Matthias Alexander Castrén’s Siberia Trip, Notes and Letters

Abstract

The first known name associated with the research of the Ural-Altaic languages in the Tsarist Russia ​​in the 19th century is Matthias Alexander Castrén. In accordance with the understanding of sovereignty of Tsarist Russia, there were very important cultural works in world history and nearly most of them were prepared under the supervision of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In these studies, the importance was given to researching the Finno-Ugric and Turkish-Tatar peoples and their languages, and sufficient funds were allocated for field research. St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, University of Helsinki and University of Kazan were used as scientific institutions. Besides Castrén, who is related to these institutions, it is also possible to name his contemporaries, Elias Lönnrot, Johan Vilhelm Snellman and Herman Kellgren, who made important contributions to the cultural history of Suomi. Castrén, who worked at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences during the mentioned period, carried out a research trip that lasted four years, and continued to the Chinese border by using the route of Russia, Western and Central Siberia and Lake Baikal. Especially, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, the researches in the fields of philology and history were continued, and the primary aim of the studies was targeted scientific materials. Like being in Castrén’s travels, field researches were also funded in these activities. Such type of studies reveals that Finnish Turkology exists only thanks to Russian financing. Although the evaluation of the research results from a political perspective is the other study topic for research, it can be said that they make significant contributions to Turkology.