Ivan Pavlovich Minayev or Minayeff (Иван Павлович Минаев; 21 October 1840 – 13 June 1890) was the first Russian Indologist whose disciples included Serge Oldenburg, F. Th.
As a student of Vasily Vasiliev at the University of Saint Petersburg he developed an interest in Pali literature and went abroad to prepare a catalogue of Pali manuscripts at the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale (still unpublished).
[1] Minayev's magnum opus, Buddhism: Untersuchungen und Materialien, was printed in 1887.
"Minaev was almost the first European orientalist... to feel that the study of Buddhism and Pali was a must for the proper understanding of ancient Indian history and society".
[2] As a member of the Russian Geographical Society he travelled in India and Burma and Nepal in 1874—75, 1880, and 1885—86.