Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/664

* KOTZEBUE. 602 KOVALEVSKY. KOTZEBTJE, August Fbiedbicii Ferdinand ■VON ( 17Ul-181'.t). A Cieiumii dramatist and Rus- sian civil servant, born at Weimar. Kotzebue studied law at Jena ( 1777 ) and Duisburg (1778), but was drawn to the stage and organ- ized an amateur theatre at Duisburg. In 1780 he opened a law office at Weimar, but he was in- duced in 1781 to go to Russia, where he served successively as secx'etary to the (iovcrnor-General at Saint Petersburg, assessor of the Upper Court of Appeals, and president of the Jlagistrates Board of the Province of Esthonia. He married a lady of rank and was ennobled. At his wife's death he resigned the Russian service, visited Paris, and from 1795 to 1798 lived chiefly at Friedenlhal, his country .seat, near Reval. He had already become known by a series of tales and several sentimental dramas. His first col- lected works. Die jiingsten Kinder meincr Laune (5 vols., Leipzig. 1793-97), belong to this period. In 1798 Kotzebue was sum- moned to 'icnna as Court dramatist, but friction arose, and he was jiermitted to resign in 1800 with a pension. He intended to return to Rus- sia, but on the frontier he was arrested as a spy and sent to Siberia. Czar Paul, pleased at hearing a translation of Kotzebue's little drama Der alte Leibkutscher Peters des Grossen, re- called him from exile, gave him office and an estate, and made him manager of the German theatre at Saint Petersburg. Kotzebue tells all this vivaciously in Das inrrhiriirdiiiste Juhr mciites Lebcns (2 vols.. Berlin, 1801). After Czar Paul's death Kotzebue returned to Germany, lived successively in Weimar, .Jena, and Berlin (1803), where he was made a member of the Academy of Sciences and shared in the editorship of Der Freimiitifle, a literary journal. In 180G he w'ent to Kiinigsberg to make historical researches in the Pnissian archives, as a result of which he published Prcussens iillcre fleschichte (4 vols.. Kiinigs- berg, 1809). His stay in Kiinigsberg was short. The Napoleonic invasion obliged him to flee to Russia (1806), whence he kept up a lively jour- nalistic warfare on Napoleon and his policv in Die Biene (1808-10) and Die Grille (1811-12). During these j-ear.s he resided on his estate in Esthonia. He returned to Berlin as a Russian fState Councilor in 1813. and was made Russian Consul-Gcncral at K(jnigsl)erg, whence he was re- pealled in 1810 as coun.sel to the Foreign Office at Saint Petersburg. In 1817 he was sent as a salaried ])olitical spy to Germany, where he founded in the reactionary interest a journal, Das litterarische ^Vochetlblatt. In this he attacked especially the German liberal student Biirschen- schaften, and thus excited a student, Karl Lud- wig Sand, to assassinate him at Mannheim, March 23, 1819. Kotzebue as a dramatist was remarkably prolific and witty, and a master of stage effects. Init he was superficial and neglect- ful of literarv standards. Of some 216 record- ed plays 98 'are printed (28 vols.. 1797-1823: 44 vols., 1827-29; 10 vols.. 1868). The best Icnown of them in England and America are: The Stranqer {Meiischeiihass vnd Rene), and Pizarro (Die Spnnier it) Peru) ; noteworthy also are Die beiden Kliiir/sberp, Die Ivdianer in Eng- land, and Die dentsrhen Kleiiistiidler. Kotzebue ■wrote also some weak novels. Consult, for Kot- zebue's life. Diiring (Weimar. 1830) ; W. von JCotzebue, August von Kotzebue, Vrteile der Zeitgenossen und der Gegenwart (Dresden, 1884) ; and Rabanv, Kotzebue, sa vie el sun temps (Paris, 1893). KOTZEBUE, Otto von (1787-1846). A Rus- sian navigator, son of August von Kotzebue, born at Reval. He made three voyages round the world, sailing first under Krusenstern to Japan. On his second journey, in command of the liurik (1815-18), fitted out by Count Ro- mantsoff, he passed through Bering Strait, and along the American coast northward from Cape Prince of Wales. On August 4, ISKJ, lie entered the sound now known by his name. Subsequently he touched at California and Hawaii, and in January, 1817, discovered the Romantsoff Isl- and, one of the JNIarshall group. He made a third voyage in 1823-26. His description of the second voyage appeared in Russian in 1823-26, in German in 1821. and in English in 1821 as Voyage of Discovery. In 1830 he published an account of the third journej' as Keiie licise vm die Welt. KOTZEBUE, WiLHELM von (1813-87). A Russian diplomat, brother of the preceding, and, under the pseudonym of Wilbelm Augustsohn. a German dramatist. His earliest literary work was the German translation from Vasilio Alecsandri (q.v.) of Rumiiiiische Volkspocsie (1857). His other works were the plays Ein uiibaniilierziger Freund and Zwei Siinderinrien, and Bilder und Skizzen aus der Moldau (1860); Laskar Vio- rescu (1863) ; and August ron Kotzebue, Vrteile der Zeitgenossen und der Gegenn-art (1884). KOUMISS, kixi'mis (Tatar kinniz, fermented mares' milk). A fermented beverage originally made by the Tatars from mares' milk. It is a product of coml)ined alcoholic, lactic, and pro- teolytic fermentations of milk. Cows' milk is now commonly employed in the United States and in England. The only advantage of mares' milk is its higher percentage of sugar. The method of preparation is not uniform. In the East, mares' milk is placed in leathern vessels, with the addition of a portion of a previous brewing and a little yeast. The vessel is fre- quently shaken or beaten during the fermenta- tion, which prevents the cream from rising and churns a part of the butter fat. which is re- moved. The fermentation requires from 30 to 48 hours. The product is efTervescent. containing nearly 1 per cent, of carbonic acid gas. in addition to about 1 per cent, of alcohol, and 0.5 to 1.5 per cent, of lactic acid which gives it a sour taste. It is a nutritious beverage, containing about 2^2 per cent, of proteids. an equal amount of milk-sugar, and a variable amount of fat. The casein is partly changed to more easily digested forms. It is often pre- scribed by physicians, especially in cases where other food cannot be retained. It is said to be intoxicating to those not accustomed to it. KOUSSO. See Koosso. KOVALEVSKY, ko'Vii-lyef'skl. Alex.woeb (1840-1901). A Russian zoiilogist and embryolo- gist. Iiorn at Diinaburg. He was for many years professor in Odessa and later in Saint Petersburg, ■vhere he became professor of zoiilogy and one of the most distinguished of contemporary zoiilogists. It was he who by his researches in the embryol- og%' and structure of ascidinns and of Amphioxus first showed the relationship of these forms to one another and their close alliance to verte-