The book under review is a publication of the handwritten diaries of the famous Russian and Polish scholar-Mongol Osip Mikhailovich Kovalevsky (1801-1878), which he kept during his journey from Russia to China and back as part of the X and XI Russian Orthodox spiritual missions.

The activity and legacy of O. M. Kovalevsky are connected with the formation and development of the Russian school of Mongolian studies in the 1820s - 1850s of the XIX century: for more than 20 years he headed the first department of Mongolian literature in Russia and Europe at Kazan University, and then for 5 years he was the rector of this university. The scientist played a major role in the development of Mongolian studies in Russia. It can be said that the study of Mongolian literature began with the opening of the Department of the Mongolian language at Kazan University in 1833, where O. Kovalevsky, A. Popov (1812-1865), A. Bobrovnikov (1821-1865), D. Banzarov (1822-1855) worked. For two centuries, Mongolian studies has gone from being a random collection of fragmentary facts about the country to a separate scientific discipline that is not much inferior to other branches of world Oriental studies.

O. M. Kovalevsky made an invaluable contribution to science. In 1827-1831, the scientist lived in Transbaikalia, Mongolia and China, studying the living languages, literature and ethnography of the Mongolian peoples. During his five-year research internship in Siberia, Buryatia, Mongolia and China, he collected a unique collection of books and manuscripts in Mongolian, Tibetan, Chinese, Manchu, as well as a large ethnographic material about the peoples of Central Asia. From the Mongolian expedition of 1830, he brought 1841 notebooks containing 189 works of Mongolian literature, published two volumes of the anthology, which included the texts of more than 30 artistic, historical, and religious works. The main works of O. M. Kovalevsky: "A brief grammar of the Mongolian book language "(1835), " Buddhist Cosmology "(Kazan, 1837), " Mongolian Anthology "(vol. 1 - 2, 1835, 1837), " Mongolian-Russian-French Dictionary "(vol. 1-3, 1844, 1846, 1849), awarded the Demidov Prize by the Academy of Sciences. The scientist left a number of works on Mongol studies and Buddhism, for example: "History of the Mongols", Vol. 1-2; " Introduction to the history of the Mongols "(manuscripts). The works of O. M. Kovalevsky were published in Russia only during his lifetime, in the XIX century.

Until recently, Russian Oriental studies paid little attention to the study of the legacy of O. M. Kovalevsky. All the more valuable is the work of I. V. Kulganek and R. M. Valeev, who published a collection of articles "Mongol scholar O. M. Kovalevsky: biography and Legacy (1801-1878)" (Kazan, 2004). The book consists of two parts: 1. Biography of O. M. Kovalevsky in the context of Russian Oriental studies of the XIX century; 2. Contribution of O. M. Kovalevsky to Mongolian studies and Buddhology and his legacy.

The publication of O. M. Kovalevsky's diaries required truly selfless efforts from I. V. Kulganek and R. M. Valeev: it was necessary to find, collect, read and edit the texts of the scientist's manuscripts stored in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg and the National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan. Publications of this nature require:

Subg. to the ed., preface, glos., comment. and edicts by R. M. Valeev and I. V. Kulganek; ed. by A. D. Tsendin. Kazan-Saint Petersburg: Taglimat Publishing House, 2006, 104 p.

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from publishers not only special care in editing the text itself, but also a broad Oriental outlook, knowledge of the historical realities of Mongolian culture.

O. M. Kovalevsky's travel diaries about his mission trip to Beijing and return to Kyakhta were previously published only partially. Perhaps the reason was the unflattering characterization given by O. M. Kovalevsky to the Qing government. The young scholar wrote in his diaries about the bribery and theft of Qing officials, the government's oppression of subordinate peoples and keeping them in poverty, and the unfriendly attitude of the Chinese upper classes to everything foreign.

O. M. Kovalevsky left diary entries about the political and administrative structure of Mongolia, the economic way of life of its inhabitants, interesting information about many everyday realities of the life of Buryats, Mongols, and Chinese of that time: hermitages, monastic education, caravan trade, etc. he writes that Monk Lodon has been living in a cave for four years, far from people, has no personal property, eats alms, recites prayers, develops the gift of divination, prays all night long, and considers service to the Buddha above all virtues. He leads an extremely ascetic lifestyle, has hardened his body so much that when there is a lack of water and food, he eats pitch, grass and his own urine (pp. 14-15).

