Issue III. Comp. by V. V. NAUMKIN (ed.), N. G. ROMANOVA, and I. M. SMILYANSKAYA.

Moscow: Vostochnaya litra Publ., 2008, 719 p.

No science pays as much attention to its own past as Oriental studies. Both in our country and abroad, works devoted to the life and work of classics of science, publications containing correspondence and other documents of scientists, memoirs and photographs regularly appear. Such publications often arouse quite a wide interest of readers. For example, when Wilhelm Pay published the photo album " One Hundred Portraits of German Indologists "(Wiesbaden, 1982), the book sold out so quickly that a second, substantially expanded edition was needed.

In 1997, the first collection of "Unknown Pages of Russian Oriental Studies" was published, in 2004 - the second. In the third issue, as in the previous ones, the central place is occupied by the correspondence of two outstanding Orientalists-the Sinologist V. M. Alekseev and the Arabist I. Yu. Krachkovsky (the first issue contained the correspondence of I. Yu. Krachkovsky and A. E. Krymsky, the second-V. R. Rosen and S. F. Oldenburg). The letters are prepared for publication and provided with detailed comments by A. A. Dolinina. This section is joined by the publication of unknown archival documents by V. M. Alekseev (the texts were prepared for publication by A. N. Khokhlov, who also wrote the article "Academician-Sinologist V. M. Alekseev under threat of ostracism in 1938").

For the history of Russian Oriental studies, the published materials are of considerable interest - in correspondence, the thoughts of researchers are often expressed more clearly than in printed works. But their meaning is much broader - it's not just about historiography: the documents draw vivid portraits of famous scientists, demonstrating vivid personality traits. The correspondence of the 1920s and 1930s provides an opportunity to present the environment in which Orientalists had to work and live. These invaluable testimonies for the social history of science will certainly attract the attention of those readers who are far from the special problems of Arabic studies or Sinology.

The archives contain manuscripts of scientists ' works, and some of them, despite the past decades, still represent a certain scientific value. Preparing them for publication is also the fulfillment of a moral duty to teachers and colleagues who could not or did not have time to print them at the time. The publishers of the third issue considered it appropriate to include in the book part (from A to L) of the" Biobibliographical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Arabists " by G. G. Gulbin, who worked on the dictionary at the initiative of I. Y. Krachkovsky, who was repressed and died in prison in 1941. The dictionary, which has lain in the Archive of Orientalists for 70 years (St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies), remains an indispensable reference tool, and therefore its appearance in print should be welcomed. However, it is rather inconvenient to use the dictionary, which is published in parts in collections - you just have to hope that it will eventually be published in a separate book.

In the first issue of "Unknown Pages "was placed a" Wreath of sonnets " by the arabist V. A. Eberman. Thus, along with publications from the scientific heritage of Orientalists, the collection also includes purely literary works that help to understand the place of Oriental themes in Russian culture. This tradition is continued in the third issue, one of the sections of which is entitled "Images of the East in Russian Literature and Art". It includes poems by the artist Alexander Volkov, the author of the famous "Pomegranate Teahouse". The peer-reviewed publication in this part successfully continues the work that was once started by the collections "East-West. Research, translations, publications " (vol. 1 - 4, 1982 - 1988).

The compilers of the collection are not limited to publishing archival materials of representatives of classical Oriental studies. In each of the issues there are also research articles, pic-

dedicated to the fates of representatives of completely different trends in the history of Russian science. Thus, the third issue contains a large article by A. O. Tamazishvili ("Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gurko-Kryazhin: the fate of a fighter of the Orientalist front"). Works about the people who created Soviet Oriental studies proper are based on poorly studied sources. Information obtained from relatives and friends of the "practical Oriental studies" figures is used, and photos from family archives are widely published. We are talking about contradictory, sometimes tragic fates of people. In this respect, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the articles and materials contained in the collection for future objective research of the history of Soviet Oriental studies.

The peer-reviewed publication is characterized by a high culture of preparation: articles are of a research nature, comments on publications of archival materials are informative, and the personal index is compiled with remarkable accuracy. Only in rare cases is it possible to give small corrections or clarifications to the excellent comments of A. A. Dolinina. So, in letter No. 6 (note. 3, p. 362) we are talking about the Buddhist (Tibetologist, Sanskrit scholar, Sinologist and Mongolist) F. Weller, who died in 1980; in the same letter (note. 12, p. 363) mentions Alexander Nikolaevich Gorlin (1878-1938)-a third-rate translator who was in charge of the foreign department of the State Publishing House, assistant to I. I. Ionov in the fight against the editorial board of World Literature, this situation is also discussed in the following letter (cf.: Chukokkala. Handwritten almanac by Korney Chukovsky. Moscow, 2006, p. 302). In letter 10 (note. 4, p. 365) refers to B. N. Molas (died in 1938). I. I. Glivenko (previous note) He was a professor of Western Literature at Moscow State University. In letter 102 (note. 12) It is not about the Sanskrit Ramayana, but about the medieval poem of Tulsidas " Ramayana or Ramacharitamanasa "(the translation was published by A. P. Barannikov in 1948). Letter 132 refers to the famous book: W. W. Tarn. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge, 1938. Letter 20 (p. 254) undoubtedly refers to S. F. Oldenburg's speech at the session of June 21-27, 1931 on "East and West in Soviet conditions", which was rightly pointed out by B. S. Kaganovich (Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg. Biography experience. St. Petersburg, 2006, p. 209). It is quite unclear why the commentator connects the words about "Danaites who bring gifts" (ibid.) with the persecution of the Lamaist clergy. In terms of context, we are talking about "Muscovites" who pretended to meet the representatives of classical Oriental studies halfway (B. Ya. Vladimirtsov, apparently, was ready to treat these "gifts of the Danais" positively, but V. M. Alekseev himself takes them extremely skeptically). There are, of course, also typos, especially in foreign words and expressions: letter 9 should be Geuthner (p. 166), letter 100-cogitamus (p. 222), letter 110-requiescat (p. 231), etc.). a task of such considerable volume and complexity.

Let's hope that the valuable series "Unknown Pages of Russian Oriental Studies" will not be interrupted by the third issue.

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