Preview

Humanities and law research

Advanced search

ENGLISH MOUNTAINEERS DISCOVER THE CAUCASUS (LATE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURIES)

https://doi.org/10.37493/2409-1030.2020.1.7

Abstract

The paper features the involvement of British alpinists in the exploration of the Caucasus in the late XIX - early XX centuries, which has not been a subject of research in Russian historiography. Mountaineering gained high popularity in mid-Victorian England, which was stipulated by the development of middle class identity, based on the idea of masculinity, and the construction of imperial culture. Mountaineering was considered as a perfect embodiment of masculinity, imperial expansion and conquest. British mountaineering started in the Alps. During 1850s - 1860s all major Alpine peaks were ascended and explored by the British. By that time mountaineering developed into an organized activity under the leadership of the Alpine Club founded in 1857. A growing demand for new climbs sparked an interest in the Caucasus. In the late 1860s British alpinists headed for the Caucasian mountains, which they considered as a new playground for leisure and sport as well as a field for exploration. Until then the Caucasus was an uncharted territory for Europeans since there were no reliable maps of the region or scientific data. Members of the Alpine Club made a considerable contribution to the exploration of the Caucasus. They collected specimens of plants, fossils and rocks. They compiled topographical notes and recorded detailed information valuable for further research and travel: lists of the chief peaks and passes, the heights of the peaks and passes. The results of their expeditions were published in the Alpine Journal or English academic periodicals. The accounts of their ascents, detailed summaries of climbs and bright descriptions of peaks, valleys and glaciers were instrumental in creating a scientific map of the Caucasus. Many alpinists contributed to literature by their Caucasian travelogues. By the late 1890s all the major peaks in the central Caucasus except Ushba had been scaled by the English. The British mountaineering activities in the Caucasus decreased in the early XXth century. The major new routes were put up by German expeditions.

About the Author

T. Pantyukhina
North-Caucasus Federal University
Russian Federation


References

1. Ильин А. Ушба // Известия Императорского Русского географического общества. 1883. Т. 19. С. 166-220.

2. Alpine Club Notes // The Alpine Journal. 1992/93. № 97. P. 338-346. URL: https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1992-93_files/AJ1992 338-346 AC Notes.pdf (Accessed: 12.03.2020).

3. Coolidge W. A. B. Swiss Travel and Swiss Guidebooks. L.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1889. 376 p. URL:https://babel.ha-thitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002006096342&view=1 up&seq=11 (Accessed: 28.03.2020).

4. Dent Clinton T. Above the snow line. L.: Longmans, Green and Co.1885. 327 p. URL:http://www.guten-berg.org/files/35434/35434-pdf.pdf (Accessed: 12.03.2020).

5. Freshfield D. W. Caucasica // The Alpine Journal. Vol. XXVI. Nos. 195-198. London, 1912. PP. 316-325. URL: https://ia800405.us.archive.org/21/items/bub_gb_wiZNAAAAYAAJ/bub_gb_wiZNAAAAYAAJ.pdf (Accessed: 18.03.2020).

6. Freshfield D. W. The exploration of the Caucasus. V.1-2. L.: Edward Arnold. 1896. Vol. 1. 394 p. Vol. 2. 316 p. // URL: https://ar-chive.org/details/explorationofcau01fres/page/n8 (Accessed: 1.07.2019).

7. Freshfield Douglas W. The frosty Caucasus, by Grove F. C. // The Academy. 1869 - 1092. 0269-333X; London. Vol. 9. (Jan 1, 1876): 1-2 URL: https://search.proquest.com/openview/429f11eb92e6a101/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1798 (Accessed: 12.03.2020).

8. Freshfield D. W. Travels in the Central Caucasus and Bashan. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1869. 547 p. URL:https://ia800404.us.archive.org/22/items/bub_gb_Ra0q5THYy0MC/bub_gb_Ra0q5THYy0MC.pdf (Accessed: 18.03.2020).

9. Grove F. C. The frosty Caucasus. L.: Longmans, Green and Co, 1875. 384 p. // URL: https://archive.org/details/frostycaucasus00grovgoog/page/n5 (Accessed: 1.07.2019).

10. Hansen P.H. Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and the invention of mountaineering in mid-Victorian Britain // Journal of British Studies. 1995. Vol. 34. №3. P.300-324. URL: http://works.bepress.com/peter_hansen/5/ (Accessed: 12.03.2020).

11. How the British created modern mountaineering. URL: https://www.summitpost.org/how-the-british-created-modern-moun-taineering/713630 (Accessed: 18.03.2020).

12. King, Charles. A ghost of freedom. The history of the Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford Un-ty Press, 2008. 314 p.

13. McNee A. The Haptic Sublime and the 'cold stony reality' of Mountaineering // Interdisciplinary Studies in the long nineteenth century. 2014. №19. URL:https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/1673/ (Accessed: 12.03.2020).

14. Mummery, A. F. My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus. L.: T. Fisher; New York: Scribner's sons, 1895. 421 p. URL:https://ia802604.us.archive.org/0/items/myclimbsinalpsa00unkngoog/myclimbsinalpsa00unkngoog.pdf. (Accessed: 22.03.2020).

15. Parastatov S., Kondrashova A. Academic studies of the Black sea region and the Northwest Caucasus (second half of the XVIII-th to the early XIX-th century \ D.Gutmeyr, K.Kaser (eds.) Europe and the Black Sea Region: A History of Early Knowledge Exchange (1750-1850). LIT Verlag Munster, 2019. 416 p.

16. Peaks, passes and glaciers. Ed. by J.Ball. 5-th edition. L.: Longman, Green, Longman &Roberts. 1860. 405 p. URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=Wn0SAAAAYAAJ&oe=UTF-8 (Accessed: 22.03.2020).

17. Reidy M.S. Mountaineering, masculinity, and the male body in mid-Victorian Britain // Osiris, 2015. Vol. 30. No. 1. Scientific Masculinities. P.P. 158-181. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682975 (Accessed: 18.03.2020).

18. Stephen L. The Playground of Europe. L.: Longmans, Green and Co, 1871. 375 p. URL: https://books.google.ru/books?id=CsFDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru&source=gbs_ViewAPI&redir_esc=y#v=onep-age&q&f=false (Accessed: 18.03.2020).

19. The Alpine Journal. 1934. Vol. XLVI. No.248 // https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1934.html (Accessed: 18.03.2020).

20. Whymper E. // The Alpine Journal. Vol. XXVI. Nos. 195-198. London, 1912. P.54. URL:https://ia800405.us.archive.org/21/items/bub_gb_wiZNAAAAYAAJ/bub_gb_wiZNAAAAYAAJ.pdf (Accessed: 18.03.2020).


Review

For citations:


Pantyukhina T. ENGLISH MOUNTAINEERS DISCOVER THE CAUCASUS (LATE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURIES). Humanities and law research. 2020;(1):59-65. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.37493/2409-1030.2020.1.7

Views: 146


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2409-1030 (Print)