State Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, Collection 10 (‘Kazan Theological Academy’): Documents Dealing with Kalmyks

Abstract

. Goals. The article seeks to examine understudied materials related to missionary activities of Kazan Theological Academy’s graduates. To facilitate this, the paper analyzes archival sources about Kalmyks contained in Collection 10 of Tatarstan State Archive and characterizes some documents. Materials. The study discovers quite a number of manuscript papers included in catalogues 1, 2, 5 and 7 of Collection 10. Moreover, catalogues 5 and 7 happen to contain some significant Clear Script (Old Kalmyk-language) documents that should be investigated additionally. Results. The work introduces into scientific discourse a set of documents dealing with Kalmyks, and shows that materials of Collection 10 (Tatarstan State Archive) may serve as precious and informative sources to shed light on actual forms and means of preserving written monuments, ethnic culture, and folklore tradition of the Kalmyk people, constituting a wide multi-disciplinary research field (philology, history, ethnology, etc.).

Keywords

• christianization
• archive
• archival document
• catalogue
• manuscript
• kalmyks
• missionary activities
• kazan theological academy
• state archive of the republic of tatarstan