Moscow Branch of the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1942

Abstract

The article provides information on how the Moscow branch of the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences worked in 1942. The branch remained the only operating archival institution in the system of academic institutions and organizations, since the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad under the conditions of the city blockade could not fully carry out scientific and methodological management of archival affairs. Despite the limited number of employees, the department made every possible effort to search, ensure safety, recording, scientific and technical processing of documentary complexes and scientific and methodological management of the archives of institutions and organizations of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as well as to identify documents necessary for use in the defense purposes and restoration of the national economy. We must also pay tribute to the responsible executives of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who ensured the evacuation of most archives of academic institutions in the northern and southern regions of the country, which made it possible to safeguard their preservation. The dedicated work of the scientific archivist A.N. Prokofieva, who from October 1941 to April 1942 was engaged in academic archival issues, deserves special attention. The information presented will allow expanding the source study base on the history of academic archiving as an integral part of the history of archival affairs in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.