Bulyash Khoichievna Todaeva, the oldest researcher in the Department of Asian and African Languages of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, died on September 22, 2014 at the age of 100. It's a pity she didn't live to be a hundred years old in just four months. Bulyash Khoychievna was born on January 28, 1915 in the family of a poor cattle breeder Toda Khoychiev. Her mother was Bain Chankayeva. Bulyash has known the bitterness of fate since childhood: her father died in 1925 at the age of 37. But in her life of those years there were also happy moments. After graduating from Maloderbetovskaya secondary school in 1931, Bulyash worked as a secretary of the Komsomol district committee bureau, and later as a teacher at the Iki-Manlan elementary school. After completing her studies at the Astrakhan Pedagogical Institute with honors in 1938, she taught at the Elista Pedagogical School and worked part-time at the Kalmyk Institute for Teacher Improvement. In 1940-another misfortune, my stepfather suddenly died. Bain was left alone with a bunch of kids in her arms. In the winter of 1944, she herself died during the deportation of Kalmyks at the age of 50.

The thirst for knowledge led Bulyash to Moscow, where in March 1941 she entered the postgraduate course of the Institute of Languages and Scripts of the Peoples of the USSR. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the institute was evacuated to Kazakhstan, but she did not go, she worked at a defense plant in Moscow.

Despite the hardships of wartime, Bulyash Khoychievna completed her PhD thesis on "Semantics and syntactic functions of cases in Mongolian-Oiran dialects" and successfully defended it in 1946. She became the first candidate of sciences among Kalmyks.

In those years, she met a young scientist, Professor G. P. Serdyuchenko (1904-1965), with whom she later linked her life forever. Highly educated, talented and erudite G. P. Serdyuchenko beneficially influenced her rapid development as a researcher. Her husband was a prominent figure in the scientific world: Doctor of Philology (1947), Professor (1947), corresponding member. APN RSFSR (1950).

The Kalmyks were still in deportation, the security agencies were looking for fugitives, sometimes catching those who did not come into their field of vision. G. P. Serdyuchenko was hiding his wife, saving her, but they suddenly raided the Institute with a claim that Todaeva "should be with the people". Then G. P. Serdyuchenko told them that she was his wife and should stay with her husband, and demanded: "Then put us together," and they were left alone.

B. Kh. Todaeva worked in the sector of Turkic-Mongolian languages of the Institute of Language and Thinking of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1946-1950), at the same time as a senior researcher of the Turkic sector at the Institute of Teaching Methods of the APN of the RSFSR (1948-1949). Her monograph "Grammar of the modern Mongolian language: Phonetics and Morphology" was the first major work in Mongolian philology of that time, created on the basis of written literature in Cyrillic and was highly appreciated by experts.

One of the brightest pages in B. Kh. Todayeva's personal life and scientific activity was working together with her husband as part of a Soviet scientific expedition in the People's Republic of China (1954-1957). She worked as a research consultant at the Academy of National Minorities and taught a course in modern Mongolian at the Department of Mongolian Philology. In 1954-1957, B. Kh. Todaeva took an active part in organizing and conducting linguistic expeditions to study the languages and dialects of Mongolian ethnic groups living in China. She wrote:"...I learned Mongolian languages on the spot and traveled all over the North-West of the country, starting with Manchuria and ending with the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. My subjects of study were Dagur, Mongol, Dongxiang, Boan, as well as the Mongol language of Inner Mongolia, the Yellow Uyghurs, and the Oirats of Xinjiang. As part of a linguistic expedition in 1956, I visited the Oirats of Xinjiang and spent two whole summer months among them. My route passed through Tarbagatai, the Khobuksar Autonomous District, where Torguts, Eluts, and Khoshuts lived compactly. The meeting with them was unforgettable. These Oirats received us with great cordiality and unprecedented hospitality. I had many excellent informants, but among them stood out Batnasan, who later became a famous epic singer in the performance of "Jangar", he recorded proverbs, wedding ceremonies, fairy tales,as well as samples of live colloquial speech. " ¹

B. Kh. Todaeva was and remains one of the discoverers of the languages and dialects of the Mongolian ethnic groups of the PRC. She published her works for a number of years in many publications, significantly enriching Mongolian linguistics. Fortunately, she lived a long life and with her great ability to work and erudition was able to implement the plans outlined for herself. The unique material collected during her research trips was reflected in a series of her scientific works: "The Dongxiang language "(1961), "The Bao'an Language" (1964), " The Language of the Yellow Uyghurs "(1966, co-authored with E. R. Tenishev), " The Mongol Language. Research, texts, and dictionary "(1973), " The Mongol Language of Inner Mongolia. Materials and dictionary" (1985), "Dagur language" (1986), etc. She studied all the local non-written languages and dialects of the Mongolian ethnic groups that still live on their ancestral land.

