This man, who was born on December 25, 1928, was shaped by Time and the East. The post-war recovery period required and received the indomitable energy of young people who did not personally participate in the Great Patriotic War, but who were ready to work and serve the Motherland as selflessly as their fathers and brothers.

The East captured his heart once and for all with the flashes of revolutionary storms and liberation movements, a mysterious harmony of the soul that not everyone, even "born Asians", can touch. In addition, knowledge of the East is a matter of incredible complexity, and Leonid Ivanovich is a great master of overcoming the difficulties of science, life, and politics... And he succeeded in that. He became an orientalist. He absorbed the two-hundred-year tradition of classical Russian Oriental studies, preserved and multiplied it with academic, military-diplomatic, journalistic and literary works. Yes, he is our hero of the day, a grinder of truth, a connoisseur of the hidden meanings of the languages of literary sofas and the ambiguity of the whispers of the oriental bazaar, who knows everything about everyone.

After graduating from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies in 1952, L. I. Medvedko began a job filled with constant tension of all mental and physical potentials-service as a military interpreter in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Along with the basic Turkish language (with a great personal penchant for the elegant, half - forgotten "Osmanlija" by modern Turks-Old Turkish, Ottoman), the Arabic language entered (and forever remained) the working life of a country researcher, military translator, and then a military analyst, special correspondent of central newspapers. Numerous anniversary articles and reports, in which the life of Leonid Ivanovich as an orientalist with civil and military (in other words, dual-purpose) content, are well known to everyone. I will mention here the memoir-historical reflections of L. I. Medvedko and his son, also a military orientalist and international affairs expert S. L. Medvedko, called by them "The East is a delicate matter. Jerusalem is holy" (Moscow, 2009). Here, against the background of a mass of historical events, all the details of the creative and service path are written out in an elegant style, but with the correctness of a memo to the General Staff.

The first monograph of L. I. Medvedko, "The Principalities of the Persian Gulf" (Moscow, 1970), is very significant for the history of Russian Oriental studies. Written in collaboration with V. Bodyansky and Fr. Peresypkin (Gerasimov), the book opened up a semi-legendary region to the reader at that time. Soon L. I. Medvedko defended his PhD thesis in closed mode. The basic provisions of the dissertation were included in the book "Winds of Change in the Persian Gulf" (Moscow, 1973).

It took very little time for his new work to appear, about which academician E. I. Primakov weightily said: "It has no analogues." It was the book "East and West of Suez. The decline of colonialism and the maneuvers of neocolonialism "(Moscow, 1980). Translated into Hungarian, in some parts - into Arabic and other languages of the East and West, the work gained a mass reader, for many years it acquired the status of a textbook in the Foreign Ministry, military, general historical universities of our country. Leonid Ivanovich himself defended his doctoral dissertation (also in closed mode) at the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR (now IVI of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation). L. I. Medvedko's scientific ties with military historians continue to this day, along with the academicism of his main work.

As a representative of a special group of Russian military orientalists, L. I. Medvedko went through a difficult path, working in the most difficult conditions of the Middle East in the 60s-80s of the XX century. This invaluable experience allowed him to take his rightful place in the ranks

page 210
russian orientalists. Such diversity and breadth of views are generally a distinctive feature of the Russian orientalist-practitioner and theorist. Let us recall L. I. Tengoborsky, P. A. Chikhachev, S. E. Snesarev, A. E. Tizenhausen, and others.

Like his distinguished predecessors, who combined military and academic orientalism, L. I. Medvedko showed great aptitude for both historical and political studies of the problems of the Middle East. This was largely due not only to the personal qualities of the scientist-a constant desire to find the true causes of what is happening on the basis of strict adherence to scientific objectivity, attention to detail when analyzing events-but also to the rich practical experience gained during his work in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, and other countries of the Middle East. The Middle East.

His rich erudition, creative (and largely poetic) gift, and excellent command of the languages and dialects of the host countries were evident in his translations. He is the author of elegant translations of the Turkish classics Reshad Nuri Guntekin (two novels) and Sabahattin Ali (the most delightful in his translation "Madonna in a fur coat"); poems of his personal friend Nazim Hikmet. For generations, his translation from the Turkish of Samim Kocagez's "Return of the Ten Thousand" has been widely read. L. I. Medvedko and V. E. Chagall successfully brought the following works to the readers from Arabic: Hanna Mina. "Sail and storm", Ash-Sharqawi "Fellah".

A member of the Union of Writers of the USSR (now Russia) since 1976, L. I. Medvedko constantly and over the years more successfully combines literary and scientific activities. Since 1983, he has worked at the Institute of Africa, and since 1995 at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And again books, articles, essays. The gold medal of VDNH "Best book on international topics" was awarded to the monograph"...This Booming Middle East" (Moscow, 1985). Together with A.V. Germanovich, L. I. Medvedko wrote a strikingly modern and 20-year-old book " In the Name of Allah... Politicization of Islam and Islamization of Politics "(Moscow, 1988). This is the first time it was heard here: "Political Islam is very serious!" The book was quickly translated into Farsi, Arabic, Azerbaijani, and Uzbek.

The book " The Seventh Middle East War. Geopolitics and security of Russia after the crisis in the Persian Gulf " (Moscow, 1993) was the first detailed analysis of the Iran-Iraq war with a forecast of how it will affect the interests of the new Russia.

Libraries and research centers of the West responded with a record number of applications for the book "Russia, the West, Islam: The Clash of Civilizations? "(Moscow, 2003).

At the head of the author's team of employees of the Institute of Military History, L. I. Medvedko published the book "Turkey and Kurdistan. The Kurdish National Movement and the experience of armed struggle in solving the problems of ethnic separatism "(Moscow, 2003). About his 2003 book "The East is near...", which has become a real revelation, we have already said.

L. I. Medvedko's socially significant work as an Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in the Department of Civilizational Problems and Regional Conflicts is extremely active (since 1996). He was awarded the Peter the Great Medal of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences for a series of works of civilizational significance. He continues his work in the Soviet Committee of Solidarity with Asian and African Countries (now ROSNAA), which began a quarter of a century ago. It should be noted that more than ten candidates and doctors of sciences from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates were released into the world of science under his leadership. He also chairs the Supervisory Board and directs the Analytical Center of the Foundation for Eurasian Integration and Cooperation; he is a member of the editorial board of the journal "Eurasian Notebooks" (the publication was founded in Berlin in 1922).

L. I. Medvedko carries the " light from the East "as one of the leaders of the" School of Young Orientalists " at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is full of new creative ideas, some of which are included in the encyclopedia "Globalistics" (Moscow, 2003), which includes articles by 600 prominent scientists from 58 countries of the world. The encyclopedia Orientalistika, his new and favorite child, is being designed.

Colleagues and friends, joined by the staff and editorial boards of the Vostok/Oriens and Vostochny Archive magazines, wish dear Leonid Ivanovich health and further success in his creative career.

Permanent link to this publication: