Olga Ivanovna Zhigalina, the world's largest Kurdologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, died suddenly on October 23, 2013. Olga Ivanovna was a person of extraordinary discipline and culture, and devoted most of her life to science, working at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where since 2004 she headed the section of Kurdish studies and regional problems at the Center for the Study of Near and Middle East Countries. It continued the glorious traditions of Russian Kurdish studies created by I. A. Orbeli, M. A. Gasratyan, and M. S. Lazarev.

O. I. Zhigalina entered Oriental studies immediately after graduating from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, where she studied at the Romano-Germanic Department of the Faculty of Philology. In 1969, she was offered a job at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where she began her research as a junior researcher in the Central Asian sector, headed by the famous scientist H. A. Khalfin, a major expert in the field of source studies and historiography. During this period, O. I. Zhigalina was engaged in translations from German, and also prepared the memoirs of the Russian General I. F. Blaramberg-an interesting source for studying Central Asia and the Caucasus of the XIX century. I. F. Blaramberg, who spent half a century in the Russian military service, wrote about traveling as part of a topographic expedition to the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea in 1836, about After several years of painstaking work, they were published with comments by O. I. Zhigalina and an introductory article by H. A. Khalfin in the publishing house "Eastern Literature".

In the early 1970s, O. I. Zhigalina began collecting materials and preparing a dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences on the topic " The Central Asian question in English historiography (60s-90s of the XIX century)", which she successfully defended in 1973.

O. I. Zhigalina's work on this dissertation attracted a wealth of factual material from various libraries in Moscow, Dushanbe, and others. Later, in 1990, on the basis of this dissertation, O. I. Zhigalina published a monograph " Great Britain in the Middle East. Analysis of foreign policy concepts "(1990). This book analyzes various concepts of English historiography of the XIX-early XX centuries on the problems of British policy in the Middle East (mainly in Iran and Afghanistan), examines the works of the most prominent representatives of English historiography. Now this work is actively used by researchers in studying the views of British figures in relation to the Middle East. Her supervisor, H. A. Khalfin, instilled in O. I. Zhigalina an interest in studying Kurdish issues: the 1970s were a period of growing Kurdish national movement in the Middle East.

In 1974-1979, together with her husband, who was the head of the APN Bureau in Iran, O. I. Zhigalina was in this country on a business trip, which allowed her to get to know the country well, since she managed to visit many parts of Iran and learn Persian. After returning to Moscow, O. I. Zhigalina, under the guidance of the well-known Turkologist and Kurdologist M. A. Gasratyan, began working in the group for the study of the Kurdish question, created on the initiative of the then director of the Institute, Academician E. M. Primakov, in the Department of Near and Middle East. During this period, the Institute began to develop its own school of national Kurdish studies, previously represented at Leningrad State University, whose main field of study was mainly the history, philology, literature and linguistics of the Kurdish people. In the early 1980s, the group for the study of the Kurdish question at the Institute of Oriental Studies under the leadership of E. M. Primakov began to conduct situational analyses of the current situation in ethnic Kurdistan. In addition, O. I. Zhigalina's research focuses on the Iranian Kurds, their history, and periods of the national liberation movement.

Throughout the 80's of the XX century, almost every year in special publications of the Institute of Oriental Studies and other centers of Oriental Studies of the USSR, fundamental articles by O. I. Zhigalina were published, covering almost all aspects of the Kurdish problem in Iran and in Eastern Kurdistan. It had close, friendly relations with many research centers of Kurdish studies in Europe: the Kurdish Institute in Paris, the University of Krakow, etc. O. I. Zhigalina's writings on the Kurdish problem and the life of Kurds in Iran, especially after the Islamic revolution in that country, testified to her deep understanding of the processes associated with the rise of Kurdish nationalism in Iran. The works analyzed both the policies of the new Iranian authorities and the activities of various Kurdish parties, groups and leaders. When considering the Kurdish problem in Iran, O. I. Zhigalina quite rightly paid considerable attention to the Islamic factor. She introduced the concept of the ideology of Islamic nationalism, which characterized Ayatollah Khomeini's attitude to the Kurdish problem.

In 1988, her monograph "The National Movement of Kurds in Iran (1918-1947)" was published, which became the first comprehensive study in Russian historiography devoted to the formation and development of the Kurdish national movement in Iran in the 20-40s of the XX century. At the same time, demographic and socio-economic aspects are widely covered in the work. It is written on the basis of studying the unique archival sources of the National Fund of India, the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, the personal fund of the famous Russian Kurdish scholar O. L. Vilchevsky and the materials of the Archive of Orientalists of the Institute of Ancient Manuscripts.

In 1996, O. I. Zhigalina defended her doctoral dissertation on "Ethnosocial processes in Iran in the XIX-XX centuries". It formed the basis of the monograph " Ethnosocial evolution of Iranian Society "(1996). It analyzes trends in the ethnic development of Iranian society and the dynamics of ethno-social changes on a broad historical basis. Special attention is paid to the aggravation of the ethno-political situation and the interethnic conflict in Iranian Kurdistan.

In 2002, O. I. Zhigalina published the monograph "The Kurdish Khanates of Khorasan under the last Qajars". It is perhaps the only comprehensive study of the Kurdish khanates of Khorasan at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the world of Kurdish studies. Using archival materials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, O. I. Zhigalina showed the formation and ethno-cultural features of the Kurdish enclave in Khorasan, the socio-political situation in Iran at the beginning of the 20th century, the political and strategic role of the Kurdish khanates in the Anglo-Russian rivalry in the region, the participation of the Khorasan Kurds in insurgent movements, and the collapse of the 20s of the XX century.

In 2005 O. I. Zhigalina was awarded the academic title of professor. Three years later, based on extensive Russian archival materials, she wrote a monograph on the Kurds of the Iranian province of Kermanshah , one of the most important regions of Eastern Kurdistan. In 2011, O. I. Zhigalina published her monograph "The Kurdish Question in the Politics of Modern Iran".

In total, O. I. Zhigalina has published more than 500 scientific papers, monographs, articles, and reports. Round tables and workshops were held to discuss current issues of Kurdish studies and the Kurdish issue in ethnic Kurdistan. Olga Ivanovna edited collections of articles and monographs prepared within the framework of the Kurdish Studies sector. She was a member of the Academic Council of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Dissertation Council on Modern and Contemporary History of MGIMO. Under her guidance, five graduate students prepared and defended their PhD theses. O. I. Zhigalina regularly participated in various Russian and international conferences and symposia. So, in 1996, she presented a report at the conference " Kurds and the city "(Paris), in 2008 - at the conference" Eastern City " (Krakow, Jagiellonian University). She was a member of the Society of Iranists of Europe, participating in its regular and intermediate conferences (Paris, Ravenna, Oxford and Vienna).

The last years of Olga Ivanovna Zhigalina's life turned out to be extremely fruitful from the point of view of the fundamental works written by her. The last monograph published in her lifetime by O. I. Zhigalina was " Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Historical Portrait", dedicated to the life and activities of the leader of the Kurdish national movement of Iraq in the 40s and 70s. XX century This work was highly appreciated by his son, the current President of the Kurdish Autonomous Region (KAR), Moshe Barzani.

In 2013 Olga Ivanovna, together with a team of authors, started a fundamental study "The formation of the Kurdish nation and the problem of creating an independent state in ethnic Kurdistan", which will now be completed by her students, and the memory of Olga Ivanovna Zhigalina will forever remain in the hearts of the next generation of Russian Orientalists.

K. V. VERTYAEV

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