Selected Letters from Orest Pletner’s

Abstract

This paper contains a brief biography of Professor Orest Viktorovitch Pletner (1892-1970), one of the pioneers of Japanese studies in Russia who had lived and worked in Japan and had been awarded the Japanese Order of Culture IV Class for his scientific and educational work. The paper also presents materials from the scholar’s archive - the letters from Petrograd from his father, V.I. Pletner, and his younger brother, Oleg Viktorovich Pletner, also a scholar of Japanology. These letters are important documents of the history of Russian Japanese studies, mentioning such prominent Japanologists of the past as N.A. Nevsky, Ye.D. Polivanov, N.I. Konrad. At the same time, they are a lively response to the events that happened in Russia in 1917-1918.