What can connect Zulus and Kazakhs? It turns out that according to the documents of the XIX century, even then there were links between Russia and South Africa, and the population of these countries formed ideas about each other. The available evidence is patchy, fragmentary, not always compatible with one another, and not fully understood. But they are all about the fact that mutual relations and ideas of such different and far-flung peoples as the Zulus and Kazakhs have existed for a long time.

THE LEADER OF THE PONDO PEOPLE WRITES TO THE RUSSIAN TSAR 1

Lo msebenzi undogamele. ndicela izandla ke ngoko ezihlobeni ukuba zindincedise.

(I can't do this job alone, so I need to ask my friends for help.)

A proverb of the Xhosa people.

The letter written in English, translated below, was found in Moscow, in the State Archive of the Russian Federation [GARF, f. 677, op. 1, d. 475, l. 1-2]. It is written by hand - the handwriting is difficult, and the grammar is unusual 2. It was addressed to the" tsar", who at that time was Alexander III, and sent to St. Petersburg from South Africa, or rather from Ezihlonyane in Pondoland, on November 10, 1886. This must be one of the most unusual documents in the history of Russian international relations.

We present it in full, keeping the grammar and spelling features of the original as much as possible. All geographical names and names are given in transcription from the original, and not in their currently accepted form.

The article was prepared with the support of grant RGNF 06-01-00538a.

AmaPondo is one of the Xhosa-speaking peoples of South Africa. By the treaty of 1844, the British recognized that the territory of Pondo extends from the Dragon Mountains to the coast of the Indian Ocean between the Umtata and Umzimkulu rivers. After the death in 1867 of Faku, the most famous and powerful leader of Pondo, a split occurred among them, and the territory to the west of the Mzimwubu river was under the rule of the" usurper " Ndamase, and the territory to the east of this river was under the rule of the rightful heir of Faku, Mgikela, on whose behalf the following letter is written [more For more information, see Davenport, 1991, pp. 126-128].

2 We are grateful to Professor Christopher Saunders of the University of Cape Town, who helped us parse the text of the letter.

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To the Tsar

Saint Petersburg

Russia

Ezihlonyane

Pondoland

November 10, 1886

Sir,

I am writing to you again, I want to explain to you our current situation as a Nation. We are an independent Nation, not subject to any other power until now-Independent. The Pondo nation is now asking for your protection. The British Government wants to take our Country. They have recently forcibly taken away the part of our country inhabited by Amaxebis 3 and have annexed it since we wrote to you on the 25th (October? - A.D., I. F.). Our country has been taken from us without a just Cause. And we didn't fight against Colonial Rule. We do not know at all what our crime is in front of English Ave. What we have been forcibly rejected is the 1st Country inhabited by Xebis.

2nd estuary of the Port St. Johns River they took it away, saying they would buy it with Money. That's what they said. They offered to buy the country occupied by Xebis from us for Cash. As I said, they made an offer for two ports, they took these two ports, and still offer to buy them for Cash 4. We refuse to accept their offer. After the letter we sent you, we hear that the Country occupied by AmaKsebisi was annexed on October 25 last year. They took our land even though we were not at war with them and without any justifiable reason there is only their deception towards us. We are not strong. Like them, The Pondos Are not Armed As Subjects Of Colonial Rule. The size of our country is 300 miles wide and 380 miles long. I hope that you will pay serious attention to this letter.

I have the honor to be

Sir

Your Most Humble Servant

Umhlangaso J. S. Faku 5

For High Chief Umgikelu 6

Chief Chancellor and Prime Minister At 7

P.S. don't listen to the English Pr-vo, what they can say. They might say maybe that Pondo Country belongs to them. They may say this to mislead you, because you don't know the facts, it's a lie. The border of the Pondo Country starts from the mouth of the Umta-ty River and goes up along the Umtata River and through Gungulula to the Shoberi Mission Station, and goes down to Ngxaroli and through Ishungwana and to the Umzimwubu River, and follows the Stream to the junction with Imwenyane Creek and along Mount Intsuwa and to the Selintsungu Mountains 8 to the Nolangeni Mountains via the Engele Mountains. Another thing they armed their subjects to come and fight against us. Since we don't have any friends to help us, we don't want to be under the protectorate of the British Government. We look forward to your valuable help. English-

