Kovalevskiĭ, Osip Mikhaĭlovich, 1801-1878

Józef Kowalewski (Russian: Иосиф Михайлович Ковалевский, romanized: Iosif Mikhaylovich Kovalevsky; 9 January 1801 – 7 November 1878) was a Polish orientalist. He was the founder of the Philomatic Association. In 1824, he was convicted by the Russian authorities for pro-independence Polish activity and exiled into Russia. He was allowed to study at the Kazan University, where he studied Mongolia, particularly the Mongolian language and Tibetan Buddhism. In 1833, he founded the Department of Mongolian Studies at Kazan University – the first in Europe. In the years 1844–1849, he published his major work, a Mongolian–Russian–French dictionary. In 1862, he was allowed to return to Poland (then a part of the Russian Empire); he refused to support the January Uprising and did not oppose the Russification of Polish education, for which he became the dean of the Philological and Historical Faculty of the University of Warsaw.