Vyacheslav Y. Belokrenitsky: On the Study of the East, on Pakistan, on Colleagues, and on Luck (An Interview)

Abstract

This interview with a well-known scholar in the humanities, an orientalist historian, a Pakistani scholar and a theorist of science, the head of the Center for the Near and Middle East of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Belokrenitsky was prepared as part of the project “Russian Oriental Studies — Oral History” of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, supervised by Valentin Ts. Golovachev, publisher and compiler of the authoritative series “Russian Sinology — Oral History”. Interviewers are interested in the history of the family of Vyacheslav Ya. Belokrenitsky, his life path before entering Moscow State University, professional training at Moscow University and assessment of the formation and development of Pakistani studies as an oriental specialty. The interviewee pays special attention to his colleagues-pioneers of domestic Pakistani studies — Yury V. Gankovsky, Vladimir N. Moskalenko, and others.