Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov (russian: Пётр Кузьми́ч Козло́в; 3 October 1863 in

Dukhovshchina Dukhovshchina (russian: Духовщина) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Dukhovshchina, Smolensk Oblast, a town in Dukhovshchinsky District of Smolensk Oblast ;Rural localities * Dukhovshchina, Irkutsk ...

– 26 September 1935 in Peterhof) was a Russian and Soviet traveller and explorer who continued the studies of Nikolai Przhevalsky in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. Although prepared by his parents for a military career, Kozlov chose to join Nikolai Przhevalsky's expedition. After his mentor's death, Kozlov continued traveling in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

with Przhevalsky's successors, Pevtsov and Roborovsky. In 1895 he took general command of the expedition from ailing Roborovsky. From 1899 to 1901 he explored and later described in a book the upper reaches of the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan ...

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...

, and

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annuall ...

rivers, for which he received the Constantine Medal in 1902. During the first decade of the 20th century, when

the Great Game The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...

reached its peak, Kozlov rivaled

Sven Hedin Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO,Wennerholm, Eric (1978) ''Sven Hedin – En biografi'', Bonniers, Stockholm (19 February 1865 – 26 November 1952) was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator ...

and Aurel Stein as the foremost researcher of

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

. Although he was on good terms with Hedin and other foreign explorers, the British government, as represented by George Macartney, monitored his movements across Central Asia. Kozlov's 1905 visit to the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

Urga Urga may refer to: * former name of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia ** the former Catholic missio sui iuris of Urga * Ürgə, a village and municipality in Lankaran Rayon of Azerbaijan * ''Urga (movie)'' aka ''Close to Eden'', a 1991 film by N ...

gave "the British War Office a fright", especially after the Lama declared his intention to "settle within the confines of Russia". During his expedition of 1907–1909, Kozlov explored the Gobi Desert and discovered the ruins of Khara-Khoto, a Tangut city destroyed by the Ming Chinese in 1372. It took him several years to excavate the site and bring to St. Petersburg no fewer than 2,000 books in the Tangut language he uncovered there. Kozlov described his findings in a large volume entitled ''Mongolia and Amdo and the Dead City of Khara-Khoto'' (1923). He was awarded the 1911

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

's Founder's Medal for his explorations. His last expedition to Mongolia and Tibet (1923–1926) resulted in the discovery of an unprecedented number of Xiongnu royal burials at

Noin-Ula The Noin-Ula burial site ( mn, Ноён уулын булш, , also Noyon Uul) consist of more than 200 large burial mounds, approximately square in plan, some 2 m in height, covering timber burial chambers. They are located by the Selenga River ...

. After bringing to Petrograd some amazing samples of 2000-year-old

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, so ...

n textiles, Kozlov retired from scientific work and settled in a village near

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the o ...

. Kozlov married Elizabeth Kozlova, a woman 29 years his junior, who accompanied him on his final journey of exploration as the expedition ornithologist, and who was to publish many monographs and scientific papers on the avifauna of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

. Kozlov was a mentor of the Russian explorer and writer Vladimir Arsenyev. In 1904, the botanist Vladimir Ippolitovich Lipsky published a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s from Central Asia (belonging to the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plant ...

) as ''

Kozlovia ''Kozlovia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. Its native range is Afghanistan to Central Asia ( Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and Pakistan.. Taxonomy The genus name ''Kozlovia'' is in ...

'', in Pyotr Kozlov's honour.

References

External links

Kozlov's biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozlov, Pyotr 1863 births 1935 deaths People from Dukhovshchina People from Dukhovshchinsky Uyezd Explorers of Asia Explorers of Central Asia Explorers of Tibet Russian archaeologists Russian explorers Russian orientalists