March 19, 2024 is the 75th birthday anniversary of Vadim Yuryevich Klimov, Candidate of Sciences in History, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher at the Department of Far Eastern Studies, IOM RAS, and the most eminent Russian specialist in medieval Japanese history.

After graduating from the Department of Oriental Studies (Leningrad State University) with specialization in Japanese history, Vadim Y. Klimov decided to devote his life to Japanese Studies and in 1981 began his post-graduate studies at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies under the guidance of M.V. Vorobyov, Doctor of Sciences in History. His research focused on the Muromachi period (1338‒1573) that remains one of the most understudied areas in Japanese studies in Russia. Having finished his post-graduate studies, V.Y. Klimov joined the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies as an assistant and in 1986 successfully defended his Candidate of Sciences dissertation entitled “Peasant movements in 14th-15th century Japan”. Prior to this, he visited Japan for the first time to conduct research as a Japan Foundation fellow.

In 1998‒1999 V.Y. Klimov worked as a visiting professor at the Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan) where he made the acquaintance of many Japanese scholars, thereby establishing the foundation for numerous research projects. Together with scholars of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo and other institutions across Japan, V.Y. Klimov began work to find and catalogue written sources on Japanese history that are kept in Saint Petersburg archives. As a result of this project two catalogues were published: “Documents on Japanese history kept at the Russian State Historical Archive” (2010) and “Documents on Japanese history kept at the Russian State Navy Archive” (2011). In the course of this work research interests of V.Y. Klimov expanded to include the history of Russia-Japan relations in the 18th-19th centuries. At present he investigates and prepares translations of unique Japanese sources on this topic.

From the very start of his research career, V.Y. Klimov attached importance to passing on knowledge to the next generation. For many years he has taught at the Department of Oriental Studies (Saint Petersburg State University), and after returning to the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS in 2010, he continued to teach at the Oriental Institute, Russian Christian Humanities Academy, Japan Centre, Higher School of Economics (Saint Petersburg).

Now Vadim Y. Klimov is the recognized leader of Saint Petersburg Japanese studies: every conference, thesis defence and article collection involves his participation. He is actively conducting research, always amazing his colleagues and students by a wide scope of his research interests and deep knowledge. V.Y. Klimov is the most prominent expert in Russia on medieval Japanese history and the history of Russia-Japan relations in the 18th-19th centuries. He has published more than 100 works on these topics.

Everyone at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS, colleagues and friends, sincerely congratulate Vadim Y. Klimov with this significant anniversary and wish him good health and new research successes.

We would like to thank V.Y. Klimov for many years of diligent work and dedication to scholarship.

Irina F. Popova, Corresponding member of the RAS, Doctor of Sciences in History
Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS