Pyotr Kozlov

Who was Pyotr Kozlov?

Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov was a Russian and Soviet traveler and explorer who continued the studies of Nikolai Przhevalsky in Mongolia and Tibet.

Although prepared by his parents for a military career, Kozlov chose to join Nikolai Przhevalsky's expedition. After his mentor's death, Kozlov continued traveling in Asia with his successors, Pevtsov and Roborovsky. In 1895, he took general command of the expedition from ailing Roborovsky. From 1899 to 1901, he explored and later described in a book the upper reaches of the Huang He, Yangtze, and Mekong rivers.

During the first decade of the 20th century, when the Great Game reached its peak, Kozlov rivaled Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein as the foremost researcher of Xinjiang. Although he was on good terms with Hedin and other foreign explorers, the British government, as represented by George Macartney, monitored his movements across Central Asia. Kozlov's 1905 visit to the Dalai Lama in Urga gave "the British War Office a fright", especially after the Lama declared his intention to "settle within the confines of Russia".

During his expedition of 1907–1909, Kozlov explored the Gobi Desert and discovered the ruins of Khara-Khoto, a Tangut city destroyed by the Ming Chinese in 1372. It took him several years to excavate the site and bring to St. Petersburg no less than 2,000 books in the Tangut language he uncovered there. Kozlov described his findings in a large volume entitled Mongolia and Amdo and the Dead City of Khara-Khoto.