3 The AmaXebisi are one of the closely related Pondo peoples of Xhosa, inhabiting a small area between the Mtamwuna and Mzimwubu Rivers from the northern border of Pondo Territory (see below) in the south to the modern city of Kakstad in the north. The Pondos believed that under their 1844 treaty with the British, this territory was under their sovereignty. Occupied by the British in 1886.

4 Port St. Johns-a harbor at the mouth of the Mzimwubu River. English ships began to enter there from the middle of the XIX century. In 1878, the Governor of the Cape Colony, Henry Frere, declared Mgikela deposed and "bought" the Port of St. John's from Ndamase's son (see footnote 1). In response, the Ipcc imposed a tribute on transit traffic through its territory and, with the help of local white merchants, built a new harbor, Port Grosvenor, to compete with the Port of St. John's. In 1885, Frere declared the entire coast of Pondoland an English protectorate.

5 Mhlangaso (Umhlangaso) J. S. Faku - Secretary of the IPCC, Supreme Councilor and Prime Minister of Pondoland, obviously a fairly well-educated and visionary politician. The idea of collecting tribute from the transit caravans of the Cape Colony and building the harbor of Port Grosvenor (see footnote) belonged to him, as well as, apparently, the initiative of letters to the Russian tsar.

6 Mgikela (1867-1888).

7 Only this letter is in the text.

8 The name is unclear.

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the Russian Government treats us in the most shameful way. The population of the Pondo Nation is about 200,000. Our country is very rich in Copper, Gold, Coal, etc. and all kinds of Minerals 9. It is for this reason that they want to take our Country by force against our Consent. If you will generously agree to protect us. We Will Allow you to Open all the Mines in the Country.

I have the honor to be

Sir

Your Most Humble Servant

Umhlangaso J. S. Faku

For High Chief Umgikelu

Chief Chancellor and Prime Minister

Where did Faku get the idea to send a letter to the Russian tsar? And not even the first one. What did he know about Russia? It is clear from the letter that he did not even know the tsar's name - and yet he turned to him for help.

Most likely, the letter was an echo of rumors about Russia that spread among Xhosa, Pondo's western neighbors, after the Crimean War. In 1857, a rumor spread among the Xhosa that somewhere in the north some "Russians" were fighting against the British, just like the Xhosa themselves, and that these Russians were ready to come to their aid. These rumors were provoked by the news that General George Cathcart was killed in one of the battles against the Russians in the Crimean War. In 1852-1853, Cathcart was governor of the British Cape Colony , one of the most hated by the Xhosa people. The famous South African writer Zakes Mda wrote in his novel "The Heart of Redness": "Everyone remembers how the news of Cathcart's death spread like wildfire, amid general rejoicing and impromptu celebrations. People first heard about the Russians. Although the British insisted that the Russians were as white as themselves, the Amakosas knew this was a lie. Russians are a black people. These are the spirits of the Amakos warriors who died in various wars against the British colonialists... "[Mda, 2000, p. 70].

But Faku wrote at the end of 1886-three decades after these events. At this time, he could have gathered information about Russia from other sources. Among the Pondo, as well as among the Xhosa, there were already people who graduated from mission schools, read mission magazines, and even wrote their own articles. Knowledge of the English language spread more widely, and with it - and knowledge about events taking place in the world. Many Pondos followed Xhosa to work on the farms and mines of the Cape Colony and Natal. What they saw there. They could already meet real, non - fictional Russian sailors who visited Cape Town and Simonstown. An educated person like Faku could also visit the Cape Town Museum of Curiosities and Natural History, which displayed Russian weapons and uniforms, Russian coins, and even such an incomprehensible object in South Africa as cast-iron stove doors (Wrangel, 1859). He could also get information about Russia from European merchants who lived in Pondoland.

