Russian Nikolay Stepanovich and The Battle of Adwa



Nikolay Stepanovich Leontiev, Count of Abai, (Russian: Никола́й Степа́нович Леонтьев; 26 October 1862 – 1910) was a Russian military officer and adviser, geographer and traveler, explorer of Africa, writer, first Count of the Ethiopian Empire, and veteran of the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Russo-Japanese War.
Leontiev, was born on 25 February 1862 to a noble family in Kherson Province . He studied in Nikolaev's Cavalry military school, then served in the Uhlan Leib Guard regiment. In 1891, he became esaul of a military reserve force of the Umansk regiment of the Kuban Cossack army.^[1][2]
Like Mashkov and Ashinov before him, Leontiev had dreamed of going to Ethiopia and for many years he collected information about the country. Finally, Leontiev was able to go to Ethiopia on a research trip. Famous scientists, the Science Academy and the Russian Geographical Society took great interest in this programme. But the main task of the Leontiev expedition was to establish friendly relations between Russia and Ethiopia.
Read moar:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Leontiev