1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:04,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood. A production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:12,480 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener Discretion Advised Saint Petersburg, 3 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: seventeen fifty nine. A man in full military dress stands 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,480 Speaker 1: before the court as Empress Elizabeth prepares to make him 5 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: General in Chief of the Imperial Russian Army, the second 6 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: highest military rank in the Empire. The man is black, 7 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 1: African born, and he has risen further than almost anyone 8 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:40,960 Speaker 1: around him. Whatever the assembled nobility thought of the ceremony, 9 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:42,600 Speaker 1: there wasn't much they could say. 10 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 2: The man had earned it. Though foreign born, the man 11 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 2: had been in Russia for over fifty years. He had 12 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 2: outlasted rivals, survived exile, built fortresses at the edge of 13 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 2: the known world, and engineered his way into the upper 14 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 2: ranks of one of Europe's great military powers. But the 15 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 2: achievement is even more remarkable when you pull back and 16 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 2: see the full picture of how he got there. He 17 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 2: was born in Africa, most likely in the late sixteen nineties, 18 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 2: the son of a local chief. He was captured as 19 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 2: a child, trafficked through the Ottoman Empire, and eventually shipped 20 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:30,479 Speaker 2: to Moscow as a gift for Czar Peter the Great. 21 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:35,959 Speaker 2: The man arrived with nothing, no language, no connections, no 22 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 2: guarantee of anything beyond whatever use someone might find for him. 23 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 2: He could have remained a curiosity at court, a symbol 24 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 2: of the empire's global reach, comfortable maybe, but ultimately ornamental. 25 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 2: He chose otherwise. His name was Abrahm Petrovitch Gannible, and 26 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 2: over six decades he transformed himself into one of the 27 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 2: most formidable military engineers in Russian history. He was a 28 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 2: nobleman with land and titles, a patriarch whose children would 29 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 2: go on to distinguished careers of their own, and a 30 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:21,520 Speaker 2: great grandfather whose most famous descendant would become the greatest 31 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 2: poet arguably Russia ever produced. This is the story of 32 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 2: a child who had every conceivable thing taken from him, 33 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 2: and who spent the rest of his life quietly and 34 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 2: methodically building something that could not be taken away. A 35 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 2: story about what happens when extraordinary intelligence meets extraordinary circumstances. 36 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 2: I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood. Abram Gannibal's 37 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 2: early life is difficult to pin down. His birth year 38 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 2: is disputed, his birthplace is disputed. Even the details of 39 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 2: his capture and journey northward exist somewhere between documented history 40 00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:15,400 Speaker 2: and educated reconstruction, but what we can piece together paints 41 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 2: a vivid picture. He was born somewhere between sixteen ninety 42 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 2: six and sixteen ninety eight, most likely in a small 43 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 2: principality in the region that is modern day Cameroon. His 44 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,800 Speaker 2: father was a local minor chief or prince, not a 45 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 2: major power, but a man of standing in his community. 46 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 2: He had livestock, land, multiple wives, and somewhere in the 47 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 2: neighborhood of nineteen children. By all accounts, a good life 48 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 2: for the time and region, but his world was under pressure. 