History Institutes

scholarly institutions engaged in research work in history.

The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the universities, and the historical societies were the centers of the scholarly work in history in pre-revolutionary Russia. After the Great October Revolution of 1917, the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences was created in 1918 (this institution was known as the Communist Academy from 1924 to 1936). The Commission on the History of the October Revolution and the RCP (Bolshevik), often referred to as Istpart, functioned from 1920 to 1930. The Institute of K. Marx and F. Engels was formed in 1921; it has been known since 1956 as the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Russian Association of Scientific Research Institutes of the Social Sciences (RAN-ION) existed from 1924 to 1930. The majority of the history institutes were placed under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the 1930’s.

The system of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR includes the Institute of the History of the USSR and the Institute of World History (both created in 1968 on the basis of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which had existed since 1936); the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies (created in 1946 and known until 1968 as the Institute of Slavic Studies); the Institute of Oriental Studies (1930); the Institute of Africa (1959); the Institute of Latin America (1961); the Institute of the Far East (1966); the Institute of the International Labor Movement (1966); and the Institute of the United States of America (1967).

There are history institutes in all the academies of sciences of the republics. They are known as the Institute of History and Archaeology in the Uzbek SSR and as the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography in both the Georgian SSR and the Kazakh SSR. Special scholarly institutions have been established for the study of the history and culture of the peoples of the East in the academies of science of the Caucasian and Middle Asian republics. These include the institutes of Oriental studies in Dushanbe, Yerevan, and Tashkent; the Institute of the Peoples of the Near and Middle East in Baku; and a department of Oriental studies in Frunze. There are institutes of history, language, and literature in the autonomous republics (these are sometimes known as institutes of language, literature, and history). The Siberian division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR has an institute of history, philology, and philosophy. The Institute of Marxism-Leninism (IML) is attached to the Central Committee of the CPSU, and institutes of party history, which are branches of the IML, are under the central committees of the Communist parties of the Union republics. The Institute of Military History has functioned within the system of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR since 1967.

In foreign socialist countries, as in the USSR, history institutes are usually part of the system of national academies of science and are the most important centers of scholarly research in history. Examples include the Central Institute of History (Zentralinstitut für Geschichte) and a number of other academic history institutes under the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (German Democratic Republic) and the history institutes under the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, and the academies of science of the Socialist Republic of Rumania, located in Bucharest and Cluj. In several socialist countries (German Democratic Republic, Poland), history institutes have traditionally been part of universities and combine scholarly research with teaching. Institutes of party history have been created in most of the socialist countries. These include the Institute of the History of the Bulgarian Communist Party under the Central Committee of the party (Institut po Istoriia na BKP pri TsK na BKP), the institutes under the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMPKB Párttörténeti Intezete), the institutes under the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (Choson Nodongdang Chungangwiwonhoe Dangyok-sayonguso), and the institutes attached to the Central Committee of the Mongolian People’s Republic Party (MAKhN-yn TKh-ny Dergerekh Namyn Tuukhiin Institut). There are two institutes of Marxism-Leninism: the Institute of Marxism-Lenin-ism of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Institut fur Marxismus-Leninismus bei ZK der SED) in Berlin and the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Ustav Marxismus-Leninismus UVKSC) in Prague. Several institutes of the workers’ movement also deal with party history: the Institute of the History of the Polish Workers’ Movement (Instytut His-torii Polskiego Robotnicego Ruchu) and the Institute of the Contemporary Workers’ Movement (Instytut Wspoczesnego Miedzynarodowego Ruchu) of the Higher School of the Social Sciences, both attached to the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party in Warsaw, as well as the Institute of the International Workers’ Movement (Institut za Medunarodni Radnicki Pokret) in Belgrade. The Institute of Historical and Sociopolitical Research attached to the Central Committee of the Rumanian Communist Party (Institutul de Studii Istorice si Social-politice de pe Lîngâ CC al PCR) is located in Bucharest. Institutes of military history include the Institute of Military History in Hungary (Hádtörténelmi Intézet) and the German Institute of Military History (Deutsches Institut fur Militarge-schichte) in East Germany.

In other foreign countries, history institutes exist in universities and as independent scholarly institutions. For example, there is a broad network of history institutes in France: the University of Paris has the Institute of Modern and Contemporary History (Institut d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine), the Institute of the History of the French Revolution (Institut d’Histoire de la Revolution Française), and the Institute of Economic and Social History (Institut d’Histoire Economique et Sociale). Important centers of historical science in Great Britain are the Institute of Historical Research at London University and the Royal Institute of Internationa! Affairs. Among the important centers in the Federal Republic of Germany are the Max Planck Institute of History (Max-Planck Institut fur Geschichte) in Gottingen, the Institute of European History (Institut fur Europaische Geschichte) in Mainz, and the Institute of Contemporary History (Institut fur Zeitgeschichte) in Munich. Many history institutes engaged in both scientific research and teaching are attached to universities in the Federal Republic of Germany. History institutes in Italy include the Italian Historical Institute for Modern and Contemporary History (Istituto Storico Italiano per l’Eta Moderna e Contemporanea), the Institute for the History of the Risorgimento (Istituto di Storia del Risorgimento), the Italian Institute of the History of the Middle Ages (Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo) in Rome, and the Institute for Historical Research (Istituto di Studi Storici) in Naples. In the USA there are a great number of historical institutes at universities—the basic centers of historical science in this country. The Pan-American Institute of Geography and History (Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia) in Mexico is a regional scientific center for the American continent. All-around centers for Arabic and Islamic studies are the Institute of Higher Arabic Studies of the Arab League, in Cairo, and the Institute of Islamic Studies, in Baghdad. The International Institute of Social History (Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis) in Amsterdam, which possesses important documentary archives, is an international center for historical research on the history of the workers’ movement and socialist thought. There are history institutes whose chief work consists in research on historical texts and in preparation of texts for publication. These include the German Institute for the Study of the Middle Ages (M. G. H. Deutsches Institut fur die Erfor-schung des Mittelalters), in Munich, Federal Republic of Germany, which publishes Monumenta Germania historica, and the Institute for Austrian Historical Studies (Institut fur Osterrei-chische Geschichtsforschung) at the University of Vienna. The Institute for Research and the History of Texts (Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes) in Paris deals with a wide range of manuscripts.

In a number of capitalist countries, along with the history institutes that are basically centers of bourgeois historical science, there are history institutes that are centers of Marxist historical research: the Maurice Thorez Institute (Institut Maurice Thorez) in Paris, the Gramsci Institute (Istituto Gramsci) in Rome, the Institute for Marxist Studies and Research (Institut fur Marxistischen Studien und Forschungen) in Frankfurt-am-Main, and the American Institute for Marxist Studies in New York.