Preserving History. On 80-year anniversary of Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the RAS

On February 16, 2016 at the Reading hall of Scientific and historical archive of the Institute exhibition “Preserving History” has been opened. This event was timed to 80-year anniversary of SPbIH of the RAS. The guests of the grand meeting dated for this occurrence were its first visitors.

Both original documents and copies from the funds of Institute’s archive and Saint-Petersburg branch of the Archive of the RAS are presented at the exhibition. The exhibition is based mostly on personal funds of scholars who worked at the Institute in different times; among them there are D.I. Petrikeev, K.N. Serbina, A.D. Lublinskaya, B.A. Romanov, E.Ch. Skrzhinskaya, S.N. Valk. Moreover the documents on organizational issues referring to the Institute are also on display.

The first section acquaints the visitors with the history of the building where the Institute resides, with the destiny of Museum of paleography and sheds the light on some episodes from biography of the museums founder N.P. Likhachev.

The main part of the exhibition starts with the fragment of D.I. Petrikeev’s notes on prehistory and organization of Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences. This document is a part of unpublished work on the history of the Institute.

A lot of items reflect the work of the Institute during the Great Patriotic War. In particular the lists of employees of the pre-war and war periods composed by D.I. Petrikeev on the basis of archival documents are presented. Copies of documents from personal fund of K.N. Serbina reflect her life and activity as Institute’s employee during the siege of Leningrad.

Organizational issues concerning the Institute are reflected by two Resolutions of Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. The first dated March 20, 1953 resulted in abolition of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History, while the second of March 11, 1955 reestablished it.

The exhibition continues by materials from personal funds of .D. Lublinskaya, B.A. Romanov, E.Ch. Skrzhinskaya, S.N. Valk and O.N. Znamensky. These documents present to the visitors different aspects of everyday life of the Institute from scientific work of scholars (parts of manuscript copies of articles and books, protocols of scientific sittings, etc.) to informal activities (friendly jest of S.N. Valk and archaized anniversary card to him signed by his institute colleagues)

Illustrative materials are presented by individual and group photos of Institute scholars of different periods and by scheme of international connections of the Institute composed presumably in 1970-s.

The text of the Resolution of Presidium of the RAS on creation of separate and independent Saint Petersburg Institute of History completes the display.

The exhibition has been organized by research fellows of Scientific and historical archive Candidates of Science in History N.V. Bashnin, M.E. Proskuryakova, A.A. Efimov with the assistance of Candidate of Science in History E.I. Nosova and Yu.B. Fomina.