Novosibirsk 630090

                                                                 Computing center

                                                Corresponding member of the USSR AS

                                                                       A.P. Ershov

                                                                   October 19, 1978

To Academician V.K. Kabulov

Tashkent

Dear Vasil Kabulovich!

Let me inform you as well as put some questions concerning our preparation of Al-Khorezmi
symposium (autumn of 1979) taking advantage of just another Sergei Borisovich Pokrovsky’s trip to
Tashkent.

1. The symposium is included in the project schedule of events held by USSR AS and Soviet
   Republics’ academies and is planned as an event held by a Soviet organizing committee with
   invited foreign scientists.

2. To obtain a formal permit for invitation of foreign scientists, the list of potential foreign
   participants that was sent to FRD this summer should be rewritten according to requisite
   form and returned to FRD by November holidays. I consulted with Tabakeev from FRD on
   this matter and do not see any essential difficulties here. I think that Guri Ivanovish will sign
   a respective letter the next week.

3. On the whole FRD took notice of our cooperation in symposium preparation and, provided
   that everything is agreed between us, agreed to be in correspondence with SBAS on the issue
   of forming the foreign membership and with UzSSR AS on the issues of the symposium
   managerial preparation.

Now to the questions.

1. I think that as early as in December we shall get permit to send out official invitations to
   those scientists who has shown interest in participation in the course of preliminary and
   unofficial correspondence. In this invitation the symposium date and location should already
   be named.

We already had a preliminary discussion of this subject proceeding from the assumption that
Khorezm oasis historically is the most appropriate location for a symposium dedicated to Al-
Khorezmi. Today there are two larger towns there – Nukus and Urgench and two sites worth
visiting – Kunia-Urgench and Khiva. You have said strait off that Khorezm region is more
preferable then Kara-Kalpakia so the first candidate for symposium location was Urgench.
At the same time recently we heard on the radio that in Khiva an Intourist hotel was build. 
Khiva is a more exotic place but yet Urgench is a regional center. I am leaving it for you to
fix upon the final choice but I would ask you, if possible, to make your decision by the end
of November.

2.      It is also desirable to fix the date and a general travel scheme. Professor Knuth agreed with
the 10-day scheme (but it is better to count by nights: a night in Moscow, a night in
Tashkent, 6 nights at the symposium location including 2-day break for sightseeing tour, a
night in Tashkent, a night in Moscow).

Below are the possible options and things to settle:

2.1.  It is better to meet foreigners in Moscow on a weekday.

2.2.  If symposium is to be held in Urgench, then the two days of excursions are naturally
split into a trip to Khiva and a trip to Kunia-Urgench. A visit to a collective farm may be
timed to any of these trips depending on the farm’s location.

2.3.  If symposium is to be held in Khiva, then we may arrange only a one-day break between
sessions (a trip to Kunia-Urgench) to save a day for visiting Samarkand or Bukhara on
the way back to Tashkent.

2.4.  Apparently, in Tashkent it is advisable to organize a reception in honor of distinguished
guests. There are arguments in favour of holding it both before the symposium and after
it. Naturally, the first invitation will not include this event, but it is better to work over
the idea in advance.

3. It is important to reach a flexible agreement with Intourist. Actually we may have quite
   different categories of participants: Soviet delegates and interpreters, foreigners on Intourist
   tours, foreigners with business visas, foreigners – the guests of the AS, foreigners from
   socialist countries. At the same time all of them must enjoy the same reception.

4. Certainly some of the foreign participants will bring up a question of financial support. The
   only possibility is to invite them as the guests of USSR AS or UzSSR AS. It will allow
   covering their stay and travel inside the USSR. The papers Acad. Marchuk is to sign next
   week will contain grounds for expediency of inviting a part of the participants as USSR AS
   guests, but it can only be finalized by you after direct contacts with FRD.

Sergei Borisovich Pokrovsky, if you will recommend him, can visit you before his departure
and pass to me your reaction in written or verbal form.

I wish you good health and great progress especially in Cotton-78 harvest campaign.
According to radio news it comes at the cost of great effort this year.

Yours           A.Ershov