Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2014, 120 p.

The book under review, despite the modest subtitle "analytical review", is, without exaggeration, a rare publication, since its authors for the first time introduce into scientific circulation the entire range of sources in Russian devoted to the study of Taiwan during the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945). V. C. Golovachev is a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a well-known expert on China, who spent many years in Taiwan and knows the history and current state of affairs on the island firsthand. Professor V. E. Molodyakov is also widely known among Russian and foreign Orientalists, mainly Japanese, because his research interests are related to the recent history of Japan, including the history of Japan's foreign policy in the period between the two World Wars. For many years, he has taught at Takuseku University (Japan), which was founded as a research center for Taiwan studies, which was dictated by the interests of the Japanese colonial administration on the island. It should be noted that the peer-reviewed work is one of the stages of a multi-year joint research project between the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Takuseku University. Thus, we can say that Russian scientists, no matter where they work, in Russia or abroad, find an opportunity to combine their efforts, which result in a deeper understanding of the little-studied pages of the history of the East and the contribution that Russian researchers have made to this.

A characteristic feature of the publication is that it not only introduces new valuable sources on the topic, but also provides notes containing biographical information about the authors of these materials, which, of course, creates a more complete impression of both the era and those who left us the first eyewitness accounts of events in the history of Russian Oriental studies. events that took place on the island at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries.

Structurally, the book consists of three chapters: the first is devoted to an overview of the ideas of Russian travelers and researchers about Taiwan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (V. Golovachev); the second deals with the views on Taiwan that were characteristic of the Soviet press and were reflected in the documents of the Comintern of the 1920s and 1930s (V. Molodyakov). Finally, the last chapter, written jointly by the authors, provides an insight into the development of the study of Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule in the post-war and post-Soviet periods.

In the last third of the XIX century. Taiwan was only one of the remote provinces of the Qing Empire, the state of affairs in which was little known outside of China. This is quite possible

It can also be attributed to Russia, which was just beginning to show interest in the island, which was the result of several circumstances: it was in the second half of the XIX century. Russia was truly entrenched on its Far Eastern borders and turned into a Pacific power, which dictated an increased interest in events taking place in East Asia. Russia's growing neighbor in the Far East, Japan, began to show interest in establishing control over the island. In 1874, the Japanese government organized a major military expedition to Taiwan. In the summer of this year, Taiwan was visited by the gunboat Gornostay under the command of Lieutenant Commander V. A. Terentyev, who left a number of interesting information about the island in his official report, which was the first "direct" report from the scene (p. 13-15).

Just a few months later, another (now exploratory) expedition to the island took place, undertaken by ensign P. I. Ibis of the Russian Navy (winter 1875), who managed to walk the Island from south to north for two months. The peculiarity of the Ibis expedition was that, often at the risk of his life, he visited the deep areas inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines, who clearly did not like foreigners. He holds the first place among Russian travelers in studying the ethnography of Taiwan and some features of aboriginal languages. Along with this, he collected a lot of valuable information about the history of the island and the current situation in Taiwan. Articles and unique author's drawings published by Ibis in the Russian and foreign press became a kind of" discovery " of the island not only for the Russian, but also for the European reading public (pp. 16-24).

After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the transformation of Taiwan into a Japanese colony, Russian interest in the island only increased. The authors of the book, referring to archival materials, cite previously unpublished reports of the Russian military agent in China and Korea, K. I. Vogak, who visited Taiwan in 1896 and collected important information about the situation on the island, including an overview of the military and economic situation, as well as Japanese plans to pacify and develop their new colony. Doctor and entomologist A. K. Moltrecht became the second Russian after the Ibis to make a hiking expedition to Taiwan in the winter of 1908 and visit the native areas. In his report on the expedition, he provided valuable research materials on the island's wildlife, living conditions, and customs of the Taiwanese Aborigines (pp. 35-37). On the eve of the First World War, a graduate of the University of Tokyo, S. G. Eliseev, who later became a very famous scientist, also managed to visit Taiwan. His report on the expedition provides an unbiased account of the situation on the island and the policies pursued by the Japanese administration in a wide variety of areas.¹

It should be noted, and this is especially emphasized by the authors of the book, that Russian travelers and researchers of this period sought to assess the situation in Taiwan on the eve and after the establishment of Japanese rule as objectively as possible. While pointing out the brutality of the measures used by the Japanese colonial administration, they also paid tribute to the success that it had achieved in the areas of administration, education, hygiene policy, financial management, etc. The need to study the positive colonial experience of the Japanese, in particular their opium policy, was pointed out by the Russian journalist I. S. Levitov, who believed that this experience could and should be used by Russia in developing domestic policy in the Far East (pp. 32-35).

