The scientific and organisational activities of the russian committee for the study of Central and Eastern Asia, 1910–1915: International Cooperation and Sergey Oldenburg’s to Russian Turkestan Expeditions

The St Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences houses the collection of the Russian Committee for the Study of Central and Eastern Asia in its historical, archaeological, linguistic, and ethnographic dimensions (F. 148), comprising 110 units (1 inventory) from 1900 to 1923. The activities of the Russian Committee are significant not only for the history of international Oriental studies in the first quarter of the twentieth century but also for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Russian academic policy during the late imperial period. In this regard, an analysis of the Committee’s documents is of interest not only to Orientalists and scholars of international relations but also to historians of science, state academic policy, and the relationship between the state and various scientific and cultural institutions. The collection includes documents on the establishment of the Committee, its charter and membership lists, minutes of meetings, and correspondence with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to which the Committee was affiliated. Additionally, it contains financial records, including estimates and materials related to the funding of expeditions, excavations, and the publication of research findings. Of particular interest is the correspondence with academic institutions and individual scholars, as well as materials on the organisation of expeditions and academic missions. A substantial portion of the documentation pertains to the organisation and conduct of Sergey Oldenburg’s Xinjiang expeditions of 1909–1910 and 1914–1915, which represent one of the most significant – if not the most important – achievements of Russian pre-revolutionary Oriental studies. The prolonged and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to organise an expedition to East (Chinese) Turkestan (Xinjiang) in the early 1900s resulted in a loss of ground to foreign competitors. Consequently, Russian researchers were often left with only the remnants of earlier exploratory work, which had little in common with the original objectives of academic research.