Collections of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in the State Museum of the History of Religion (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)

The article is concerned with the main problems of formation's history and exploration of the collections of Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Community (Russia).Its Community in Russia from the moment of its creation (1882) not only engaged in the organization of pilgrimages in Holy Land, but its deals with the organization of systematic archaeological excavations and scientific expeditions in Near East.One of the important but few mentioned aspects of this scientific and cultural activity is the creation of two unique collections -the library's collection and the photo archive.This research is based on the materials collection's of The Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Community, which is saved as a part of the collections of the State Museum of the History of Religion and archive materials that not published yet.The book's and photo's compositions that preserved in the collections of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Community reflects not only intellectual inquiries and preferences of Russian scientists but the history of Palestinian science's development in Russia at the end of the XIX -at the beginning of XX centuries as a whole.