Describing the next, post-revolutionary period in the study of Taiwan, the authors note, not without reason, that during these years "class Marxist approaches to the study of" Formosa under the rule of Japanese imperialism" prevailed in Russian science, which were now carried out in revolutionary interests, under the sensitive and vigilant control of the Soviet state " (p.44). In the second chapter of the book, the reader is presented with a gallery of works by Soviet authors who, in accordance with the policy of the Comintern, looked at Taiwan primarily from the point of view of exposing the actions of the Japanese authorities and the prospects for a proletarian revolution on the island. Against this background, T. S. Yurkevich's book published in 1925 clearly stands out as an unbiased approach. It immediately drew criticism and accusations that its author was an apologist for Japanese imperialism. Yurkevich, who had never been to Taiwan and mostly used a wide variety of literature, could not help but admit that along with the establishment of a regime of brutal oppression, the Government of the Republic of Korea had been forced to leave the country.-

¹ For more information, see: Golovachev V. TS., Perminova V. A. S. G. Eliseev's report on Formosa to the Society of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg (1915) as a historical and biographical source. 2014. N 6. pp. 129-141.

The Japanese administration has made some positive progress in improving the living conditions of the island's population and preventing epidemic diseases (pp. 54-55).

In 1927, the outstanding linguist and ethnographer N. A. Nevsky conducted scientific research in Taiwan. His trip to Taiwan was made possible because at that time he was living and teaching at Japanese universities and was not a Soviet citizen. The result of his research in Taiwan was a book devoted to the Tsou language, a dialect of one of the Taiwanese aboriginal tribes. After Nevsky's return to his homeland, the book was published in the USSR and was highly appreciated by linguists and ethnographers around the world.

Another outstanding Russian scientist who managed to visit the island in the autumn of 1929 was Academician N. I. Vavilov. His interests were not in the study of economic and political issues, but in the study of the plant world of Taiwan and the state of agriculture. His short visit was extremely productive, as evidenced by Vavilov's report published in 1930. Without touching on general assessments of the policy of the Japanese colonial administration, the Soviet scientist nevertheless highly appreciated the achievements in the development of agronomic science and the educational system as a whole.

As the authors of the review emphasized at the end of the second chapter, "Taiwan studies, as well as the entire Soviet Oriental studies, suffered a heavy blow during the years of the 'Great Terror', the impact of which continued to affect them for many decades" (p.94). From their list of victims of repression during this period, it is clear that most of those who somehow came into contact with Taiwanese topics were shot or died in Soviet prisons.

After World War II, the study of Taiwan in the USSR virtually ceased, as a result of the Cold War situation and the lack of any ties between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China. A brilliant exception was the publication in 1978 of the book by F. A. Toder, which was based largely on the author's PhD thesis, which had been waiting for publication for ideological and censorship reasons for about thirty years. The monograph, based on a wide range of sources in Chinese, Japanese, and European languages, was the first fundamental and objective study of the history of Taiwan, including the period of Japanese rule, in Soviet literature. This work, in the correct opinion of the authors of the book, retains its scientific value to this day.

Only since the early 2000s has the study of Taiwan in Russia begun to take on a comprehensive and interdisciplinary character. Over the past twenty years, there have been groundbreaking works devoted to little-known pages of Taiwan's history in the first half of the twentieth century, certain aspects of the policy of the Japanese administration, and the perception of events that took place on the island in Russia. Among them, first of all, there are numerous publications by V. TS Golovachev devoted to the study of Taiwan in Russia at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, as well as a monograph by K. M. Tertitsky and A. E. Belogurova on the history of the communist movement on the island, based on archival documents of the Comintern. As the authors rightly note in the last chapter of their book: "In general, these positive changes were the result of the growing openness of post-Soviet Russia and democratic Taiwan, the consolidation of the entire world of Taiwanese studies, and, finally, the trend towards a" postcolonial" academic rethinking of many of the most important aspects related to the history of Japanese rule in Taiwan " (p.103).

A notable convenience in working with the monograph is provided by the "Personal Index" (p. 114-116) and "List of Sources and literature" in Russian, English, German and Japanese (p.107-133).

In conclusion, the author of the review should emphasize that this is a serious scientific work, not devoid of literary merit, which will attract the attention of not only specialists, but also those who are interested in little-studied pages of history.

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