Grombchevsky, Bronislav Ludwigovich

Born on January 15, 1855 at a family estate in the Koven province. Mother and relatives from the estate moved to Warsaw , where Grombchevsky entered the 4th Russian classical gymnasium. In 1873, Grombchevsky entered the Kexholm Grenadier Regiment as a volunteer, from where he was sent to the Warsaw Infantry Junker School . After graduating from college in 1875, he was promoted to ensign and returned to the regiment.

Service in Turkestan

In connection with the formation of new infantry units in Turkestan, he was transferred to serve in the newly formed 14th Turkestan Line Battalion. He took part in the Alai campaign led by M.D. Skobelev in 1876 and in the demonstration actions of the Main (Samarkand detachment) near the border with Afghanistan in 1878.

In 1888 he transferred to the service of the military and public administration of the Turkestan Territory - an assistant to the chief of Isfara, then Margelan counties. As a personal secretary, he was with the Russian Imperial Border Commissioner for the delimitation of the Ferghana Region and Kashgar (1882-1884). Since April 1885 - Senior Assistant to the Head of Osh County; since June 1885 - senior official of special assignments under the military governor of the Ferghana region.

In August-November 1885, Grombchevsky visited the border areas of the Tien Shan in order to check the border with China , and made a reconnaissance of southern Kashgar. In late 1887 - early 1888, Grombchevsky underwent a short-term internship at the Physics Department of St. Petersburg University (he studied the basics of geodesy). Full member of the IRGO - since April 1888. After completing theoretical studies and practice at the Pulkovo Observatory , Grombchevsky turned to the Council of the IRGO with a proposal to organize an expedition to Kanjut (modern Khunza).

In 1888 he carried out an expedition to Hunzu , to the headwaters of the Indus River ; he traveled 2284 versts, carried out a routine eye survey on a five-verst scale , determined the coordinates of several geographical points, and dozens of heights. On this expedition, he observed the K2 peak from the north and determined its height at 28,870 feet (8799 m). Grombchevsky gave her the Russian name - "the peak of Tsarevich Nikolai." Grombchevsky was solemnly greeted by the ruler of the Hunza Safdar-Ali-khan, who asked to transfer to the Russian emperor a request to accept him as a citizen of Russia and to supply arms against the British. For the expedition to Khunzu, Grombchevsky was awarded the IRGO Small Gold Medal.

Grombchevsky’s visit to the Hunza was perceived in British India as an attempt by Russia to spread its influence over the Hindu Kush . In 1889, the British mission of Captain Durand succeeded in obtaining formal agreement from Safdar Ali Khan to submit to British control ^[1] ; in December 1891, a British armed expedition to Hunzu took place, after a series of short-term battles, the entire territory of the principality came under full British control by December 20.

In 1889-1890, Captain B. L. Grombchevsky organized a new expedition for the Hindu Kush, accompanied by seven Cossacks and several horsemen. Due to political complications in Afghanistan, Grombchevsky did not manage to enter beyond the Hindu Kush, into the country of the siepushi ( Kafiristan ). The expedition visited Darvaz , Pamirs, Raskem , the upper reaches of the Karatash-Darya river, Southern Kashgar ( Yarkend , Khotan and Pula (Polu, Chinese. 普鲁 村 )), Sarykol . For the work in the expedition he received the extraordinary rank of lieutenant colonel, there were no awards from the IRGO, and the question about it was postponed until Grombchevsky processed the materials of the expedition.

In 1891, Grombchevsky took part in the trip of the Turkestan Governor-General Baron A. B. Vrevsky to the Pamirs, which marked the beginning of the transition of the whole Pamir to Russian control. In 1892, he participated in the Pamir campaign of Colonel M.E. Ionov .

