On the History of the Foundation of the Institute of Slavic Studies in the Soviet Union: «The Prague» Project. 1926–1928

Based on archival materials, the article analyzes the international context in which the project of establishing the Institute of Slavic studies in the USSR, drawn up in the Soviet mission in Prague in 1926, appeared. The Institute was supposed to train specialists for work in the Slavic states and conduct research in various fields of Slavic studies. The documents of the mission show that the foundation of the Institute of Slavic studies was one of the initial stages in the extensive program for the development of broad scientific and cultural relations of the USSR with Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Poland. According to the plan of the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Czechoslovakia Vladimir A. Antonov-Ovseenko and the head of the press bureau of the mission Roman O. Jakobson, the implementation of this program would have helped to increase the effectiveness of Soviet foreign policy towards the Slavic states.