Chukina Natalia, Ganevskaya Evelina. The Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Leningrad : Aurora Art Publishers, 1988. — 249 p. The Museum of Oriental Art founded in Moscow in
October 1918 by decree of the Soviet government is the only museum in the Soviet Union wholly devoted.to Eastern art. It is one of the largest centres in which artistic monuments of Asiatic and African peoples are accumulated, preserved, studied and popularized. The creation of such a museum in Russia was rendered possible by the October Revolution of 1917, which gave real freedom and equality to all nations and ethnic groups of the former Russian Empire. The foundation of the Museum specially devoted to Oriental art was a manifestation of the national policy of the young Soviet state the policy which was based upon Lenin’s principles of acknowledging the right of every nation to self-determination. It was also a manifestation of a deep respect for the peoples of the East, who had made their invaluable contribution to the history of civilization.