Borislav Arapovic
25.05.10 The award to the founder of Institute
for
Bible Translation (IBT)
Dr. Borislav
Arapovic, of an
honorary diploma as a Foreign Member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences
“May God Bless Russia” – those were the
concluding words of Dr. Arapovic’s response speech at the
ceremony of awarding him an honorary Foreign Member’s diploma
of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Born in 1935 in Bosnia Hercegovina, and later an immigrant to Sweden,
Borislav Arapovic became the initiator of the foundation in Stockholm
in 1973 of the Institute for Bible Translation (IBT), with the aim of
translating and publishing Bible texts in the mother tongues of the
indigenous non-Slavic peoples of the Soviet Union. He was the IBT
Director for 24 years (until 1997). On his initiative at the beginning
of the 1990s a branch of the Institute was opened in Moscow and a
cooperation agreement was signed between IBT and the Russian Academy of
Sciences. In 1997 with the blessing of the late Patriarch Alexiy II the
Russian organization Institute of Bible Translation was able to move
into offices on the premises of the former St. Andrew’s
monastery, where it has remained until the present time. Over the years
since then IBT staff have implemented a wide range of projects,
translating different parts of the Bible into more than 80 non-Slavic
languages of Russia and other countries of the CIS.
On behalf of numerous Russian colleagues and friends Dr. Arapovic was
welcomed and congratulated by academician E. Chelyshev. The solemn
ceremony of the award took place in the presence of many guests,
including a representative of the Croatian Embassy Mr. Igor Prelovsek.
During the days of his visit to Moscow Dr. Arapovic also visited the
office of the Institute for Bible Translation where he had friendly
meetings with colleagues.