Tangut ( Xi Xia ) Studies in the Soviet Union : Quinta Essentia of Russian Oriental Studies

Grace to the famous discovery of Piotr Kozlov’s expedition, a very rich collection of various Tangut books in a mausoleum in the dead city of Khara-Khoto was found in 1908, and almost all the texts in the Tangut language were then assembled in Saint-Petersburg. Because of this situation Russian Tangutology became one of the most important in the world very fast, and Russian specialists, especially Alexej Ivanov, did the fi rst steps to understanding the Tangut language and history, which had for a very long time been hidden from humanity. This tradition persisted in the Soviet Union. Nikolaj Nevskij in 1929 returned to Russia from Japan, where he had stayed after 1917, mainly to continue his Tangut researches. But in 1937, during Stalin’s Purge, he was arrested and executed, Ivanov too. The line of tradition was broken for almost twenty years, and only the 1960s saw the rebirth of Russian Tangutology. The post-War generation did a gigantic work, raising Tangut Studies to a new level. Unfortunately, they almost had no students or successors. The dramatic history of Tangut Studies in Russia could be viewed like a real quinta essentia of the fate of Oriental Studies in Russia – but all the changes and tendencies are much more demonstrative of this example.


Introduction
The history of Tangut Studies is not very well known even amongst Orientalists, and that is very much a pity -it seems that even now it is a domain which conserved pretty well many specifi c features of the so called Classical Orientalism, lost by other lines of Oriental Studies.Even now Tangut Studies are very much like Orientalism a hundred years ago: it is populated by several dozens of researchers who in most cases personally know other colleagues; the general bibliography of Tangut Studies consists of four or fi ve hundreds positions, so, unlike other fi elds, researcher can easily follow all new publications in their domain.Russian Tangutology has one more very important mark -his history, despite relatively few populated, is extremely dramatic and rich of strong characters and tragic destinies.That is why I am sure that it is a history worth to be known.

A History of Russian Tangutology
For the fi rst time the name Tangut was mentioned in a runic funerary inscription of Bilge Khagan, a ruler of the East Turkic Khaganate, dated AD 735.It is clear that already at that time the people, who spoke one of the languages of the Qiangic subgroup of Tibeto-Burman group, lived at the North-West of the Tibetan plateau and on the territory of the modern Chinese province Gansu.In the second part of 7 th Century the Tangut leaders were strong enough to be considered among the strongest and dangerous vassals of Chinese empire: they got a prestigious right to bear the family name of Chinese emperors respectively from the Tang and Song dynasties.At the end of the 10 th Century the Tanguts, semi-dependent on the Song Empire, established a completely independent state, mentioned in Chinese sources as the Western Xia (Xi Xia 西夏) (the Tangut name of their country was most likely The State of High Whiteness (or The State of White and Lofty) ( Phôn mbın lhi̯ ə 1 )).Successful campaigns against their neighbours (Kitans, Uighurs, Chinese, Tibetans) gave to the Tanguts the opportunity to create a relatively big and self-suffi cient state.In 1038 the Tangut ruler, known by his Chinese name Yuanhao 元昊, proclaimed his state an Empire, and himself an emperor. 2 One of the important signs of independence for the states of the Pax Sinica at that time was the invention of a new writing -e.g. the Kitans and the Jurchens also invented their own writing.
