“I am still strolling in that naval coat”: Great Patriotic War and A. L. Shapiro career

Career characteristic features of one Soviet historian of the early 1930s and the influence of the Great Patriotic War on its development are studied. The study is based on multiple archival documents belonging to higher educational establishments and scholarly institutions. A. L. Shapiro’s letters were also used as sources of the research. The outbreak of the Great Patriotic war deprived A. L. Shapiro of the opportunity to teach history at the university and blocked his socio-economic research. Having been mobilized to teach at a naval college, the historian had to change his research interests. After the war, A. L. Shapiro was not allowed to leave his naval service, although he did not see much sense in it. He, nevertheless, succeeded in adopting to the circumstances and continued his preparation for the following civil career. Using his research skills and academic relationships, A. L. Shapiro defended a doctoral thesis in the field of naval history in 1951. Upon his resignation from the Navy in 1956, the historian obtained professorship at the Department of History of Leningrad State University.