A. B. PODTSEROB Candidate of Historical Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Russia and the Arab world, cultural and scientific ties, Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society Keywords:, Roszarubezhcenter The transformation of Russia into a great power in the 18th century, the appearance of Russian military and merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea led to the establishment of political contacts and the establishment of trade and economic relations with Arab countries. This, in turn, created prerequisites for establishing cultural and scientific ties with them. Since the 19th century, there has been a steady increase in interest in the Middle East and Maghreb in Russian literary and artistic circles. Many evidences of this can be found in the works of A. S. Pushkin, M. Y. Lermontov, A. S. Griboyedov, N. V. Gogol, F. M. Dostoevsky and other classics of Russian literature. Thus, Leo Tolstoy even studied Arabic during his studies at Kazan University. Later, he corresponded with the famous Egyptian theologian Muhammad Abdo1. At the beginning of the 20th century, N. S. Gumilev visited Egypt several times, and after that he wrote a number of poems dedicated to Arab countries ("Egypt", "Sudan", "Suez Canal", "Sahara", etc.). Some of them were reprinted in Egyptian newspapers. In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a movement called "musical orientalism" appeared in the Russian music school. His followers-N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. P. Borodin, M. A. Balakirev-used for their works the plots of Arabic literature, as well as individual oriental melodies, to which they gave their own interpretation. They learned their knowledge in this area from the Russian composer A. Khristianovich, who published the book "Historical Sketch of Arabic Music" after traveling to North Africa in the 60s of the XIX century. Later, the works of the "orientalists" gained popularity among Arab connoisseurs of classical music*. The growth of interest ... Read more