As far as we know, it was a purely political decision -it seems that a big part of the Tanguts spoke and read Chinese, many others also used the Tibetan alphabet -and after an introduction of the new writing, they very likely continued to use Chinese or Tibetan in everyday life.The intellectual elite of the Tangut state was almost certainly bilingual (or even trilingual, including Tibetan), 3 and 1 For the pronunciation of Tangut characters we use a system elaborated by Mihail V.Sofronov (see Mihail V. Sofronov, Grammatika tangutskogo jazyka (A Tangut language grammar), Moscow: Nauka, Glavnoe izdatel 'stvo vostochnoj literatury, 1968, vol. I, 69-144. 2 For more details, see Evgenij I. Kychanov, Ocherk istorii tangutskogo gosudarstva (A sketch of a history of Tangut state), Moscow: Nauka, Glavnoe izdatel'stvo vostochnoj literatury, 1968; Li Fanwen (ed.), Xi Xia tongshi (General history of Western Xia), Yinchuan: Ningxia renmin chubanshe, 2005. 3According to the texts, in the Tangut state a big part of population was Chinese; they were all parts of the Tangut culture and life were formed under a strong infl uence of Chinese culture.So, according to Yuanhao's order Tangut writing was developed in 1036-1038 by philologists under the guidance of an emperor counsellor and relative Yeli Renrong 野利仁榮, mentioned in Tangut sources as the Great Tutor I-ri̯ ẹ ( ). 4 It is clear that the philologists from the workgroup were under a deep infl uence of Chinese science and traditions; part of the group could even be Chinese.In spite of this, Tangut writing was created not as an unrepugnant follower of Chinese writing, but as its strong rival -with the use of all the fi ne elaborated instruments of Chinese philology and lexicology of that time, the Tangut scientists were capable to create a very well elaborated and considered logograph writing system, based on original and very non-Chinese fundamental ideas. 5Of course, it wasn't mandatory -but a degree of originality in national writing was a symbol of real independence, gained by the Tangut state.
In 1227 the Tangut state was destroyed by the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan.The Tanguts themselves, however, survived and managed to contribute a formation of the greatest empire of the Old World -the Mongol empire.Among the dignitaries of the Yuan dynasty (1260-1368),6 whose biographies can be seen in offi cial annals of the Yuan shi 元史 ("History of Yuan"), we can easily fi nd many offi cials of Tangut origin.It seems that vanquished Tanguts were successful intermediaries between Mongols and Tibetans and helped greatly with the spreading of Buddhism among Mongol nobles.An interesting model of interaction between an emperor and a State Teacher -the head of the Buddhist numerous between bureaucracy of all ranks too. 4 To picture the multicultural and polyethnical nature of Tangut state, let me add that I-ri̯ ẹ (Yeli) was very probably a Tangut transcription of Yelü 耶律 -a family name of a ruling dynasty of Kitan empire Liao 遼 (915-1125).We don't know if the creator of Tangut writing was Kitan by culture and language, or his family was already assimilated by Tanguts.More about Tangut writing, see Nikolaj. A. Nevskij, Tangutskaja pismennost' i ejo fondy (Tangut writing and his corpus), in Nikolaj A. Nevskij, Tangutskaja fi lologia, Vol.I, 74-94. 5 Fortunately, we have dictionaries (especially e tymological "Sea of characters" (•i̯ wə ngôn ); for chinese edition see Shi Jinbo et al. (eds.),Wenhai yanjiu (Study of "Sea of characters"), Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1983; about Russian translation see above) and possess a very detailed explanation of basic methodology of Tangut writing, proposed by creators of this writing themselves.And it's very clear that Tangut script is one of the most interesting and charming writing systems -a logographic writing, that didn't emerge and transform during centuries (even thousands of years) following constantly changing systems of transitional rules (and most part of those rules was never explained or even written).On the opposite the Tangut system of writing was invented by several intellectuals in a very short amount of time.Th at work based on clear logic and a strong ambition to make it not à la chinois.
sangha of empire -was very likely borrowed by Mongols from the Tangut state. 7When Mongol rule collapsed, the situation for the Tanguts turned bad -the land of the Tanguts became a part of China after some cruel campaigns led by the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368-1644).Ming emperors did their best to prevent a new invasion of Mongols in China, and one of their policies was the suppression of ethnic and religious groups that had been Mongol allies at the time of the Yuan rule.Tangut regions were considered suspicious -the border with the steppe was close, and the Tanguts were clearly among the "collaborators".So, the Ming armies devastated the Tangut cities, the Tanguts were decimated and scattered.The Tangut language and writings could be maintained in some monasteries for several generations (may be up to the 16 th Century), but its extinction was inevitable.That was an end to the Tangut civilisation -the people were dispersed and assimilated by Chinese, Mongols or Tibetans, 8 cities were burned and repopulated by Chinese or turned into a desert.
However, it was not the end: habent sua fata libelli.
