Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2016 number

The article deals with the activity of a famous researcher of Siberia Grigory Ivanovich Spassky, which is connected with collecting of materials for the magazines «Sibirsky Vestnik» («Siberian Herald») and «Asiatsky Vestnik» («Asian Herald»), published by him. This was the first periodical on this topic in the Russian Empire. This publication is distinguished by the wealth of published materials (more than 430 printed sheets), the major part of which has never been published before. The source of «Sibirsky Vestnik»’s materials wasn’t analyzed in the complex by the previous researchers, but such research would help to reveal the mechanism of «Sibirsky (Asiatsky) Vestnik»’s transformation. «Sibirsky (Asiatsky) Vestnik» made the evolution from the leasure time magazine to a scientific publication, which became the instrument of scientific knowledge not only in Siberia and Eastern Asia, but in the East in general. Among the people who supplied Grigory I. Spassky with «Siberian» and «Eastern» materials, the names of Siberian governor general Mikhail M. Speransky, Tomsk governors Vasily S. Khvostov and Peter K. Frolov, Orientalists Egor F. Timkovsky, Stepan V. Lipovtsov, Mikhail D. Sipakov and others were revealed. The analysis of archive materials from Spassky Fond (№ 805), which are stored in the State Archive of Krasnoyarsk region, in comparison with the materials from “Sibirsky Vestnik” and “Asiatsky Vestnik” demonstrates these people’s contribution into the spread of knowledge about Siberia. The article also presents reference data concerning the publications in “Sibirsky (Asiatsky) Vestnik”. It also emphasizes the role of Grigory I. Spassky not only as the collector of “Siberian antiquities”, but more as the organizer of the publication, which played the role of the attraction centre for original, trustworthy and live information about the Asian part of the Russian Empire.