She published a generalizing work "Mongolian Languages and Dialects of China" (1960), which made a great contribution to the comparative history of Mongolia. In the monograph, B. Kh. Todaeva summarized information about the territorial languages and dialects of Mongolian ethnic groups, linking them with the works of A. Mostaert, A. Smedt, the Mongolian scholar Chingeltei and others, which is why her work differs from the well-known comparative grammars of G. D. Sanzheev, N. N. Pope and later studies. Professor Yu. A. Yankhunen comments about her works: "B. Kh. Todayeva's works on the Mongolian languages of Kukunor are still one of the most extensive and reliable sources of information on these peculiar varieties of Mongolian speech, which even now remain little known and poorly studied. It can even be said that Todaeva managed to "save" the languages of the Kukunor Mongols for world Mongolistics. Without the works of B. Kh. Todaeva, the languages of the Kukunor Mongols would have remained unknown to a whole generation of Russian and foreign Mongolian scholars. " ²

¹ Todaeva B. Kh. (comp.) Dictionary of the Oirat language of Xinjiang. Elista: KIGI RAS, 2001, pp. 5-6.

² Yankhunen Yu. A. Etapy izucheniya mongol'skikh yazykov Kuku-Nora [Stages of studying the Mongolian languages of Kuku-Nora]. To the anniversary of B. Kh. Todaeva. Elista: KIGI RAS, 2005. p. 239 (ser. "Kalmyk intelligentsia").

After completing her teaching and scientific expedition activities in China, Bulyash Hoychievna returned to her homeland. In 1957-1958, she worked as a senior researcher at the Kalmyk Research Institute of Language, Literature and History, then in the Department of Asian and African Languages of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a senior researcher (1958-1983). This is the period of the rise of her scientific creativity. Bulyash Khoychievna's works convincingly confirm that she was a broad-minded epic scholar, the founder and collector of the lexicology of the heroic epic "Dzhangar", becoming the founder of the Oirat-Kalmyk epic lexicography.

Her " Experience of Linguistic Research of the Jangar Epic "(1976) is now considered by many folklorists to be a classic work on applied linguistics. Her "Experience... It consists of three major parts: an analysis and comparison of the epic texts; a phonetic and morphological essay and a large dictionary. The appearance of this publication was a significant event in scientific life, a significant milestone in the study of the epic "Jangar". The publication of the epic "Dzhangar" by E. B. Ovalov in Russian translation and transcription of the original in the series "Epos of the Peoples of the USSR" is largely based on the material and lexical interpretations of B. Kh.Todaeva.

Part of Opyt..., reprinted in 2009, contains only the most valuable part of it - the dictionary of the Jangara text as the richest source of ethnic culture.

A serious result of many years of work by B. Kh. Todaeva was the "Dictionary of the Xinjiang Oirat Language", based on versions and variants of songs-chapters of "Jangara", published by KIGI RAS together with the Kalmyk Book Publishing House. The study included Xinjiang versions of 60 songs from two volumes of "Jangara", materials of the Oirat expedition of 1954-1956 in China, folklore collections, etc. The vocabulary of the dictionary covered the entire rich fund of Kalmyk folklore diverse in genres.

Many versions and variants of "Jangar" were published on the basis of "clear letter". Since modern Kalmyks use the Cyrillic alphabet, there is a sharp break with the Xinjiang versions of the Jangariad. B. Kh.Todaeva performed a difficult task of translating the text of the epic into Cyrillic. The texts of the" Jangariad " are published in three volumes in modern Kalmyk script with impeccable accuracy of translation of the Oirat variants and versions of the famous monument.

Proverbs and Sayings, riddles of the Kalmyks of Russia and Oirats of Xinjiang (China) became the crown of all B. Kh. Todayeva's folklore studies. She translated samples of folk-poetic culture, taking into account the experience of her predecessors and colleagues in Russian studies, achieving adequacy and authenticity in translation into Russian.

With her fundamental works, B. Kh. Todaeva made an invaluable contribution to the national and world humanities. Her works have been published in many publishing houses, including Nauka and Vostochnaya Literatura, translated into foreign languages, and published in China, Mongolia, Hungary, and others.