As already mentione d, the Tanguts were known under this name very early, already in the VIII th century.But it was not their proper name -they called themselves Mi-ndzi̯ wo , where the second character is "man", and the fi rst one, Mi is a logogram especially elaborated to determinate both Tangut language and Tangut people.9So, "Tangut" is a Turkic word, very early adopted by Mongols, who continued to use it even after the destruction of the Tangut state and the fading of the Tangut people and their culture.We know that 19 th century Mongols called the tribes of warlike nomads in north-eastern Tibet (region of Kukunor, north of historical region of Amdo) by the word "Tanguts".Some of these nomads were Tibetans (like Goloks, for example) but many were Mongols that were assimilated by Tibetans.
The word "Tangut" was relatively early also perceived by the Russians -in the fi rst period of their penetration through Siberia they acquired information about China and its neighbours mainly via Mongols.In the 17 th and 18 th centuries in Russian (and scientifi c Latin of Russian scholars) the word "Tangut" meant In the border area of Sichuan/Yunnan/Tibet autonomous region still exists some Qiangic languages; many of them (especially of rGyalrongic branch) seems to be very close to Tangut.See James A. Matisoff , "Brightening" and the place of Xixia (Tangut) in the Qianqic branch of Tibeto-Burman, in Lin Yin-chin et al. (eds.)Studies in Sino-Tibetan Languages: Papers in Honor of Professor Hwang-cherng Gong on His Seventieth Birthday, Language and Linguistics Monograph Series W-4, Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica,  2004, 327-352; Xiang Bolin (Guillaume Jacques), Jiarong yu yanjiu (Study of rGyalron languages), Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2008.
"Tibet". 10 In the same time this word became relatively popular between western botanists and was used for the creation of scientifi c names of some plants (for example, Rheum tanguticum, Aconitum tanguticum.Clemats tangutica and many others); we strongly suspect that in most cases reverend scientists were confused by their Russian colleagues and thought rather about Tibet.
Later this mistake was corrected: in an important book by a famous Russian investigator Nikolaj Przhevalsky (Íèêîëàé Ìèõàéëîâè÷ Ïðaeåâàëüñêèé) (1839-1888) called Mongolia and the Land of Tanguts (1875-76), "Tangut" meant (as in Mongolian) a nomad population of North-eastern Tibet.But, of course, it did not appeal to the "real" historical Tanguts, who by that time seemed completely forgotten by the entire world.
If we talk about the world though, in the end of the 19 th century some of the Tangut texts were already discovered and examined by western scholars.In 1870 an English missionary and colleague of James Legge, Alexander Wylie (1870), published an article about an inscription in six languages on the gates of a fortress named Jűyongguan 居庸關 near Beijing.The inscription was dated back to 1345 and consisted of six practically identical texts in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian (in so called square script), Uighur, Tangut and Chinese.Wylie was absolutely right in his suggestion that in all the texts there was one part the same: it was the transcription of Sanscrit dhāraṇī.However, he was wrong about the Tangut parthe decided that it was Jurchen writing.In 1882 a French diplomat, historian and linguist Gabriel Devéria (1882) published an article about Jurchen inscription on a stele from Yantai 宴臺.In that paper Gabriel Devéria remarked that the inscription on the gates of Jűyongguan defi nitely was not in Jurchen, but that it could be, he supposed, in Xi Xia (Tangut) writing.In 1895, under the supervision of Prince Roland Bonaparte (1895) all the texts of the Jűyongguan gates were published -a dhāraṇī part of the Tangut text was analyzed by the great French Sinologist Edouard Chavannes.Even in that edition, the Tangut origin of the text was only a very uncertain assumption.Only in 1898 the problem was fi nally solved -Devéria (1898) published a bilingual inscription from a Dayunsi temple 大雲寺 in Liangzhou, and one part of that inscription was in the same writings as the unrecognized text in Jűyongguan.The text in the Chinese part said that the inscription was made in 1094 in Xi Xia state writings.The question thus was solved, but the text remained undecoded and unread -the available inscriptions were too small to become a "Rosetta stone".
