S5-E6 – A 22-year-old Russian (spy?) Visits Taiwan in 1875
Pavel Ivanovich Ibis, or Paul Ibis, a 22-year-old Russian naval officer (he was born in today’s Estonia) embarked alone on a dangerous and adventurous journey – on foot – through Taiwan in the winter of 1875. At the time, much of the island was under Qing rule; a prefecture of Fujian Province. So, what was he doing here? He left very detailed accounts of places, people and customs, and Paul Ibis seems to have had a genuine “anthropological” interest in this island. But was he also possibly a spy? Or at least gathering data for his superiors in the then-still powerful Russian Empire under Tsar Alexander II? (And, yeah, that was the Tsar who sold Alaska to the US in 1867.)
Cover shows drawings made by Pavel Ivanovich Ibis, or Paul Ibis, a 22-year-old Russian naval officer, when he travelled through Taiwan in the winter of 1875. Ibis was especially interested in Taiwan's Indigenous People. In the center is an image of the Russian warship Askold. Ibis was an officer on this ship, and when it docked in Hong Kong in early 1875, he took advantage of a six-week break during which he visited Taiwan.
Link for the book used as reference for this episode: 1875．福爾摩沙之旅：俄國海軍保羅．伊比斯的臺灣調查筆記
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Click link below to access an academic paper (PDF - Mostly in Russian:
Ethnographic trip to Taiwan: new findings about Pavel Ibis
and the corvette Askold’s circumnavigation.
Below: The Askold was a 17-gun sail-and-screw corvette of the Russian Imperial Fleet, and it participated in round-the-world voyages. Translated from Russian: "The basis of this exhibition is a collection of rare scrolls, which contain excerpts from the notes of researchers, reproductions of views of Formosa (Taiwan) in the 19th century and drawings by Pavel Ibis himself. These drawings are adjacent to photographs prepared by representatives of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences themselves. In addition to the main exhibition are exhibits from the collections of the Pacific Fleet Military History Museum, copies of Pavel Ibis's personal documents, copies of publications from 19th century magazines and naval collections, books about the 'excursion to Formosa' and items belonging to Taiwanese aborigines."
Below: In March 2014, travelers from Chelyabinsk – Fyodor Labutin and member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation Sergei Malkov – followed in the footsteps of Ibis. Having collected interesting photos, videos and other materials that formed the modern basis of the historical exhibition, they linked space, time and action, drew interesting parallels between life on the island today and 140 years ago. "Today, looking into the past from the 21st century, we can state that the personality of Pavel Ibis deserves true admiration, his name has rightly been brought out of oblivion, and his scientific contribution has enormous, still not fully understood value. As a person, P. I. Ibis was an excellent example of an enlightened Russian intellectual, a talented and promising scientist-researcher, a bold pioneer-traveler and a brilliant naval officer who, like his contemporary N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, made a great personal contribution to world science. There is no doubt that Russia would have had a brilliant military and scientific career for him, if only his life had not been too short," Valentin Golovachev noted.
Rabbit Hole:
William Seward was Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State before and during the Civil War and helped stop the UK and France from recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. He was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln and Seward was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell).
Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would offset the designs of Russia’s greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain. After the Civil War, Seward quickly took up a renewed Russian offer and on March 30, 1867, agreed to a proposal from Russian Minister in Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million (this is about US$129 million in 2023 US dollars.) The Senate approved the treaty of purchase on April 9; President Andrew Johnson signed the treaty on May 28, and Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867. This purchase ended Russia’s presence in North America.
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