Episode 6: Africa's New Moscow. The Tale of Nikolai Ashinov

Episode 6 March 22, 2021 00:41:17
Episode 6: Africa's New Moscow. The Tale of Nikolai Ashinov
Tales from Imperial Russia
Episode 6: Africa's New Moscow. The Tale of Nikolai Ashinov

Mar 22 2021 | 00:41:17

/

Show Notes

In 1889, a small band of unlikely Russian colonists seized the abandoned fortress of Sagallo in today's Djibouti. Led by the would-be Cossack Nikolai Ashinov, they triggered an international incident. But how did all this come to pass? The answer lies in Ashinov's career of skullduggery, deceipt, and falsehood.

Sources: A. V. Lunochkin, “Ataman vol’nykh kazakov” Nikolai Ashinov i ego deiatel’nost’ (Volgograd: Izdatel’stvo Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1999)

C. Jesman, The Russians in Ethiopia: An Essay in Futility (London: Chatto and Windus, 1958)

P. J. Rollins, "Imperial Russia's African Colony", The Russian Review, vol. 27, no. 4 (1968): 432-451

R. F. Byrnes, Pobedonostsev: His Life and Thought (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968)

Other Episodes

Episode 9

April 30, 2021 00:32:46
Episode Cover

Episode 9: Moscow's Plague. The Tale of Dr Afanasii Shafonskii

Between 1770 and 1772, Moscow saw a virulent outbreak of the Black Death, one of the most feared diseases in European history: Dr Afanasii...

Listen

Episode 13

October 22, 2021 00:27:25
Episode Cover

Episode 13: The Apostle of Vegetarianism. The Tale of Jenny Schulz

From the 1890s, the Russian Empire saw an outburst of interest in vegetarianism, especially since it was being propounded by famous figures like the...

Listen

Episode 14

October 29, 2021 00:30:20
Episode Cover

Episode 14: Of Scots, Steam, and Gold. The Tale of Joseph Major

On Easter morning 1831, Joseph Major was murdered in his Urals home. A Scottish engineer, he had lived for 26 years in the gateway...

Listen