ИСТИНА

The paper explores the history of study of the languages of the Philippines and teaching of Tagalog in the USSR and Russian Federation and covers the period from the twenties of the XX century up to the present time. It starts with the mention of the first textbook “Introduction to Linguistics for the Institutes of Oriental Studies” by E.D. Polivanov, then it gives a short review of the works of L.A. Mervart who was one of the first to start investigating and describing of the languages of Nusantara region, scientific works of her former student and successor N.F. Alieva and their colleagues at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences of the USSR (later Russian Academy of Sciences) Y.H. Sirk and L.I. Shkarban, their Filipino co-author Prof. T.A. Lansang (his pen-name is Manuel Cruz) and professors of the Tagalog language G.Y. Rachkov (Saint- Petersburg University), I.V. Podberezskiy (Moscow State Institute of International Relations), V.A. Makarenko (Institute of Oriental Studies, later IAAS MSU) and their students. These professors have made a big contribution not only in the scientific investigation of the languages of the Philippines but they also created a number of textbooks, training manuals and dictionaries that make possible further teaching and study of the Tagalog language.