Event Description
Presenters: Marianna Szczygielska and Anastasia Fedotova
Discussant: Nigel Rothfels
Organizer: Anastasia Fedotova
Between 1796 and 1896 a total of nine elephants arrived in Saint Petersburg. These extraordinary animals were sent to the tsar and his heir as diplomatic gifts by dignitaries from Iran, Bukhara, Siam, and Abyssinia. The first three arrivals were placed in the so-called Hunting Yard (nowadays Saint Petersburg downtown), but later a special elephant enclosure was built in the gardens of the Tsarskoye Selo imperial residence. A host of dedicated caretakers and veterinarians attended to the needs of each animal. As avatars of power (Pirogovskaya 2024), these elephants were pampered rather than just enslaved (Robbins 2002). Our presentation explores the regimes of keeping and caring for elephants in the capital of the Russian Empire in the long nineteenth century. We start with discussing the logistics of moving the huge inhabitants of the tropics to North-Eastern Europe. Based on archival documents, we follow the lives of these nine elephants, as well as the people who served as their keepers to reconstruct the conditions of caring for these precious animal gifts. By focusing on the elephants’ diets, their veterinary care, and welfare, we analyze the expertise that laid the foundation for keeping elephants in the imperial menagerie. We do so in order to compare this ‘pampered’ elephant captivity with the conditions available for these animals in public zoological gardens and menageries in Russia and abroad. This comparison will highlight the role of political patronage and resources in captive elephant management beyond Western colonialism.
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