RUSSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOR THE HUMANITIES
RUSSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOR THE HUMANITIES
Academic Regiment: Institute of History and Archives in the First Years of the Great Patriotic War

04.05.2023

Academic Regiment: Institute of History and Archives in the First Years of the Great Patriotic War

We continue the story of the events of the War years, in which students and faculty of the Institute of History and Archives participated.

The work of the Institute of History and Archives was suspended on October 16, 1941, when the State Defense Committee announced that Moscow was under a state of siege. A small group of teachers and students, headed by Professor Pavel Smirnov, turned to the Chairman of the All-Union Committee for Higher Education with a request not to close the Institute and to enable the faculty and students to receive salaries and food. At the end of November 1941, on the pages of Izvestia and on the radio, it was reported that the Institute of History and Archives continued to work. In total, 46 historians-archivists graduated in 1942.

In 1942, dozens of students, under the guidance of Dr. Mityaev, worked gathering firewood for Moscow factories, factories, hospitals, and schools. Students and teachers participated in the restoration of buildings damaged by enemy air raids.