In 1893, Grombchevsky was appointed head of the Osh district of the Ferghana region. In 1894, he led the secret construction of the strategic Pamir wheeled road that connected the Ferghana and Alai valleys (later the road was called the Old Pamir Highway). The mountain road, built by Russian sapper units under the leadership of Grombichevsky, made it possible to quickly transfer infantry, horse and, what was extremely important, artillery units in the event of a threat of British troops invading the region.

In 1895, he was appointed junior official for special assignments of the Turkestan governor-general, and in 1896 he was promoted to colonel .

During his service in Turkestan, he had a long extramarital relationship with a Kyrgyz woman, of whom approx. 1880 a girl was born, subsequently baptized and named Mary. After the death of a woman (c. 1886), Grombchevsky transferred the child to a girls' shelter in St. Petersburg and for a long time maintained relations with his illegitimate daughter (he mentions it several times in his expedition diaries). Maria, who, upon registration at the shelter, received the name of Princess Kasymovskaya Sharafat-Maria, subsequently married a Pole Dunin-Slepts. After the revolution in Russia, she emigrated to Poland and after the death of Grombchevsky moved to Italy, lived in Rome, where she died on May 29, 1950. Living with the Kyrgyz people significantly contributed to the development of Grombchevsky's interest in the history and ethnography of the population of Ferghana, he learned the Kyrgyz language quite well , mastered the traditions and customs of the local population. According to the testimony of a British military attache in St. Petersburg, Major Eliot, who personally met with Grombchevsky in October 1894, the latter, in his views and at home, was much like a “half-Muslim”.

Service in the Far East and in the Ussuri Territory

Since 1896 - the border commissioner of the Amur Region, and since 1899 - the South Ussuri Territory. In 1903, promoted to major general and appointed civil commissar of the Kwantung region in China.

Service in the Astrakhan Territory

Before his new appointment, on September 5, 1903, he married the daughter of the Irkutsk merchant of the 1st guild, Vera Fedorovna Kompanitseva (major general Vogak , secret adviser Shapirov acted as guarantors from the 48-year-old groom) ^[2] . From September 28, 1903 to August 8, 1906 he was the governor of Astrakhan and the chief ataman of the Astrakhan Cossack army .

In the civil service

On August 8, 1906, Grombchevsky was promoted to lieutenant general with dismissal from service, for his illness, with a uniform and pension ^[3] . In 1906-1910 he held the position of manager of the civil section of the CER . In 1910 he returned to Warsaw, where he lived until the autumn of 1914, when the war in Europe began.

World War. Revolution and Civil War in Russia

At the beginning of World War I, he was evacuated to Petrograd, again enlisted in the military. After the February Revolution of 1917, he traveled through Odessa to Anapa, where he met the arrival of the Volunteer Army . During the Civil War, he was seconded by the Commander-in-Chief of the All - Union Socialist Liberation Union General Denikin to the Far East with a mission to the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army, Admiral Kolchak . After the disaster of the Eastern Front in 1920, he returned to Warsaw through Japan and London .

Life and work in Poland

Returning to Poland , he worked at the State Institute of Meteorology, lectured on military geography in Polish military schools. The works and activities of Grombichevsky contributed to the creation of the Polish geopolitical school and have an impact on modern political processes.

Publications

In Poland, shortly before his death, he published several books about his travels in Central Asia, which he mostly wrote from his memoirs, since the archive of expeditions remained in Soviet Russia. In pre-revolutionary Russia, he published the “Report on the secondment to Kashgar and South Kashgar in 1885”, several small notes on the results of his travels in Central Asia, as well as several works on military-political topics.

The diaries of the expeditions of 1888 and the 1889-1890s remained unreleased for a long time and were published in Russia in 2015.

He died in Warsaw on February 27, 1926.

