South African literature in Russia

Extract

The African continent and South Africa in particular have always interested Russians. It may be interesting to note that as early as the 18th century the Russian tzar and reformist Peter 1st, ordered the compilation of a description of Africa, which was made in 1710 in Moscow. In the 18th and especially in the 19th centuries there were many Russian sailors and explorers who went as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Among them was a famous Russian writer and sailor Ivan Goncharov who spent two months in South Africa in 1853 and devoted more than 150 pages of his travelling book “Frigate Pallada” to the description of the lives of different racial groups there. This progressive Russian writer paid special attention to the fight of African people against the European colonisers. Another Russian explorer and art-critic A. Visheslavzev was also in South Africa in the 1850s and in his diary expressed his sympathy with the African chiefs, who led the black tribes against the conquerors.