Professor Vladimir S. Myasnikov, Academician of the RAS, Doctor of Sciences in History, outstanding Sinologist, archival scholar, expert in Russia-China relations, history of foreign policy and historical biography, died on May 14, 2025.

V.S. Myasnikov was born on May 15, 1931, in Moscow. Graduating from secondary school in 1950, he began to study at the Department of Chinese Studies at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. In 1954, he was transferred to the Department of Chinese at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). After completing his studies, he joined the team of Sinologists and Manchu scholars who worked with documents and materials of the Manchurian collection (brought to Russia in 1901 after the Boxer Uprising) preparing its transfer to the PRC government. From the first year of his career, working with archival materials became the research focus of V.S. Myasnikov. In 1956 he started to work as a researcher at the Institute of Chinese Studies created at the Institute of Oriental Studies. Under supervision of Pavel Yemelyanovich Skachkov (1892–1964), he conducted detailed research on relations between China and Russia. After the passing of P.Y. Skachkov in 1964, V.S. Myasnikov prepared, expanded and published his supervisor’s fundamental work “Essays on the history of Russian sinology” [Очерки истории русского китаеведения] (1977). After beginning his postgraduate studies in 1960 at the Institute of Asian Countries (Institute of Oriental Studies), V.S. Myasnikov prepared his candidate’s dissertation on the topic of Russia-China relations, which was defended successfully in 1964.

From 1964 to 1966 V.S. Myasnikov was a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System. From 1966 to 2025 he worked at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences) as academic secretary (1967–1969), senior researcher, department head (1969–1985), assistant director, head of the “Russia-China” Center at the same institute, and chief researcher. In 1978 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation titled “Traditional diplomacy of China and implementation of Qing strategic plans with regard to the Russian state in the 17th century” [Традиционная китайская дипломатия и реализация Цинской империей стратегических планов в отношении Русского государства в XVII веке]. He became professor in 1982. He was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in December 1990 with the specialization “General history”. Seven years later, in May 1997, he was elected an academician of the RAS with the specialization “General history, Oriental studies”.

V.S. Myasnikov supervised and actively participated in the publication of the series of volumes of archival documents “Russia-China relations” [Российско-китайские отношения] that reflect the long history and dynamics of relations between Russia and China. These materials constitute top-level research and remain relevant today because they help make thoughtful predictions about Russia-China relations and contain advice on developing them further. V.S. Myasnikov has published many works on “stratagem thinking” which is an important topic in research on foreign policy history. By 2014, V.S. Myasnikov had published the 7-volume set of works “The Castalian Spring of a Sinologist” [Кастальский ключ китаеведа]. This collection can be considered a handbook for historians and patriotic diplomats of Russia.

Vladimir S. Myasnikov, a hardworking Scholar, devoted his remarkable and admirable life to the glory and prosperity of his Fatherland.