In 1904 a translator of the French embassy in Beijing, M. G. Morisse (1904), published his study on a Tangut text of Lotus sutra (Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra).M. G. Morisse bought this text near White pagoda temple (白塔寺) that had been ravaged by Boxers -one of the few buildings from the Yuan dynasty that remained in Beijing.The text was previously studied by an unknown Chinese scholar -many Tangut characters were provided with handwritten notes and Chinese translations.Thanks to this unknown Tangutologist, Morisse could make many important remarks about the structure of a Tangut phrase; he decoded some characters and discovered a pronunciation of some others (mainly of special characters, elaborated for phonetic transcription of Sanscrit or Chinese words).He also very reasonably assumed that Tangut must be a language of the Tibetan group.It was a big achievement, but further progress seemed almost impossible -the Buddhist texts did not provide any relevant material for the decoding of the language and writings, and, what was much more sad -the entire corpus of texts in the Tangut language seemed to be limited to these few texts.In short, scientists did not have an instrument for the decoding and almost nothing to decode.
But Providence was benevolent to the Tanguts.In 1907 Piotr K. Kozlov (Ï¸òð Êóçüìè÷ Êîçëîâ) (1863-1935), apprentice and follower of Prjevalskij, organized a new expedition named Mongol-Sichuanese, to explore the western border of China.One of the targets were the ruins of the abandoned city Khara-Khoto. 11uring excavations in this city in 1908 and 1909 Kozlov found hundreds of paintings, statues (which are in the Saint-Petersburg Hermitage museum now 12 ), and, above all -hundreds of Tangut texts of various kind. 13And then the Tanguts could speak again -the desert had saved their words from the destructive forces of time.
Those fi ndings were extremely valuable not only for Tangut culture, but also for Russian Tangut studies, which had not existed before.The main corpus of Tangut texts was transferred to the Asiatic Museum in Saint-Petersburg;14 of course, the Russian scholars where the fi rst who had the possibility to study this new and extremely challenging material.And we think that Kozlov's luck did not only determine the boom of Tangutology (especially in Russia), but also a name for a new line of Oriental Studies.Before the fi ndings in Khara-Khoto the term "Tangut" was rarely used by Western scholars -they preferred to call newly discovered language and writings by the Chinese word "Xi Xia".And the reason for the Chinese term is very clear -before Kozlov's fi ndings an overwhelming part of the sources about the Tanguts was in Chinese.The Mongolo-Turcic term "Tangut" was relatively popular only among Russian erudites and we suppose that it is quite probable that an advantage, gained by Russian scholars (thank to Kozlov's fi ndings) actually gave Tangutology its name. 15he results of Khara-Khoto discoveries appeared very quickly.Young Sinologist and a professor of Saint-Petersburg university, Aleksej I. Ivanov (Àëåêñåé Èâàíîâè÷ Èâàíîâ) (1878-1937)  . 16That fi nally was a real Rosetta stone (characters were not only translated, but also transcribed by phonetically equal Chinese characters).In 1909 Ivanov published some results of his study. 17This little article (and full of mistakes, due to haste of the author, who had hurried to inform the world about new possibilities in decoding the Tangut language) was an important impulse for Tangut studies around the world.In 1916 was published an important research of Berthold Laufer (1874-1934), a famous American anthropologist of German origin, 18 with many right conclusions about the Tangut language; also, in these years were published the fi rst researches of Chinese Tangutologists (among them Luo Fucheng 羅福成 (1885-1960), Luo Fuchang 羅福萇 (1895-1921) and his father, famous philologist Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉(1866-1940) 19 ).At the same time, Władysław Kotwicz (Âëàäèñëàâ Ëþäâèãîâè÷ Êîòâè÷) (1872-1944), a Russian and Polish mongolist and turcologist, 20 began his work with the Tangut texts.
