Oriental studies education in Russia. Training of Mongolists at the beginning of the 20th century to 1920

Abstract

The article is devoted one of the most difficult periods in the history of Russian and Soviet Oriental studies, including Mongolian studies - the transition from the science of the Russian Empire to the Soviet one. At this time there was a change in the entire system of scientific knowledge. The Orientalist institutions of the scientific and educational plan were faced with tasks radically different from the prerevolutionary ones. It was necessary to take a step away from the study of sources, language issues, ancient periods of the peoples of the East. In exchange for this refusal, a transition was made to the study of living Oriental languages and issues of socio-economic importance in line with the new Soviet methodology. The article, in contrast to Soviet historiography, argues for the point of view on the development of practical Mongolian studies in pre–revolutionary Russia, which had considerable experience in the program and institutions for the training of Mongolian practitioners. The main inspirer of practical Oriental studies was the Mongol scholar A.M. Pozdneev. He was the first director of the Oriental Institute in Vladivostok, and rector of the Practical Academy at the Society of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg - educational institutions. There he trained future specialists in the modern East. Soviet Oriental institutes adopted this experience, adapting it to new conditions. In this regard, there was a reorganization of the Lazarev Institute in Moscow. On its basis, with a significant expansion of the curriculum programs, the Central Institute of Living Oriental Languages was established. And in St. Petersburg, using the experience of the Academy at the Society of Oriental Studies, the work of the Petrograd (Leningrad) organized the Institute of Living Oriental Languages.