Thirty years have passed since a joint comprehensive Soviet-Somali scientific expedition was launched in Somalia from July 27 to December 22, 1971.

Traditional friendly ties between the Soviet and Somali peoples served as the basis for the idea of a joint scientific expedition. A prominent Soviet Africanist, S. R. Smirnov, suggested organizing an expedition to collect materials on the history of the national liberation movement that developed in Somalia at the beginning of the 20th century. Such an expedition, according to a scholar who has spent many years studying the Mahdist movement in Sudan, would make it possible to trace the links and draw parallels between this movement and the largest anti-colonial struggle of the Somali people in 1899-1920, led by Syed Mohammed Abdille Hassan.

In March-April 1963, S. R. Smirnov met in Somalia with one of the sons of Seyid Mohammed - Sheikh Abdurahman-a member of the liberation movement and a keeper of the available information on the history of this movement. Abdurakhman supported the idea of organizing an expedition. It was also approved by the Commander-in-Chief of the Somali National Army, General Abdulle Daoud Hersi, during his visit to the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the fall of 1963.

A major role in the preparation of the expedition was played by the Director of the Institute of Africa, corresponding member. Academy of Sciences of the USSR V. G. Solodovnikov.

Already after the death of S. R. Smirnov, events occurred in Somalia that forced a new look at the tasks of the expedition. The military coup of October 21, 1969 attracted special attention of researchers to the current problems of the country. As a result, a comprehensive Soviet - Somali scientific expedition was organized to study the history of the national liberation movement of the first quarter of the 20th century and the socio-economic transformations taking place in Somalia. On the Somali side, the participants were: Au Jama Omar Isse, author of a number of books and pamphlets on the history of Somalia, and a young archaeologist Said Ahmed Warsame, who graduated from Leningrad State University. The expedition from the Soviet side included researchers from the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences N. D. Kosukhin (head of the Soviet part of the expedition), P. I. Kupriyanov, A.V. Nikiforov, V. P. Gorodnov, E. S. Sherr.

The research program of the expedition included studying the national liberation movement of 1899-1920 by interviewing witnesses and participants of the Dervish war, studying on-site socio-economic and political processes in modern Somali society: social structure, problems of nomadic and agricultural economy, industrial development, and the public sector. The expedition was to conduct specific sociological surveys of various groups of the Somali population. In addition, it was planned to conduct a reconnaissance archaeological search in the northern provinces of the Somali Democratic Republic (hereinafter-SDR).

The expedition involved Soviet geologists V. N. Kozyrenko and O. A. Zavadsky, who at that time were working in Somalia through the UN.

The Soviet members of the expedition arrived in Mogadishu on July 27, 1971 at a specially created central base. After getting acquainted with the situation, coordinating routes with local authorities, and clarifying individual plans, they began to study the archives of ministries and departments, scientific literature in the libraries of the National University, the Museum, and UN services in Somalia.

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The Somali public and officials showed great interest in the work of the expedition. The Department of Culture of the Ministry of Education of the SDR assumed direct patronage over it. The Somali authorities provided the expedition with transport, translators and guides. On September 10, 1971, the members of the expedition were received by the President of the Supreme Revolutionary Council of the SDR, Mohammed Siad Barre, who noted the exceptional importance of an objective study of the historical past of the Somali people, which was incorrectly covered in the works of Western authors.

In September, the expedition deployed its research to businesses in Mogadishu, Balada, Johara, farms, plantations, and cooperatives in Benadir and Upper Juba provinces. At the end of the month, the expedition was divided into two groups: the first (historians, ethnographers and archaeologists) headed north, and the second (economists and sociologists) - to the south of the republic. The northern group, based in Hargeisa, made a two - week trip along the route Hargeisa-Burao-Erigavo-Tale-Las Anod-Hargeisa; the southern group, based in Kismayu, Lower Juba province, carried out work in Kismayu and surrounding areas, including Afmadu, Jeliba, Jama. In November, the two groups reunited to conduct research in the country's northern provinces. Routes were laid to Berbera, Sheikh, Burao, Gelinsor, Borama, Tug Vajal, Zeila. Separate groups of expedition participants made trips to Garoe, Afgoi, Dzhokhar, Eyl (the famous Davot fortress built by Seyid Mohammed in the early XX century was examined here).

