Prof. Sergey Kisselyoff’s Trip to Cyprus According to His Diary and the Official Report

The trip to Cyprus undertaken by the renowned Soviet archaeologist Sergey V. Kisselyoff in May 1962 was the first significant event of scientific diplomacy which took place between the newly established Republic of Cyprus and the Soviet Union. The documents from the personal files of Sergey Kisselyoff stored at the Archive of the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow formed until recently the main corpus of evidences for the reconstruction of this trip. But the examination of the fund of the Union of Soviet Friendship Societies and Cultural Overseas Connections (SSOD) at the State Archive of Russian Federation revealed the official report written by this scholar right on the spot and delivered to the governmental institutions through the Soviet Embassy in Nicosia. The data from the report can sufficiently complete the evidences from the trip diary of Prof. Kisselyoff and offer to precise the historical background of this journey to Cyprus and some significant episodes of this event as well. The report also contains some personal characteristics given by the author to his Cypriot colleagues, statesmen and public activists.