August 3, 2026 is the 50th anniversary of Serge Leonidovich Burmistrov, Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Leading Researcher at the Section of South Asian Studies of the Department of Central Asian and South Asian Studies.

He graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University’s Faculty of Philosophy as a “philosopher, philosophy lecturer”. On November 21, 2002, he successfully defended his Candidate of Sciences dissertation titled “Comparative Analysis of Historical and Philosophical Conceptions of S.Radhakrishnan and S.Dasgupta” [Сравнительный анализ историко-философских концепций С. Радхакришнана и С. Дасгупты], supervised by Professor M.Ya. Korneev and Professor A.S. Kolesnikov. On November 25, 2010, he defended his Doctor of Sciences dissertation “The Historical and Philosophical Conception of Surendranath Dasgupta: A Comparativist Analysis” [Историко-философская концепция Сурендранатха Дасгупты: компаративистский анализ], supervised by Professor A.S. Kolesnikov.

His professional career began with teaching philosophy courses at Saint Petersburg educational institutions and from 2003 to 2011 he lectured at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Saint Petersburg State University.

In 2011, S.L. Burmistrov joined the IOM RAS as a Senior Researcher and since January 2012 he has been working as a Leading Researcher.

S.L. Burmistrov actively publishes his research results. He is the author of 5 monographs, two of them prepared at the IOM RAS. The first one is the monograph “The Vedānta Manuscripts Kept in the Indian collections of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences: An Annotated Catalogue” [Рукописи школы веданта в собраниях Института восточных рукописей РАН: аннотированный каталог] (compiled with introductory papers, translations and indexes by S. L. Burmistrov. Moscow: Nauka — Vostochnaya Literatura Publishers, 2018. 479 p.). The catalogue was published in the academic series “Pamyatniki pis’mennosti Vostoka” (Written Monuments of the Orient, vol. CLII). This catalogue of 45 Sanskrit manuscripts of the Hindu religio-philosophical Vedanta school reveals the richness of the Asiatic Museum’s (IOM RAS) collections.

His second major work is “Asanga. Compendium of Abhidharma (Abhidharma Samuccaya). Translation from Sanskrit, Introduction, Commentaries and Index by S.L. Burmistrov” [Асанга. Компендиум Абхидхармы (Абхидхарма-самуччая). Пер. с санскрита, вступит. статья, комментарий и указатели С.Л. Бурмистрова]. This 324-page work published in 2023 in the series “Pamyatniki pis’mennosti Vostoka” (vol. CLXI) is the first Russian translation of the authoritative treatise by Asanga, an outstanding Buddhist scholar of early medieval India (4th c.).

Since May 2014 S.L. Burmistrov has been managing the postgraduate studies program at the IOM, RAS.

The Institute’s administration and research staff sincerely congratulate S.L. Burmistrov on his 50th anniversary, wish him good health and continuous academic success.

We would like to thank Serge Leonidovich Burmistrov for productive scholarly and organizational work.

Irina F. Popova, Corresponding member of the RAS,
Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS