Session of ‘Iranian researches in Saint Petersburg’ held
The National Library and Archives of Iran held the Session of ‘Iranian researches in Saint Petersburg’ during which a historian said that Russia can be named the land of archives. Its treasures hold information about Iran which are indeed crucial for historical researches.
IBNA: The session was attended by historian Goudarz Rashtiani as well as the scientific board member of the National Library Mohsen Jafari Mozhab.
During the session Rashtiani, who had lived in Saint Petersburg for 15 months, said: “My doctoral thesis was about Iran-Russia’s ties since the fall of Safavids till the rise of Qajar; accordingly I traveled to the country to study its documents and archives particularly the personal archives of Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky.”
Some 300 years have passed since the establishment of Saint Petersburg, he said and added: “Building the city, Russia intended to join Europe. The city was established in 1730 and remained the country’s capital until 1917. In 1914 the name of the city was changed to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad and in 1991, back to Saint Petersburg.”
“Griboyedov Canal is a canal in Saint Petersburg, although Griboyedov is a notorious figure in Iran but he indeed had a great influence on conveying Persian terms to Russian. Russia can be named the country of archives”, he added.
Russia’s archives of old documents hold documents related to the Safavids and all the embassies, Rashtiani said.
Every city with a population of 5,000 people holds an archive in the municipality as well, for instance the archive of Saint Petersburg’s municipality preserves the city’s crucial activities. Unlike Iran, Russia’s archive system is developed as the Russian researchers admit that no critical documents have been ruined. For instance Russia holds the documents of Treaty of Turkmenchay and Gulistan while Iran fails to do so, he noted.
Rashtiani studied different archives including Saint Petersburg Orientology College, Russian State Historical Archive, The Russian State Naval Archive, National Library of Russia (Saltykov-Shchedrin) as well as Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He added: “Saint Petersburg Orientology College holds 60 Persian documents. The Russian State Naval Archive contains activities released to the Caspian Sea’s martial activities as well as data released to the Afsharieh era (John Elton). Russian State Historical Archive holds information dating back to the 18 and 19 century till the 1917 Revolution. National Library of Russia holds 14,000 Persian documents while the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences is house to 10,000 Arabic and 4000 Persian manuscripts.”
Talking about Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky he added: “The archive of Minorsky is the most important archive available on Iran. He was born on February 5, 1877 in Korcheva. He made his first trip to Iran in 1902, where he collected material on the Ahl-e Haqq. He has left back several memoirs.”
Source: Iran Book News Agency (IBNA)
