M.M. Berezovsky as an Archaeologist (After the Materials of the Archive of Oriental Studies, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences)
Vorobyeva-Desyatovskaya Margarita I.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Berezovsky (1848–1912) graduated from the Biological Faculty of St. Petersburg University as a zoologist. Since 1876 he regularly took part in G.N. Potanin’s expeditions to Mongolia, North-Western China, Eastern Turkestan and North-Eastern Tibet. In all, Berezovsky participated in fourteen expeditions, initially as a zoologist and botanist, but in 1902–1908 as the head of expeditions to China and Central Asia. The ‘Asian Museum’ (now the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences) preserves fourteen travel journals of Berezovsky’s expeditions. Berezovsky’s archive contains also a number of his autographs, his short article on a «Journey to Tibet» and the full-size articles: «On some Issues of Archaeographic Surveying in the Conditions of Chinese Turkestan», «Material on the Fauna and Flora of China». A draft of M.M. Berezovsky’s obituary written by S.F. Oldenburg but never published is kept in Oldenburg’s archive. An indefatigable explorer, Berezovsky spent most of his life in expeditions. His collections of Tocharian manuscripts and materials for Zoological and Botanical Institutes of the RAS made his name famous.