Since translating my granduncle’s book “Faraway Days” from Russian into English and publishing it in 2013, it seems its release has put in train a series of unexpectedly wonderful and interesting events. It started with a contact from Richard Kessler who lives in Switzerland and is a member of the present day extended Mintslov family in Germany, which is where Sergei’s family originated, before moving to Russia in 1835.

Richard has been researching his Mintslov family history for a long time and with his wealth of historical information, has been a wonderful source of information to me.

So it was Richard who provided me with the link to the web site of the Komsomolskaia Pravda publication that described how a special train in honour of the Russian explorers of the country’s far east had been arranged by the Russian Geographical Society to travel from Moscow to Vladivostok, a distance of 9260 kilometres to be exact, in November 2018. How exciting it was to see Sergei Mintslov’s image on one of the Trans Siberian wagons.

It seems a bit uncanny that only six months later my wife Jay and I were on the Trans Siberian train from Moscow to Irkutsk, which is about half way to Vladivostok, rolling along the same railway tracks, through the same Siberian villages and forests.

As Svetlana Vidjakina from Riga, also a huge fan of Sergei Mintslov’s books, commented “Mintslov is on the train and again he sets off on a journey …”

Here is a snippet of the article “From Moscow to Vladivostok in the company of Great Travellers” by vguseynov in the Komsomolskaia Pravda publication:

“The exhibition train sets off to travel along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Here it is, a brand new, beautifully painted train ” Moscow – Vladivostok “. 

Sergei Rudolfovich Mintslov, to whom one of the carriages is dedicated, in the most troubled time, after the First World War, when everything was burning and crumbling around him, he traveled to decaying estates and gathered one of the largest collections of rare books on genealogy and heraldry, geography and related sciences, which amounted to 10 thousand copies.

It is only thanks to him that they survive to this day. Mintslov is much respected by the Minister of Defence and President of the Russian Geographical Society, Sergei Shoigu who was born in the Tuva Republic, because in 1914 Mintslov led an expedition to the Uriankhai Territory (now the Republic of Tuva, part of the Russian Federation) where he studied natural resources, minerals and conducted archaeological and ethnographic studies.”

Many years ago, Sergei Mintslov published a book about his travels to the Uriankhai Territory, located next to Outer Mongolia, called “On a Secret Mission”. Again it was Richard Kessler who found a 1929 edition German translation of that book, and kindly gave it to me as a present.

The book had numerous photos in it taken by Mintslov, which give a good insight into the fascinating lifestyle there at the time.

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Из Москвы во Владивосток в компании Великих Путешественников

Поезд-выставка отправился курсировать по Транссибу

ВИКТОР ГУСЕЙНОВ@vguseynov

Вот он стоит новенький, красиво расписанный поезд “Москва – Владивосток”.

Сергей Рудольфович Минцлов, которому посвящен один из вагонов, в самое смутное время, после Первой Мировой войны, когда вокруг все горело и рушилось, ездил по разваливающимся усадьбам и собрал одну из самых больших коллекций редких книг по генеалогии и геральдике, по географии и смежным наукам, которая насчитывала до 10 тысяч экземпляров, и только благодаря ему сохранилась до наших дней. Этого путешественника очень уважает министр обороны и президент Русского Географического Общества Сергей Шойгу, за то что тот, в 1914 году возглавил экспедицию в Урянхайский край (ныне республика Тыва) где изучал природные ресурсы, полезные ископаемые и проводил археологические и этнографические исследования.