VICTOR POGADAEV. MALAY WORLD (BRUNEI, INDONESIA, MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE): LINGUA-CULTURAL DICTIONARY: ABOUT 9,000 ENTRIES.

Moscow: Vostochnaya kniga, 2012. 798 pp. (in Russian)*

Since the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was published in 1969-1978, more than thirty five years ago, there was no attempt to give a comprehensive outlook of the Malay world in Russian-speaking countries. Victor Pogadaev, a leading scholar from Moscow, who works at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, on his own, carried off a difficult task to write a dictionary of Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean and Brunei linguistic and cultural terms.

The dictionary contains more than 9 000 entries covering all spheres of rich Malay world cultures. Entries follow in strict alphabetical (Latin) order and a reader can easily find an entry by means of index in Russian. Entries follow Malaysian, or Indonesian, or Singaporean, or Brunei spelling, for example Mahkamah Rayuan Malaysia 'Malaysian Court of Appeal' (p. 369), Syarikat Hindua Timur Inggeris "The British East India Company" (p. 643), a Singaporean Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (p. 127), and Negara Brunei Darussalam 'the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace' (p. 437). There are entries on

* Погадасв В.A. Малайский мир (Ьруней, Индонезия, Малайзия, Сингапур). Лингвострановедческий словарь. Свыше 9 000 словарных статей. Dunia Mclayu (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapura): Kamus Lingua-Budaya. Lcbih kurang 9,000 cntri. M.: Восточная книга, 2012. 798 с. ISBN 978-5-7873-0658-3

states, nations, ethnicities, peoples, persons, political parties, ideologies, historical events, religions, gods, musical instruments, place-names, trademarks, buildings, monuments, banks, traditional weapons, dances, clothes, flooding names, linear and ton measures, epic literatures, administrative posts, military commands, courts, prayers, funds, kings, epic heroes, musicians, poets, writers, dancers, sportsmen, scholars, travellers... The dictionary contains many abbreviations that guide a reader to better understanding of Malaysian or Indonesian texts.

In fact, Victor Pogadaev published a fundamental scientific dictionary of the Malay world. He gives information on an ancient Sumatran state Sriwijaya (p. 622) and Standards & Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (p. 623), an Indonesian motor torpedo-boat 'Macan Tutul' and syllabic traditional Javanese prosody macapat (p. 365), the royal Malaysian flag Panji-Panji diraja and Malay folk poetry pantun (p. 475), an Indonesian linguist H. Gusdi Sastra and Russian literature Sastra Rusia (p. 577). I cannot imagine a cultural trait of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore or Brunei that would be omitted in the dictionary.

But in addition to broad picture of the Malay world Victor Pogadaev offers a short but informative chapter 'Russia and the Malay World: a History of Contacts' (pp. 8-20). This outline has three parts: the first on Indonesia, the second on Malaysia and Singapore, and the third on Brunei. The author tells a story of many Russian travellers who visited different parts of the Malay world: Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern (Ivan Fyodorovich), Ivan Goncharov, Konstantin Posyet and Voin Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay, Alexander Vojeikov and many others. Pogadaev treats a history of diplomatic contacts between the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation, on the one hand, and the Dutch East Indies, the Sultanate of Aceh, the Sultanate of Johor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, on the other hand.

Victor Pogadaev is a well-known translator from Russian to the Malay and from Malay into Russian [Sikorsky, 2010, pp. 148-56]. He translated many poems and novels by Anwar Ridhwan, Taufiq Ismail, Ahmad Kamal Abdullah and others into Russian and poems and novels by Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Mikhail Matusovsky, and Konstantin Balmont into Malay. Such experience gives him truly knowledge of the Malay world. The chapter 'Russia and the Malay World: a History of Contacts' as well as the entry gamelan (pp. 11 2 & 198) contains a beautiful poem Gamelan by Konstantin Balmont that Victor Pogadaev translated into Malay [Doa Penyair, 2005, pp. 30-1].

The dictionary has few inconsistencies. It gives two different years for the creation of Malaysia: erroneous 1962 (p. 14) and correct 1963 (p. 507). The Kedukan Bukit inscription dates from 682, not 683 (p. 622). There are no exact dates for Purnawarman, a king who ruled in West Java during the fifth century (the entry gives an Internet-based dating 395-434, p. 528). Perhaps, the next edition of the dictionary, highly desirable, especially in English translation, would include entries on few outstanding scholars, such as epigraphist and historian Boechari, and the entry 'prasasti Purnawarman', or inscriptions of Purnawarman, will be added by entries on other epigraphic records of the Malay world.

I find these inconsistencies irrelevant to the great scientific value of the dictionary. The Russian-speaking readers received a well-grounded, well-organized and well-written dictionary - an introduction to famous and rich culture and languages of the Malay world.

REFERENCES

Doa Penyair. Pcnyclcnggara Mohd. Dahri Zakaria, Kuala Lumpur: Sastcra Enterprise, 2005.

Sikorsky, Vilcn, "Life Is Long When It Is Full: About Dictionaries, Translations, and Other Works by Victor Pogadaev", International Affairs (2010), Special Issue, pp. 148-56 (http://intcraffairs.ru/i/pdf_ascan/17.pdf).

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