MINAEV READINGS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE (Tambov, November 25, 2009). Ed.by A. G. Airapetov. Tambov: Publishing House of TSU named after G. R. Derzhavin, 2010. 230 p.

Based on the materials of the conference dedicated to the memory of the outstanding Russian indologist and Buddhologist, a landmark figure for Russian Oriental studies, a native of Tambov Ivan Pavlovich Minaev (1840-1890), a small edition (100 copies) has been published, the idea of which (like the conference) is extremely interesting. Participants and authors try to use a variety of sources to reconstruct not only the biography and creative path (there is currently an extensive literature on these issues, which is referred to by the authors of the reviewed collection), but also the living image of the famous Orientalist. This is how a portrait of a person is made up of small pieces of a mosaic.

This collection contains a wide range of diverse topics: general biographical information and a brief analysis of the scientific heritage of I. P. Minaev (A. G. Airapetov); documents of the State Archive of the Tambov Region (T. A. Krotova); history of the Tambov gymnasium where I. P. Minaev studied (V. D. Orlova); diaries and letters of the scientist (A. A. Vigasin); relations between I. P. Minaev and the Russian Military Department (T. N. Zagorodnikova), etc. Written by experts in different fields, in different styles, and at different levels of scientific analysis, the works included in the publication nevertheless form a harmonious whole.

The appendix to the collection includes a speech by I. P. Minaev, "read at the Act of St. Petersburg University on February 8, 1884", - "On the study of India in Russian universities" (in Soviet times it was published with a number of censorship notes), as well as materials for the biography of I. P. Minaev and memoirs of the niece of the scientist A. P. Minaev. After the death of her parents in 1879, together with her sister (V. P. Schneider), she lived in her uncle's house until his death in 1890. In fact, through the efforts of the Schneider sisters, the I. P. Minaev archive was preserved. A. P. Schneider compiled a complete bibliography of the scientist's works and a biographical sketch about him. Currently, the materials of Minaev's personal archive are kept at the Institute of Oriental Studies, the Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the Pushkin Foundation. The documents published in this collection are kept by the S. F. Oldenburg Foundation of the Russian Academy of Sciences and have not been published to date. Meanwhile, they contain information about the most diverse pages of Ivan Pavlovich's life: from childhood and student years, travel and business trips to teaching, extensive epistolary heritage and the last years of his life.

Special attention should be paid to a number of works by Tambov authors who have access to local archival materials. So, T. A. Krotova analyzes a set of documents stored in the State Archive of the Tambov Region - metric books of churches of the Tambov province, documents of the Tambov male gymnasium, documents about the Minaevs-landowners, etc., restoring in detail little-known pages of the history of Ivan Pavlovich's family.

V. D. Orlova explores the history of the Tambov Men's Gymnasium, where Minaev studied from 1852 to 1858. The scientist himself is almost not present in the work, but the documents reproduce the atmosphere of the provincial educational institution where Minaev spent his adolescence and which, in a certain sense, influenced the formation of the scientist's personality and interests.

Some of the works in the collection are historiographical reviews on various topics. Among them is the article by Y. V. Vasilkov "Ivan Pavlovich Minaev-the founder of the Russian school of scientific Indology", in which the author examines the history of the development of Russian indology, seeing in the activity of I. P. Minaev a certain boundary that clearly divides Russian Oriental science into the period before and after him. In fact, in the same way Ya. V. Vasilkov builds up his work: indology to Minaev (from the era of Peter's transformations), then activity

Ivan Pavlovich as the founder of the Russian indological school, the emergence of his students and followers, starting from the eldest of them - S. F. Oldenburg. At the same time, from direct scientific "children" and "grandchildren" Minaeva Ya. V. Vasilkov "throws a bridge" to modern indology, clearly demonstrating the continuity of traditions.

In an interesting way, the works of A. A. Vigasin and T. N. Zagorodnikova echo each other. In the article "I. P. Minaev and the Military Department", T. N. Zagorodnikova examines the little-studied topic of cooperation between the scientist and the military department of the Russian Empire on the basis of archival documents. The main materials considered by the author are documents of the Russian State Military Historical Archive. T. N. Zagorodnikova emphasizes at the same time that it is unlikely that Minaev can and should be regarded as a scout in the literal sense of the word. At the same time, the information he provided, as well as his position itself, amazing insight, experience and knowledge, were not only highly valued by the War Ministry, but, in some cases, may have influenced the specific actions of the minister.

A. A. Vigasin in his article "Ivan Pavlovich Minaev in his diaries and letters", analyzing the diaries and epistolary heritage of Minaev, reflects, in particular, on the political views of the scientist. Minaev's statements about the British in India, as well as about his compatriots, often turned out to be so poisonous and so accurate that many of them were simply eaten by censorship when published, and therefore the meaning of some of the scientist's ideas was distorted.

After reading the diary entries and excerpts from the letters, one gets the impression that the very nature of the character, the peculiarities of the soul and mind made Ivan Pavlovich somewhat detached from what was happening in the modern world, politics, and put him above the political intrigues and events of modern history. His views, in fact, cannot be attributed with certainty to any of the ideological trends of the era, just as it is impossible to clearly define his religious views. Neither radical, conservative, or indifferent, he was perhaps as alone in his experience of world order issues as he was in his personal life.

The diary entries of a world-class scientist come from the pen of a man who really was very lonely. And the point here is not at all in the absence of a family, wife, children, friends. He had relatives, close people, and friends. It's all about its innermost warehouse. Deep dissatisfaction with himself, uncertainty, endless torment turned Ivan Pavlovich into a person, sometimes sharp and sarcastic - another reason for his personal experiences (the pages of his diaries and letters are full of examples of this). At the same time, being deeply decent and sober, possessing rare self-discipline and efficiency, he always remained so in life and in his works.

The latest novel by Umberto Eco is about a man who, after a long and deep amnesia, is trying to piece together not just his life, but his lost image - tastes, addictions, hobbies. Everything is used for healing: from old photos to comics lying around in the closets of the house where the hero spent his childhood. One of the ideas that runs through the novel is that there are no small things in human life: the image of a living person consists of everything that happened in his life. The same idea is evoked by reading the collection in memory of I. P. Minaev.

Perhaps, within the framework of this project, Tambov colleagues will be able to publish other works of I. P. Minaev (diaries with unpublished letters about India, a collection of articles, translations). Such an initiative seems particularly relevant also because October 2010 marked the 170th anniversary of Minaev's birth, and in June of the same year-the 120th anniversary of the death of the outstanding orientalist. There is no doubt that the idea of preserving the image of a great man and his legacy through publications such as a peer-reviewed publication is extremely fruitful and should be continued.

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