49 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 2: The neighboring principalities had converted to Islam, which gave them 50 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 2: both ideological cover and practical motivation to view Abram's people 51 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 2: and family as inferior, even as legitimate targets. When Ottoman 52 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 2: forces moved through the region, Abram's father died fighting them. 53 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 2: In the chaos that followed, the boy was seized. His 54 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:24,040 Speaker 2: sister Lagan reportedly drowned while trying to save him. This 55 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 2: heartbreak would not be the last for young Abram. He 56 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:33,159 Speaker 2: was taken to Constantinople, a long and difficult journey that 57 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 2: culminated in the summer of seventeen o three. He was 58 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 2: placed in the household of Sultan Ahmed the Third. Abram 59 00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 2: was kidnapped as part of a disturbing trend of that 60 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 2: era to serve as what European courts of the time 61 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 2: called a commer more young black attendance, kept at court, 62 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 2: partly as servants and partly as symbols of prestige and 63 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 2: global reach. Considered fashionable. It was a dehumanizing institution dressed 64 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:11,320 Speaker 2: up in the language of exoticism, and it existed across 65 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 2: courts from Moscow to London. If you've listened to our 66 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 2: episode on Sarah Forbes Bonetta, you'll recall that not even 67 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,440 Speaker 2: Queen Victoria was above it. It was this custom that 68 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,719 Speaker 2: brought Abrahm the next chapter of his life. After about 69 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 2: a year in the sultan palace, Abram caught the eye 70 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:35,839 Speaker 2: of a Russian ambassador in Constantinople, looking for prospects to 71 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,479 Speaker 2: bring back to the court of Czar Peter the Great. 72 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 2: Abram was selected. Bribes were passed to the Sultan's viziers, 73 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 2: and in around seventeen oh four, the boy was sent 74 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:51,919 Speaker 2: to Moscow to be presented to one of the most 75 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 2: powerful men in the world. Peter the Great had spent 76 00:05:56,200 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 2: years dragging Russia into conversation with the rest of Europe, 77 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:05,640 Speaker 2: obsessed with modernization, with building things, with finding people who 78 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,919 Speaker 2: could do things well, regardless of where they came from. 79 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:14,719 Speaker 2: When he met Abram, he saw something immediately. This kid 80 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:20,880 Speaker 2: was sharp, curious, a fast learner. Peter took him under 81 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:25,359 Speaker 2: his wing immediately. That his protege was the victim of 82 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:29,240 Speaker 2: what we would now call human trafficking is an obvious 83 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 2: fact when viewed through a modern lens, but we can 84 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 2: assume that Peter had genuine affection for the young man 85 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,920 Speaker 2: and genuinely thought that he was helping him by gaining 86 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,039 Speaker 2: him protection and resources he wouldn't have had back home. 87 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:48,799 Speaker 2: In seventeen o five, Abram was baptized in a church 88 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 2: in Vilnius. Peter himself stood as godfather. The middle name 89 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 2: Petrovich essentially branded Abram as part of Peter's lineage. It 90 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 2: was a pivotal moment, not just religiously but practically. The 91 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:09,920 Speaker 2: baptism gave Ebram a formal place in the social fabric 92 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 2: of Peter's court. He didn't know his actual birthday, so 93 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 2: he used the date of his baptism as a substitute, 94 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 2: a small, practical act of self creation that somehow feels 95 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 2: very in character for the man he'd become. Life at 96 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:32,400 Speaker 2: court suited Abraham. He traveled with Peter on military campaigns, 97 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 2: serving as valet, a modest job, perhaps, but it allowed 98 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 2: him to be physically present for some of the most 99 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 2: consequential military decisions of the era. He was in the room, 100 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 2: he was watching, and he grew close not just to Peter, 101 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 2: but to Peter's daughter Elizabeth, a bond that would matter 102 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 2: enormously later in his life. By his teenage years, he 103 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:01,760 Speaker 2: was fluent in several languages and showed a particular gift 104 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 2: for mathematics and geometry, skills that would eventually become the 105 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:11,480 Speaker 2: foundation of his military career. Peter recognized what he had 106 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 2: and encouraged him to pursue that path. In seventeen seventeen, 107 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 2: Abram was sent to Metz, France for formal training. This 108 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 2: was the highest level of military and scientific instruction available 109 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,320 Speaker 2: in Europe at the time. It was an extraordinary investment, 110 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,760 