Palladius (Kafarov)

He studied in Kazan seminary and Saint-Petersbourg Academy, from which was sent to the Russian Orthodox Mission in China.

During his stay in China, he discovered and published many invaluable manuscripts, including The Secret History of the Mongols.

During his scholarly career, Kafarov's works focused on Chinese linguistics, history, geography, and religion.

[1] For more than three decades, Archimandrite Palladius headed the Russian Orthodox mission in China[2] and held ethnographic and linguistic research there.

This system has remained the basis for official transcription of Chinese personal and geographical names in Russia ever since.