Historical science of the Ural and the Great Patriotic War: Activities of evacuated academic and educational institutions of the central part of the USSR in 1941-1943

The modern society is increasingly interested in the Soviet period of national history. Despite the fundamental study of individual topics, there are still subjects in the historiography that need additional research. One of the controversial issues of the war period is the activity of scientific and educational institutions of the central part of the USSR in the conditions of evacuation. The purpose of this article is to analyze the influence of evacuated scientific and educational institutions on the Ural historical science in 1941-1943. The authors investigated the historiography and identified research approaches to understanding the evacuation process. Historiographers have only fragmentarily revealed the stories devoted to the scientific and pedagogical work of the arrived specialists and their interaction with the Ural historians. This paper fills some gaps in the functioning of academic and educational institutions of the central part of the USSR in Sverdlovsk related to historical science. The first part of the study is devoted to the activities of the history faculty of Moscow State University and the Chersonesos Historical and Archaeological Museum in Sverdlovsk. It is revealed that the teachers at the Moscow State University were temporary part-timers at the Sverdlovsk State University. The evacuated historians, who worked part-time at the Sverdlovsk University's history faculty, were concentrated on their duties at their main place of assignment, which adversely affected the level of lectures at the Sverdlovsk University. The second part of the study is devoted to the activities of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which worked to organize the activities of academicians in the conditions of war. Thus, in late August - early September 1941, a commission was established to mobilize the resources of the Urals. In addition to the Commission, a Group on the History of Technology was established at the Department of Technical Sciences. Professors and academicians of the group actively interacted with the Ural historians. Thus, the scientific and pedagogical activities of the evacuated professors at Sverdlovsk University did not affect the qualitative replenishment of personnel and the training of students. Nevertheless, the activities of academicians and professors who worked in the Sverdlovsk region contributed to the expansion and stimulation of Ural topics. The study of the history of the Urals in the following decades became the main scientific direction not only for Sverdlovsk historians, but also for a group of specialists of the USSR Academy of Sciences.