Musicology Annotation << Back The ways of Russian Musical Sinology in the context of China-Soviet relations 1920–1940s Wu Jingyu, Medvedeva Julia P. Basing on the latest research by historians and data from music archives, the authors of the article prove that the ups and downs in the formation of domestic musical sinology in the 1920–1940s were conditioned by interstate relations between the USSR and China and the related internal situation around Russian Chinese. After the October Revolution, Soviet Russia proclaimed the ideals of internationalism, under the influence of which Russian musical sinology was born in the 1920s: for the first time, some facts and objects of the musical culture of the Celestial Empire were purposefully collected and an attempt was made for their scientific understanding. But in 1927 the picture changed dramatically, and until 1937 there was no information about the study of Chinese music in the USSR. The turn in musical synology chronologically corresponds exactly to the framework of the Nanjing decade, when the Kuomintang split with the Communists, an armed conflict between the USSR and China over the CER, and then mass repressions and deportation of Russian Chinese. 1937 opened a new page in the history of Soviet-Chinese relations. In the face of Japanese aggression, a bilateral treaty was signed, marking the beginning of Soviet military assistance to China. And from that moment on, there was ample evidence of a renewed scientific interest in Chinese musical culture. Three permitted vectors in its study were identified: studies of traditional, patriotic music, and by the end of the 1940s. – and the works of modern Chinese composers. It is on these vectors that the vigorous activity of domestic musicologists and sinologists in the 1950s will unfold. Keywords: Soviet-Chinese relations of the 1920–1940s, Chinese music, musical sinology, Chinese studies, Chinese musical instruments, Chinese composers, Xian Xinghai. DOI: 10.25791/musicology.10.2019.954 Contacts: - Pp. 41-46.