[ru, ua, by, sr, bg, cz, sorb, en, de] The work on the Slavic Linguistic Atlas (SLA) was begun according to the decision of the IV International Meeting of Slavists (Moscow, September 1958). The SLA Commission, which included prominent slavists from different countries, was formed under the jurisdiction of the International Committee of Slavists. The Commission, in its turn, created the International working group. The SLA Commission and the working group held meetings, no less than once a year, in Bulgaria, GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, USSR and Yugoslavia by turn. These countries had national or state SLA commissions, which carried out the research work at the territory of their language dissemination or the country and also followed the instructions of the SLA commission under the jurisdiction of the International Committee of Slavists. Besides the countries named above, the following countries also participated: Austria, Hungary, Italy and Romania.
