L.I. Surina - a researcher of the history of the Komi region

The paper dedicated to the memory of the Komi historian Lidiya Ivanovna Surina (1918-2015) analyzes her scientific activity, gives an assessment of her most famous works, among which, first of all, academic “Essays on the history of the Komi ASSR” in 2 volumes, published in the 1950s-early 1960s. It was a period when the Komi ASSR did not have its own specialists in the history of the region, so the Moscow colleagues from the Institute of History of Academy of Sciences of the USSR came to assist to the Komi historians. L.I. Surina, as the first Komi Candidate of Sciences (History), who defended her dissertation in 1953, was editor and co-author of these essays, which became a notable phenomenon in the Russian historiography. Later, she worked on other well-known publications of the Komi Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Soviet period. They are “The History of the Komi ASSR from ancient times to the present day”, “The History of Syktyvkar”, “The Road of Struggle and Victories: Chronicle of the Komi regional organization of the CPSU. 1917-1981” and others. Already being at the advanced age, she took part in the project of the Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Encyclopedia of the Komi Republic” and wrote a number of articles. Her scientific works were highly appreciated by colleagues and readers.