Tuesday 20 May 2014

The Oldenburg Conference - September 2013- St Petersburg

The 150th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Oldenberg (1863–1934) was celebrated with a conference held at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, St Petersburg, 26–27 September 2013 
Participants from Russia, China, Japan and Europe gave papers showing the important legacy of Oldenburg and his strong friendships with scholars worldwide. 
The conference was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs celebrating his life and achievements and the opening of an exhibit at the Hermitage, curated by Maria Menshikova, showing some of his finds from Dunhuang and elsewhere, along with photographs and archives.

The Conference had a long list of speakers and on Youtube from Oleg Kenunen I found a playlist of 17 video's from this conference.
The following are a selection of speakers in the English language which are audible (although the audio quality in general is very poor). The remaining video's are either in Russian or difficult to follow)


Susan Whitfield
S.F. Oldenburg's cooperation with the British explorers of Central Asia at the turn of the 20th c.



S. F. Oldenburg's cooperation with the German scholars and explorers of Central Asia at the beginning of the 20th c. and the significance of his finds for the Uyghur studies (Сотрудничество С. Ф. Ольденбурга с немецкими учеными и исследователями Центральной Азии начала XX в. и значение его находок для уйгуроведения)


Report "Three decades of close relations between Serge Oldenburg and Paul Pelliot"
Три десятилетия тесных взаимоотношений Сергея Ольденбурга и Поля Пеллио




150th Birthday anniversary of Sergey Oldenburg, academician orientalist, one of the founders of the Russian School for study of Indian Culture


26 September 1863

14 (26) September 1863 in the village of Byankino, Trans-Baikal region (now Nerchinsk district of the Chita Region) was born academician-orientalist, one of the founders of the Russian School for study of Indian Culture, permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences (1904-1929), Minister of Education of the Provisional Government (1917) Sergey F. Oldenburg.
After graduating from Warsaw classical school, Sergey Oldenburg joined the Faculty of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg University. After receiving a PhD for his thesis "Essay on phonetics and morphology of prakrit dialect Māgadhi», he stayed on at the University at the Department of Sanskrit literature, and then worked abroad in the libraries of Paris, London and Cambridge, mostly on the Buddhist manuscripts.
In 1889, having returned to St. Petersburg, Oldenburg began to lecture at St. Petersburg University, while working on the magister thesis. Folklore, art and Buddhism were three main themes of scientific research of Sergey Oldenburg.
Following the publication of "The Buddhist legend. Part 1" dissertation which he defended in 1894, Oldenburg went on to work successfully in the university, but in 1899 left it in solidarity with the dismissed opposition-minded teachers.
In 1900, Sergey Oldenburg was elected an academician during 1904-1929 had been the Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences.
While working at St. Petersburg University, Oldenburg undertook the publication of a series "Collection of original and translated Buddhist texts" under the title «Bibliotheca Buddhica». This series, the work on which Oldenburg did not stop during his entire life, included scientific literature texts relating to the so-called northern Buddhism popular in Tibet, Mongolia, China, Xinjiang. The first volume of the series was released in 1897. Totally during the life of Oldenburg there were published 26 volumes containing more than one hundred separate issues. In 1936, the series was interrupted, but in 1960, resumed on the initiative of Yu. N. Roerich.
In 1909-1910 and 1914-1915, Oldenburg led archaeological expeditions to Chinese Turkestan; both expeditions produced rich results, were found and described numerous monuments of ancient Buddhist culture. Besides, the objects in need of salvation and restoration, were transported to St. Petersburg, where they joined the collection of the Hermitage Museum and the Asian Museum. As chairman of the Ethnographic Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Oldenburg, contributed a lot to the collection and the development of fantastic material, both Russian and foreign.
In 1916, Oldenburg took over as director of the Asian Museum.
Sergey Fedorovich was involved in the organization of higher education for women, worked in the Literacy Committee of the Free Economic Society. After his election to the academy, as its representative from 1903 to 1917 he was a town councillor of St. Petersburg City Council, was elected member of the Council of State in the so-called left-wing group, after the February revolution, for about a month was a member of the Interim Government as Minister of Education . Under his leadership, were discussed the drafts of the Franco-Russian institute of technical education and training in the French language and the establishment of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev.
Actually directing the activities of the Academy of Sciences until 1929, Oldenburg had contributed to its maintenance, provided conditions for conducting scientific research, repeatedly tried to release or ease the plight of imprisoned scientists. In 1919, in order to preserve and promote the use of the available scientific personnel, under the direction of Oldenburg was established the "Science and its employees" Commission. In 1920 and 1922 were issued "Scientific institutions of Petrograd" and "Scientific institutions of Moscow" guides, in 1923 - "Scientists of Petrograd," in 1924-1925 - "Scientists of Moscow" and finally in 1926-1928 - two directories "Scientists of the USSR." It was one of the first works of its kind in the world.
 However, the beginning of "Academic case" in autumn 1929 led to a shift of Oldenburg from the post of the permanent secretary of the Academy.
In 1930, on the basis of the Asian Museum, the Institute of Buddhist Culture, the College of Oriental and the Türkological office was created a single Institute of Oriental Studies.  It was headed by Oldenburg. The institute at the time included such outstanding scholars as V. V. Bartold, B. Ya. Vladimirtsov, N. Ya. Marr, F. I. Stcherbatskoy, P. K. Kokovtsev, I. Yu. Krachkovsky, V. M. Alekseev,  A. N. Samoilovich, A. A. Freiman, N. I. Conrad, and others.
Oldenburg was elected a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy and Gottingen Scientific Society, an honorary member of the Asiatic Society of Paris, the Royal Society of London and the Indian Archaeological Committee, honorary president of the Institute for the Study of Buddhism in Heidelberg, Honorary Doctor of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Sergei Fedorovich Oldenburg died February 28, 1934 in Leningrad and was buried at the "Literatorskie gangway" of the Volkov cemetery.
Lit.: Академик С. Ф. Ольденбург. К пятидесятилетию научно-общественной деятельности. Л., 1934; Баньковская М. В. М. Алексеев и С. Ф. Ольденбург: (В воспоминаниях и характеристиках) // Начало пути. Восточный альманах. Вып., 9. М., 1981. С. 444—548; Веселовский И. И. С. Ф. Ольденбург // Биографический словарь профессоров и преподавателей императорского Санкт-Петербургск. университета: 1869-1894. Т. 2. СПб., 1898. С. 78—80; Каганович Б. С. Начало трагедии (Академия наук в 1920-е гг. по материалам архива С. Ф. Ольденбурга) // Звезда. 1994. № 12. Исторические чтения. С. 124-144; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.ihst.ru/projects/sohist/papers/zvezda/1994/12/124-144.pdf; Каганович Б. С. Сергей Фёдорович Ольденбург. Опыт биографии. СПб., 2006; Сергей Фёдорович Ольденбург: (Некролог) // Известия РГО. Т. 66. 1934. Вып., 2. С. 332-333. 
From the Presidential library materials:

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