Speaker 2: and it reflected something real. Peter saw in this boy, 111 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 2: not a curiosity to be displayed, but a mind to 112 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:41,880 Speaker 2: be developed. We'll never know if Abram had a genuine 113 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:47,040 Speaker 2: passion for military strategy or whether learning was as means 114 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:50,640 Speaker 2: to an end of keeping Peter happy. But either way, 115 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 2: he was a star on the rise, a generational talent 116 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:00,400 Speaker 2: that would change the course of Russian history. When Abram 117 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:03,760 Speaker 2: started school in France, he was a young man with 118 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:07,959 Speaker 2: a powerful godfather. When he came back six years later, 119 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:12,760 Speaker 2: he was something different. A soldier, an engineer, a man 120 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 2: who had chosen his own identity and built it from scratch. 121 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,320 Speaker 2: What he didn't know was that the protection he'd always 122 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 2: relied on was about to disappear. But first France, in 123 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,920 Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen, Abram joined the French Royal Army, the most 124 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 2: sophisticated military institution in Europe. Two years later he enrolled 125 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,960 Speaker 2: in the Royal Artillery Academy at La Fair, where the 126 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 2: mathematics of fortification and the physics of artillery were treated 127 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:50,640 Speaker 2: as serious intellectual pursuits. He was exactly where he needed 128 00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 2: to be, and he thrived. It was during these years 129 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:58,440 Speaker 2: in France that he took a new surname, a decision 130 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,280 Speaker 2: that spoke volumes about the man he was becoming. He 131 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:08,040 Speaker 2: chose the name Gannibal, the Russian transliteration of Hannibal, the 132 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 2: great Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps with war elephants 133 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:18,680 Speaker 2: and terrified Rome for decades. This was no accident. He 134 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:23,040 Speaker 2: was a black man, up brooded and dragged across continents, 135 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 2: remaking himself as a soldier in Europe, claiming his place 136 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 2: among the most brilliant military minds. He also apparently made friends. 137 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 2: Paris in the early eighteenth century was alive with Enlightenment thinking, philosophy, science, 138 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:46,280 Speaker 2: and the radical notion that reason could and should reshape 139 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:51,280 Speaker 2: human society. Abram moved through those circles, and if his 140 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,920 Speaker 2: biographers are to be believed, he ended up in conversation 141 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 2: with some of the era's greatest minds. It said that 142 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 2: Voltaire called Abrahm quote the dark star of the Enlightenment. 143 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:05,880 Speaker 2: Whether or not that actually happened, it's clear he was 144 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 2: quickly growing into a man of distinction, even if that 145 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:17,559 Speaker 2: distinction is loaded down by racist microaggressions. And then war interrupted. 146 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:22,440 Speaker 2: During the War of the Quadruple Alliance, conflict broke out 147 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 2: between Spain and a coalition of European countries. A Brahm 148 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:31,280 Speaker 2: Gannibal thought for France, rising to the rank of captain. 149 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 2: During one battle, he took a blow to the head 150 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 2: and was captured by Spanish forces. He spent time as 151 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,600 Speaker 2: a prisoner of war before he was released in seventeen 152 00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:45,920 Speaker 2: twenty two. Never one to let external circumstances slow him down, 153 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 2: he went right back to his studies. By seventeen twenty three, 154 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 2: a Brahm's education was complete. He returned to Russia, became 155 00:11:56,120 --> 00:12:00,400 Speaker 2: an engineer, and took on a role as mathematics tutor 156 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,520 Speaker 2: for one of the Tsar's personal guard units. He was 157 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 2: home back in Peter the Great's orbit, things were good, 158 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,800 Speaker 2: and then in seventeen twenty five, Peter the Great died. 159 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 2: The court shifted overnight. The man who had pulled a 160 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 2: Bram from the Ottoman sultan household, who had stood as 161 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,160 Speaker 2: his godfather and protector, sent him to France and saw 162 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 2: his potential before anyone else was gone. And the person 163 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:37,439 Speaker 2: who stepped into the vacuum of power was Prince Menshikov, 164 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 2: a man with no particular fondness for a Bram. Petrovitch Ganibl. 