B. Kh. Todayeva has published 20 books, dictionaries and monographs, in total more than 50 publications have been published. Living on a meager pension, she always felt the help and support of her small homeland, especially from KIGI RAN. Thanks to its fundamental scientific works, it is now on a par with the largest Mongolian scholars of the XX century, such as G. D. Sanzheev (1902-1982), T. A. Bertagaev (1905-1976), E. R. Tenishev (1921-2004).

For her services to the national science, her great contribution to the development of Mongolian studies, B. Kh. Todayeva was awarded the Orders of Friendship of Peoples, Badge of Honor, medals of the USSR and China. For her great contribution to the development of the spiritual culture of the Kalmyk people, she was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Kalmykia "(RK), she was awarded the title of "Honored Scientist of the Republic of Kazakhstan". She was an honorary member of the Society of Mongolian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

A few words about the human and personal qualities of B. Kh. Todaeva. She saved her younger brother Kolya from death in the Altai Territory in January 1944, when he was 15 years old. Her relatives died in the bitter cold, finding themselves without clothes, shelter and bread. Bulyash Hoychievna took the boy to Biysk, arranged for him to enter a vocational school, where he received a specialty. Over the years, she helped her brother and his extended family as much as she could.

B. Kh. Todaeva was a kind and hospitable hostess. At home in Moscow, I have hosted many Mongolian colleagues, both domestic and foreign. What strikes me is her natural modesty, taciturnity, and lack of meaning in conversations and meetings. Everyone who worked with her remembers her kindness and heartfelt involvement in the affairs of aspiring authors.

The life of a scientist continues in his research. B. Kh. Todayeva's works will be preserved forever in the history of Russian and world Mongolistics, as her scientific heritage is priceless.

MAIN WORKS OF B. KH. TODAEVA^*

Grammar of the modern Mongolian language. Phonetics and Morphology, Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1951, 195 p.

Meaning and functions of cases in the Kalmyk language. Kalmyk Research Institute of Language, Literature, History. Issue 1. Elista: Kalm. state Publishing House, 1960, pp. 163-190.

Dongxiang language, Moscow: East Lit., 1961, 148 p.

Boansk language, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1964, 155 p.

Wedding at the Hobuk trade unions / / Kr. soobshch. Institute of Peoples of Asia, Moscow: 1964, issue 83 (Ser. Mongol Studies and Turkology), pp. 172-173.

The language of the Yellow Uighurs, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1966, 82 p. (co-authored with E. R. Tenishev).

The Mongorian language, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1973, 392 p.

Experience of linguistic research of the epic "Jangar". Elista: Kalm. kn. izd-vo, 1976, 529 p.

The language of the Mongols of Inner Mongolia. Material i slovar ' [Material and dictionary], Moscow: GRVL; Nauka Publ., 1981, 276 p.

The language of the Mongols of Inner Mongolia. Essay on Dialects, Moscow: GRVL; Nauka Publ., 1985, 136 p.

Dagur language (morphology), Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1993, 189 p.

Languages of the World, Moscow: 1999. 29-36, 51-60, 60-66, 98-107, 148-152 ( essays on Boan, Dagur, Dongxiang, Mongol and Shira Yugur languages).

Dictionary of the Xinjiang Oirat language. Elista, KIGI RAS; Kalm. kn. izd-vo, 2001. 493 p.

Jangar. A heroic epic of the Xinjiang Oirat Mongols, consisting of 70 songs (chapters). In 3 volumes. Perelozhd. from the "clear letter" to Kalm. alphabet of B. Kh. Todaeva. Elista: 2005, 2006, 2008.

Proverbs, sayings and riddles of the Kalmyks of Russia and the Oirats of China. Podgot. text to the ed., Russian translation by B. Kh. Todaeva. Elista: KIGI RAS, 2007, 839 p.

"I'm studying Jangar." Kalmyk-Russian dictionary. Elista: Publishing house "Gerel", 2009. 396 p.

On scientific work in the People's Republic of China: Diary entries 1954-1957. (Linguistic expeditions to study the languages of the Mongolian peoples of China). Elista: KIGI RAS, 2012. 88 p., ill.

^* Comp. by V. E. Radnaev. For a complete bibliography of B. Kh. Todaeva's works, see: Researcher of Mongolian Languages. (To the anniversary of B. Kh. Todaeva). Elista: 2005. pp. 258-262.