St. Petersburg: Nartang. A. Terentyev Publishing House, 2010. 544 p.

In the world and national historiography, there are a considerable number of books, both scientific and popular, devoted to the history of Tibet. Among these studies are classic works written by experienced and conscientious scientists, experts in their field; 1 more or less masterful compilations; strange books that are heavily mixed up in mysticism and anthroposophy (and often not without interest for the researcher, if their authors, even if they saw Tibet through the prism of their worldview, traveled a lot on these topics). places and knew Tibet and Tibetans well 2); finally, outright speculations, the authors of which parasitize on the image of" mysterious " Tibet, a land of wonders and secrets - an image that helps to increase the circulation of such printed products.

Here is another book dedicated to Tibet. The author of this book is a biologist and one of the leading Russian experts on the history of Mongolia in the early 20th century, in particular the epic of Baron Ungern. The book is published in Nartang, the publishing house of A. A. Terentyev, a prominent and respected St. Petersburg Tibetologist.

Why did this particular book catch my attention? Formally, the monograph is a summary of the history of Tibet from ancient times to the present, but the author's concept allows the author to avoid repeating his predecessors.

It is quite obvious (and this is stated in the Preface) that one of the main goals of writing this book was to understand in detail the international status of Tibet, the history of its relations with China and other countries, and the legitimacy of its current position. The acuteness of this issue in many places makes S. L. Kuzmin noticeably deviate from the academic style of presentation in the direction of journalism, but, in my opinion, this does not harm the book in any way, since the facts in the work are presented in detail and analyzed scientifically and scrupulously. Especially noteworthy is the rich illustrative material; many of the photographs included in the book were published for the first time.

The author's preeminent attention to the new and even recent history of Tibet defines the special face of the book and makes its presence in historiography quite justified and even useful. The fact is that academic research on Tibet mainly focuses on its ancient and medieval history, while the authors try to avoid the bleeding wounds of modernity as much as possible. S. L. Kuzmin, on the contrary, writes in detail and with expertise about modernity. In addition, the vast mass of books devoted to the current situation of Tibet is often very superficial, because their authors, fearing to make their work (usually of a very popular nature) too voluminous and difficult for the potential reader, and also realizing their lack of qualifications in such complex issues, do not dare to delve deeply into the history of Tibet. This shortcoming was also avoided by S. L. Kuzmin's work. He believes, and quite justifiably, that it is impossible to talk about the problems of the present without referring to the past. This approach is welcome.

However, an excursion into ancient and medieval history, which takes up no more than a hundred pages of a voluminous work, with the exception of the very interesting chapter "State and social structure, economy" - a completely original analytical review-does not seem to be a great success of the author, being, in fact, a presentation of two or three well-known works on this topic, which can immediately alienate a specialist from the book with its compilability. However, since the task of the author was not to write the ancient history of Tibet, it is already enough to write about the ancient history of Tibet.-

1 Among the most recent Russian publications, I would like to mention the book by E. I. Kychanov and B. N. Melnichenko "The History of Tibet from Ancient Times to the present day "(Moscow: Vostochnaya Litra, 2005), which has already become auvuvre de reference on this topic.

2 The numerous books written by Alexandra David-Neel, the first European woman to visit Lhasa, are vivid examples of this genre. Despite the incredible number of absurdities and wonders that fill the pages of her books, they feel the living breath of old Tibet, and that is why they are being reprinted now.

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Although it is still well-studied and described, the historical part is intended for the non-specialist reader as an introduction, and such a minimalistic approach may be justified.

S. L. Kuzmin pays much more attention to the new and recent history of Tibet, and it is in this area that the author's main achievements lie. Perhaps, until now, this period of Tibetan history has not been described so thoroughly and in detail in Russian historiography. In particular, I would like to mention the most detailed description of the recent history of Tibet: the "peaceful liberation" of 1950 - 1951 (p. 163-194); the period preceding the anti - Chinese uprising of 1959 (p. 194-243); the insurgency and repression that followed the suppression of this uprising (p. 44-287), as well as the implementation of the policy in Tibet The Cultural Revolution (pp. 288-347). The author, although it seems, and not without difficulty, generally remains within the framework of scientific analysis, avoids lyrical and journalistic digressions, but this is the case when the facts themselves act more strongly than any delights of oratory.

Almost one hundred pages are devoted to the history of Tibet after the death of Mao Zedong and the beginning of Deng Xiaoping's reforms (pp. 348-443). I would like to draw special attention to this fact: as you know, dozens, if not hundreds, of detailed studies are devoted to this period in the historiography of Chinese history, while the history of Tibet at this time, for a number of reasons of a subjective and objective nature, is almost an absolute blank spot. To write this chapter, S. L. Kuzmin collected a huge amount of information from various sources, which resulted in a completely objective and convincing canvas, despite the fact that the author does not hide his sympathy for the idea of Tibetan independence. The chapter on the modern period will be of interest to both a specialist in the modern history of China and a specialist in the history of Tibet, as it covers the life of this remote and backward region in an original way under the conditions of reforms that have radically changed the face of the PRC. It seems that it is in the case of Tibet that the dialectical basis of Chinese reforms, which change some social foundations in order to leave others intact, becomes most evident.

In particular, I would like to mention an interesting and thorough review of the situation of Tibet and its desire for independence from the point of view of international law (pp. 444-507). The author examines the arguments of both sides in detail; his conclusions are quite convincing, since they were achieved through a strictly scientific and objective analysis. In fact, this review is a detailed conclusion to the book, which, as already mentioned, is all built on the analysis of the prerequisites and grounds for the current situation, as well as the possibilities of its development.

With all the undoubted advantages of the book, it is impossible not to note its shortcomings, which are also quite a few. These shortcomings are extremely annoying, because they greatly spoil the impression of an interesting and useful study. These include the above-described tendency of S. L. Kuzmin to poorly original compilation in cases when a particular period is not of direct interest to him as a researcher. I will also mention the careless construction of some phrases, which makes it difficult to understand the text; sometimes not quite thought-out logic of presentation; small factual errors in dates and names. All this, apparently, is due to some haste and enthusiasm of the author, which prevented him from taking a more critical look at his own text. However, this is also a considerable "merit" of the publishing house. The book is full of typos, transcription errors (especially in Chinese), inconsistencies in the design of the scientific apparatus, and minor flaws that so spoil the impression of the book and are usually eliminated during good editorial work (sometimes it seems that in this case there was no editor at all).

The listed disadvantages, although they make it difficult to read the book, nevertheless do not cancel out its positive aspects. Most of them can be removed during the reissue, which, we hope, will take place. Thanks to a huge number of previously unpublished facts and a convincing author's analysis, S. L. Kuzmin's monograph will be of interest to both the Tibetologist or Sinologist, and the layman. The reader only needs to be prepared to "wade" through minor flaws left in a hurry by the author and not selected by the editor, but for their efforts, in my deep conviction, they will be fully rewarded.

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