165 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 2: Menshikov's issues with Ganibel were numerous. Here was a man 166 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:51,800 Speaker 2: who was foreign born black and had received one of 167 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:56,640 Speaker 2: the finest educations available anywhere in Europe. He spoke multiple languages, 168 00:12:56,720 --> 00:13:00,720 Speaker 2: he had a head wound from actual combat, and as 169 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:05,080 Speaker 2: Peter's protege, he was a clear symbol of the old 170 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:11,160 Speaker 2: regime in a court suddenly navigating a brutal transition of power. 171 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:16,080 Speaker 2: None of that made Abrahm an ally to Menshikov. It 172 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:20,320 Speaker 2: made him a threat, or at least a convenient target. 173 00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:27,280 Speaker 2: In seventeen twenty seven, Gannibal was exiled to Siberia. Dispatched 174 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,440 Speaker 2: to the far eastern edge of the Empire, near the 175 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:36,520 Speaker 2: Mongolian border, Gannibal threw himself into engineering work. He designed 176 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:41,360 Speaker 2: and oversaw massive construction projects, drawing on everything he had 177 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:45,320 Speaker 2: learned during his studies in France. During that exile, he 178 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:49,440 Speaker 2: became one of the most capable military engineers in all 179 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:53,920 Speaker 2: of Russia. He was pardoned in seventeen thirty completed his 180 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 2: service in seventeen thirty three, and then came back west. 181 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:02,920 Speaker 2: During this time he also became a married man. This 182 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:09,800 Speaker 2: is where the story gets considerably more complicated. In seventeen 183 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:14,120 Speaker 2: thirty one, Gannibal married a Greek woman named Evdokia Dioper. 184 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,080 Speaker 2: The marriage was not voluntary on her part. She was 185 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 2: forced into it, and she made her feelings known early 186 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:26,200 Speaker 2: and often. The relationship was volatile from the beginning, built 187 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 2: on mutual hostility and almost no common ground. When she 188 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 2: gave birth to a white baby, who was unmistakably not 189 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:40,720 Speaker 2: Gannibal's child, his suspicions about her fidelity were confirmed in 190 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:46,200 Speaker 2: the most public way imaginable. He had her arrested and imprisoned. 191 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 2: She spent the next eleven years there, but Gannibal had 192 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:55,120 Speaker 2: already moved on. In seventeen thirty five, he took up 193 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,520 Speaker 2: with a woman named Christina Regina Stelberg, the daughter of 194 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 2: Scandia Navan and German nobility. They married in seventeen thirty six, 195 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,480 Speaker 2: a year after the birth of their first child, while 196 00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:13,960 Speaker 2: he was still legally bound to Evdokia. It was technically bigamy, 197 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:17,960 Speaker 2: since his divorce from his first wife wouldn't be finalized 198 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:22,600 Speaker 2: until seventeen fifty three. At this point, Gannibal received a 199 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:27,400 Speaker 2: fine and a formal reprimand, and Evdokia was sent to 200 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 2: a convent for the rest of her life. His second marriage, meanwhile, 201 00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:37,800 Speaker 2: was deemed lawful retroactively. The contrast between the two marriages 202 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:43,600 Speaker 2: is stark. With Christina, Abrahm found something he clearly hadn't before, 203 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 2: genuine partnership. She was faithful and warm, and he appreciated 204 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 2: both qualities enormously, probably more than most men would given 205 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 2: his history. They went on to have ten children together, 206 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 2: But id Dookia's story is far more disturbing and not 207 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:09,080 Speaker 2: an altogether sympathetic chapter in Gannibal's story. By her account, 208 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 2: Gannibal was a cruel husband, prone to physical abuse. We 209 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 2: can't tell if the relationship was marred by racism on 210 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:24,200 Speaker 2: Evdokia's part, the couple's genuine incompatibility, or other factors, but 211 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 2: the fact is that a woman was forced to marry 212 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,720 Speaker 2: a man she didn't want, was treated badly by him, 213 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:34,440 Speaker 2: and when she sought connection elsewhere, was locked up for 214 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 2: over a decade. Whatever the norms of the era, it's 215 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 2: worth pointing out the injustices now that we can see them. 216 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 2: But before any of that domestic stability eventually took shape, 217 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 2: the political winds shifted again, this time in Gannibal's favor. 