But whatever the sources of his information, they could only confirm and reinforce the impression of the rumors of thirty years ago: the Russians are enemies of the British, they are fighting against them, and sometimes even successfully. So, it is to them that you need to go for help.

It is easy to imagine the astonishment of St. Petersburg officials when they received the letter. I don't think any of them had ever heard of pondo before. And certainly none of them knew where Pondoland was, or what its relations were with the English and Boers.

If such a letter had arrived only a few years later, at least in 1890, when Russian engineers were being sent to the Transvaal to study mining experience for use in the Urals and Siberia, it would almost certainly have been written. But in 1886.

9 So in the text. Both the number of Pondo and the mineral wealth of their country are greatly exaggerated.

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it might have passed unnoticed. Perhaps, of course, they took care of it, drew up a certificate about it for high authorities and thought about how to use it against their arch-rival-England. But we have not yet been lucky enough to find in the archives any traces of reaction to it, as well as to the previous letter mentioned in it (we have not been able to find it at all).

THE DISTANT ECHO OF THE BRITISH WARS WITH THE ZULUS AND BOERS

In South Africa, the wars between the Russians and the British did not go unnoticed. In Russia, the wars waged by the British against the Zulus and Boers at the turn of the 70s - 80s of the XIX century did not go unnoticed. The first occurred in 1879, the second-in 1880-1881. Both began with defeats by the British. The Zulus in January 1879, in a battle near the hill of Izandlwana, destroyed one of the British columns that entered their country. The Boers defeated an English detachment near Mayuba Hill in 1880.

For Great Britain, both defeats were such a shock that Disraeli's government fell as a result. Yes, and in Europe they caused a considerable resonance. The French were also shocked, though not so much by the British defeats as by the death of Napoleon III's son at the hands of the Zulus. He was called the "imperial prince", and Bonapartists dreamed of seeing him on the throne. He went to South Africa for military glory, joining one of the English detachments. He was blessed to do so by both his mother, Empress Eugenie, the widow of Napoleon III, and Queen Victoria. But the Zulu assegai ended the Napoleonic dynasty.

The Russian Embassy in London was closely following the events. Ambassador Count Shuvalov reported to Chancellor Gorchakov on January 22 / February 3, 1879: "For three years now, the British government has been experiencing serious difficulties in South Africa. The annexation of the Transvaal at the beginning of 1877 did not improve the situation." Shuvalov wrote about the Anglo-Zulu war that had just begun: "The outcome of the fight leaves no doubt. The Zulus will be defeated, but victory will require blood and money... At the end of the campaign, the conquered lands will be annexed and immediately transferred to English supervision " [AVPRI, 1879, d. 78, l. 48-50].

Upon learning of the Battle of Isandlwana, the ambassador, in a dispatch dated January 31/February 12, 1879, described the reaction of society and the British government, summarizing that "the failures suffered by the British troops caused deep confusion."

If the diplomatic correspondence was mainly about England, its reaction to this war, and the sharply increased military spending, then the other side attracted public attention - the Zulus. After the Battle of Izandlwana, several Russian magazines and newspapers published descriptions of Zulu life and life, especially their military organization and military art.

By that time, the Russian reader already knew about the Zulus. Thus, as early as 1828, the Moscow journal Vestnik Evropy, founded by Karamzin, published the following article: "The Cape of Good Hope informs us of the 3rd of August (N. S.) that the army of King Chaka, between Umtala 10 and the Vashi River, is marching on the Kaffir possessions 11. Colonel Somerset marched to the Kazn (Kaizikamma)River12 to cover the border and to assist the Kafirs"

10 This probably means the Umtata River. If this is the case, then the pondos mentioned above should have been attacked.

11 Here we were talking about the campaigns of the army of the powerful Zulu ruler Chaka, who subjugated and united many South African peoples. In 1828, he was killed by his relatives and subordinates. A vivid description of his life is contained in the book "Chaka Zulu" by E. Ritter, based on the oral tradition of the Zulus [Ritter, 1989 (this is already the 3rd ed. in Russian)]. Kaffirs were then called kosa.

12 This name was later transcribed in Russia as Kitsikamma. That's right-Keisikamma. Somerset's advance to this river could in no way "assist" the Xhosa in the struggle against the Zulus: it is located far to the west of the intended target area.

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[Vestnik Evropy, 1828, N 20, p. 310]. In 1873, a collection of fairy tales of the Zulus and Coy-Coins, who were then called "Hottentots", was published in St. Petersburg [Fables and fairy tales..., 1873]. However, detailed publications about the Zulus did not appear until after 1879.

A large essay "The Zulu King Setewayo and his possessions" was published in the largest Russian magazine "Niva" immediately after Izandlwana. Ketchwayo, one of Chaka's successors, entered the Russian language as "Setevayo". An article about him said :" As an intelligent and visionary ruler, he is always careful with a neighbor whose power he understands well." Next door was England, which by then owned not only the Cape Colony, but also its outpost, Natal, right in the middle of Zulu territory. About the war with England, the article said that Ketchwayo did not give a reason for it and that the British started it. There was also a photo with the caption: "Winner of the English Setewayo, King of the Zulus" [King of the Zulus..., 1879].

A few months later, the same magazine said: "the brave chief Setewayo, who so many times valiantly repelled the attacks of the British, is captured... Now all that remains is to bring him to Europe like a beast and the small newspapers will start mocking his habits and oddities... " [Niva, 17.09.1879, N 38, p. 756].

And three weeks later: "The kingdom of the Zulus is destroyed, as we have already said, and the war is over. But how much did it add to the glory of Britain's arms and Beaconsfield's politics? Hardly. Among the British themselves, for a long time, from the very beginning of the war in South Africa, loud voices were heard condemning the unjust invasion of the Setewayo possessions " [Niva, 8.10.1879, N 41, p. 816; see also: Niva, 19.02, 9.04, 7.05, 21.05, 21.08, 8.10, 19.11.1879].

Approximately the same information and estimates were given in the newspaper "Golos" [Voice, 5/17, 14/26, 17/29.02.1879] and in some other Russian magazines and newspapers.

On the Boer victory at Mayube and the subsequent Anglo-Transvaal negotiations, the Russian mission in London reported to St. Petersburg (February 18 / March 2 and March 14 / March 16, 1881) that "the annexation of the Transvaal was lawless and the result of fraud" and that the Boer demands were "just". The Russian ruling circles were still furious with England for its strongly anti-Russian stance during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, but the Embassy still noted in its report that " by making extensive concessions to the Boers, Mr. Gladstone did a wise and just thing."

Of course, the attention of the Russian authorities and the press to those events and their assessments were caused by ill-will and suspicion towards Britain. The two largest empires, the Russian and British, did not manage to live in peace, especially after the Crimean War. And in the 70s and 80s of the century before last, the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia peaked. So the difficulties that England faced in South Africa, Russian Anglophobes met with joy, if not with schadenfreude. Therefore, they wrote a lot about them, unwittingly introducing Russia to the distant opponents of its main enemy. The picture was, of course, distorted by the political situation, but it still reflected the realities of South Africa and conveyed to the Russian reader information about the events that took place there.

CAPE TOWN MEETS THE SON OF THE RUSSIAN TSAR

Of all the Russian visits to the Cape Colony in the 1870s, the visit of 22-year-old Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich attracted the greatest attention both in Russia and on the Cape. Not so much because he was the son of Tsar Alexander II - he was the third son and therefore not considered the heir to the throne-but because of his romantic history. He either entered or was about to enter into a morganatic marriage with a girl who was considered not a match for him at all - Sasha Zhukovskaya. She was a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Maria Nikolaevna, Alexander's wife, and, alas, the daughter of "only" the famous

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the poet V. A. Zhukovsky. Alexander II sent his son to circumnavigate the world for two or three years to let him come to his senses. Talk about it followed him everywhere, but on the Cape it was fueled by rumors that shortly before the Grand Duke's visit, a mysterious Russian princess, rich but already in disgrace for many years, had appeared in the colonies, and that she had even visited the diamond mines [Standard and Mail, 28.03.1872].

