Institute for Bible Translation

The mission of The Institute for Bible Translation in Russia/CIS is to provide accurate and faithful translations that reveal the message of the Bible to modern readers.

The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) was founded in Sweden in 1973 with the aim of meeting the needs of 85 million Bibleless non-Slavic people living in the former Soviet Union. Since 1990, the time of “perestroika,” IBT has been working in Russia, and has been registered as a Russian organization since 1995. In 2003, the operational center of IBT was transferred from Stockholm to Moscow (IBT Russia/CIS).

IBT translates, publishes, and distributes the Bible or portions of it in the languages of the non-Slavic peoples living in Russia and Central Asia. Together these peoples, speaking more than 100 different languages represent a diversity of cultures and religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and shamanism/animism).

IBT Russia and its sister IBT entities in Sweden and Finland have translated and published the Bible or portions of it in 80 languages, including nine full Bibles — Georgian (1989), Tajik (1992), Tuvan (2011), Chechen (2012), Udmurt (2013), Tatar (2015), Crimean Tatar (2016), Uzbek (2016), Turkmen (2017) — as well as more than 30 New Testaments, and the illustrated Children’s Bible in about 50 languages. IBT also produces audio recordings and short videos of Scripture portions, as well as Bible reference works and scholarly materials related to the receptor languages. The digital versions of IBT translations can be accessed free of charge on our website.

Work is proceeding well and IBT plans to release full Bibles in several more languages in 2022-23 (including Bashkir, Buryat, Ossetic, and Kurdish). With the help of donors, prayer partners and translation partners, IBT is confident that the Holy Scriptures will soon become available in many more languages.