From the history of Russian-Chinese relations in the XVII c. (an analysis of documents in the Mongolian language)

The article is the first examination of two unique documents written in Mongolian which refer to Russian-Chinese relations in the seventeenth century. These are two “Imperial edicts” presented to the Russian Czar in 1655 and 1670, the facsimile edition of both documents seeing the light in China in 2007. The author pays particular attention to adequate interpretation and precise translation into Russian of the documents. The “edict”, dated 1670, had been hitherto known only through an old Russian “list”, thus the discovery of its Mongolian original contributes to a better understanding of the Qing Empire’s policy towards Russia. The author concludes that the Mongolian-language documents are valuable historical sources for the study of Russian-Chinese relations in XVII c.