Achievements and Problems of Humanities Research in Buryatia, 1930s–1940s: A Case Study of Buryat-Mongol State Institute of Culture (1929–1936) and Buryat-Mongol State Institute of Language, Literature and History (1936–1944)

The article aims to analyze the principal directions in the activities of Buryat-Mongolian State Institute of Culture (1929–1936) / Buryat-Mongolian State Institute of Language, Literature and History (1936–1944), the successor of the first scientific organization in Burya­tia — the Buryat-Mongolian Scientific Committee (1922–1929). It focuses on the achievements and problems in the organization and implementation of scientific research in the humanities in the 1930s. Materials. The sources used are unpublished documents of the Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the IMBT SB RAS, such as annual plans and reports on research work, minutes of meetings of the Directorate, expedition reports, presentations, abstracts and minutes of conferences, correspondence with various organizations and offices, and other materials that were instrumental in reconstructing the history of reorganizations of the scientific institute under study, in following the changes in its scientific program, and in showing its effectiveness and efficiency. Results. In the 1930–1940s, the studies in the field of history, language, literature, and arts of the Buryat-Mongolian people were the principal directions of research in the Institute.  Archaeological expeditions were useful in drawing a general picture of the ancient history of Buryatia and the first cultural-historical schemes. Historians’ work resulted in publishing a significant number of documents devoted to the history of the Buryat-Mongolian people, the publications included materials on issues of the pre-revolutionary Buryat-Mongolia, the revolutionary movement and the Civil war period, culture, and education, including monographs on the history of Buryatia recognized today as classical scientific works. Within the framework of the established ideological attitudes, there was a discussion on controversial issues of the history of Buryat-Mongolia, which accepted the one-line nature of the historical process in Buryat studies. Thanks to the successes of Buryat linguistics, a reform of the Buryat-Mongolian writing was carried out, first based on the Latin, and then on the Cyrillic alphabet. The linguists of the Institute made a decisive contribution to the elaboration of the literary Buryat language, enriching its lexical resources and standardizing spelling and grammar. Collection, systematization and study of oral folk art and musical folklore, adding to the Manuscript Department of the Institute manuscripts and woodcuts in Tibetan, Mongolian, Buryat-Mongolian languages, as well as uligers, chronicles, and other historical and literary monuments, and translation work — these and other areas of scientific research shaped the development of the humanities in Buryatia in the 1930–1940s. Throughout the period of persecutions and repressions, despite personnel shortage and everyday hardships, the Institute’s team continued their work, conducting large-scale studies of the socio-political and economic history, the culture and art of Buryat-Mongolia.

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