ABSTRACT
A meeting with Jaap Koosterman in October 1992 changed my life. I was asked to help with a translation during his visit to Moscow. At that time, I was a postgraduate student at the Institute of World History and had written a thesis on the history of British Christian Socialism. Jaap was surprised to hear the topic and asked whether I knew that the International Institute of Social History (Iish) had preserved the letters of Charles Kingsley. Then I was invited to work in the Iish archives and received a proposal to represent the Institute in Moscow. Looking back after more than twenty years of our work I am amazed at how much has been done. I hope that one day Jaap and I will compile the history of the activities of the Iish’s Moscow Office. But the time has not come yet. There is a well-known Russian song with these words: “It’s still early for us to live by reminiscences.”