Of particular interest are records containing knowledge gleaned from conversations with the local population or with people who were in these places, for example, information that in Urga" many books are printed at the idols, Tibetan and Mongolian, not only of theological content, but also of medical and narrative content"; or data on the salary of the head of Western universities. Sunit, which is 120 lan of silver, for shepherds 12 lan, or that " in time of war, the white banner comes first to the enemy, then - green, black, yellow - the bravest."

O. M. Kovalevsky makes notes in the diary about the phonetic features of the Chakhar, Khalkha, and Ordos dialects. For example: "The Sunites speak quickly and not as cleanly and clearly as the Khalkhas. They changed the pronunciation of some letters, for example, instead of t, they often pronounce ch (time-chime, tageet-chigeet)." Here we also meet such observations of the traveler: "Polygamy is common among the Mongols"; "Loss of innocence is not considered a vice of a maiden", " Theft is not a vice in the opinion of the Tsakhar, but the art of taking advantage of the carelessness of a neighbor... vivacity and art, intelligence; "The Chinese court tries to tie Mongolian officials to itself by kinship"; "There are ranks such as: tsang ching, somun tsang ching, kundui, zhunda, bashko, bayra"; "Chahars are in a special position, from the age of 5 they are ranked as an ordinary person, receive a salary"; "The clergy is in a special position. under the direct jurisdiction of the Chamber of External Relations, they are assigned to idols"; "Each shepherd in the Zuun Sunit nomads is entitled to 1200 rams, 4509 horses, 300 camels" (p. 22).

The most valuable thing in the diary is a thorough description of one's own observations of the life of the people, reproducing meetings with representatives of different strata of the population. For example, in Southern Mongolia, he identifies four levels of education: 1) Khangir obo Kumirna School in Zaimen Wuxu tract, where 7 years of Tibetan and Mongolian languages are taught; 2) Badagar choilan sume School, Ordos Tract, where 10 years of study are taught and the degree of gybshig is given at the end; 3) Gombo Sume School in Beijing, where training lasts two to three years and at the end, the degree of rangamba is given, "with it you get the title of hamba and higher"; 4) The Monastery of Munhu-zhu in Tibet with the Dalai Lama, where training lasts for 20 years, at the end you get the degree of saramba.

O. M. Kovalevsky writes about studying in China: "A Chinese person reads his first book at the age of 8, then reads Hsien-tzu-ching - "100 short sayings" that must be learned by heart." Here, he also talks about the place of universities in the Chinese education system and the principle of distributing posts. The diary includes information about the history of Christianity in China and the role of the decree on freedom of action in China of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission during the reign of Qianglong in 1786.

The author describes in detail the places where the path of the Spiritual mission passed: nature, parking lots, idols, monasteries, cities, fortresses, tracts. There are also brief sketches in the diary that adorn the visual range of the story: "The Mongols use wormwood here instead of firewood"; "The guide turned the camels around three times and set off"; "A caravan of 100 camels met, brought mushrooms to Kalgan and then to Kyakhta"; " Only the Tsakhars saw decent clothes on the residents, expensive sacrificial devices in front of burkhans,

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a lot of marzhana and silver in women's pigtails"; "The road is smooth, not inferior to the European highway", etc.

It is known that after living in Beijing for seven months, O. M. Kovalevsky returned to Russia with the old staff of the X Ecclesiastical Mission, which followed the same road.

The diaries of O. M. Kovalevsky are a vivid monument to the history of Russian Mongolian and Chinese studies of the XIX century, embodying the traditions and positive experience of their predecessors-diplomats, merchants, travelers. This publication provides Russian Mongolian studies with a new source on the history and culture of Mongolia and China in the first half of the 19th century, as well as valuable material for ethnographers, linguists, and cultural scientists studying the peoples of Central and East Asia. The publishers of O. M. Kovalevsky's diaries, I. V. Kulganek and R. M. Valeev, introduced materials related to the life and work of the founder of Russian Mongolian studies into scientific circulation, and certainly made a contribution to the science of the East in general and to Mongolian studies in particular.

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