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Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (IPA: [prʐɛ'valʲskʲi]), also spelled Przewalski and Prjevalsky (Russian: Никола́й Миха́йлович Пржева́льский; April 12 [O.S. 31 March] 1839—November 1 [O.S. 20 October] 1888 ), was a Russian geographer and explorer of Central and Eastern Asia. Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet, he discovered the only extant species of wild horse and added immensely to the store of European knowledge on Central Asia.^[1]

Przhevalsky was born in Smolensk into a noble Belarusian family, and studied there and at the military academy in St. Petersburg. In 1864, he became a geography teacher at the military school in Warsaw. In 1867, he was sent to Irkutsk in Siberia, where he began to explore the highlands on the banks of the river Ussuri, a tributary of the Amur. In the following years he made four journeys to Central Asia:

• 1870–1873 from Kyakhta he crossed the Gobi desert to Peking, then exploring the upper Yangtze (Chang Jiang), and in 1872 crossing into Tibet;
• 1876–1877 travelling through east Turkestan he visited what he believed to be lake Lop Nor, which had reportedly not been visited by any European since Marco Polo. It is, however, likely that Johan Gustaf Renat had been there more than a hundred years earlier;^[2]
• 1879–1880 via Hami and through the Qaidam basin to lake Koko Nor. Then over the Tian Shan mountains into Tibet to within 260 km of Lhasa before being turned back by Tibetan officials;
• 1883–1885 from Kyakhta across the Gobi to Alashan and the eastern Tian Shan mountains, turning back at the Yangtze. Then back to Koko Nor, and westwards to Khotan and Lake Issyk Kul.

The results of these expanded journeys opened a new era for geography as well as the fauna and flora of this up to then relatively unknown area. Among other things he discovered the wild population of Bactrian Camels as well as the Przewalski's Horse and Przewalski's Gazelle named after him.

Przhevalsky died of typhus during his fifth journey at Karakol on the shore of lake Issyk-Kul in present day Kyrgyzstan. The Tsar immediately changed the name of the town to Przhevalsk. There are monuments to him there and in St. Petersburg.

Przhevalsky's writings include Mongolia, the Tangut Country (1875) and From Kulja, Across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879). Less than a year after his death, Nikolay Yadrintsev (who succeeded Przhevalsky at the head of his expedition) discovered the remains of Genghis Khan's capital Karakorum. Przhevalsky's work was continued by his young disciple Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, described as "the young man who had been eluding [Przevalsky] all his life: alert, submissive, loyal, and handsome".^[3]

Monument to Nikolai Przhevalski in Saint Petersburg

According to an urban legend, Joseph Stalin was an illegitimate son of Nikolai Przhevalski ^{[4] [5] [6]}. The legend is supported by the similar appearance of both men, probably exaggerated by the propaganda efforts to make canonical images of Stalin more Slavic-like^[4]. According to Galina Dzhugashvili, the widow of Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili, Nikolai Przhevalski worked in Gori in the beginning of 1879 and Stalin's mother Ekaterina Geladze worked as a servant for him. Later Przhevalski sent money to pay for Joseph's tuition in a local church school^[5]. On the other hand, Przhevalsky has not been known to have dated a woman and was described by his biographers as essentually asexual.^[3]

• Kyrill Kunakhovich, "Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky and the Politics of Russian Imperialism", in "IDP News", Issue No. 27 (accessed 2007-01-31)