 It was founded on 17 September 1932 for the 40th anniversary of Maxim Gorky's literary activity, and is located in the former estate of the Gagarin family in Moscow.The Institute is organized into departments, each specializing in a specific region or genre of literature.These departments include, but are not limited to the Department of Literary Theory, Folklore, Old Slavic Literature, 19th Century Russian Literature, Contemporary Russian Literature and Russian Emigree Literature, Classical Western Literature and Comparative Literature, Literature of Asia and Africa, Contemporary European and American Literature, Literature of Russian Minorities and CIS Countries, and Manuscripts.