Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg

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INSTITUTE OF HISTORY of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, located at 7 Petrozavodskaya Street, successor to the Archaeographic Commission. It was established in 1936 as the Leningrad Department of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR on the basis of the Institute of History and Archaeography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR formed in 1931 as a result of joining the Archaeographical Commission, the Permanent Historical Commission at the Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Books, Documents and Scripts of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and the Leningrad Department of the Institute of History of the Communist Academy at the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. It became the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992. In 2002, it became an independent institution. It includes the following departments: source study, ancient Russian history, new Russian history, contemporary Russian history (with a speciality in the history of Russian revolutions and populist movements), general history (with specialities in ancient history). The institute contains unique archives (attached to the Russian and Western European sections), which consist of the collection of the Archaeographical Commission and the collection of N. P. Likhachev, consisting of documents dating from the 7th- 20th centuries in Russian and general history, with a total of over 220,000 items. Research based on the study of these archives and the publication of this research is one of the traditional functions of the institute. The institute’s library possesses over 300,000 volumes. This library is a branch of the Library of the Academy of Sciences. The institute carries out research in Russian history from ancient times up to the 20th century. Historical research includes Ancient history, Byzantium, France, Germany, Italy and the USA, with a focus on primary sources and historiography. Research assistants of the institute have prepared numerous monographs and editions of documents about the history of St. Petersburg (including Essays of Leningrad History). B. D. Grekov, S. A. Zhebelev, V. V. Struve, E. V. Tarle, O. A. Dobiash-Rozhdestvenskaya, S. Y. Lourie, S. N. Valk, I. I. Smirnov, B. A. Romanov, A. I. Andreev, A. V. Predtechensky, A. D. Lyublinskaya, V. I. Rutenburg and V. S. Dyakin et al. have worked at the institute at different times. The institute has been publishing the yearbook Secondary Historical Disciplines together with the Archaeographical Commission since 1968. The institute was first housed in the building of the Library of the Academy of Sciences (1 Birzhevaya Line). It is housed in the former mansion of N. P. Likhachev since 1966.

References: Путеводитель по архиву Ленинградского отделения Института истории. М.; Л., 1958; Фонды и коллекции Архива [С.-Петерб. фил. Ин-та рос. истории РАН]: Крат. справ. СПб., 1995.

N. L. Korsakova. Andreev Alexander Ignatievich
Dobiash-Rozhdestvenskaya Olga Antonovna
Dyakin Valentin Semenovich
Grekov Boris Dmitrievich
Likhachev Nikolay Petrovich
Lurie Solomon Yakovlevich
Lyublinskaya Alexandra Dmitrievna
Predtechensky Anatoly Vasilievich
Romanov Boris Alexandrovich
Rutenburg Viktor Ivanovich
Smirnov Ivan Ivanovich
Struve Vasily Vasilievich
Tarle Evgeny Viktorovich
Valk Sigizmund Natanovich
Zhebelev Sergey Alexandrovich
Petrozavodskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Путеводитель по архиву Ленинградского отделения Института истории. М.; Л., 1958
Фонды и коллекции Архива [С-Петерб. фил. Ин-та рос. истории РАН]: Крат. справ. СПб., 1995 Archaeological Committee
Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Essays of Leningrad History, Multiple Volume Edition