Sergey G. Karpyuk

Institute of World History R AS, Moscow; RSUH, Moscow

E-mail: oxlos@yandex.ru

Keywords: the history of Soviet archaeology, Moscow Branch of the Institute for the History of Material Culture, S.P. Tolstov, V.N. Chernetsov.

Based on materials from the Archives of the RAS, the author proposes his overview of the activities of Moscow Branch of the Institute for the History of Material Culture in a crucial period (summer of 1941 – winter of 1941/42), as well as the relations between Moscow archaeologists and the management of the Institute in Leningrad, which is shown by means of documents from the Archives of the RAS. In the late spring – early summer of 1941, the staff of the Moscow Branch of the Institute for the History of Material Culture raised the question of creating an independent Institute of Archaeology and Art Studies at the USSR Academy of Sciences. On June 11, 1941, the morning meeting of the Bureau of the History and Philosophy Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences was a boil with heated controversy; among the participants engaged was the Director of the Institute for the History of Material Culture M.I. Artamonov, who arrived from Leningrad, and Moscow archaeologists, among whom the leading role belonged to S.P. Tolstov. By the beginning of 1942, Moscow Branch of the Institute for the History of Material Culture did not only survive as a workable unit, but also became the only active subdivision of the Institute for the History of Material Culture. To a considerable extent, it should be credited to those staff members who remained in the besieged in Moscow, first of all, to V.N. Chernetsov. An important part was played by the participation of Moscow archaeologists in state supported projects on the description of archaeological sites destroyed by the Nazi, as well as historical and cultural monuments. The interrupted connection with the Directorate of the Institute was compensated by contacts with the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences evacuated to Kazan. The “designing” of the autonomous Moscow Branch of the Institute for the History of Material Culture announced at the meeting of the History and Philosophy Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences on June 11, 1941, was postponed due to wartime, but in fact, until 1942 Moscow Branch the Institute for the History of Material Culture was working autonomously. In the period of weakening state control over academic science, the Moscow archaeologists’ initiative “from below” proved quite successful.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630004827-8