Western China

Upholding Soviet honour

April 1, 2009

1929 And so we went to the honourary banquet at the house of the governor of Uq-Turpan. At the long table, headed by the governor, all the eminent citizens of the city, the brigadier general, the customs officials and the judicial authorities were placed. Following them there were other major and minor officials. The most [...]

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Preparing for a banquet

March 12, 2009

July 1929 In contrast to the rich meadows of the northern slopes of Tien-Shan, where the ‘djailau’ [summer pastures] that represent an ‘Eldorado’ for cattle-herding inhabitants, are concentrated, the southern slopes of Tien-Shan represent a special area with its own rare and xerophytic vegetation. The lifeless desert of Takla-Makan extends onto the slopes of the [...]

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Some utterly mysterious sights

March 11, 2009

July 1929 By chance we made a stop that afforded us some utterly mysterious sights. In front of us was a field of peculiar plants. On closer inspection the plants turned out to be flax, but a kind of flax with white flowers, narrow petals and white seeds [Linum usitatissimum L. var. albiflorae Vav.]. All [...]

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Osh to Kashgar

March 4, 2009

July 1929 In July of 1929 our small caravan, outfitted by myself and the botanist M. G. Popov in Osh, set out along the Alai river valley in the direction toward the border post at Irkeshtam. A marvellous panorama of the Alai Range, clad in glaciers and snow, extended for many tens of kilometres. Following [...]

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Western China

March 2, 2009

In July 1929 Vavilov mounted a large expedition to western China, where China bulges into Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir. His goal was a series of oases on the old silk roads west of the Taklamakan desert. High in the cold, arid lands, these isolated spots might be havens of early agriculture. Data from the [...]

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