In 1925 Ivanov was the chief translator at the Soviet embassy in Beijing, but he tried to continue his studies of Tangut.That year he was visited by a Japanologist Nikolaj A. Nevskij (Íèêîëàé Àëåêñàíäðîâè÷ Íåâñêèé) (1892-1937), 21 who was among Ivanov's student in the beginning of 1910 s .Later Nevskij lived in Japan -since 1915, after graduation from Saint-Petersburg university (there he was mainly a student of the Sinologist Vasilij M. Alekseev (1881-1951)), Nevskij was sent to Japan for further studies.After the Russian revolution in 1917 he decided not to return and worked in Japan -especially in the fi eld of language, religion, folklore and customs of the Japanese, Ainu and Ryukuans.In 1927 he also traveled to Taiwan to study the language of Zou鄒 -one of indigenous people From 1900 he headed a department of Mongol philology.He participated in many scientifi c expeditions to Kalmykia (1894, 1896, 1910, 1917)  of the island. 22But we know that since 1923-1924 he began to study the Tangut problems, which was extremely hard as he was so far from Russia. 23In 1925 Ivanov gave him some copies of Tangut texts and dictionaries he had brought to Beijing -probably, that was the defi ning moment and Nevskij decidedly turned to Tangut studies.In 1926 in Osaka he published a research on the Tibetan transcription of Tangut words 24 (Tibetan handwritten notes can be found in many Tangut texts -it seems that some Tanguts used the Tibetan alphabet in everyday life).But it was more and more clear that for a profound study he had to be in Leningrad and work with Tangut texts directly.Therefore, in the autumn of 1929 published many papers on Tangut problems in the Soviet Union and China. 26In 1935 he became a doctor of science honoris causa.In a famous illustrated book "Den' mira" ("One day of the world"), promoted by Maxim Gorky (1935) as a momentary snapshot of the entire world's life in the same one day (27 September 1935 was chosen) we can fi nd a brief information about professor Nikolay Nevskij, working on a decoding of the Tangut language.Who could ask for more?But suddenly things changed.Since the summer of 1937 in the Soviet Union had started the terrible period of the Great Purge, when nearly one million persons were executed or died in concentration camps, condemned in various kinds of high treason of the Soviet state.Investigators of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs tried to impress their bosses, including Stalin, by enormous plots of spies and traitors, revealed by them.The Institute of Oriental Studies, full of researchers with knowledge of many strange languages, many of them were even abroad, was a too tempting target.An underground group of Japanese spies, organised and coordinated by Nikolay Nevskij was revealed (even an Institute director, famous turcologist, academician Alexandr Samojlovich (Àëåêñàíäð Íèêîëàåâè÷ Ñàìîéëîâè÷) (1880-1938), was arrested as a member of «Nevskij's group»). 27Nevskij was arrested at night of 3-4 October of 1937,28 in a few days his wife was arrested too.They were condemned and executed on the 24 November of 1937.Alexey I. Ivanov was executed earlier, on 8 October, also as a Japanese spy.We do not even know the place where they are buried. 29ussian Tangutology was physically exterminated. 30And only after the death of Stalin in 1953 the situation began to change -but the line was broken.In 1955 the young Sinologist Evgenij I. Kychanov (Åâãåíèé Èâàíîâè÷ Êû÷àíîâ) (1932-2013), who had just graduated from the Oriental faculty of Leningrad university, became a graduate student at the Oriental manuscripts sector of the Institute of Oriental Studies (from 1956 -Leningrad fi lial of Institute) and intended to work in Tangut studies.He had no proper scientifi c adviser -among the specialists of the Institute there were not any Tangutologists.At that time there were many rumours that Nevskij was alive and would return -like many who returned in the 1950s from prisons."Don't worry, Nevskij will be your adviser" -said colleagues to Kychanov.Kychanov and others had to become Tangutologists by themselves.It was not easy.
Up to 1960, the Tangut fond was closed for everyone but Zoia I. Gorbacheva (Çîÿ Èâàíîâíà Ãîðáà÷¸âà) (1907-1979), who was its keeper after Nevskij's death. 31It was mainly because of the fear that somebody could steal Nevskij's drafts and misappropriate his results, but also because of an absence of specialists who could work there. 32In 1960 a huge impact into Tangut Studies was made with strong support of academician Nikolay I. Konrad (Íèêîëàé Èîñèôîâè÷ Êîíðàä) (1891-1970), a friend and a schoolmate of Nevskij -he was also touched by the Purge but survived.Konrad did everything possible to publish a facsimile of the Tangut dictionary, prepared by Nevskij, in two volumes. 33It was only a draft that Nevskij had written for personal use, unfi nished and unpolished, but it was the fi rst dictionary in the world,34 it contained almost all known Tangut characters, with translations, examples, and sometimes phonetics. 35The Tangut texts could be read at last.In 1962 for these two volumes Nevskij was postmortem granted the Lenin award. 36his publication, just like Ivanov's article about the "Pearl in the palm" in 1909, gave the strongest impulse to Tangut studies in the world, and of course in the Soviet Union, too.The Tangut workgroup was formed in the Leningrad fi lial of the Institute of Oriental studies at that time.Except for a famous Sinologist Vsevolod S. Kolokolov (Âñåâîëîä Ñåðãååâè÷ Êîëîêîëîâ) (1896-1979), all other members were young - Evgenij Kychanov, Mikhail V. Sofronov (Ìèõàèë  Âèêòîðîâè÷ Ñîôðîíîâ) (b.1929), Ksenia B. Kepping (Êñåíèÿ Áîðèñîâíà  Êåïïèíã) (1937-2002), Anatolij P. Terent'ev-Katanskij (Àíàòîëèé Ïàâëîâè÷  Òåðåíòüåâ-Êàòàíñêèé) (1934-1998). 37Quantity and quality of the members gave to this group an opportunity to explore many important things in a very limited period of time.
