On August 9, 2011 Dr Yury L. Kroll celebrated his 80th birthday.

In 1949, Y. Kroll was admitted to Leningrad State University, the Faculty of Oriental Studies. While a student, he started his in-depth research into the history of Ancient China. In 1954, his qualification paper, The Qin Empire. Its Formation and Crisis. Rebellion of Chen She & Wu Guang [Империя Цинь. Ее образование и кризис (восстание Чэнь Шэ — У Гуана)], was awarded as the best student paper. During 1954-57, he was a doctoral student at the university, being supervised by acad. V.V. Struwe and Dr B.I. Pankratov. Then, he joined the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the IOM RAS). In 1963, he defended his dissertation The Rebellion of Chen She, Wu Guang, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu against the Qin Dynasty as Reflected in Works of Sima Qian [Восстание Чэнь Шэ, У Гуана, Лю Бана и Сянь Юя против династии Цинь в трудах Сыма Цяня]. During the 1960s, he took part in the project for academic description of the Chinese block prints kept at the Institute that resulted in The Catalogue of Chinese Xylographs kept at the Institute of Oriental Studies, the USSR Academy of Sciences Каталог китайских ксилографов ИВ АН СССР (Moscow 1973). In 1986, he was appointed as a leading researcher at the Institute. In 1992, defended the Habilitation dissertation, 'Debate on Salt and Iron' as a Representation of the Chinese Culture during the Han Era [«Спор о соли и железе» – памятник китайской культуры эпохи Хань].

Dr Yury Kroll is an expert in the history of Ancient China and Chinese culture during the Han period, the 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE. The scope of his studies covers various fields such as historiography, philosophy, law, relations of China with her neighbors in ancient times. Many years he devoted to the study of Sima Qian’s famous work, Records of the Grand Historian. In 1970, he published the fundamental monograph, Sima Qian as a Historian [Сыма Цянь — историк] that was appraised by Russian and foreign scholars. In 1997-2001, he published his translation of the important treatise by Huan Kuan, Debate on Salt and Iron, dated from the 1st century BCE. Some papers of his were devoted to the history of Russian Oriental Studies. Thus, he edited a collection of essays by his tutor, Dr Boris I. Pankratov, Countries and Peoples of the East, XXIX, 1998; and a large paper on Dr R.V. Vyatkin,a pre-eminent scholar of Shih Chi (1996). All in all, Dr Y. Kroll published about 200 papers, some of them in foreign academic journals. 

In 1989-90, he took an academic training in China; in 1994-95, made a research work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He delivered a number of lectures and papers at various universities worldwide.

The administration of the IOM RAS, colleagues and friends congratulate Dr Yury Kroll with his Jubilee and wish him health and new scholarly achievements.

The IOM’s Director, Prof Dr Irina F. Popova