Yuri Roerich — an outstanding Russian orientalist, philologist, art critic, ethnographer, and a traveler — made a great contribution into the world tibetology, indology and studies of Mongolian languages.

 Yuri Roerich was born into the family of Nicholas Roerich and Elena Roerich in the Okulovka Village of the Novgorod Province on August 16, 1902. He spent his childhood and teenage years in St. Petersburg. As a schoolboy yet he got deeply interested in the East and Oriental culture.
 
In 1919 Yuri Roerich graduated from the Indo-Iranian Branch of the Oriental Language School at the London University. In 1922 he got BA degree in Indian Philology at the Harvard University. In 1923 he became the Master of the Indian Philology in Sorbonne, the largest European center of the oriental studies.

 Yury Roerich had an amazing gift of understanding almost any language in the world, and had perfect mastery of dozens of languages.

 In 1923-1928 he took an active part in the Transhimalaya Expedition organized by his father, the great artist, researcher and thinker Nicholas Roerich.

  From 1928 till World War II Yuri Roerich was the director of the Himalaya Institute of the Scientific Research "Urusvati" focused on complex studies of the East and developing the synergetic science of the future.
  
As a public figure Yuri Roerich played an important role in promoting the Roerich Pact (the Pact of Culture) and struggle for its ratification. From 1949 to 1957 he taught at the Kalimpong University in India.

 In the autumn of 1957 Yuri Roerich came back to Russia and headed the Department of Indian History of Philosophy and Religion at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in Moscow.

It was the invaluable merit of Yuri Roerich that the name and rich creative heritage of Nicholas ad Elena Roerich, including their unique teaching of Agni Yoga, aka Living Ethics returned to the Motherland and was highly acclaimed here.

 Yuri Roerich passed away in Moscow on May 21, 1960. The top between Nicholas Roerich Peak and Urusvati Peak in the spur of the Katun Range, near the sacred Mount of Belukha in Altai is named after Yuri Roerich.