Гуманитарный вектор (Dec 2019)
Mongolian Studies in Russia of the Second Half of the 19th Century: Traditions and Continuity in the Training of Orientalists. K. F. Golstunsky
Abstract
The article is dedicated to one of the prominent scholars of Oriental Studies, Konstantin Fedorovich Golstunsky, whose biography is closely connected with the leading centers of Orientalism of the 19th century, Kazan and St. Petersburg universities. He is a graduate of Oriental category of Kazan University, where he studied with the founders of scientific Mongolian Studies O. M. Kovalevsky and A. V. Popov. K. F. Golstunsky continued the established traditions in studying the language and culture of the Mongolian peoples in St. Petersburg, where he was the head of Mongolian-Kalmyk Literature Department since 1860. The article describes the main trends in the development of Mongolian Studies in Russia in the second half of the 19th century through the lens of K. F. Golstunsky’s scientific and pedagogical biography. The scientist emphasized the importance of studying the spoken Mongolian language in his works, showed that the living folk language changed under the influence of various historical factors, therefore it requires constant attention. His conclusions, in turn, became fundamental for the beginning of comparative historical linguistics. Later K. F. Golstunsky’s students where engaged in this scientific field, among them are V. L. Kotvich, A. D. Rudnev. K. F. Golstunsky’s scientific biography reflects that Russia had a unity of scientific school of Mongolian Studies, but with different centers: Kazan in the first half of the 19th century, St. Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century, and Vladivostok at the turn of the century, where a center for practical oriental studies had been developed. The unity of the scientific school can be traced through the research and educational activities of specialists in Mongolian studies, who continued to develop the key areas of their teachers; continuity is also discernible in the training of specialists in Oriental studies.
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