The names of such Indonesia-nists as Ben Anderson, William Liddle, Harold Crouch and Harry Poeze are quite familiar to certain readers in Indonesia. But Vladimir Braginsky, Y.A. Cherepnyova and N.F. Alieva sound more like chess players or soldiers from Eastern Europe than renowned scholars in the archipelago.

In fact, they are three of many Russian scholars now specializing in Indonesian affairs. Braginsky is a doctor of Indonesian and Malays