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The Harriman Institute of Columbia University, New York 

The Harriman Institute is the graduate institute within Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs devoted to the interdisciplinary study of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and all the newly independent nations that emerged from the disintegration of the USSR.

The Harriman Institute (original name was the Russian Institute) of Columbia University opened in September 1946 as the country's first university center for Soviet studies.  It soon became the first regional institute in Columbia's New School of International Affairs.  The Russian Institute which later became the Harriman Institute also offered specialized training on Eastern Europe until Columbia's Institute on East Central Europe was established in 1954.  The Harriman Institute was named after Governor W. Averell Harriman.

In 1941, President Roosevelt sent Averell Harriman to Britain as his special envoy in charge of Lend-Lease, and then, from 1943 to 1946, to the Soviet Union, where, as U.S. ambassador, his most important mission was to assure that Russia remained an active ally in the war.

In 1982, in gratitude for and recognition of Harrimans' gift, the Russian Institute changed its name to the W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union, and in 1992, after the Soviet Union had ceased to exist, the name was changed again to The Harriman Institute.

Governor Harriman died in New York on July 26, 1986, at the age of 94.  At his death, The New York Times called him "America's plenipotentiary supreme".

Above: W. Averell Harriman whose name was taken for the Harriman Institute was the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1943 to 1946.

Above: W. Averell Harriman at the Moscow Conference of August 1942 with Stalin and Churchill.

The East Central European Center at Columbia University was established in 1954 for the study of Central and Eastern Europe

The Njegos Endowment for Serbian Studies at Columbia University

The Njegos Endowment for Serbian Studies at Columbia University was established for the study of Serbian literature and culture.  It bears the name of the greatest poet of the South Slavs, Petar Petrovic Njegos who was also Bishop of Montenegro.

Above: Petar Petrovic Njegos - the greatest poet of the South Slavs