Russian expedition to Assam and Sudan in 1911–1913

An experienced officer, sotnik of Imperial Russian Army Don Cossack Regiment, Sergei von Wick spent his free time, money and energy for the benefit of Russian science. He organized and financed several expeditions to remote localities of India, Sudan, Persia. Russian hunters (also preparator of Zoological Museum Сarl Funkson and captain of Caucasian Grenadier Artillery Brigade Alexander V. Andreyanov) reached North-East India in 1911 at the height of the Anglo-Abor war. They completed a circular, independent route in the Southern Himalayas, successfully obtained and labeled rare exhibits for the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Von Wick noticed ethnographic features of the numerous small ethnic groups of Assam encountered along the way, established good relations with Abors, Mishmis, Khamtis, Sinphos, etc. Later, the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography got from the expedition several Abor (Adi) tools and weapons (MAE No. 2096, 3105). Shortly after his return, S. N. von Wick published excerpts from his Indian and Sudanese field diaries (1911–1913) illustrated with the author’s photographs. The task of the book was to interest the compatriots and to involve young people in the direct study of nature and the peoples of the world. Von Wick was elected (1912) as a correspondent of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Comprehensive knowledge of nature and people stand out as a principle and a goal of the expeditionary work of the Russian scientists, both in homeland and in exotic regions of the planet.