Purbo Baldanzhapov: The Soviet and Russian Scientist’s Impact into the Research of Mongolian Historical Sources

Introduction. In 1958, the Mongolian Academy of Sciences launched the “Monumenta Historica” series, which was to become the main venue of modern historical science in Mongolia for over fifty years of research in the field. Several factors were influential for the series reputation: i) leading Mongolian scholars, as well as scholars outside of Mongolia, worked hard in the country and abroad to collect a large amount of material on Mongolian sources; ii) the Mongolian-Soviet team of scholars published “History of Mongolia”, which contributed to the study of research methods of historical sources; and iii) a large number of sources and scholarly works were published by Russian and Soviet scholars at the time, including such authors as A. M. Pozdneev, Ts. Zh. Zhamtsarano, L. S. Puchkovsky, N. P. Shastina, S. D. Dylykov, etc. whose contribution to the development of the source studies was invaluable. Among these scholars, we would like to single out Purbo B. Baldanzhapov. The present article aims to describe Baldanzhapov’s contribution to the study of Mongolian historical sources. Materials and methods. The main research methods employed for the study were biographical, historical-problematic, and historical-descriptive. Baldanzhapov’s major publications in the field and a wide range of published sources on Mongolian history were the materials selected for the undertaken research. Results. The scholar’s studies were focused on the main sources on the history of Mongolia, such as Galdan’s “Erdeniin Erikhe” (Precious Rosary), “Tsagaan tukhe” (White History), “Altan Tobchi” (Golden History) by Mergen-gegen, etc. He had an excellent command of Mongolian script, perfectly understood the content of the original monuments, and was a master of the source analysis. Baldanzhapov made several visits to Mongolia and during his stays copied many sources, including “Tsagaan tukhe” from the collection in the library of the Gandantegchenlin monastery. Conclusions. Granted a close friendly relationship between Baldanzhapov and the first editor-in-chief of the “Monumenta Historica”, Sh. Natsagdorj, who knew each other since their postgraduate days in Moscow, it may be assumed that the latter’s knowledge of his friend’s research methodology, as well as of Baldanzhapov’s published works had an overall influence on the methodology of publications in the series. Baldanzhapov’s studies of Mongolian sources have not lost their relevance, his elaborate contributions to Mongolian history and written tradition studies have served as a methodological guide for young Mongolian scholars.

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