Alexey M. Pozdneev (1851-1920) and Russian practical oriental studies

The present paper provides an overview of extensive activities in the field of education of A.M. Pozdneev - a founder and head of Oriental Studies Institute in Vladivostok and Practical Oriental Academy under the Imperial Society of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg. The founding of the two major academic centers of oriental studies in imperial Russia was of a crucial importance for the geopolitical strategy of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, and it is within this historical context that the significance of the activities of A.M. Pozdneev is analyzed here. At the end of the 19th century, foresighted imperial government officials (namely, S.Yu. Vitte and N.P. Bogolepov among others) set a task to train specialists in living languages, economics and everyday life of countries of the Middle East and the Far East. Russian imperial officials realized the importance of training the necessary staff for a broad variety of administrative, commercial and industrial institutions of Asian part of Russia and neighbor-states. The main burden of the implementation of the abovementioned task set by the State fell on a Professor of the St. Petersburg University, Doctor of Mongolian Literature, A.M. Pozdneev. In the beginning of the 20th century, under Pozdneev's guidance, a group of young, talented graduates of St. Petersburg University in Vladivostok's Oriental Studies Institute revolutionized the organization of Oriental Studies education and research, and made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian scholarship on the East Asia. The present article reveals the main directions of innovative activities and academic achievements of the School of Practical Oriental Studies in Vladivostok and St. Petersburg and its role in the establishment of the field of modern Russian oriental studies. The role of A.M. Pozdneev as an ideologist, promoter, and the leader of the Russian School of Practical Oriental Studies is described in detail on the basis of the analysis of a wide variety of archival materials and the Oriental Studies Institute reports. A list of the main works of A.M. Pozdneev compiled by T.V. Polikarpova is provided.