Nikolai A. Nevsky:
A Commemorative Symposium

An International Conference Marking the 120th Anniversary of the Birth of Nikolai A. Nevsky

Information Letter

The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences announces “Nikolai A. Nevsky: A Commemorative Symposium”, an international conference in honor of the 120th anniversary of the outstanding Russian scholar Nikolai Aleksandrovich Nevsky (1892-1937). Nevsky was one of the founders of Japanese, Ainu, Ryūkyūan and Tangut studies in Russia. He spent 14 years in Japan and in an impressive way personified Russian-Japanese scientific and cultural cooperation, making a significant contribution to the formation of Japanese ethnography, and folklore and dialect studies. While in Japan, Nevsky also began the study of the manuscripts in the dead Tangut language and later succeeded in deciphering its script. For that achievement, he was posthumously awarded the Lenin Prize, the highest award in the Soviet Union, in 1962. Nevsky’s tragic fate, execution in 1937, led to a situation wherein most of his works were left unfinished or unpublished, and his name forgotten for many years. Fortunately, thanks to Russian and Japanese researchers who took an interest in Nevsky’s life and scientific achievements, his researches have been partially published and are still the subject of study today. “Nikolai A. Nevsly: A Commemorative Symposium” serves to perpetuate and develop this trend. The main purpose of this event is to attract the attention of researchers to the study and publication of Nevsky’s heritage. Another goal is to stimulate interest in the role of studies at the periphery – regional and local cultural differences – as well as the study of vanishing (Ainu, Ryūkyū, Tsou) or extinct (Tangut) cultures.

The principal organizer of the symposium:

• Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Co-organizers of the symposium: 

• Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Russian Institute for Cultural Research 
• Department of Japanese Studies, the Faculty of Asian and African Studies of St. Petersburg State University

Languages at the symposium: Russian, Japanese, English