History of Kyakhta Trade and Russian Merchants in Research Works of Zhargal Z. Tagarov (1952–2020): Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of His Birth

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the pioneering contribution of the Irkutsk scholar, associate professor of Baikal State University, Zhargal Z. Tagarov, to the study of the Kyakhta trade phenomenon and the Russia-Mongolia-China trade relations in the XVIII–XX centuries. The Irkutsk school of Oriental and Mongolian Studies has deep scientific traditions, laid down by the first Irkutsk translators and interpreters, who conducted complex negotiations with the officials of the Qing Empire and Outer Mongolia back in the XVII century. Irkutsk, due to the geographical and historical reasons, became the place of the making of the first Russian experts in Mongolian and Chinese studies, experts in the Chinese, Manchu and Mongolian languages. Providing Zhargal Z. Tagarov’s research works as an example, the authors make an attempt to show the contribution of the Irkutsk school of Mongolian Studies of the last quarter of the XX century to the research studies of complicated processes of economic and trade interaction between Russia, Outer Mongolia and the Qing Empire.