SCHMIDTS, Peter (Pēteris Šmits, Russian Pëtr Petrovič Šmidt). Rauna, Latvia (then of Russia) 25.12.1869 — Riga 5.6.1938. Latvian Linguist, Ethnographist and Sinologist. Professor of IE Antiquity and Baltic Philology at Riga. Studied Russian, Chinese and Manchu in Moscow and St.Petersburg. After a long visit to China he became Professor of Chinese at Vladivostok in 1899. Taught there until 1920, then returned to Latvia. As Professor in Riga he mainly concetrated on Latvian folklore.
Publications: Wrote on Manchu-Tungus languages and on Latvian folklore.
Sources: *Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 47, 1938; C. Naeher, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Manchu-Tungus Studies 1, 2002, 68ff.; Russian and *Latvian Wikipedia with photo.
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