo" (p. 349).. Having decided "neither directly nor indirectly to contribute to the establishment of relations between Whites and Papuans" (p. 351), Nikolai Nikolaevich, before sailing, warned local residents against contact with Europeans, ordered them to send women and children to the mountains when they appeared, and to be wary of firearms. "The islanders cried when they parted from Maklay," D. D. Tumarkin concludes the chapter.

The sections of the book devoted to the life of Miklouho-Maclay in Australia are very good. For me, who in the first post-war years accidentally came across a volume from the five-volume collected works of Miklukho-Maklay (it contained the diary of the first trip to New Guinea), Nikolai Nikolaevich remained forever not only a researcher, but also a defender of the Papuans and a fighter against racism. This impression was reinforced by the post-war film, in which the wonderful actor Kurilov played the almost revolutionary Miklukho-Maklay. But the Australian period of Nikolai Nikolaevich's life remained somehow unnoticed for me, as for most people of my generation. D. D. Tumarkin's monograph successfully fills this gap.

The author of the book believes that many factors played a role in Mikluho-Maclay's decision to leave Singapore, where he returned, for Australia: health, the position of relatives who refused him financial support, and, most importantly, the continent's proximity to Melanesia and the opportunity to fight more effectively for the rights of Papuans. Arriving in Sydney in July 1878, Nikolai Nikolaevich quickly found his place in the scientific life of Australia. This is perfectly described by D. D. Tumarkin, as well as the political and social atmosphere in this country in the 1870s. The idea of creating a zoological station in New South Wales was supported by the government and the scientific community, but Miklouho-Maklay, as happened more than once in his life, did not finish the campaign and went on a new journey.

Concerned about the increasing activity of European powers in Oceania, including in the area of New Guinea, the scientist finally gave himself up to the cause of protecting the Papuans, pushing aside the actual scientific studies. The author traces this well when he deals with his hero's journey through the islands of Melanesia and the south-eastern coast of New Guinea in March 1879 and April 1880 (Chapter 14), as well as his life in Australia in 1880-1881. The marine biological station, the brainchild of Nikolai Nikolaevich , was built, and he became its honorary director. However, although the scientist was engaged in anthropological and comparative anatomical studies, he "did not manage to write a single generalizing work on the materials of his main expeditions in 1881... the struggle to protect the Papuans and other South Sea islanders increasingly distracted him from deep studies" (p.414).

Among the various actions of the traveler, D. D. Tumarkin dwells on the creation of the well-known "Project for the development of the Maklai Coast" (autumn 1881), the appearance of which he interprets somewhat differently than it is accepted by traditional "Maklai studies". The document reviewed in detail by the author (pp. 420-423) had a broad humanistic orientation, it clearly reflected the anti-racist positions of the scientist, but on the whole it was utopian-both because of the low level of socio-economic development of the Papuans, and because of the preparation of the project.

of the great Powers to the final partition of Oceania. And although D. D. Tumarkin cautiously wrote: "How seriously did the traveler himself believe in the feasibility of his project, who was well acquainted with the true situation on the Maclay Coast? Did Nikolai Nikolaevich put it forward for tactical reasons, in order to make it difficult for one of the colonial powers to capture "their" Coast?" (p. 423), it seems (judging by the text of the book) that the author himself does not share the opinion of most researchers of Miklukho-Maklay's life, as if the latter seriously intended to help the islanders "achieve on the basis of already existing knowledge". existing local customs of a higher and universal level of purely native self-government", open schools, build wharves, bridges and roads, and generally develop the local economy in every possible way (pp. 420-421).

The final chapters of the book (16-20) are very comprehensive and extremely informative. They tell about the life and activities of her hero in 1881-1888: stay in Australia, trip to Russia in 1882-1883, sailing on the corvette "Skobelev" and the third visit to the Coast of Maclay, return to Russia, illness and death. I would like to single out the many subjects that run through this part of the book: the socio-political activities of Miklukho-Maklay and the outcome of his life, scientific research, the character and place of this bright personality in Russian and world science. These subjects are also covered in the previous chapters, but it is in the last ones that they are most fully and thoroughly revealed.

While in Australia, writes D. D. Tumarkin, Miklouho-Maklay immediately after traveling to the islands of Melanesia and visiting the south-eastern coast of New Guinea sharply opposed the system of slave trade and forced labor that flourished in Oceania and Australia. The author traces this activity in 1881, beginning with an appeal to the British High Commissioner A. Gordon, then to the commander of the British naval forces in the Western Pacific, Commodore J. Smith. Wilson and ending with the decision to visit Russia, where he has not been for 12 years. The author believes that, although the decision was dictated primarily by financial considerations, "Miklukho-Maklay also had a kind of" super task " - to try to convince the Russian government that... Russia should take care of its geopolitical interests and, to this end, support its activities on the Maklai Coast, as well as create a naval station on one of the islands" (p.424).

Enthusiastically received by a wide circle of Russian intellectuals, from narodniks to moderate liberals, and favored by the royal family (Alexander III paid the traveler's debts and gave money for the publication of his works), Miklukho-Maklay took advantage of the tsar's interest in creating a coal station for Russian ships in Oceania and went on the corvette Skobelev as a consultant to Rear Admiral N.V. V. Kopytov, who was commissioned by the Russian government to inspect the sites suitable for the creation of a coal-fired power station. After returning to Australia, Nikolai Nikolaevich again turned to the idea of establishing a Russian protectorate over the Coast of Maklay, and also began to call for the purchase of a "Russian port (or several of them)" in Oceania, preferably in Micronesia (p.486).

