History

The Institute of Slavonic Studies is one of the oldest institutes forming the present-day Czech Academy of Sciences. It was founded on 25 January 1922 on the basis of a decision of the Parliament of the Czechoslovak Republic and thanks to the personal initiative and considerable financial support of President T. G. Masaryk. It started to work in 1928 after many administrative delays. Prof. Lubor Niederle, a world-famous archaeologist and ethnographer, was appointed the first chairman of the Slavic Institute. In the period between the World Wars, the Institute was essentially a learned society whose aim was to develop multilateral Czech-Slavic relations and whose members included, in addition to prominent Czech Slavists, distinguished national economists. The institute was rich in publishing and lecturing activities and held conferences and exhibitions. During the war, the institute’s activities were practically halted, and it was not until 1945 that they were restored. In 1953, the Slavic Institute was incorporated into the newly established Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. At that time, research included Slavic studies in their entirety: Slavic languages and literatures, Slavic archaeology and ethnography, the history of Slavic peoples, and Byzantine studies.

Lubor Niederle
director 1928–1931

Matija Murko
director 1931–1941

Albert Pražák
director 1945–1952

Julius Dolanský
director 1952–1963

The year 1963 saw a complete reorganisation, which effectively meant the liquidation of the Institute. Philological and literary disciplines were incorporated into the newly formed Institute of Languages and Literatures; historians and Byzantologists were transferred to the Institute of the History of European Socialist Countries, while archaeologists and ethnographers were transferred to their respective academic institutes. In the following years, various further reorganisations took place, resulting in a profound decline in Slavonic studies.

In 1992, the Slavic Institute was re-established, but in a greatly reduced form and without legal subjectivity. At first, it served experimentally as a joint academic-university workplace, and in 1995 it was affiliated to the Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences. It was only on 1 January 1998 that the Institute of Slavonic Studies obtained legal subjectivity by a decision of the Academy Council of the CAS and became an independent research institute.

On 1 January 2007 the Institute of Slavonic Studies became a public research institution within the meaning of Act No. 341/​2005 Coll.

The Czech Society for Slavonic, Balkan, and Byzantine Studies, z. s., and two national committees (the Czech Committee of Slavists and the Czech National Byzantology Committee) are affiliated to the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the CAS.

Antonín Měšťan
director 1992–1998

Vladimír Vavřínek
director 1998–2007

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Helena Ulbrechtová
director 2007–2017

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Václav Čermák
director since 2017

Foundation of the Institute of Slavonic Studies

Lobkowicz Palace, the original seat of the Institute of Slavonic Studies

Present-day seat of the Institute of Slavonic Studies (Valentinská 91/1)