Vladimir Leonidovich Uspenskiy, former researcher at the IOM RAS, Doctor of Sciences in History, professor, expert in the history, religion and culture of Mongolia and Tibet has died at the age of 71 after a serious long-term illness.

Vladimir L. Uspenskiy graduated from the Leningrad State University (Faculty of Oriental Studies, Department of Mongolian philology) and began his postgraduate studies at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies (1981–1984). Later he was a Junior researcher (1984), Academic secretary for international relations (1986–1991), Senior researcher (2005–2007), Leading researcher of the Sector of Turkology and Mongolian studies and Curator of the Tibetan collection (2005). In 2009 he transferred to the Saint Petersburg State University to work at the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies (Faculty of Asian and African Studies). Main research interests of V.L. Uspenskiy were Mongolian, Tibetan and Buddhist studies. He has compiled and published a Catalogue of the collection of Mongolian manuscripts and xylographs kept at the Library of the Saint Petersburg State University. He is the author of a number of articles on book collections of famous Mongolian studies scholars of the 19th century, O.M. Kovalevsky and A.V. Popov, that are now part of the Library. He has also published many unique Mongolian manuscripts. Vladimir L. Uspenskiy was a world-class scholar, his research works on the history and philology of the Mongols are an invaluable contribution to Russian Oriental studies.