Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Keston Institute was founded in 1969 by the Revd Canon Michael Bourdeaux, born on the 19th of March 1934. He co-founded it at Chislehurst together with Sir John Lawrence, with help from Leonard Schapiro and Peter Reddaway.
The Keston Institute is dedicated to the study of religion in communist and former communist countries. Its main concerns have been the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, with a particular emphasis on documenting religious persecution and advocating for religious freedom.
Since 2007, the Keston Institute's archive and library have been held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, under the care of the Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society. The institute was previously based in Oxford, England.
Michael Bourdeaux won the Templeton Prize in 1984 for his work at the Keston Institute. He retired from the organisation in 1999.
Bourdeaux was prompted to start the organisation after spending a year in Moscow in the 1950s as part of the first wave of British exchange students. He found that only 41 Russian Orthodox Churches were still functioning out of the 1,600 that had existed before the 1917 Russian Revolution, which led him to take up the cause of those persecuted for their religious faith.
The organisation was originally called the Centre for the Study of Religion and Communism when founded in 1969. In the early 1970s it purchased the old parish school on Keston Common and was renamed Keston College. After relocating to Oxford at the urging of Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, it was renamed the Keston Institute to avoid confusion with Oxford colleges.