Kafarov’s project: sources and documents of the first historico-archaeological and ethnographical expedition of the Russian Emperor’s Geographical Society to Manchuria, the Cis-Amur and South-Ussury areas (preparation for publication of the «Lost» diaries of archimandrite Palladiy Kafarov, the head of the expedition carried out in the years 1870th and 1871st)

In this article circumstances of organization and programmed aims of researches of the first complex expedition of the Russian Emperor’s Geographical Society to Manchuria, the Cis Amur and South-Ussury territories are examined. The expedition was carried out under the direct leadership of archimandrite Palladiy Kafarov, the head of the Peking Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission. The journey lasted 2 years and was accompanied by exposure and description, with determination of chronology and cultural relationship of relics of the past of the Far-Eastern lands, those included, according to the treaty with the rulers of the Qing Dynasty of China, into the frontiers of the Russian State. The readers are informed about the beginning of preparation for publishing of the original sources elucidating the work of the expedition – rough copies of his diaries (written when Palladiy Kafarov started on the journey) and the clean ones (treated on termination of the trip). These diaries of the prominent orientalist of Russia of the XIX century were considered to be the «lost» ones and they still have not been published in voluminous edition.