218 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 2: In seventeen forty one, Peter's daughter Elizabeth became the Empress 219 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:01,240 Speaker 2: of Russia. The girl Gannibal had grown close to in 220 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:04,280 Speaker 2: the early years at court. The one he'd been loyal 221 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:08,119 Speaker 2: to like family was now in charge of everything, and 222 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 2: she hadn't forgotten him. Gannibal was welcomed back into prominent 223 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 2: with both arms open. He became a senior figure in 224 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 2: her court, receiving major military appointments, and in seventeen forty 225 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 2: two was given a sprawling country estate with land, a 226 00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:30,399 Speaker 2: manor house, and hundreds of serfs. The man who was 227 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 2: brought to Moscow as someone else's property now owned property 228 00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:39,680 Speaker 2: of his own, and lots of it. That same year, 229 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:44,200 Speaker 2: he petitioned for and received formal nobility and a coat 230 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 2: of arms. For the crest, he chose an elephant, a 231 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:51,840 Speaker 2: nod to the continent of his birth and perhaps has 232 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:57,600 Speaker 2: chosen namesake and a single word FuMO. The meaning has 233 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:01,600 Speaker 2: been debated ever since. It may be a word in 234 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:06,960 Speaker 2: the Kotoko language of his people, meaning homeland, or it 235 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:11,080 Speaker 2: may be an acronym for a Latin phrase for tuna 236 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:17,600 Speaker 2: vitam mim mutavit omnino. Fortune has changed my life entirely. 237 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:23,560 Speaker 2: In seventeen fifty six, he was appointed Chief Military Engineer 238 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,760 Speaker 2: of the Russian Army, In seventeen fifty nine, he received 239 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:32,119 Speaker 2: the rank of General in Chief, the second highest military 240 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:36,320 Speaker 2: rank in the Imperial Russian Empire. The boy from Cameroon, 241 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:42,119 Speaker 2: trafficked through Constantinople exiled to Siberia, had come back and 242 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:46,280 Speaker 2: climbed high as the system would allow, and he wasn't 243 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:51,879 Speaker 2: finished yet. By seventeen sixty two, Gannibal had served the 244 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:56,040 Speaker 2: Russian Empire for the better part of six decades. He'd 245 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 2: survived the chaos after Peter's death, survived say Siberia, survived 246 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:07,160 Speaker 2: a disastrous first marriage, outlasted enemies and rivals, and entire reigns. 247 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,360 Speaker 2: When Peter the Third briefly took the throne that year, 248 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:17,400 Speaker 2: In seventeen sixty two, Gannibal was officially retired. The decision 249 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:21,080 Speaker 2: was blamed on his advanced age, but the true meaning 250 00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 2: was simple, thanks for everything, but we're done with you. 251 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:30,120 Speaker 2: It's done. He petitioned Catherine the Great, who would overthrow 252 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,679 Speaker 2: that husband Peter, within months, asking that neighboring land be 253 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 2: added to his estate in recognition of fifty seven years 254 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 2: of service. No one ever wrote back. He left Saint Petersburg, 255 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,880 Speaker 2: and he didn't return. The resentment stayed with him, passed 256 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 2: down through family stories long after he was gone, a 257 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:57,439 Speaker 2: legend of ingratitude that his children and grandchildren kept alive. 258 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:03,000 Speaker 2: But retirement, even a bitter one, suited Gannibal in ways 259 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 2: that court life never fully had. He settled into his estate, 260 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 2: the one that Empress Elizabeth had given him, surrounded by 261 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:15,280 Speaker 2: land and family, and the particular freedom that comes from 262 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 2: having nothing left to prove. He spent his entire adult 263 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:25,000 Speaker 2: life navigating a world that required him to be useful, strategic, indispensable. 