The "Eastern cabinet" (Восточный кабинет) was the first iteration of the Asiatic Museum - an institution called into existence in 1818 by Count Sergej Semenovich Uvarov. Known best as the architect of the "Official Nationality" policy rolled out during his tenure as Minister of Education (1832-1849), Uvarov lead the St. Petersburg educational district from 1811-1822. In Orientalist circles he made a name for himself even earlier. In 1810, he drafted his "Project for an Asiatic Academy" with its bold pronouncement that “Never before have state interests been in such accord with the highest ideas of spiritual perfection” as they were at that moment in Russia, with its "natural" ties to the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Mongolia, and even China.