'SCRIPTA MANENT' BRONISLAW PILSUDSKI'S SCHOLARLY HERITAGE

The author, founder and director of the Institute of Bronislaw Pilsudski's Heritage in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russian Federation, presents the scholarly work and achievements of its patron. Pilsudski, deported to Sakhalin in August 1887 together with other participants of the assassination attempt at tsar Alexander III, stayed in the Russian Far East until November 1905. He collected an abundance of ethnographic and linguistic material on Nanai, Oroks, Nivkhs, Olcha and, first of all, Ainu. He was the co-founder of the Museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and worked at the Museum in Vladivostok. Pilsudski prepared an administration proposal for the Ainu in an attempt to make their fate easier and to defend them against the Russians. The materials collected by Bronislaw Pilsudski proved to be exceptionally valuable to anyone wishing to learn about the Ainu and other peoples of the Far East. They continue to attract the attention of scholars, are looked for in museums and archives, registered, discussed, analysed and published.