264 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:30,120 Speaker 2: Now he could simply exist. He was, by most accounts, 265 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:34,200 Speaker 2: a passionate landlord in his final years who took genuine 266 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:39,600 Speaker 2: satisfaction in managing his property. He died on April twentieth, 267 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:44,239 Speaker 2: seventeen eighty one, likely in his eighty fifth year. The 268 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:49,159 Speaker 2: cause was listed as a cranial illness traced back ultimately 269 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 2: to the head wound he had taken in France over 270 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,439 Speaker 2: sixty years earlier, fighting at a Spanish fortress when he 271 00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:00,119 Speaker 2: was barely in his twenties. His body had been carrying 272 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:05,520 Speaker 2: that injury his entire life. He left behind ten children 273 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,679 Speaker 2: with Christina, a coat of arms with an elephant on it, 274 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:12,840 Speaker 2: and a life so strange and full that it almost 275 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:18,400 Speaker 2: defies summary. His children did well. His eldest son, Ivan 276 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:22,560 Speaker 2: became an accomplished naval officer who rose, like his father, 277 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,720 Speaker 2: to the rank of General in chief. Another son, Osip, 278 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,560 Speaker 2: had a daughter named Nadezhda, and Nadeesha had a son. 279 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:36,680 Speaker 2: That son was Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin is, by most measures, 280 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:42,359 Speaker 2: the greatest writer in the history of the Russian language, poet, novelist, playwright, 281 00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 2: the figure that most completely captures the essence of Russian literature. 282 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:52,399 Speaker 2: And he was Abram Gannibal's great grandson, a fact he 283 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,680 Speaker 2: was deeply aware of and deeply proud of. After finishing school, 284 00:21:56,880 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 2: Pushkin tracked down his great grand father's last surviving son, 285 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,240 Speaker 2: a man named Peter, and interviewed him about his great 286 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:11,399 Speaker 2: grandfather's life. Pushkin came back years later, writing in his 287 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 2: diary that he wanted to extract every memory Peter still had. 288 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,840 Speaker 2: What came out of those conversations was an unfinished novel 289 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 2: called The More of Peter the Great, in which a 290 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:29,240 Speaker 2: fictionalized version of Ebram navigates the Russian court, a brilliant 291 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,320 Speaker 2: outsider in a world that can't quite decide what to 292 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:37,280 Speaker 2: do with him. Pushkin drew on his great grandfather's experiences 293 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,960 Speaker 2: and wove in his own. The two lives rhymed in 294 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,359 Speaker 2: ways that clearly meant something to Pushkin, both men of 295 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:51,160 Speaker 2: African descent, both moving through Russian society on the strength 296 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,440 Speaker 2: of their mind, and both aware of how much their 297 00:22:54,480 --> 00:23:00,399 Speaker 2: difference defined how the world saw them. Gannibal's birth place 298 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 2: remains a point of contention. For years, scholars assumed he 299 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:10,119 Speaker 2: was from Ethiopia. Russian researchers favored a region in what 300 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 2: is now Ertrea. Both governments eventually claimed him, naming streets 301 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 2: after him and creating monuments in his honor. It's understandable 302 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,120 Speaker 2: why they would both want to claim such a remarkable 303 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:28,800 Speaker 2: and interesting figure, but modern research points towards Lagone Berni 304 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:33,359 Speaker 2: in what is now Cameroon, the region Gannibal himself referenced 305 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:38,920 Speaker 2: in his petition to Empress Elizabeth. In twenty ten, representatives 306 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:44,360 Speaker 2: from Russia and Estonia, the Cameroonian ambassador, and the Sultan 307 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:48,879 Speaker 2: of Lagone Bierni gathered at the old Royal Artillery Academy 308 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,520 Speaker 2: in La Faire, France. There, at the place where Gannibal 309 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:57,399 Speaker 2: had studied nearly three hundred years earlier, they unveiled a 310 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 2: commemorative plaque. It identified him as a graduate of the Academy, 311 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,600 Speaker 2: as chief Military Engineer and General in Chief of the 312 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:11,800 Speaker 2: Imperial Russian Army, and as the great grandfather of Alexander Pushkin. 313 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:16,240 Speaker 2: Four countries in one place, honoring a man none of 314 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:21,480 Speaker 2: them could fully claim. Ibram Gannibal belonged to all of 315 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:25,400 Speaker 2: those places and to none of them. He was stolen 316 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:30,520 Speaker 2: from Africa, educated in France, and rose to prominence in Russia. 