Based on published and unpublished works of Ivan Petrovich Liprandi (1790-1880), this article considers evolution of the images of Serbs and Serbia in the period 1830-1860. Liprandi was studying the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans for 50 years and he was recognized by contemporaries as one of the foremost experts on the history and culture of the European regions of the Ottoman Empire. During the 1830-1860s his views underwent significant changes, and Liprandi went from an executive officer, collecting ‘objective’ information about the southern Slavs, to a staunch supporter of imperial pan-Slavism. In the 1830s Ivan Petrovich can be described as a representative of ‘practical’ Slavic studies. Being in the south of Russia, he was gathering information on the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula for his superiors. Based on the Enlightenment paradigm, Liprandi was convinced that independent Serbia should become a conductor of Russian influence in the Balkans. In turn, the empire would help the Serbs get rid of the ‘re