Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

"The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences was established in St. Petersburg in 1818 with a primary name of Asiatic Museum. Since 1950 after some structural changes the Institute has been functioning in Moscow while the section of Oriental manusctipts being reorganised into a branch of the Institute remained in St. Petersburg. Now the Institute is the largest research centre in Russia for the study of languages and literature, history and culture, economics and politics of Asian and North African countries. It has over 600 staff members in Moscow and about 150 in St. Petersburg. They are specialists in practically all fields of Oriental Studies. More than 400 of them hold higher academic degrees.There are priceless collections of ancient books and manuscripts in the depositaries of the Institute, its library,s collection exceeds over 1 million of units.Each year hundreds of scientifical works written by the staff-members of the Institute are published."