WEAPONS IN THE COLLECTION OF GIFTS TO THE TSRESAREVICH NIKOLAI ROMANOV (FROM THE FOUNDATIONS OF PETERSBURG’S KUNSTKAMERA)

Abstract

A collection of gifts to Prince Nikolai Romanov (the future and last Emperor of Russia Nikolai II) presents in the assembly of the Peter the Great Museum of World Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. These gifts were presented him during his trip to the East in 1890-1891. The future emperor’s path took him through many countries and cities, and on his way back to St. Petersburg he visited Kazakh lands. One of the most valuable collection - gifts to the heir to the throne from the inhabitants of the Kazakh steppes. The basis of this collection is weapons, mainly axes.

The purpose of this article is to introduce this unique collection of Kazakh weapons into wide scientific circulation. The article is based on the results of scientific annotation of objects from the collections of the MAE RAS. Data from museum documentation (museum inventories) and scientific publications on the research topic were used as additional sources.

The study used methods of comparative historical analysis. Scientific attribution of the collection, based on ethnographic analysis, was carried out by the author of the article.