G.N. Potanin and Altai: the chronicle and the results of the stays

In this paper themotives, purposes and results of visiting of Altai (Russian Altai) by G.N. Potanin in period from 1852 till 1915 are analyzed. For the firsttime Potanin visited this region in 1852 when he arrived to Semipalatinsk for military service. From here he went to Ust-Kamenogorsk,where for the first time in his life he saw mountains - western flanks of Altai. He had also been in these locations later, because of both militaryservice and expeditions in 1863-1864 to the mountain range Tarbagatay and lake Zaysan. Here he also became acquainted with life andeconomical activity of the population of valley of Buhtarma. In 1855-1856 Potanin was on a military service at the stanitsas Antonyevskayaand Charyshskaya in the valleys of northern flanks of Altai. All this time besides military service and expeditionary works he was activelyoccupied by studying geography of the territory, collecting herbarium, researching ethnography and folklore of both Russian and nativepopulation of this region. In 1877 and 1879 Potanin traversed Altai through the Chuyskiy road in view of expeditions to Mongolia. He usedthis circumstance too to research the geography of the region and the economic status of aboriginal population, and also to collect folklorestuff. Next period of visiting of Altai by Potanin was related to the so-called voyages in 1908-1915 to Anos and Onguday for the rest. Inactual fact he used this time for ethnographical observations, collection and processing of folklore stuff. Potanin published all collected materialscompletely enough (the paper cites references to these publications). The results of his ethnographical observations and folklore stuffare of scientific interest up to the present time.

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