Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch

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INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL STUDIES of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch, situated at 18 Palace Square, one of the world's centres of oriental studies. It was founded as the Asian Museum on the basis of Kunstkammer's Oriental Chamber in 1818 with C. D. Fren, a member of the academy, acting as its first director in 1818-42. Manuscripts and xylographs were mainly collected between the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century by Russian scientists and diplomats. The museum was reorganised into the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1930 on the initiative of S. F. Oldenburg, a member of the academy, who was the museum and institute permanent director from 1916 to 1934. After the Institute of Oriental Studies was founded in Moscow in 1950 St. Petersburg's institute operated as the Department (and Museum) of Oriental Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, also named the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1956-60 and 1968-91, and the Institute of Asian Peoples in 1960-68 until it received its present-day name in 1990. Its major research areas include translation, publication, and study of literature monuments and thorough investigation of ancient and medieval Asian communities. A lot of members of academy worked at the institute such as V. M. Alexeev, A. P. Barannikov, V. V. Bartold, A. N. Kononov, N. I. Konrad, I. Y. Krachkovsky, Oldenburg, I. A. Orbeli, V. V. Struve, and F. I. Scherbatskoy. The institute resumed the transregional study of Buddhism based on scientific translation and study of literature in 1990s - a project started by Oldenburg and Scherbatsky within the Imperial Academy of Sciences and suspended in 1930s. The institute has been publishing Manuscripta Orientalia Journal in English from 1995. The library contains books written in oriental languages and on the Orient that totalled about one million items in 2003. The manuscript collection includes manuscripts and xylographs in 60 oriental languages that totalled about 100,000 items in 2003. The Archive of Orientalists includes 134 personal items. The institute was situated at 3 and 5 Universitetskaya Embankment and in the Library of the Academy of Sciences at 1 Birzhevaya Line in various times until it moved to the former Novomikhailovsky Palace in 1950, the palace built by architect A. I. Stakenschneider in 1857-61.

Reference: Азиатский музей - Ленинградское отделение Института востоковедения АН СССР. М., 1972; Петросян Ю. А. Встречи и расставания: Зап. востоковеда. СПб., 2002.

T. V. Ermakova. Alexeev Vasily Mikhailovich
Barannikov Alexey Petrovich
Bartold Vasily Vladimirovich
Conrad Nikolay Iosifovich
Fren Christian Danilovich (Christian-Martin)
Kononov Andrey Nikolaevich
Krachkovsky Ignaty Yulianovich
Oldenburg Sergey Fedorovich
Orbeli Iosif Abgarovich
Scherbatskoy Fedor Ippolitovich
Stakensсhneider Andrey Ivanovich
Struve Vasily Vasilievich
Birzhevaya Line/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Dvortsovaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 18
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Азиатский музей — Ленинградское отделение Института востоковедения АН СССР. М., 1972
Петросян Ю. А. Встречи и расставания: Зап. востоковеда. СПб., 2002 Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch
Kunstkammer