In 1970, at the invitation of the USSR Academy of Sciences, ethnographer Dr. Sula Benet began extensive field studies in the Caucasian region of Abkhasia, Russia. Her goal was to investigate Abkhasian lifeways after fifty years of collectivization. Over the next few years, Dr. Benet's study generated numerous publications, including How to Live to be 100, considered a landmark publication on gerontological research. Following her retirement from Hunter College in 1973, Dr. Benet became a Senior Fellow of the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM), in New York City.

Fluent in Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian, Dr. Benet's areas of specialization included cultural anthropology among the Slavic cultures of Eastern Europe where she conducted field work from 1945-1973, sponsored by Columbia University, the Social Science Research Council, RISM, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Dr. Benet also conducted studies in culture and personality, as well as aging and longevity.

Based on Dr. Benet's research in Russia, Dr. Vera Rubin, director of RISM, proposed that Dr. Benet undertake a major study of the long-living people who had been her chief Abkhasian subjects. Dr. Benet's study led to the development of a US-USSR multidisciplinary research project on longevity, which involved both Soviet and American social scientists. The study was known as the Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Aging and Longevity Study.