Nikolai Yadrintsev

In 1860, together with his friend and soul-mate [citation needed] G. N. Potanin, Yadrintsev organized a group of Siberian students with members S. S. Shashkov, N. I. Naumov, I. V. Omulevsky, I.

The members of Russian-Siberian community took close to their hearts the needs of their native land, transformed by czarism into a colony, and decided to selflessly struggle for the development of the Siberian fringes, against its subjugated position.

Their appeal did not meet a fervent response, but their oral and printed campaign against imperial authorities and oppressors of Siberia, for the revival and education of a native territory were supported by progressive part of the Siberian public, especially youth.

A number of articles, feuilletons, and speeches of N. Yadrintsev with sharp condemnation of the defects of the local possessor class and functionaries of administration belongs to that time.

He was publishing essays, articles and feuilletons in "Business", "Domestic Notes", "Week", "Volga-Kama newspaper" and other liberal periodicals.

In Omsk Yadrintsev collected contemporary records on various scientific and social problems of the "aliens" (indigenous peoples in Russian colonial parlance), peasants, and migrants.

From Omsk, under a contract with the Russian Geographical Society, he traveled twice across Siberia and the Altai, researching economy and geography, archaeology and ethnography, anthropology and linguistics.

The articles, feuilletons, and reports were warmly greeted by ordinary ethnic Russian people, who were suffering from the arbitrariness of local authorities and exploitation.

By the 1880s, Yadrintsev was publishing articles not only in the "Eastern Review", but also in dozens of other outlets including "European Bulletin", "Domestic Notes", "Russian Register", "Business", etc.

In 1889, under contract with the Russian Geographical Society, Yadrintsev traveled to Mongolia, where he located the remains of the Early Medieval city Hara - Balgas and the ancient Mongolian capital Karakorum.

In the Kosho-Tsaidam gorge (valley of the Orkhon river) Yadrintsev found two petroglyphic monuments with runiform writing of the ancient Türks of the 6-8th centuries, later decoded by the Danish scientist W. Tomsen.

In quick succession, already in 1891 was organized a follow-up Orkhon expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences with participation of Yadrintsev, led by an ethnically German native from Barnaul, a recognized Turkologist academician W. W. Radloff.

With graphic actual material, the book depicted the distressed state of the Siberian nations, existing in poverty and ignorance, ruthlessly oppressed by tsarism and Russian capitalists.

For practical realization of his plan, in 1894 Yadrintsev traveled to Barnaul, where, in his own words, he instigated a "peasant war" to protect Russian Altay farmers.