The situation of the Russian Palestine Society in the second half of the 1920s based on materials from the Archive of Orientalists of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The activities of the Russian Palestine Society after its restoration in 1926 faced numerous problems that were of chronic and systemic character. The lack of its own location, limited access to its archive, insufϐicient funding, and lack of foreign travel presented great difϐiculty for the Society and its members. The article provides archival materials, which illustrate these problems. Based on the analysis of the Archival materials, one could conclude that all the difϐiculties originated from the reluctance of Soviet authorities to provide support to the Society. As a result, the research activity of the Society in the 1930s was curtailed. It resumed only in the 1950s in connection with the growing role of the Palestine question in the post-war politics. Due to the lack of funds and stagnation the scholarly potential of the Society, as well as valuable research projects, had already been lost. The lack of potentially important results could not positively contribute to the assessment of the political situation in the Middle East in the second half of the 20th century.