Alexey arrived in Cape Town on June 3, 1872. The Cape Argus newspaper reported this very solemnly: "The long-awaited Russian imperial squadron with Grand Duke Alexey on board arrived in Table Bay" [Cape Argus, 4.07.1872]. The squadron was commanded by Vice Admiral Posiet. Twenty years earlier, Posyet had visited the Cape on the frigate Pallada together with the writer I. A. Goncharov, they had traveled together to the interior of the country and even visited prisons and got acquainted with their inhabitants. The Grand Duke was given a lavish reception: the Cape Parliament allocated funds for his reception and even adopted a welcoming resolution [Cape Argus, 6.07.1872]. During the three weeks that he had been in the colony, the Cape newspapers had been full of reports of his amusements: the official reception at Government House, the success of the ball in his honor, his trips around the colony, the banquet on board the frigate Svetlana, how he had bought the best ostrich feathers, how he had bought the best ostrich feathers. that he gave the wife of the Cape Governor-General, Lady Berkeley, a "magnificent gift" from the Russian Empress, and one of the famous ladies of Cape Town-a malachite necklace from himself [Cape Argus, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25.07.1872; Standard and Mail, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 18, 20, 26.07.1872; State Archives..., vol. 1/348, ref. 77, pt. 1].

The Grand Duke came to the attention of the Cape public again two years later, when he was returning from a voyage in the East in command of the frigate Svitlana [Cape Argus, 22.01.1874; 21,25.04.1874; 18.07.1874]. By this time, his sister, Grand Duchess Mary, had married Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, and became Princess of Edinburgh. This was, of course, an important topic of small talk, and who better to tell about the new princess than her own brother?

Both visits attracted the attention of the Cape Town public to Russia, but the main impression that struck them was the luxury and splendor of the life of the royal family.

And what about the prince? Cured of love? In any case, his marriage to the lady-in-waiting Zhukovskaya was not concluded [for more information, see: Mosolov, 1993, pp. 72-73, 260]. The Grand Duke himself did not remain in his relative disgrace for long. In January 1881, he was appointed a member of the State Council. And Alexander III, having ascended to the throne in March 1881, after the assassination of Alexander II, finally forgave his beloved brother. In July of the same year, Alexey Alexandrovich was appointed chief chief of the fleet and the maritime department, and in January 1882, his gratitude for the hospitality shown to the Russian warship "Cruiser"was conveyed to the Cape Town authorities. He signed the commendation as the Supreme Admiral of the Russian Fleet [State Archives..., vol. 1/416, ref. 13]. He had just turned 31 at the time.

Alexey Alexandrovich retained this high position during the reigns of both his brother Alexander III and his nephew Nikolai P. Not only the title, but also that circumnavigation of the world helped to take off his naval career. The prince did not show any talents in maritime affairs either then or later. SUE. Witte gave him the following description: "A man who had no state ideas of his own and no serious ideas at all. He was more inclined to a personal comfortable and pleasant life than to a state life." In addition, according to Witte, he "was always under the influence of the lady with whom he was currently living" (Witte, 1924, p. 253).

Many years later, after Alexey Alexandrovich was appointed Minister of the Navy, during the Boer War, the publisher of the most knowledgeable Russian newspaper wrote:: "The Naval Minister lives in Peterhof with his mistress and does nothing.

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As long as the Admiral-General is the Grand Duke, we won't have any fleet. The grand Dukes don't do anything, and the ministers keep saying, "don't worry the grand dukes." The theft is colossal." Of course, no one would have dared to write such a thing in their own newspaper, so this entry remained only in the publisher's diary. At the same time, in 1900, this publisher foresaw the destruction of the Russian fleet by the Japanese. "The emperor hates the Japanese...", he wrote, " our Fleet is bad... The Japanese have an excellent fleet, and they can destroy us alive " [Suvorin, 1923, p. 244]. Which is exactly what happened a few years later during the Russo-Japanese War.

