V. M. Alekseev: Pis'ma k Eduardu Shavannu i Poliu Pellio.

• Author: POPOVA, IRINA
• Position: Review

V. M. Alekseev: Pis'ma k Eduardu Shavannu i Poliu Pellio (Letters of V. M. Alekseev to Edouard Chavannes and Paul Pelliot). Compiled, translated, annotated by I. E. TSIPEROVICH. Archiv Rossiyskogo Vostokovednia. St. Petersburg: ST. PETERSBURG CENTER FOR ORIENTAL STUDIES, 1998. Pp. 232, illustrations. (paper).

Vasilii Mikhailovich Alekseev (1881-1951) occupies an outstanding position as founder and leader of the Russian sinological school of the twentieth century. He was distinguished for the broad range of his scholarly interests, made particular contributions to the study and translation of classical Chinese literature, and left a remarkable legacy both as scholar and teacher. Born on 14 January 1881 in St. Petersburg, Alekseev received there his primary and secondary education, and graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1902. He pursued post-graduate study in France, Germany, and England in 1904-6, which was to enable him to serve thereafter as a bridge between Western European and Russian sinology. From 1906 to 1909 Alekseev worked and studied in China. He became a professor at St. Petersburg University (sometime Petrograd or Leningrad State University) in 1910, a position he occupied till the end of his life. Alekseev's scholarship was recognized worldwide and he was elected to membership in the USSR Acad emy of Sciences, the Peiping Metropolitan Library, the American Academy of Social and Political Sciences, the National Geographical Society, and the American Oriental Society.

Much of Alekseev's work, like that of many other Russian scholars who lived in the epoch of great political changes, remains in manuscript. Thus, the publication of archive materials held in the Musee Guimet is immensely important. The present book, compiled and edited by the late Izolda E. Tsiperovich (1918-2000), presents one hundred seventeen letters written by Alekseev to the great French sinologists Edouard Chavannes (1865-1918) and Paul Pelliot (1878-1945). The collection is forwarded by an introduction that describes the background of the letters, with comments on the many-sided academic activities of Chavannes, Alekseev, and Pelliot. Copious notes to the letters are included, as are indices to proper names (some two hundred) and scholarly works (over four hundred) mentioned in the correspondence. There is also, on pp. 223-30, a selection of photographs and illustrations. Chinese characters are included throughout the book.

Alekseev's letters to...