KNOWLEDGE about Malays originally came to Russia from Western sources until Russian travellers visited the Malay Peninsula.
Such were the notes of naval officer A.I. Butakov (1816- 1869), who visited Penang and Singapore in 1840 on the Russian frigate Abo.
"The wealth of its natural produce," wrote the officer, "may well rank Penang among the richest islands of the world.
"Malays have nobler features of character, honest and kept their word."
Butakov was fond of the Malay language's phonetical structure, which reminded him of Italian.
"Malays hate Europeans, certainly, not without reason, and don't conceal their hatred," he wrote.
Butakov narrated how the British fraudulently gained hold of the island. They immediately stationed their troops in Penang; the officials of the East Indies Company established colonial rule.
Famous Russian navigator Ivan Krusenstern visited Malaya during one of his Pacific voyages in 1798 and ordered to copy a manuscript of The Malay Annals, which he brought back to Russia and handed it to the academician H.D. Fren, who sent it to the Asian Museum.
By its content and number of chapters, it is similar to the manuscript published by Munshi Abdullah.
Fren wrote that I.F. Krusenstern got the permission to make a copy and, according to him, this manuscript was valued highly in Malaya.
This manuscript is now kept at the Library of Saint Petersburg's branch of Russian Academy of Science. Russian scientist Elena Revunenkova devoted almost 20 years to study and to translate this manuscript and published its translation in 2008 under the title Sulalat-us-Salatin: Krusenstern's Malay Manuscript and its Cultural and Historical Value.
Malay literature had an influence on Russian authors. At the turn of the 20th century, poets like Valery Bryusov, Adelina Adalis, Alexander Zhovtis, and Grigory Permyakov all created works imitating Malay forms of poetry, including the traditional form of pantun.
In Bryusov's Malay Songs, written in 1909, one can easily spot numerous references to islands of the Malay Archipelago, such as the scent of chempaka flowers, figs, bananas, pandan, coconuts, a paddy field, tigers in the jungle, white waves on the beach. Another was by geographer and traveller Mikhail Venyukov in his book
A survey of the Present State of British Possessions in Asia (1875). He clearly defined the character of the colonialists' attitude towards the native population: "This is the attitude of arrogant conquerors and exploiters of the supreme race to the vanquished people who are not only robbed, but are systematically humiliated, admitted with the great difficulty into the former's society and are looked upon as an inferior race."
A.M. Fedorov (1868-1949), who travelled around the world in 1903, had written down with horror in the diary published in the journal Rodnik in 1904: "We witnessed how one of the supposed to be civilised Europeans has thrown the burning cigarette to the naked back of a rickshaw."
Famous Russian scholar and traveller N.N. Miklukho-Maklai (1846-1888) made his field research in the Malay Peninsula and Java in the 1870s.
He became interested in whether the Malay Peninsula was inhabited by any non-Malay tribe.
Miklukho-Maklai started off on his journey across Malaya from Johor. He was lucky, for the sultan of Johor, understanding the importance of the scholar's purpose, supplied him with letters of recommendation and helped him in organising his scientific mission.
Everywhere he went, he was met with friendly attitude from the people, which enabled him to achieve great results in his research work.
He collected anthropological and ethnographic materials about numerous tribes populating the hinterlands. He wrote down several dialects of tribes that were dying out.
His diary of the first travel to the Malay Peninsula was published only in 1941, while the diary of the second travel was burned by his wife, Margaret Robertson. He tried to prove the unity of human races and culture commonness of different people, supported the rights of natives.
In 1890, Russia opened its consulate in Singapore, making it possible to receive more objective information about the state of affairs in Malaya.
Russian consul-general Artemy Vyvodtsev more than once raised the issue about expanding trade with Malaya.
Vyvodtsev linked trade relations with the Malay Archipelago to the development of Siberia and the Russian Far East. During World War 1, the Russian fleet was engaged in fighting in that part of the world.
The Western Road cemetery in George Town in Penang has a grave of Russian sailors from the cruiser Pearl, which was sunk by the Germans in October 1914.
An obelisk was erected on the grave in 1975. Gradually and largely thanks to indefatigable Russian explorers, Russia learnt more and more about the far-away country of Malaya, now part of Malaysia, which enabled the two countries to establish and maintain friendly relations.
The writer, writing from Russia, is a former lecturer at Universiti Malaya