Ethiopia has always been the most attractive African country for Russian society, with its Christian religion of Monophysitism, which many people consider to be Orthodox. In 1898, diplomatic relations were established between Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was named then, and Russia. Russian medical officers and military advisors worked in that African country. Quite often, photographs, drawings, and ethnographic objects they brought from Ethiopia were donated to the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Officer Yevgeny Senigov went to Abyssinia in 1898 as a member of the Russian military mission. In 1901 he entered the service of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II as commander of the right wing of the army of the governor of Kaffa, Ethiopia’s southernmost province. Senigov became fascinated by Ethiopia, he married an Ethiopian girl, and conveyed his impressions of life and people surrounding him in his diaries and watercolors. Due to Senigov’s artistic gift, we can now see colorful portraits of military leaders, figures of Abyssinian nobility and clergy, scenes from war and hunting campaigns, and beautiful images of women. Senigov returned to Russia in the 1920s, and his later life is unknown. The Museum purchased the collections of paintings and manuscripts in the 1930s from B. A. Chemerzin (1874-1942), former charge d’affaires of the Russian Empires in Ethiopia, and from a relative of Senigov.

V. N. Semenova, Candidate of Sciences, researcher, Department of Africa, M. V. Khartanovich, Head of the IT Department, J. A. Kupina, Candidate of Sciences, Deputy Director, MAE RAS

30.10.2018