In 1963 M. V. Sofronov and E. I. Kychanov published the "Studies on the Tangut language's phonetic", where they offered the fi rst attempt for a phonetic reconstruction of the Tangut language.In 1968 Evgenij I. Kychanov edited a "Sketch of the history of the Tangut state" -the fi rst detailed account of Tangut history in the world.That same year appeared a two-volume Tangut grammar by M. V. Sofronov -also the fi rst scientifi c grammar of this language and a very important study on the reconstruction of its phonetics.In 1969 Vsevolod S. Kolokolov, Ksenia B. Kepping, Evgenij I. Kychanov and Anatolij P. Terent'ev-Katanskij as a result of a very complicated work published a translation of the Sea of characters -an etymological dictionary, which is fundamentally important for understanding the principles of Tangut writings.
It was the biggest workgroup in the history of Russian Tangut studies.Their impact, as a team and in individual projects, was abundant and very important.Thanks to them Tangut writing was fi nally well decoded and Tangut studies achieved a new level in the analysis of sources. 38fter the 1960s the members of the group mostly worked apart, but still had very good results. 39Ksenia Kepping studied many important Chinese texts, translated into Tangut, but mostly was occupied with linguistic questions. 40natolij P. Terent'ev-Katanskij published some pioneer books about the Tangut 37 In other countries the Tangut studies also saw a big fl ourishing at that time, and the majority part of leading Tangutologists of the world are of the same age: Huang Zhenhua 黃 振華 (1930-2003), Li Fanwen 李範文 (b.1932) and Shi Jinbo史金波 (b.1940) in China,  Nishida Tatsuo 西田龍雄 (1928-2012) in Japan; Gong Hwang-cherng (1934-2010) in Taiwan; Eric Grinstead (b.1921) in New Zealand; James A. Matisoff (b.1937) in California.Th e next generation of scholars, unfortunately, was much less numerous. 38We must add that it was also the time when the Tangut studies became popular again -mainly due to Nevskij's Lenin award.In 1963 a documentary ("Sem' vekov spustia" ("Seven centuries later")) about a decoding of Tangut writings was made by Agasi Babajan (b.1921); programmes about Tanguts were broadcasted on the radio. 39We must add that soviet Tangutologists usually enjoyed better opportunities to contact with foreign colleagues or to go abroad -which was practically impossible to other Orientologists: Tangutology was one of the demanded and reputable "brands" of Soviet science.

Conclusion
Russian Tangutology has passed through all the important stages which are inherent to the so called classical Orientalism.The fi rst Russian Tangutologists were more rather brave travelers and adventurers, actors of the Great Game, than armchair scientists.We can easily put Piotr Kozlov in the same line with Sir Marc Aurel Stein or Sven Hedin.On the next stage we saw among them some of the fi nest and brilliant minds, equals to Paul Pelliot or Wang Guo-wei, keen geniuses capable of giving impetus to their science forward even under the pressure of very hard circumstances.
In the years of the Great Purge Russian Tangutology was a part of Russian Oriental Studies, a part of Russian history, and brilliant minds became martyrs.Progress was stopped for years with a bullet of an executioner.In Tangut studies this terrible image was only more obvious -due to the small number and extreme value of each person involved.The next generation, just like in Russian Sinology, was numerous and talented -but the gap between generations was even more clear than in Chinese studies -the previous generation was physically exterminated.Young scholars had to teach themselves and they became good heirs -we only can imagine, what could they have achieved if their predecessors had still been alive.