It is interesting (and, in my opinion, quite reasonable) that D. D. Tumarkin thought about how Miklukho-Maclay's calls for the creation of a naval station (or stations) on the Pacific islands were combined with his struggle to protect the rights of the islanders: "He rather presumptuously hoped to combine the geopolitical interests of Russia with the protection of the islanders from the atrocities of the colonialists. The traveler was a man of his time, and within the framework of the prevailing ideas at that time, his patriotic desire to see Russia among the powers with a sphere of influence in Oceania, perhaps, did not contradict his humanistic aspirations" (p.487).

A blow for Nikolai Nikolaevich was the capture of the Maclay Coast by Germany in 1884, and in April 1885, Great Britain and Germany reached an agreement on the delimitation of their possessions in Eastern New Guinea (Western New Guinea became part of the Netherlands Indies). All attempts by Miklukho-Maklay to encourage the Russian government to intervene, of course, were in vain, and when he returned to Russia in 1886, he put forward a new idea: to create a Russian colony on one of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. D. D. Tumarkin wrote fascinatingly about this project, which received a wide response: hundreds of people were ready to go to the Coast of Maklay or to another island. And no less convincingly, the author showed the utopian nature of the project, after the discussion of which in a Special Committee chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs N. K. Gears (October 1886), the emperor, who favored Maklay, imposed, as D. D. Tumarkin thinks, "reluctantly", a resolution on the Committee's memo: "Consider this matter final finished. To refuse Miklukho-Maklay" (p. 539).

And finally, the second plot of the final chapters of the book: the personality of Miklukho-Maklay, his place in science and in our history. It seems that this aspect of the scientist's life was analyzed and described by D. D. Tumarkin with the greatest completeness and persuasiveness in comparison with other biographical works, both domestic and foreign. Difficult relationships with family members, especially with the mother who refused (due to impossibility) subsidize his son's travel, with friends, colleagues and officials, marriage to the daughter of a major Australian landowner and influential politician, widow Marguerite Clark (nee Robertson) - all this, separately described by his predecessors, D. D. Tumarkin brought into the system, decorating it after working in the archives (our and Australian), studying the history of the United States and the United States. correspondence and memoirs of contemporaries with important details and correcting many of the conclusions of former biographers Miklukho-Maklay. The author did not avoid a delicate topic (especially for the XIX century). for the Soviet period, when the main Russian biographies of Nikolai Nikolaevich were written and his works were published) - his love interests in Europe, in the family of the Governor-General of the Netherlands Indies, in New Guinea, the Moluccas and the islands of Oceania.

Most importantly, D. D. Tumarkin seems to have been quite successful in answering the question: "So, who are you, Dr. Miklukho-Maklay?" (p. 563). He believes that Nikolai Nikolaevich was a naturalist of a wide profile, engaged in anthropology, ethnography, zoology, botany, geology, oceanography, etc. He was not a great scientist and did not make outstanding discoveries. At present, the author writes, "all the works of the white Papuan, with the exception of pioneer research on the Maclay Coast, are of interest mainly for the history of science" (pp. 563-564). Much more significant than the scientific works of Miklukho-Maklay (by the way, as D. D. Tumarkin writes, his hero never systematized his observations and impressions, although he even received money to publish his works) is the traveler's personality itself. This was clearly indicated as early as 1882 by the French historian and publicist Gabriel Monod, who wrote in a Parisian magazine: "This man is no less, and perhaps even more interesting, than his works" (p. 435).

D. D. Tumarkin writes with good reason that already during his lifetime Miklukho-Maklay became a legend, and his image turned out to be mythologized, and therefore the actions and actions of the traveler can be interpreted depending on the points of view and positions of contemporaries and descendants. The author describes him as a man of a romantic disposition, a visionary and dreamer, who firmly believed in science, belonging to the socio-psychological type that in Russian literature and journalism of the XIX century is associated with Don Quixote. I would add to this: the activity of Miklukho-Maklay, which was not practical from the standpoint of Russian state interests (and it is in vain that D. D. Tumarkin is somewhat offended for his hero, who was not given such posthumous honors as N. M. Przhevalsky, who died in the same year, 1888), found support not only among the enthusiastic, especially diverse the public, but also among the powerful. Probably, the romance of long-distance travel is peculiar to a person, regardless of his social status.

And one last thing. The book is perfectly illustrated, drawings and photographs are selected with great taste, knowledge and not just explain individual episodes of the hero's life, but create a complete and vivid picture of his life path. Special mention should be made of many sketches by Miklukho-Maklay himself. The monograph is also provided with notes indicating the author's many years of painstaking work. However, it is a pity that the book does not have an alphabetical list of sources and literature collected together, and not scattered in notes, as well as personal and geographical indexes. It wouldn't hurt to include a map of Miklouho-Maclay's travels to the islands of Oceania, the Malay Archipelago and the Malacca Peninsula, and not just a map of the Maclay Coast. But all this is a minor quibble, yes, I believe, not the author, but the publisher's passion for economy is the reason for this.

There is a bright, interesting book that will remain in the national and world science for many years, a book created by a great scientist, enthusiast and traveler Daniil Davidovich Tumarkin.

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