Five decades long path

This article, based on the current archive of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the annual scientific reports, recreates the 50-year history of IHAE, shows the role of its directors in the formation and development of the Institute: Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.I. Krushanov, Academician of the RAS V.L. Larin and Corresponding Member of the RAS N.N. Kradin. Particular attention is paid to a difficult stage in the life of the country and historical science - the period of the 1990s. The liquidation of the CPSU, the fall of the Soviet system and the collapse of the USSR contributed to the crisis of historical science. During this period, the leaders of the IHAE FEB RAS faced quite difficult tasks: to provide funding for scientific research; retain the cadres of professional historians; to develop new methodological approaches and principles for the analysis of historical events and "blind spots" in the history of the Far East; determine the prospects for the future. All these tasks were successfully solved, and by 2000 the Institute regained the role of a scientific center uniting all historians of the Far Eastern region. Introduction. The reasons that led to the need to open an academic center of historical science in Vladivostok are stated: there was a process of intensive development of the region's natural resources; new industrial enterprises and universities were created; Far Eastern cities were renewed, the population grew; the ideological and military confrontation between the two “superpowers” grew, and relations between the USSR and China sharply deteriorated. In these conditions, the role of the humanitarian and ideological component of the social life of the region increased, which was to be formed by historical science. Methods. The content of the article is based on different methods of research, first of all the comparative-genetic method, a consistent presentation of the event series, related to the history of the formation and development of IHAE FEB RAS. Through the application of the narrative method, the history of the Institute's development under its three directors is more widely presented, the specifics of each of the directors and research areas of the staff are displayed. The use of the information method is particularly valuable for building an event series. The method of comparative-historical analysis is also used in the article's presentation. Results. This article was based primarily on the documents of the archive of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the FEB RAS, the annual scientific reports of the Institute and bibliographic indexes of the works of staff of IHAE. This made it possible to present the history of the Institute in all its completeness and contradictions, to show its importance as an academic center of historical science in the Far Eastern region, to determine the main directions of historical research in the future.