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 i ... Читать далее