Person:

Kim, Alexander A

The history of the Bohai studies in Russia is more than 150 years old. During those years Russian scholars have produced a number of interesting and valuable publications and combine use of written sources with study of the archeological sites. But for a long time they did not pay attention to bone remains. Only in the 1970s did Russian specialists begin to study osteological materials and this research gave a great deal of information about agriculture and other aspects of the Bohai people. In spite of this, osteological studies in the Russian Far East remain unknown in the Western academic world in many aspects, largely because almost all Russian scholars usually do not publish in English.

The author of this article considers specific character of Silla policy during the war between Chinese Empire Tang and Bohai – northern neighbor of the Korean state. This war is known to be important for the East Asian region, as it changed the political situation in the medieval Far East. Both sides used military contingents from allies and vassals. These facts prove the war had a great scale. China received military support from Heishui Mohe, Silla, Shiwei, Bohai – from Khitan, other tribes of Mohe. However, this war is unknown for many specialists of history. Moreover, the role of Silla (state which gave support to Tang Empire and changed the character of this military conflict) is not thoroughly considered and analyzed by scholars. Using different materials, the author analyses events in which Silla kingdom took part, act of war and results of this conflict, which are still controversial. The author uses materials both in European (Russian and English) and Asian (Korean and Chinese) languages.