The fact that Alexey Alexandrovich visited Cape Town should have been recalled once again, when in 1904 a huge Russian armada sailed past the coast of South Africa to the Far East to fight the Japanese. After all, he was one of those who sent thousands of Russian sailors to their deaths. After the defeat of the Russian fleet, he retired from business and, like many Russian aristocrats, left his luxurious palace in cloudy St. Petersburg and went to live out his life in cheerful Paris. But the rank of admiral-general remained with him until his death.

15 years after Alexey Alexandrovich, another Grand Duke, Alexander Mikhailovich, visited Cape Town. Having married Ksenia Alexandrovna, the beloved sister of Nicholas II, he was influential in the Russian government, especially in maritime affairs. In 1900 he was appointed Chairman of the Council for Merchant Shipping, and in 1909 he was promoted to Vice Admiral. And he, like his older relative, gained experience in maritime affairs in a circumnavigation of the world, which he made as a young officer of the corvette "Rynda". During this trip, in 1887, he also visited the Cape of Good Hope. Many years later, in his old age, he would remember the hard work of the Boer farms, the arrogance of the English, and the luxury of the British officers ' clubs. And then there were the often repeated words of Cecil Rhodes about the need to "think imperialistically" [Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich..., 1933, p. 98].

ARTIST'S SKETCHES

The Russian reading public imagined what South Africa and its inhabitants looked like from drawings made by foreigners who visited those parts and then published in Russia. The author of Russian sketches of South African life was the artist Alexey Vladimirovich Vysheslavtsov (1831-1888). He stayed in South Africa for about three months, from mid-March to mid-June 1858. On his return, he published a book and put three pictures from South African life on separate inserts. The artist did not give names or explanations to the paintings, but everything is clear enough.

One shows the types of Cape Colony residents. A fisherman, a sailor, a fishmonger, Cape Malays, a coy-coy woman with a child on her back - a Hottentot, as they would have said in those days. All of them are wearing European clothes, although some of them are ragged and bare-footed. On the second - also Africans. Walking along the road near Cape Town, at the foot of Table Mountain. One drags a sack, the other, already weak, leans on a staff. On the third - the ocean shore at the Cape of Good Hope. Interestingly, Vysheslavtsov did not draw a rich white audience. It was probably the same as everywhere else, so he wasn't so interested.

And in the book, he spoke of South Africa not as an outpost of white civilization on the edge of the African continent, but as a Babylonian mix of peoples. "It seems as if all the nations of the world have sent a sample of their nationality to Cape Town," he wrote. "The streets are full of wonderful colors; now the Malay turbans are reddened, now a crowd of Kaffirs, strongly built people with faces of a dark copper color, now a Mozambican, now a pur-sang Negro, now a Hindu in his picturesque white cloak, light and gras-

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beautifully draped. Add the English in all sorts of hats, such as a gray felt helmet with some kind of fan, something like a white quilted samovar, or a straw hat with a veil. Among the Kaffirs, Negroes, English and Malays, skippers and captains from merchant ships and soldiers in red uniforms occasionally appear, and finally, we, the inhabitants of Orel, Tambov, Tver... "[Vysheslavtsov, 1862, pp. 71-72].

ZULU - HERO OF THE KAZAKH EPIC

In 1978, one of the authors of this article received a letter from Alma-Ata from Professor A. Derbisalin, a specialist in the history of Kazakh literature.13 He wrote that at the end of the XIX century, the Kazakh folk storyteller Akylbai Kunanbayev created a legend-poem "Zulu". Derbisalin asked what could be its source.

Of course, the appearance of such a poem is amazing. The far edge of the Russian Empire beyond the Caspian Sea, the 19th century, the Kazakh language - and an oral poem about the Zulu!

