Nicholas Roerich is a great Russian artist, writer, archaeologist, philosopher, traveller and a public figure. He was born in St.Petersburg on 9th of October, 1874. In 1897 he graduated from the Academy of Arts. In 1898 - Nicholas Roerich grad uated from the law faculty of the St.Petersburg University. At his student years Roerich had already been admitted as a member to the Russian Archaeological Society. Since 1901 Roerich was Secretary of the Society of Arts Encouragement. And since 1906 he was a Director of an art school. In 1909 Nicholas Roerich became an Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts. Since 1910 he was at the head of the art union "Mir Iskusstva". In the years of 1900-1910 Roerich was one of the founders and the most active figures of the Society of Renascence of the Art Russia and the Society of Protection and Preservation of the Monuments of Art and Past in Russia. In 1920-1922 in the USA Nicholas Roerich established the Institute of the United Arts in New York and other cultural and educative unions. In 1923 the Museum of Roerich was opened in New York. It was the first museum of a Russian artist abroad. In 1924-1928 Roerich undertook a scientific and art expeditions through the Himalayas, Tibet, Mongolia and in 1934-1935 - around Manchuria and China. In 1928 in India he established the International Institute of the Himalayan Studies "Urusvati". In 1942 on the initiative of Nicholas Roerich the American-Russian Cultural Association was established in New York and he was chosen as its honorary President. In 1945 Roerich began the preparations to return to his motherland, but on the eve of departure, December 13, 1947, he was no more.