“Military Oriental studies: 80th anniversary of the Great Victory” (information letter)

On June 23‒24, 2025, the international conference “Military Oriental studies in service to the Fatherland: 80th anniversary of the Great Victory” will take place at the IOM, RAS.

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Dear colleagues and friends!

In 2025 we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the heroic Victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War (1941‒1945). Defending the independence and future of our Fatherland was the common cause of all the citizens. Every family in the former USSR has experienced that war. Some were fighting in battles, others were working on the home front.

The war impacted our Institute. On the memorial plaque at the IOM RAS there is a list of 37 names of Institute researchers and staff members who fell in battle or died during the siege of Leningrad.

Out of 130 researchers and staff members working at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Leningrad in June 1941 only 27 remained in May 1942. In July 1941 a large group joined the People’s Militia as volunteers, some were conscripted for military service. A group was evacuated to Tashkent where they continued to conduct research and were also actively involved in teaching. Many of their postgraduate students later established national schools of Oriental studies in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Many Orientalists stayed in Leningrad and continued their academic work. In addition to regular academic topics, they also produced military-related works (dictionaries, reference materials, patriotic texts for wide readership). The Institute’s manuscript collections were not evacuated and were kept during the war in the Academy of Sciences Library (where the Institute was located at the time). Daily heroic efforts of a small group of guardians made it possible to preserve the Institute’s manuscript and book collections. Many researchers returned from evacuation in May 1945.

Returning war veterans successfully joined the Institute and many of them became brilliant Orientalists.

Graduates from the Leningrad State University’s Faculty of Oriental Studies who were born before the Great Patriotic War also started working at the Institute. All researchers who experienced war were dedicated to research and scholarship throughout their lives.

We congratulate our veterans, former researchers of the Institute, on the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, and wish them health, wellbeing, peace of mind, happiness, satisfaction from their achievements, and confidence in the future of academic science in Russia. Starting this year, announced by the President as the "Year of Fatherland defenders", we will print previously unpublished research works and memoirs.

Congratulations on the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory!

Detailed information with photos is available on the Russian website.