The team of the Department of client services of the Russian State Library congratulates you on the coming New Year’s Day and Orthodox Christmas! And for those ones who would like to spend their perfect holidays in full delight and with nourishing thought food there has been prepared the right opportunity to get that intellectual benefit! The Centre of Oriental Literature of the Russian State Library invites you to watch most interesting lectures of their invited experts if you didn’t have an opportunity to enjoy them in person on the premises of our library.

To begin with, do not miss “Cats in Korea. A Horrible Beast or a Cute Piece of Happiness” by candidate of History, head researcher of the Centre of Korean Studies of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences Konstantin Asmolov, who is also an author of the KoreaMeow Telegram channel. It is available on the link.

The miracles of Malaysia, education and culture of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, governors of Persia and their heritage, as well as the world of the Ottoman Empire will all be the themes of lectures by Nikolai Polonsky, historian and teacher, specialist in ruling dynasties and member of History and Genealogy Society, the Russian Noble Assembly and the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.

Sergey Sorochiyev, head of the Calam.Soul.Studio of Arabian calligraphy, drawing, ornament and design and calligraphy teacher of the Qatar Centre of Arabian, will introduce to you the artistic traditions of book miniature and drawing, and also the peculiarities of the manuscript fonts of the Arabic first scripts, then we will be able to track those traits in the modern design solutions.

And finally, the Jewish press in the Russian Empire is the subject by a captivating talk by candidate of History, author of books and features on the history of the Jewish press, chief librarian of the RSL Sector of acquisition of foreign editions and e-resources Ilia Pechenin.

Timetables for the coming lectures and other kinds of useful information concerning the cultural and educational activities of the RSL Centre of Oriental Literature are all available on its official Telegram channel. Pop up and join the online events! We’ve taken care for your holidays to be incredibly full and fantastically interesting!