Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov is one of those people who happily combine talent and remarkable personal qualities. This is a bright, brave, intelligent person, a brilliant politician and scientist, for whom friendship, responsibility, honor have always meant a lot. His name has gone down in the history of our country. Yevgeny Primakov is known as a statesman who held high positions, including the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation; as an academician, a prominent scientist, a specialist in international relations and economic problems; as a skilled administrator who is able to achieve success in any field. Nevertheless, for the staff of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, it is particularly significant that for a number of years, from 1977 to 1985, Evgeny Maksimovich was the director of the Institute. E. M. Primakov came to the Institute at a difficult time when, due to objective and subjective circumstances, the Institute was pushed into the background by the younger scientific institutions of the Academy of Sciences and did not have any serious impact on the political decision-making process. Although, in general, the influence of the scientific community on policy has always been indirect, nevertheless, expert assessments have played an important role. A highly professional team with unique knowledge of the East (history, economy, culture, peculiarities of local societies) was not sufficiently in demand, and modern research was not considered a priority at the Institute. Having become a director, Evgeny Maksimovich managed to radically change the situation in the shortest possible time. The Institute, while preserving the traditional cycle and complex nature of Oriental studies, simultaneously began to work for political practice, which was of particular importance in an era when the interests of the state were largely connected with the development of relations with the l ... Read more