Nowadays, like in other lines of Oriental sciences in Russia, we -againsee the gap between generations and so far there is no solution to this problem.What will be the future of Tangut studies in Russia?Will it conserve its oldfashioned and familiar features, so rare in modern science?Is not this charming archaism a great risk for this science indeed?Would the Tangut writings fall silent again?We will see.
As a fi nal remark I will try to explain why this paper was written.Of course, a history of everything is interesting and somehow useful, but why would someone who is not a Russian tangutologists have to care about Russian Tangutology?Maybe this topic is way too specifi c? Maybe, but I do not think so.First of all, as I have said above, Tangutology is a very good and demonstrative image, which can be used to understand the basic lines and fl uctuations of a history of all Russian Orientology in the 20 th Century.Secondly, I suppose that every scientifi c tradition, especially in the fi eld of humanities, is absolutely crucial to be known to new generations of researchers; without this knowledge about our scientifi c ancestors we cannot go further.And, last but not least, I think that in our time, when the biggest problem of a scholar is in most cases a low salary or troubles with obtaining of a new grant, it is very useful to remember those who were able to literally give their lives for a possibility to study a new fi eld -which was very specifi c and absolutely not benefi cial indeed.We owe them.
found in the just arrived Tangut xilographs a Tangut-Chinese dictionary Mi źạ ngwu ndzi̯ e mbu pi̯ ạ ngu ni̯ e /番漢合時掌中珠 (Timely pearl in the palm of Tangut and Chinese languages), compiled in 1190 by a Tangut scholar called Kwəlde-ri̯ ephu
and Northern Mongolia (1912), where, besides other things, he studied Turcic runic texts.Aft er 1917 Kotwicz tried to organize in Petrograd an Institute of living oriental languages and from 1920 to 1922 he was its director.In 1923 he was elected professor and corresponding member of Academy of sciences.In 1923 he decided to return to Poland, since 1924 he was a head of department of Far Eastern philology at the Lvov University, one of the fi nest intellectual centers of a Nevskij, Moscow: Nauka, Glavnoe izdatel'stvo vostochnoj literatury, 1978.
Nevskij returned to Leningrad.His wife Mantani Isoko 萬谷磯子 (1901-1937)and their daughter Elena managed to join him only in 1933.In the fi rst years in Leningrad it seems that Nevskij's dreams came true.He worked in the Institut of Orientalism in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (which in 1930 replaced the Asiatic Museum), in the University and in the State Hermitage.He studied ad libitum Tangut manuscripts and xylographs. 25He 22 See Nikolaj A. Nevskij, Materialy po govoram cou (Materials on dialects of Zou language), Vasilij M. Titianov, who was with Nikolaj A. Nevskij in a prison ward in 1937, remembered that Nevskij told him that his interest toward Tangut language began much earlier, just aft er Kozlov's expedition; he even told that one of objectives of his journey to Japan in 1915 was to fi nd there a specialist who could help him with decoding of Tangut writing (see Na steklah vechnosti…, 516). 24Nikolay Nevsky, A brief manual of the Si-hia characters with Tibetan transcription, Research review of the Osaka Asiatic Society, No.4, March 15, 1926, Osaka: Th e Osaka Asiatic Society. 25Before Nevskij's return the Tangut collections was a fi eld of interest of great Russian linguist Alexandr A, Dragunov (Александр Александрович Драгунов) (1900-1955) -one of the creators of modern theory of Chinese grammar.He published some works about Tangut funds (for ex.see Alexandr A. Dragunov, A catalogue of His-Hsia (Tangut) Works in the Asiatic Museum of Academy of sciences, Leningrad, Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping, Vol.4,.May-june 1930 (issued in January 1932), № 3, 367-388).But in 1930 he abandoned this work and went to Middle Asia for studies of Dungan (回族) language.He returned to Tangut collections only aft er the end of the World War II, but this time that was not his cup of tea.Although he described 2720 units of issue of Tangut collection (see Zinaida I. Gorbacheva and Evgenij I. Kychanov (comp.),Tangutskie rukopisi… , 12-17).