Colonel Mikhail Vasilyevich Pevtsov (21 May 1843 – 25 February 1902) was a Russian army officer and explorer known for travel and exploration in central Asia. Pevtsov was born in Ustiuzhinskii district, Novgorod province in the estate of a noble family. Orphaned at seven he was raised by relatives in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

where he went to the First St Petersburg High School before joining cadet school in

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

. Excelling in mathematics and geography, he caught the attention of General Baron A. I. Delvig who suggested that he joined the Nicholas General Staff Academy. He joined the 29th Infantry Tomsk Regiment stationed in Tula in 1862 and was transferred to Poland to suppress the uprising there. It was in Warsaw that he met Maria Renast whom he later married. While in St Petersburg he attended meetings of the

Imperial Russian Geographical Society The Russian Geographical Society (), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography, ethnography, ecology and stati ...

, becoming a member of it in 1867. In 1868 he joined the Nicholas General Staff Academy. In 1875 he was posted to

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

under General I.F. Babkov. Here he studied Kazakh and Arabic. In 1876 he led the First Dzhungarian Expedition. Pevtsov made astronomical and meteorological observations in his travels and helped produce maps. In 1878 he led expeditions into western Mongolia and the northern regions of China. In 1889 he travelled to Tibet. After the death of N.M. Przewalski, he took over command. He was accompanied by V.I. Roborovsky and P.K. Kozlov. He suffered from poor health in later years and ran into debts. He died in St Petersburg and was buried in Smolensk cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pevtsov, Mikhail 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire 1843 births 1902 deaths Military personnel of the Russian Empire