Ismail Gasprinsky about Himself and His Contemporaries

The article introduces the autobiography of Ismail Gasprinsky, written in 1886 for the Dictionary of Russian Writers by S. A.Vengerov. This edition remained unfinished and the material about Gasprinsky was not printed. It was preserved in the Institute of Russian Literature Manuscript Department in the archive of S. A. Vengerov. The autobiography puts an end to some controversial points in the biography of I. Gasprinsky (about the enlightener’s birthplace, his studies at the Sorbonne, acquaintance with I. S. Turgenev, etc.). In addition, the article publishes a letter from I. Gasprinsky to S. Vengerov in 1888, in which he gives a list of Muslim contemporaries– literary and journalistic figures.