Russia-India friendship: The first translation of Bhagavad Gita was done in Russian language, a Russian came to Mumbai and discovered cholera vaccine in India

The Russians established the first European dramatic theatre in India

Gerasim Lebedev, an artist from Yaroslavl, Russia, spent 12 years in India after 1785 and promoted Indian art forms in Russia. He started a tradition of reading and teaching Hindi, Bengali and Sanskrit books in Russia. Lebedev established the first European-style drama theatre in India in then Calcutta in 1795 and staged the first modern shows of Bengali theatre.

Why is PM Modi's visit to Russia important? Know what will be the agenda of talks with a 'trusted friend'

Translation of Bhagavad Gita and recitation of Ramayana in Russia for the first time

Lebedev compiled several books on Indo-European linguistics and published the first Bengali-Russian dictionary. After him, in 1788, another writer Nikolai Novikov made the first Russian translation of the Bhagavad Gita and made it popular in Russia.
In the 19th century, Russian academician Count Novarov founded the Sanskrit Chair at the University of St. Petersburg in 1835. At the time he was the Minister of Public Education and President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. While there, another Russian professor, Pavel Yakovlevich Petrov, translated a portion of the Ramayana into Russian with grammatical notes and a Sanskrit glossary.

Professor Ivan Pablovich Tilak and Bankim Chandra Dost

Another Russian professor Ivan Pavlovich Minayev taught Sanskrit at the University of St. Petersburg. He traveled to India between 1874 and 1886. He was a good friend of India's independence stalwarts of the time, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Also, a Russian lady named Helena Pertovna, impressed by Indian philosophy and religion, came to India in 1852 and founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 after living here for decades. In the nineteenth century, many eminent Russian artists recorded their experiences of India on canvas and paper. Grand Duke Alexei Saltykov lived in India from 1841-1843 and 1844-1846 and on his return to St. Petersburg published a book of his paintings and drawings on paper, which attracted the attention of the Russian public.

The Russian ruler's grandson hunted a tiger with the Maharaja

Before the Russian Revolution, when the Tsar dynasty was still reigning, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II visited India from December 1890 to January 1891. Later, the grandson of Tsar Alexander II visited India in 1902 to hunt tigers with his friend, the Maharaja of Kapurthala.

When Haffkine's vaccines saved the lives of thousands of Indians

Microbiologist Vladimir Haffkine, born in Odessa, a province of then Russia and now Ukraine, came to India in 1893. He stayed here for about 22 years. He did research on cholera infection while living in Mumbai. He invented a vaccine against plague and cholera, which had become deadly at that time, which saved the lives of thousands of people. He was the founder-director of the Anti Plague Laboratory in Mumbai in 1899. Later this laboratory was named Haffkine Institute in his honor.

Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by Russian writers

The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was deeply influenced by Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. It is the same Leo Tolstoy who had a profound influence on Mahatma Gandhi during his stay in South Africa. Gandhiji built Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg for his early experiments with non-violence, truth and self-realization through community service.

When Gurudev criticized Stalin, his books were banned

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's collection of poems Gitanjali, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, speaks of universal peace, love and harmony. After the release of Tagore's Gitanjali in 1913, several translations of it were made in Russian language. Tagore's long-standing desire to visit Russia was fulfilled in 1930 when he went to give an interview to Istvestia, a Moscow newspaper. At that time Tagore strongly criticized the lack of 'freedom of mind' in Stalin's Russia. When the Soviet government banned the publication of his books.

Nehru arrived in Russia with his father in 1927

Jawaharlal Nehru and his sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit first visited the Soviet Union in 1927 with their father Motilal Nehru to attend the tenth anniversary celebrations of the 1917 Revolution. After independence, several prime ministers and presidents visited Russia. How important Russia is to India is evident from the fact that the Soviet Union was the first country with which India established diplomatic relations on 13 April 1947, just four months after India's independence.

Why are America and Britain worried about Modi's Russia visit?

Professor Dhananjay Tripathi of South Asian University, New Delhi, says that European countries including the US and Britain are very concerned about Modi's visit to Russia. In fact, these countries are worried that India's continued engagement with Russia, including trade and defense cooperation, will weaken the international campaign to put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression in Ukraine.

India buys more oil from Russia

The US and European countries want India to buy a large part of its oil needs from Russia. In such a situation, it should respect the sanctions imposed on Russia. Earlier this year, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) released a report on India's crude oil imports from Russia, which had increased 13 times since Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022. This is the reason why bilateral trade between India and Russia increased to $ 64 billion in 2023-24. India's exports in this are only four billion dollars. In fact, Western media states that Russia is richer today than before the attack on Ukraine. The main reason for this is India and China, which are big buyers of Russian crude oil.