The Plague Expedition to Anzob in Russian Turkestan. Photograph album by A.M. Levin, 1899.

Anzob

A presentation album containing thirty-one photographs from the Russian Anti-Plague Expedition to Anzob mountain village in Russian Turkestan (subsequently northwestern Tajikistan) made in the autumn of 1898. Anzob is situated on the southern slopes of the Zarafshan range of the Pamir-Alay Mountains in the valley of the Yaghnob River (a tributary of the Fan Darya River which flows into the Zarafshan River). The plague outbreak started there in summer 1898, caused by the Gissar natural focus located nearby. The area was enclosed and quarantined, and a special expedition departed from Saint Petersburg, led by Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg (1844-1932), general of infantry, medical doctor and the head of the anti-plague commission since 1897. The party travelled to Krasnovodsk (subsequently Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan) via Crimea and Tiflis, and thence to Samarkand by the Trans-Caspian Railway, stopping at Bukhara and Karmana (summer residence of the Emir of Bukhara), where they had an audience with Emir 'Said Abd al-Ahad Khan (1859-1911)

From Samarkand a small party including Dr Levin, Meshchaninov, the writer and traveller to Central Asia Sergey Mstislavsky (1876-1943), several Cossacks and military officers headed up the Zarafshan and Fan Darya River to Anzob. While following a lesser-known mountain trail, the party unexpectedly entered the infected area and had to stay there and build a disinfection chamber. Eventually the epidemic was successfully stopped with the help of the world's first anti-plague vaccine created in the laboratory of Waldemar Haffkine in 1896

The album follows the expedition route through the Fann Mountains (Pamir-Alay system) to Anzob, and contains views of the mountain ranges, Zarafshan, Fan Darya, and Yaghnob Rivers (including river crossing by the expedition, and several bridges), the mountain villages Marzich (Ayni district), Dardar and Tokfan (Takfon, all in Tajikistan). There are several group portraits of the expedition members going along the narrow passes on the mountain ledges in the Fan-Darya River valley (featuring A.M. Levin), large photographs of Levin carrying out the preventive vaccination against plague in Anzob, quarantine chamber in Tokfan (Meshchaninov is in the centre), and a grotto on the border of the Anzob cordon (featuring Levin and Meshchaninov). Four photographs show Bukhara (street views, the cotton bazaar, the summer palace of the Emir), there is also a group portrait of the mace-bearers of the Emir of Bukhara in Karmana, a view of ruins of the ancient Sarvadan fortress, and two views from the Trans-Caspian Railway (the Skobelev museum in Geok Tepe, Turkmenia, and a camel caravan)

[Russia], [1899]

1 photograph album (23 leaves) : 31 photoprints, silver gelatin ; album ca. 21 x 30 cm

All photographs bear captions in Russian and are numbered in ink on the mounts (number "16" is omitted, apparently by mistake). The compiler's presentation inscription in Russian appears on the first page, translated as: "To dear Ivan Vasilyevich Meshchaninov. In memory from Alexander Levin. February 6th 1899". The dedicatee Senator Ivan Vasilyevich Meshchaninov (1846-1918) was another expedition member, a representative of the Imperial anti-plague commission, and a Vice-Minister of Education

Fol. 1r, manuscript dedication : "Glubokouvazhaemomu Ivanu Vasilevichu Meschaninovu na pamiat ot Aleksandra Levina" (To the most esteemed Ivan Vasilevich Meschanonoff from Alexander Levine. A souvenir.)

Fol. 2r, photograph no. 1 : "Kishlak Marzich" (Kishlaq Marzich), settlement, Ayni, District, Tajikistan

Fol. 2r, photograph no. 2 : "Po zakasp. Zhel. Dor. Karavan verbliudov" (Trans-Caspian railway, camels), a road which follows the Silk Road: construction began in 1876

Fol. 3r, photograph no. 3 : "Po zakasp. Zhel. Dor. Geok-Tepeh. Skobelevskii muzei" (Trans-Caspian railway. Geok-Tepeh. Gen. Skobelev museum), Gökdepe a city in later Turkmenistan. Gen. Skobelev (1843-1882) was Governor-General of Ferghana. On 12 November 1880 he successfully took Gökdepe

Fol. 4r, photograph no. 4 : "Pereprava cherez r. IAgnob-Dariu" (A Yagnob-Darya crossing), a river in Tajikistan, a tribute of Fan-darya

Fol. 5r, photograph no. 5 : "Kishlak Dar-Dar" (Kishlak Dar-Dar), a settlement, Ayni, District, Tajikistan

Fol. 5r, photograph no. 6 : "Mechet v kishlake Tok-Fan" (A mosque in the Tok-Fan kishlaq), Ayni, District, Tajikistan, Gissar

