THE LETTERS OF HUNGARIAN EXPERT IN MONGOLIAN STUDIES BALINT GABOR TO N. I. ILMINSKY IN KAZAN (1872-1874)

Gabor Balint (Gabor Balint de Szentkatolna, 1844–1913) was an outstanding Hungarian linguist, expert in Mongolian and Turkic studies, one of the leading scholars and educators of the so-called Renaissance of Hungarian national culture and ideology of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Modern Hungarian historiography plays the leading role in studying the hand-written legacy of this researcher and educator. This is evidenced by a variety of publications dedicated to G. Balint, one of the leading experts of Austria-Hungary and Europe in the field of the Mongolian language and folklore, including ones published in the journal of Euro-Asian research called Journal of the Gábor Bálint de Szentkatolna Society and founded in 2009. The goal of this paper is to publish three previously unknown letters from Gabor Balint to N. I. Ilminsky written during the period from December of 1872 to November of 1874 (from St. Petersburg and Budapest) after his research trip to Kazan and Astrakhan and the completion of his travel to Mongolia. These letters are stored in the State Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan (coll. 968. aids 1. fol. 93).