[Haile Selassie I] Collection of Photos from the Archive of a Soviet Diplomat. 

Ethiopia, West Bengal, Egypt, Afghanistan, Calcutta, 1941-1958.   
46 photos, 6,5х6,5 cm. - 18х12 cm. 

Some rubbing, creasing to some photo edges, tear to one photo, traces of glue on the reverse of some photos, photographer’s stamp ‘H. Boyadjian / Addis Ababa’ to some photo reverses. Some photographs signed on the reverse in blue and black ink. One photo is mounted on a paper sheet, while several others are either mounted or placed in a cardboard photo albums. 

Interesting collection featuring early photographs of the Emperor of Ethiopia.

These photographs come from the archive of Victor Kozlov (1905–1984), a Soviet diplomat who served as the first Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to Ethiopia between 1944 and 1946. Interestingly, there had been no diplomatic relations between the USSR and Ethiopia until 1943, despite the fact that the Soviet Union was one of only five nations that refused to recognize Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36).
Among the most notable images are those depicting Haile Selassie I (1892–1975), Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, who is also venerated as a divine figure in Rastafarianism, a religion that emerged in the 1930s. Since the collection also includes photographs of the building that housed the permanent Soviet exhibition in Addis Ababa, it is possible that the Emperor was photographed inside the cultural center during its opening. Official sources note that the exhibition opened on 19 March 1945 and was intended to promote Soviet culture, although several of these photographs are dated 1944 on the reverse.
During Haile Selassie’s reign, Ethiopia leaned politically toward the West, relying mainly on the US and UK for aid and support. Nevertheless, the USSR signed several agreements and provided limited technical and economic assistance.
Several photographs bear the stamp of Haygaz (Haigaz) Boyadjian, who became the official court photographer of Ethiopia in 1941. His father, an Armenian immigrant, had earlier served as one of the first professional photographers for Emperor Menelik II.
In addition to official events, the collection also features Kozlov’s photographs from his travels around Ethiopia – capturing local people, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life – as well as several photographs taken in Egypt.
Two photos in this collection take us to another period of Kozlov’s career. In 1957–1958, he was the USSR Consul General in Calcutta (India). One of the photos shows the opening of a Soviet book exhibition in Calcutta (dated October 21, 1957), while another documents a grand dinner at the residence of the Governor of West Bengal (February 1958). At that time, the governor (until 1967) was Padmaja Naidu, an Indian freedom fighter and politician.  
Finally, one photograph of a hunter with his trophy is inscribed on the reverse, likely in Amharic, and dated 1937.