Professor Derbisalin assumed that the plot of the poem was taken from some books in Russian - the Kazakhs did not have their own written literature at that time. But after all, in the Russian literature of the XIX century. information about the Zulus is not very rich. The book of translations of Zulu folklore, published in St. Petersburg in 1873, and numerous references to the Zulus in the press in connection with the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, was mentioned above. But not all of these publications could get to Kazakhstan, especially to the storyteller Akylbai!

Could any of the Zulus have ended up in Russia - or even Kazakhstan? Oddly enough, it is impossible to completely exclude the possibility of this. This is evidenced by the story of a Zulu named Mgnoka-if it had any real foundation, of course. According to L. D. Turner, who published a story about him in the Journal of Negro History, a group of Zulus traveled from South Africa to the Sudan to help the Mahdists fight the British. They did not succeed, but they did cross the continent to Egypt. After that, Mgnoka ended up in Germany, then moved to America, changed many professions, learned several languages, and even published articles in American magazines (Turner, 1955). But so far, no information about the Zulus has been found either in Kazakhstan or in Russia at that time.

The poem of Akylbai Kunanbayev was written down from the memory of people who heard it and published in 1924 in the Kazakh magazine "Sana", which has long become a bibliographic rarity. From the text of the poem sent by Professor A. Derbisalin, it became clear what was its source. The poem is a retelling of part of the novel "King Solomon's Mines" by Ryder Haggard, first published in 1885 and soon translated into Russian. The difference between the plot of the poem and the novel is that the Kazakh storyteller put the Zulu in the center of the poem and gave it the appropriate name.

What was the reason for the Kazakh storyteller's interest in the novel's plot? You can't ask the author, he died in 1904, and we can only guess. Who knows, perhaps he saw in the fate of the Zulus and Kazakhs what they had in common-the colonial conquest and the protest against it.

* * *

So, in the 19th century, illiterate Pondo and Xhosa people heard about Russia, and illiterate Kazakhs heard about the Zulus... This is perhaps the most surprising part of the history of early contact between the two countries.

13 Private letter from A. Derbisalin to Apollo Davidson dated October 20, 1978 (from the personal archive of A. B. Davidson).

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Russia and South Africa, but reliable evidence of the existence of ideas of Russians and South Africans about each other.

list of literature

Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI). Foundation of the Chancellery, 1879. d. 78. l. 48-50.

Fables and Fairy tales of Wild Peoples, St. Petersburg, 1873.
Bulletin of Europe. 1828. N 20.

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. The Book of Memories. P.: Lev, 1933.

Witte S. Y. Memoirs. Vol. 3. L.: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo, 1924.

Wrangel A.V. From the Cape of Good Hope / / Marine collection. 1859. N 1.

Vysheslavtsov A. B. Pen and pencil essays from circumnavigation of the world in 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1869. SPb., 1862.

Voice. 5/17, 14/26, 17/29 February 1879.

State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). f. 677. Op. 1. D. 475. L. 1-2.

Zulu King Setewayo and his possessions / / Niva. 12.03.1879. N 11.

Mosolov A. A. Pri dvor poslednogo rossiiskogo imperora [At the Court of the Last Russian Emperor]. Moscow: Ankor Publ., 1993.

Niva. 9, 19.02.1979; 7, 21.05.1879; 21.08.1979; 17.09.1879; 8, 19.10.1879.

Ritter E. Chaka Zulu, Moscow, 1989.
Suvorin A. S. Diary, Moscow, Petrograd, 1923.

Cape Argus. Cape Town. 4.07.1872; 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25.07.1872; 22.01.1874; 21, 25.04.1874; 18.07.1874.

Davenport T.R. South Africa. A Modern History. L., 1991.

Mda Z. The Heart of Redness. Cape Town: OUP, 2000.

Standard and Mail. Cape Town. 28.03.1872; 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 18, 20, 26.07.1872.

State Archives of the Republic of South Africa. KAB. GH. Vol. 1/348. Ref. 77. Pt. 1; Vol. 1/416. Ref. 13.

Turner L.D. The Odyssey of a Zulu Warrior // The Journal of Negro History. Vol. XL. N 3. July 1955.

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