ON THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY IN HISTORY: NIKOLAY N. MIKLOUHO-MACLAY

Abstract

The paper strives to present and analyze the role of personality in history on the example of the outstanding academic and traveler Nikolay N. Miklouho-Maclay (1846–1888), who devoted his life to science and high ideals of greater good and humanism. The author shows what influence a historical figure can have both on his contemporaries and next generations, giving the answer to the key question: ‘To what extent the scientific and ideological heritage of a scientist can be relevant in the 21st century?’ The paper considers N. Miklouho-Maclay’s contribution to a variety of academic disciplines as an ethnographer, anthropologist and naturalist, describing significance of his major studies, in which he focused both on people, and the manifestations of this culture within the geographical environment. The author also pays attention to sociopolitical activity of N. Miklouho-Maclay and his firm public position aimed at the protection of Pacific Islanders from the slave trade and colonial enslavement by the Western colonial powers of the 19th century, emphasizing its contribution in the 20th and 21st centuries to the establishment of multilateral friendly relations between Russia and the South Pacific states. The paper reviews N. Miklouho-Maclay’s academic and educational activities in preserving historical heritage since the 1930s, as well as the growth of his personal popularity nowadays. The author quotes authoritative academics and experts in various fields of knowledge from different countries, describing their image of N. Miklouho-Maclay, thus presenting a generalized portrait of the famed explorer and defining his personal role in history, which is far from fading nowadays.