Evolution of “Academic Sector” of Soviet Historical Science in 1920s—1960s.

Abstract

The evolution of the “academic sector” of Soviet historical science is analyzed, the process of its formation and subsequent development is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the methodological searches of modern historiography, focused on the study of the internal mechanisms of the development of the research tradition. The author identifies the main stages of building the organizational structure of the Soviet academic historical science, relying on a wide range of published and previously not introduced into circulation of archival documents, as well as taking into account the latest developments of modern historiographers. The author believes that the model of organizing historical research within the framework of the USSR Academy of Sciences was formed under the influence of the pre-revolutionary tradition and institutional “experiments” of the first years of Soviet power. In the course of the study, the author came to the conclusion that the first stage of the formation of the “academic sector” of Soviet historiography fell on the 1930s and was associated with the formation of the “academic center” — the Moscow institutes of the Department of History and Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the second stage of this process ended in 1950s and assumed the formation of “academic periphery” — institutions of the historical profile of branches, bases and departments of the USSR Academy of Sciences and republican academies of sciences. The author believes that the formation of the “academic sector” took place under the influence of external (political-ideological) and internal (scientific) factors.