Alexander and Ludmila Meerwarth of the Russian Academy of Sciences undertook ethnographic expedition for St. Petersburg Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in 1914-1918. The researchers from Russia received recommendation letters from leading European scholars to their counterparts in Indian Museums. But they did not limit their contacts by academic links. Anti-colonial contacts of the Russian ethnographers led them towards the South Asian supporters who also became friends. Among hosts and informants of the Meerwarths were Rajapaksee and Pussegoda families in Kandy (Ceylon), Phillipose family in Kerala, Dr. Ananatakrishna Ayer in Kochin, Dr. Sama Rao in Pudukkottai, J.W. Bhore in Thrichur, Mr. Jagaddhar Zadu Shastri in Kashmir, Prof. Givargis in Serampore. They were invited to take part in the voyages undertaken by local archaeologists, anthropologists and museologists. A.M. Meerwarth studied Buddhism, Pali, Sanskrit and Tamil languages and literature; in India, he translated the plays of Bhasa from Sanskrit into English, the Tamil poem Manimehaley into Russian. His article “Les Kathakali du Malabar” in “Journal Asiatique” (1926) broke the European ignorance in Indian performing arts. As the member of the Indian Museum in Calcutta A.M. Meerwarth made catalogs and guide-books, exhibited collections of Indian musical instruments and ethnography. Folk art objects were presented to him for the MAE by the directors of Museums in Colombo, Madras, Trichur, Lucknow, Lahore, Calcutta; replicas of artefacts were ordered specially for the MAE. The Meerwaths established good relations with local scholars who became not only assistants and supporters but friends. Their help made this ethnographic mission successful despite difficulties of the war period and financial problems of the Meerwarths due to the October 1917 Revolution in Russia.
