On August 2, 2011, Olga Ivanovna Zhigalina, a well-known Russian orientalist, Kurd scholar and Iranian scholar, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Kurdish Studies and Regional Problems at the Center for the Study of the Near and Middle East at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and one of the world's leading Kurdish scholars, turned 65.
O. I. Zhigalina graduated from the Faculty of Philology (Romano-Germanic department) in 1969 Lomonosov Moscow State University. In the same year, she joined the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a research and technical assistant, and a year later she was certified as a junior researcher in the Central Asia sector, which was headed by the famous scientist N. A. Khalfin, a major expert in the field of source studies and historiography. Under his leadership, O. I. Zhigalina began to prepare for publication the memoirs of the Russian General I. F. Blaramberg, which are an interesting source for studying Central Asia and the Caucasus of the XIX century. She translated these memories from German and prepared a commentary. In 1978, they were published with an introductory article by N. A. Khalfin in the publishing house "Eastern Literature" in the series "Central Asia in sources and materials". N. A. Khalfin suggested O. I. Zhigalina to develop the topic" The Central Asian question in English historiography of the XIX century", on which she worked for several years. Scrupulously collected and processed material not only in libraries in Moscow, but also in Dushanbe, in the akad Foundation. Semyonov, which contained unique books that were not available in Moscow libraries. Gradually, she began to prepare her dissertation. In 1973, O. I. Zhigalina defended her thesis for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences. In 1974-1979, together with her husband, the head of the APN Bureau in Iran, she was in this country on a business trip. This all ...
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