Nikolay Ivanovich Ashinov was born in 1856 in a hereditary merchant family of Tsaritsyn (present day Volgograd) in the Saratov Governorate.

He was convinced that Cossacks, originally from Russia, moved to the mountains of Anatolia -then part of the Ottoman Empire- and to Persian shores of the Caspian Sea where they have been living for the last three hundred years.

Ashinov presented himself as the elected Ataman of these “free Cossacks” and stated that he came to St. Petersburg in order to ask the Russian government to allow them to return to Russia and settle on the Black Sea coast.

[8] Ashinov's speech seduced several influence figures: In the spring of 1884, Nikolay began to collect volunteers from the Poltava Governorate to be resettled to the Sukhumi district.

Part of his political engagements led him to approach the Emperor of Ethiopia Yohannes IV (Amharic: ንጉሠ-ነግስት ዮሐንስ አራተኛ), posing as a representative of the Tsarist authorities.

After returning to Russia, his travel story circulated by Russian newspapers and embellished by journalists gave him an unexpected popularity.

These presents were handed over to the commander of the Imperial Apartment, General Richter; the ostrich was placed in a poultry house in Gatchina park.

His second move was to reach Konstantin Pobedonostsev, then Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, who was championing the founding of an Orthodox mission in Abyssinia.

The planned expedition was also supposed to carry a small batch of weapons for the Abyssinian people and some equipment to establish a sea shore coal-storage station, dedicated to re-supply Russian ships.

A calling for volunteers as well as a collection of donations began and Ashinov was handed out a stack of weapons from the arsenals of the Odessa Military District.

However, on 7 November 1888, the Tsar was informed by Aleksandr Nelidov,[6] his ambassador in Constantinople, that Ashinov's first mission in Africa had been in reality abandoned by him without any achievement.

In Port Said, Ashinov hired the Austrian ship Amphitride, which entered the Gulf of Tadjoura -then a French protectorate- on 6 January 1889.

Once ashore, the pretense of a religious mission to Ethiopia was quickly abandoned as Ashinov revealed his intention to settle permanently in the Gulf of Tadjoura.

[4] After a short investigation ordered by the Tsar Alexander III, most of the members of the expedition were sent to an "ad hoc" place of residence:[7] Pardoned in April 1890, Ashinov traveled to Paris and London.