In the early 1960s, steel plants in Bhilai and Bokaro were built with support from the Soviet Union. But as the steel plants took shape, the Indian government realised that the country lacked a strong community of experts in the Russian language, and literature. It was then, in early 1965, that a decision was taken by the Union government, led by the late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, to set up an institute that would create a community of Russian-speaking scholars to serve as a bridge between Russia and India, and support long-term industrial and defence projects. That idea came to fruition as the Institute of Russian Studies in 1965.
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