• Report on the assignment to Kashgar and South Kashgar in 1885 of a senior official of special assignments under the military governor of the Ferghana region, Lieutenant B. L. Grombchevsky. - New Margelan, 1887.
• Our interests in the Pamirs. Military-political essay . - New Margelan, 1891.
• The current political situation of the Pamir Khanates and the border line with Kashmir. - New Margelan, 1891.
• Report of Lieutenant Colonel B. L. Grombchevskago, read at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff on March 14, 1891, St. Petersburg . Grombchevsky: I authorize printing as a manuscript. September 8th day of 1891. Signed: Military Governor of the Ferghana Region, General Staff of the General-Mayor Korolkov // Russian Geographical Society. Siberian branch / Library collection in the public domain: http://www.rgo-sib.ru/rgo/27.htm

• Kaszgaria. Kraj i ludzie. - Warsz. , 1924.
• Przez Pamiry i Hindukusz do źródeł rzeki Indus. - Warsz. , 1925.
• W pustyniach Raskemu i Tibetu. - Warsz. , 1925.
• Na służbie rosyjskiej. - Warsz. , 1926.
• Podróże po Azji Środkowej. - Warsz. 1958.
• In the service of the Russian: fragments of memories / trans. from polish. M. G. Leonov; lit. ed. per. E. G. Korolkova. - Moscow: Scientific. world, 2016. - 262 p.,

• Baskhanov M.K., Kolesnikov A.A., Matveeva M.F. Dervish Hindu Kush. Travel diaries of General B. L. Grombchevsky. SPb., Nestor-Istoriya, 2015, - 376 p.
• Baskhanov M.K., Kolesnikov A.A., Matveeva M.F., Glukhov A.I. Pamir, Khunza and Kashgar in expeditionary photographs of General B. L. Grombchevsky. M., PELICAN, 2017 .-- 188 p. - ISBN 978-5-9500502-0-6 .
• Baskhanov M.K. To the last pass: the life and wanderings of Bronislav Grombchevsky. - In the book: Baskhanov M.K., Kolesnikov A.A., Matveeva M.F. Dervish Hindu Kush. Travel diaries of General B. L. Grombchevsky. SPb., Nestor-Istoriya, 2015, p. 7 - 76.
• Rudnitsky A. Yu. This formidable Grombchevsky ... A great game on the borders of the empire. St. Petersburg: Aletheia, 2013 .-- 248 p. - (Polish-Siberian library).
• Akramov N. M. Issues of history, archeology and ethnography of the peoples of the Pamirs and Pamir region in the works of B. L. Grombchevsky . Dushanbe, Irfon, 1974, 134 pp.
• Bokiev O. B. Conquest and annexation of Northern Tajikistan, the Pamirs and Gorno Badakhshan to Russia. - Dushanbe, 1994.
• Hopkirk P. The Big Game against Russia: Asian Syndrome . - M. , 2003.
• A. Postnikov. Struggle on the “Roof of the World”. - M. , 2005.
• Baskhanov M.K. Russian military orientalists until 1917. Bibliographic dictionary. M. Eastern literature, 2005, p. 69 - 70.
• Grombchevsky, Bronislav Ludwigovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Rudnitsky A. This formidable Grombchevsky ... About a Russian officer - the hero of the Great Game in Central Asia . // Internet newspaper "Century". - August 24, 2012.
• Baskhanov M. Walks on the "Roof of the World": Meetings of Two Captains
• Lebedev A. A. Grombchevsky’s Winter Campaign on Yurunkash
• Lebedev A.A., Chkhetiani O.G. The riddle of the Russian pass.
• Nesterova E. I. Bronislav Ludwigovich Grombchevsky: “The Big Game” in Central Asia and the Far East. // International relations in Central Asia: history and modernity. Materials of the international scientific conference. Barnaul, April 29, 2010. Issue. 2. Barnaul: Alphabet, 2010.
• Nesterova E.I. The Far Eastern Odyssey of Bronislaw Grombchevsky . // Russia and China: history and prospects of cooperation: materials of the International scientific-practical conference (Blagoveshchensk - Heihe, June 10-12, 2011) / editor. D.V. Buyarov. - Blagoveshchensk: Publishing House of BSPU, 2011.