Fol. 6r, photograph no. 7 : "Mostik na r[eke] Fan-dar" (A little bridge over the Fan-dar), river in Tajikistan

Fol. 7r, photograph no. 8 : "Fanskoe uschele" (Fann valley), part of the western Pamir-Alay mountain system, and primarily located in the Sughd Province of Tajikistan, between the Zarafshan Range to the north and the Gissar Range

Fol. 7r, photograph no. 9 : "Vbrod cherez r[eku] Zaravshan" (Wade over the Zaravshan river), Zaravshan one of the most important rivers in Tajikistan

Fol. 8r, photograph no. 10 : "Karniz po r[eke] Fan-dare" (A mountain cornice along the river Fann)

Fol. 9r, photograph no. 11 : "Razvaliny starinnoi bukharskoi kreposti Saravand" (Ruins of the Saravand fortress), fortress Falak al-Aflak, Luristan

Fol. 9r, photograph no. 12 : "Most Sangistan-puli na r[eke] Fan-dar" (Sanghistan-puli bridge over the Fann-darya river)

Fol. 10r, photograph no. 13 : "Balkon na fanskom karnize" (A "balcony" on the Fann cornice)

Fol. 11r, photograph no. 14 : "Kishlachek na beregu r[eki] Zaravshana" (An unknown little kishlak on the bank of the Zaravshan river)

Fol. 11r, photograph no. 15 : "Puli-Mulla" (Puli-Mulla), a well-known bridge in the valley of Yaghnob river

Fol. 12r, photograph no. 17 : "Reka Iagnob-Daria" (River Yaghnob-Darya), river in Tajikistan

Fol. 13r, photograph no. 18 : "Spusk v dolinu r[eki] Zaravshana" (A slope in the Zaravshan valley)

Fol. 13r, photograph no. 19 : "Most pod Anzobom" (a bridge near Anzob)

Fol. 14r, photograph no. 20 : "Reka Fan-Darya" (Fann-Darya river)

Fol. 15r, photograph no. 21 : "Ulica v g[orode] Bukhara" (A street in Bukhara)

Fol. 15r, photograph no. 22 : "Pitiiskii most na r[eke] Fan-dare" (A bridge crossing over the river Fann), seen in a subsequent photograph at http://io.ua/15589600p

Fol. 16r, photograph no. 23 : "Dar-Darskjii karniz" (A cornice near the Dar-Dar village), cf. photograph no. 5 above

Fol. 17r, photograph no. 24 : "Khlopkovyi bazar v g[orode] Bukhare" (A cotton market in Bukhara)

Fol. 17r, photograph no. 25 : "Letnii dvorec emira v g[orode] Bukhare" (The summer palace of the emir, Bukhara)

Fol. 18r, photograph no. 26 : "Na Fanskom karnize" (Over the Fann river cornice), cf. photograph no. 10 above

Fol. 19r, photograph no. 27 : "Kermine. Zhezlonoscy emira" (Kermine. the mace bearers of the emir), at Karmana, a settlement in Navoi district, Uzbekistan

Fol. 19r, photograph no. 28 : "Bazarnaia ulica v g[orode] Bukhare" (a market street in Bukhara)

Fol. 20r, photograph no. 29 : "Na Fanskom karnize" (Over the Fann river cornice), cf. photograph no. 10 above

Fol. 21r, photograph no. 30 : "Predokhranitelnye privivki v Anzobe" (Prophylactics. Vaccination in Anzob), a doctor of the Russian Imperial Army Medical Service demonstrating the vaccination of a private (soldier)

Fol. 22r, photograph no. 31 : "Karantin v Tok-Fane" (A Tok-Fann quarantine), in Ayni, District, Tajikistan

Fol. 23r, photograph no. 32 : "Grot na granitse Anzobskago otsepleniia" (A grotto on the outskirts of the Anzob military belt)

Compiled by Alexander Mikhailovich Levin (1861-1932)

Gian Pietro Basello and Paolo Ognibene, 'A black dog from Marzič: legends and facts about Anzob plague', In Yaghnobi studies I. Papers from the Italian missions in Tajikistan, ed. by A. Panaino et al., Milan: Mimesis, 2013, pp. 87-118

Gian Pietro Basello and Paolo Ognibene, 'La peste di Anzob (1898): cronaca di una ricerca sul campo', in Aldo Ferrari e Daniele Guizzo (edd.), Al crocevia delle civiltà: ricerche su Caucaso e Asia Centrale, Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari, 2014, pp. 147-181

In January 1899 Levin presented a report "Plague in Anzob" at a session of the Russian Society of Public Health Care which was separately published the same year (A. M. Levin, Chuma v Anzobe, St Petersburg: Y. Trey, 1899. 21 pp.)

Wellcome Collection 2914631i