46
The famous manuscript, “The Genealogy of Turks” written by Ebu’l
Gazi, was also within these valuable Eastern sources; later on it was
translated by G. Sablukov to Russian and published by I. N. Berezin in the
series of the “Library of Eastern Historians”.
102
Manuscripts, coins and other
artifacts of the material culture and written documents from the East were
collected in “the Chamber of Rare Valuables”, which was the first Russian
institution in the field of oriental studies. A hundred years later, this room
became the core of the Asian Museum of the Academy of Sciences opened in
1818.
Definitely, the most crucial leap of Peter the Great was the foundation
of the Academy of Sciences (1725). The academy was first proposed by
German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz and then by his student
Cristian Wolff and it was established on similar institutions in Paris and
Berlin.
103
The Russian Academy of Sciences, first members of which were
foreigners, had two basic missions: To initiate systematic work on the latest
developments in science and to train the first Russian scientists. The first
Russian scientist of the academy was Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov, who
founded the Moscow University in 1755.
104
102
Smirnov, op. cit., in note 28, p. 25.; Bartold, op. cit., in note 4, p. 395.
103
Ibid., pp. 415-416. Actually, even the Christian Wolff proposed to start with the
university, Peter chosed to implement Leibnitz’s advise. See Hughes, op. cit., in
note 84, pp. 307-308.
104
Alexander Vucinich. Academy of Sciences. In Encyclopedia of Russian History. IV
Vols., p. 4.
47
Leibnitz was interested in Eastern studies in Russia as well. In a letter
he wrote to Peter the Great, he asked for information about the first
Japanese caught on the Kamchatka expedition. At the same time, he
demanded from Peter to send the list of words in Siberian and Caucasian
languages. With regard to the Academy of Sciences, he was proposing the
academy to study Eastern languages as an academic institution of higher
education as well. He also attached a special importance to purchasing
collected books and manuscripts from the East in his letters.
105
Until the establishment of the Academy of Sciences in 1725, the
researchers, working on the East, were already busy with Eastern history,
language, religion and numismatics besides their job as civil servants, and
they were generally working in the Foreign Affairs Institution. In 1716, Peter
sent five students to Iran together with Ambassador Artemi Volinsky to learn
“Turkish, Arabic and Persian”. The same pattern was followed when
Rumyatsev was sent as ambassador to Turkey in 1724. Consequently, Peter
sought to solve the need for trained persons, which was a constant problem
of some centuries in studying the East, by sending students to foreign
countries.
106
105
A. V. Kulikova and E. I. Kychanov. Vostokovedenie v Rossii v XVIII Stoletii. In
Istorija Otechestvennogo Vostokovedenija: do serediny XIX veka. Ed. By G. F. Kim
and P. M Shastitko. M.: Nauka. Glavnaja Redaktsija Vostochnoi literaturı, 1990. Pp,
38 – 95.
106
Vasili Vladimirovich Bartold. "Obzor Deyatelnosti Fakulteta Vostochnykh
Yazykov." Sochinyeniya Tom IX. V. V. BartholdMoskva: Izdatelstvo "Nauka"
Glavnaya Redaktsiya Vostochnoy Literatury, 1977, pp. 29-30.
48
As a result, at the time of Peter the Great the oriental studies were a
significant part of his modernization project of his country.
107
Not only
Western Europeans were invited to Russia, but Peter sought to understand
the East through Western European perpective as well. The discussion of
Russia’s identity, whether it is Easterner or Westerner, started after the
reforms implemented by Peter the Great. Additionally, the idea that Sankt
Petersburg is the representative for the West and Moscow for the East
determined the view of the Russian elites that Russia was different than the
East and it was part of Europe. Thus, as Frye states Peter the Great was the
first tsar among the Russian tsars, who acted absolutely like a Western
European monarch. It should also be underlined that the use of the term
Uzbek-i Ferengi (European Uzbeks) as mentioned above was impossible
after Peter the Great.
108
From then on, although Russia was geographically
inseparable with the East, it was considered culturally no more an Easterner,
or - at least – it did not seem to be so. The schools and institutions were
established on the Western models and, rare manuscripts and other
materials from the East were collected in Kunstkammer. The foundation of
the Academy of Sciences by Peter the Great for became a center
researchers of the East. Hence, owing to Peter the Great, the East was not
just a land of commercial and military relations or cultural exchange, but it
became a field to be studied and comprehended. Therefore, the first
107
Frye, op. cit., in note 31, p. 35.
108
Ibid., p. 34.
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