The expedition members took photographs, collected handwritten and printed materials, and made a film about modern Somalia. Demographic and statistical reports compiled on the basis of studies conducted by the Ministry of Planning and Coordination in Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Kismayu, Afgoya, Jelib, Berber and other cities, regional centers and districts were transmitted to the Expedition. A number of Somali authors provided the expedition with their own essays on individual episodes of the country's history. For example, Dahir Afgarshe handed over a manuscript that tells about the personality of Syed Mohammed, Sheikh Ahmed Abdullahi-the manuscript of the chapter "History of Somalia" (about the Dervish uprising), Ahmed Arten - notes on the history of the Syed Mohammed uprising.

Hundreds of people in the country, from secretaries of state and provincial governors to simple nomadic pastoralists and laborers, sought to help the scientists in their work. When Somalis heard about the expedition's arrival, they would come from dozens of kilometers away to talk about some historical episode, sing the forgotten gabay of Syed Mohammed, or bring their own notes on the country's history and folklore.

For the first time in the practice of Soviet African studies, a selective sociological survey of certain groups of the Somali population was conducted through surveys, interviews, observations, content analysis, etc. As a result, materials describing the processes of formation of the working class, its connection with the rural way of life, and the transition to sedentarism of nomadic pastoralists are obtained. Of great interest are the answers of young students that reveal their public and personal interests, their attitude to the socio-economic activities of the military government.

Members of the expedition made a number of articles in the local press, which highlighted the first results of field work. The work of the expedition was supported by the Ministry of Labor and Sports, the editorial board of the newspaper "Stella d' Ottobre". National Committee for the Coordination of Programs of the Self-help Movement and Public Relations (Political Office under the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation). The expedition was greatly assisted by the famous historian and statesman of Somalia Ali Matan Hashi and the Somali scientist Musa Galaal. Thus, Musa Galaal told us about the existence of the Somali folk calendar in the country, where each year has a name for the day of the week; every seven years the chronology begins again. According to this calendar, the expedition arrived in the country in the year of "Friday" - the harbinger of a catastrophic flood. Even then, we were surprised by the cyclical nature of the Somali calendar, but did not attach much importance to it. However, in November, a terrible disaster occurred in the north of the country in the Lae Khore region. Storm waves of the Indian Ocean caused great damage to the national economy, and most importantly-the raging elements claimed several dozen lives of Somali citizens.

Is the Somali calendar really so accurate in its prediction, or is it just a coincidence? How to separate real facts from fictional history-

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stories, legends, traditions, taking into account that the Somali people did not have their own written language?

We were to study the recent history of the national liberation movement of 1899-1920. Discussions with participants and contemporaries of the liberation movement, in particular with Syed Mohammed's relatives - his son Sheikh Abdullah Hakim and brother Sheikh Hassan-were of the greatest importance. In accordance with the program, research was conducted in the northern part of Somalia, which made up the British Somaliland, where the main events of the liberation movement took place. Most Western researchers presented the history of the national liberation movement in Somalia from colonialist or neo-colonialist positions, obscured the anti-colonial orientation of the liberation struggle, tried to present it as a purely religious movement, and Syed Mohammed himself was called a "madman", "mad mullah". They embellished and, in fact, justified the actions of the colonial authorities, attributing to them imaginary victories in many battles with the rebel army.

Soviet and Somali scientists had to reconstruct the true history of this movement based on the study of new materials and documents. The most important and still little-used source is the numerous oral poetic gabays of Seyid Mohammed, many of which have not been published. The expedition recorded some gabei preserved in popular memory. In addition, it was possible to record conversations not only with relatives, but also with other companions and contemporaries of Syed Mohammed, for example, with Mohamed Hosh from the village of Bohotle, Dahir Afgarshe, the son of one of Syed Mohammed's closest friends (D. Afgarshe is an employee of Radio Mogadishu), Abdi Nur Hidig and Abdi Warsame Gulid (both from Erigawo Jama Ismail Mir , the son of Ismail Mir, the commander of the detachment that defeated the British Camel Cavalry unit commanded by Corfield in 1913. Important details were presented to the expedition by the chairman of the agricultural cooperative "Korissoo" ("Growing") - seventy-year-old Mohamed Dadi. The old rebel knew Syed Mohammed well and was involved in the transfer of his ashes, which had to be hidden from the British colonialists. Extremely interesting for the reconstruction of the events of that time was the story of an old stonemason Salem Ahmed Salah (Eyl), whose father and he himself participated in the construction of the fortresses of Davot and Taleh.

Thus, the activities of the expedition involved the public of the country in the restoration of the heroic past of the people and contributed to the development of their national identity.