317 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 2: His life was full of contradictions. A man who had 318 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,400 Speaker 2: been property and later owned people himself, someone who could 319 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 2: be brutal to those who felt had wronged him, including 320 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:46,439 Speaker 2: his first wife, and also deeply loyal to those he loved, 321 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,720 Speaker 2: A person driven by a hunger to belong that never 322 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,399 Speaker 2: quite left him, even after he had earned every honor 323 00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:59,119 Speaker 2: the Empire could offer. What doesn't contradict is the sheer 324 00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:03,199 Speaker 2: force of what he built. He made himself impossible to 325 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,399 Speaker 2: ignore and then impossible to forget. He was a man 326 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,639 Speaker 2: with a brilliant analytical mind whose legacy extended all the 327 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:16,639 Speaker 2: way to one of Russia's most expressive and sensitive poets. 328 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:22,919 Speaker 2: Fortune has changed my life entirely that's one reading of FuMO. 329 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 2: The other is simply homeland. Maybe in the end Gannibal 330 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:36,080 Speaker 2: meant both. That's the story of a Brahm Petrovitch Gannibal. 331 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,360 Speaker 2: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear 332 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:43,439 Speaker 2: a little bit more about his literary legacy. Outside his 333 00:25:43,640 --> 00:26:00,199 Speaker 2: great grandson, Gannibal's story has a surprising literary connection that 334 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:05,240 Speaker 2: goes beyond his famous great grandson. Decades after Ganibal's death, 335 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:11,360 Speaker 2: Vladimir Nabokov sat down to translate Pushkin's master work Eugene 336 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:16,080 Speaker 2: Oeggan and found himself digging into Gannibal's origins and the process. 337 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:20,040 Speaker 2: At the time, the prevailing assumption was that Gannibal had 338 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 2: come from Ethiopia. Nibokov wasn't convinced, and pointed toward regions 339 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,919 Speaker 2: further west and south. He was right to be skeptical. 340 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,840 Speaker 2: The Ethiopian theory eventually collapsed, partly on its own thin 341 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 2: evidence and partly because researchers exposed the assumption underneath it 342 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:45,800 Speaker 2: that Ethiopian origins were seen as more prestigious, more capable 343 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 2: of explaining Gannibal's brilliance than origins deeper in Sub Saharan Africa, 344 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,240 Speaker 2: the people who wanted to honor him had quietly edited 345 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:03,199 Speaker 2: him into a more acceptable African. That pattern extended to 346 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:08,760 Speaker 2: his great grandson Pushkin as well. African American scholar, literary critic, 347 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 2: and historian Henry Lewis Gates Junior addresses this narrow minded 348 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 2: tendency in the foreword to Under the Sky of My Africa, 349 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:24,760 Speaker 2: Alexander Pushkin and Blackness quote. Many critics and writers, most 350 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:30,760 Speaker 2: famously Nibokov, dismissed Pushkin's quote Africanness as a quirk of 351 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:35,040 Speaker 2: biographical fate, as a factor to be acknowledged only barely, 352 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,760 Speaker 2: if at all, and to be dismissed as irrelevant to 353 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:43,560 Speaker 2: his artistic life. But these essays make a convincing case 354 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,359 Speaker 2: for the merits of a sustained exploration of the role 355 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 2: his African ancestry played in Pushkin's creative life, in his 356 00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:57,120 Speaker 2: perception of himself, and in his perception and interpretation of Russia. 357 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,359 Speaker 2: End quote. Pushkin knew what Gannibal had spent a lifetime 358 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 2: proving that the truest version of a person is the 359 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 2: one they insist on themselves against every other force that 360 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:27,359 Speaker 2: says otherwise. Noble blood is a production of iHeart Radio 361 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:31,040 Speaker 2: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is 362 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 2: hosted by me Dana Schwartz. Writers for Noble Blood are 363 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 2: Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Paul Jaffey, Natasha Laski, and me 364 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,840 Speaker 2: Dana Schwartz. The show is edited and produced by Jesse 365 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:49,160 Speaker 2: Funk and Nomes Griffin, with supervising producer rima Ill Kali 366 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:53,560 Speaker 2: and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. 367 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 368 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,000 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.