ON YU. V. GANKOVSKY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL AND WORLD PAKISTANI STUDIES (TO THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY)

There are some unique, rare specialists in Russian and world Oriental studies, whose names and fundamental works are associated with the creation of a new, separate area of research. Such scholars include Yuri V. Gankovsky — an outstanding Russian orientalist, Professor, Doctor of History, who traveled a long and fruitful way of academic maturity within the walls of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences / Russian Academy of Sciences (1956–2001). His research interests included the study of the Middle East, Central and South Asia countries. However, in a wide range of Professor Gankovsky’s academic research the central place was occupied by problems related to the history and contemporary state of Pakistan, which appeared on the world political map in 1947. His useful research works on different aspects of the domestic Pakistani studies, the creator and head of which he was, received worldwide fame and recognition. His huge creative legacy retains not only its scholarly relevance, but practical significance as well. It is not an exaggeration to say, that Yuri V. Gankovsky with his fruitful academic work and effective public activities, intertwined with it, as he also was the president of Pakistan Friends Association, laid the foundation for one more relevant area — academic diplomacy, which feeds official diplomacy in building constructive Soviet / Russia-Pakistan relations. According to his correct assessment, they are not determined by conjunctural considerations, but proceed from the long-term vital state interests of these two regionally close countries. All this was confirmed by the realities of current Russia-Pakistan relations, which are now on the rise.