A. M. Skvortsov. Postgraduate Historical Studies in 1941–1945: Problems of Adapting the System
of Academic Training to Wartime Conditions // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 1, 2026,
pp. 71–82.

DOI: 10.51255/2311–603X_2026_1_71

Abstract:

This article examines the specific features of postgraduate education in history during the Great Patriotic War. Drawing on statistical data, legal regulations, administrative records, and personal documents, the author analyzes how wartime mobilization and the general context of war influenced the training of highly qualified academic personnel. The article highlights challenges related to student recruitment, the quality of academic preparation, and the shifting focus of postgraduate activity toward propaganda work and the production of popular literature — trends that had a tangible impact on dissertation research. Concrete examples reveal a tendency to narrow the scope of dissertation topics to individual sources or specific historians
which led to an increase in historiographical and source-critical studies during the war years. Starting in 1943, the All-Union Committee for Higher Education sought to tighten its oversight of postgraduate training. This was to be achieved through formal bureaucratic procedures — including the introduction of individual work plans, reporting activities, and scheduled evaluations — and by strengthening the responsibility of the academic advisor. In both administrative practice and normative documents, particular attention was given to
the advisor’s role, with an emphasis on intensifying their engagement with the candidate.

Key words: postgraduate studies, Great Patriotic War, historiography, USSR Academy of Sciences, evacuation.

Author:

Skvortsov, Artyom Mikhailovich — PhD in History, Associate Professor, Senior Research fellow, S. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Science (Moscow, Russian Federation).
E-mail: artyom-skvorcov@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-3287-4154

References:
Burdei, G. D. Istoricheskaya literatura v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny. Dokumenty i materialy
[Historical Literature During the Great Patriotic War. Documents and Materials. In Russ.]. Iss. 1. Saratov, Obrazovanie publ., 1995. 109 p.

Burdei, G. D., Naumov, S. Yu. Istoricheskaya literatura v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny. Dokumenty i materialy [Historical Literature During the Great Patriotic War. Documents and Materials. In Russ.]. Iss. 3. Saratov, Obrazovanie publ., 1995. 74 p.

Burdei, G. D., Borodkin, L. I. Zashchita dissertatsii po grazhdanskoi istorii v 1941–1945 gg. (Istochniki, problematika, dinamika) [Defense of Dissertations on Civil History in 1941–1945 (Sources, Problems, Dynamics). In Russ.]. In: Vspomogatel’nye istoricheskie distsipliny. 1993. Vol. XXIV, pp. 106–125.

Chanbarisov, Sh. H. Formirovanie sovetskoi universitetskoi sistemy [Formation of the Soviet University System. In Russ.]. Moscow, Vysshaya shkola publ., 1988. 255 p.

Kruglyanskii, M. R. Vysshaya shkola SSSR v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny [Higher School of the USSR During the Great Patriotic War. In Russ.]. Moscow, Vysshaya shkola publ., 1970. 314 p.

Levshin, B. V. Sovetskaya nauka v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny [Soviet Science During the Great Patriotic War. In Russ.]. Moscow, Nauka publ., 1983. 381 p.

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