The results of this joint work were published in the Scientific Notes of the Soviet-Somali Expedition (Moscow, 1974). The sources analyzed by the expedition participants indicate that the Somali dervish movement was a significant event in the new history of Africa - it can be put on a par with the Mahdist movement in Sudan, the struggle for the creation of the Rif Republic in Morocco, etc. Paying considerable attention to the liberation movement at the beginning of the century, the expedition also studied other episodes and events of the national liberation struggle in Somalia, in particular, related to the activities of the League of Young Somalis. The expedition met with women's activists who remember the Somali heroine Haua Osman "Takko", who died during an anti-colonial demonstration in Mogadishu on January 11, 1948, and recorded their stories; in 1971, a monument was erected in the capital in memory of this brave daughter of the Somali people.

Although the expedition did not deal with the problems of the national liberation movement of 1920-1959, the fragmentary data collected by it indicate that the anti-colonial struggle did not fade away during these years, which is also confirmed by materials about the uprising in El-Bur (1926) and mass demonstrations in 1948 and 1949.

The liberation movement led by Syed Mohammed was a link in the chain of events related to the struggle of the Somali people against oppressors and colonizers, and found its expression in the revolutionary speech of the military on October 21, 1969. During meetings and conversations with the Somali military, the latter often expressed their views on the "reunification of all Somali territories". Obviously, the territorial claims of Somalia to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Jubuti gave an impetus to the creation of a powerful national army. The defeat of Somalia in the war led to the gradual disintegration of the regime of Siad Barre, an internal member of the UN Security Council.-

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This is due to the armed clashes, chaos and de facto disintegration of the country in the early 1990s.

Studying the problems of the country's nomadic pastoralists, who made up 60% of the Somali population, made it possible to draw important conclusions that are not only theoretical, but also practical.

As a result of a reconnaissance archaeological search conducted by Said Ahmed Varsame and A.V. Nikiforov, the remains of medieval settlements and cities located in the north-western province were investigated. The most interesting sites here are the archaeological sites of Gurgab, Amud, Abasa, as well as traces of a medieval settlement on Saaddin Island. These monuments are described, a plan is drawn up for individual, most interesting and preserved buildings, photographs of objects are taken, and lifting archaeological material is collected, most of which is transferred to the Ministry of Education of the SDR.

Of particular interest is the survey and description of rock carvings and inscriptions that are important for studying the culture, economy and life of the Somali population of the early epochs. The members of the expedition had the opportunity to visit caves and describe rock paintings in God Hardunna, located in the Eyl Afuein area.

In addition to the articles of the direct participants of the expedition, the Scientific Notes of the Soviet-Somali expedition published scientific works of Soviet specialists L. L. Galkin, O. A. Zavadsky, V. N. Kozyrenko, V. S. Lartsev, as well as Somali authors Musa Galaal, Omar Au Nuh, Ahmed Ali Abukar. The activity of the expedition was continued in February

1973, when P. I. Kupriyanov and E. S. Sherr were in Somalia for a month. In addition, in 1972, members of the Soviet part of the expedition had the opportunity to exchange views on the progress of their work with the Vice-President of the Supreme Soviet Mohamed Ali Samantar, the Supreme Soviet member Ali Matan Hashi, and Abdullahi, the grandson of Seyid Mohammed, during their visit to the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The results of field research, theoretical positions and practical conclusions of Somali and Soviet scientists on the history of the national liberation movement and socio-economic and political problems of modern Somalia are presented in the "Scientific Notes of the Soviet-Somali expedition", the monograph by E. S. Sherra "Somalia in the struggle for socialist orientation" (Moscow, 1974), the book by V. P. Sherrin. Gorodnova and A.V. Nikiforova "Journey to Taleh" (Moscow, 1976). Of particular interest is the Work diary of the Soviet-Somali expedition, published under the heading "For official use" by the Institute of Africa in 1973.

The organization and conduct of the multi-month expedition was funded by the Government of our country, which took into account the importance of joint research by Soviet and Somali scientists.

The activities of the expedition, in addition to their scientific significance, also contributed to the development of friendly relations between the peoples of the two countries. The expedition made a number of specific recommendations to the Somali Government on scientific research issues. The authority of the Soviet members of the expedition to Somalia was extremely high. It is no coincidence that N. D. Kosukhin and E. S. Sherr were invited in 1974 to participate in the national campaign to eliminate illiteracy among the rural population of Somalia.

However, the positive developments in the Somali Government were soon curtailed. In the following years, nationalist sentiments led to the development of totalitarian tendencies in the activities of the ruling regime of Siad Barre. As a result, opposition clan military-political groups emerged, which plunged the country into a state of chaos and anarchy. All efforts by the international community to stop the bloodshed in the country have so far failed.

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