Narmaev B. The Role of Bronislav Kuznetsov in the Formation of the Russian Post-War Tibetology

Badma Narmaev
Independent researcher
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-2829-1255
E-mail: b_narmaev@mail.ru

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ABSTRACT. A brief review of life, scientific and teaching activities of the candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the Oriental Faculty of the Leningrad State University Bronislav Kuznetsov (1931–1985) is given. His role in the development of domestic post-war Tibetology is clearly underestimated. The teaching of the Tibetan language was restored at Leningrad State University in the mid-1950s. At that time, a graduate student Bronislav Kuznetsov began to study the Tibetan language. Soon Kuznetsov became the official professor of the Tibetan language at the university and held this position for about twenty-five years. Leningrad State University was the only secular educational institution teaching the Tibetan language until the 1990s. In addition to classical Tibetan language, associate professor Bronislav Kuznetsov also taught other Tibetan courses: “Introduction to Tibetan Philology”, “Tibetan literature”, “Tibetan xylographs”, “History of Buddhism”, “Grammar of the Tibetan language”, educated talented students who successfully work in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Buryatia, Kalmykia, in Tuva and abroad, so we can talk about his school. Largely due to his efforts, as well as the work of other Soviet and Russian Orientalists, modern domestic Tibetology occupies a worthy place in world science.

KEYWORDS: Bronislav Kuznetsov, Tibet, Tibetology, Oriental Faculty, Leningrad State University, Buddhism, Bon, Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, Ancient Iran

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2022-4(18)-127-136

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