Abstract: This article is devoted to the problems of the "relapse of Pokrovshchina" – a phenomenon in the history of historical science, which was characterized by the dominance of sociologized schemes, the leveling of the role of source analysis, the lack of developments in problem areas of auxiliary historical disciplines, the primacy of modern studies to the detriment of the study of classical history. The famous Soviet Byzantine historian Mikhail Jakovlevich Sjuzjumov (1893-1982) resolutely opposed the crisis of this "growth disease". In his personal fund (GASO, F. P-802) contains letters to leading experts in various branches of historical science, where he analyzes in detail the essence of the "second edition of the Pokrovshchina" (the second half of the 1960s).
Two letters of M. Ja. Sjuzjumov are introduced into scientific circulation. One of them, dated by the author on May 5, 1965, is a response to the appeal of the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Questions of History" to Vladimir Grigoryevich Trukhanovsky (1914-2000) and a letter dated July 2, 1965 to the Soviet statesman, First Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee Sergei Pavlovich Pavlov (1929-1993). In fact, they are journalistic articles, a reflection on the results of the All-Union Meeting on measures to improve the training of scientific and pedagogical personnel in historical sciences, convened by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the SNK of the USSR. M. Ja. Sjuzjumov considers the popularization of historical knowledge to be a recipe for the destructive action of the Pokrovshchina.

Abstract: The study of Soviet-American scientific relationships during the Cold War is an actual scientific task. In the article for the first time is published letters from the personal foundation of Professor Michael Sjuzjumov (Ural University, Sverdlovsk), which he received from Lois Hassler-Smith and Merlin Packard, librarians of the Center for Byzantine Studies at Harvard University in Dumbarton Oaks, 1960s and 1970s. In addition, the author of the article is considered the issue of official ways to exchange scientific literature with capitalist countries, which were regulated by special legislative acts. However, the contacts that scientists of the USSR and the United States independently established among themselves made it possible, avoiding unnecessary formalities, to quickly receive the latest scientific literature. The letters published in the article indicate that the correspondence of M.Ja. Sjuzjumov with the staff of the Dumbarton Oaks library lasted more than 10 years. The American side received scientific periodicals published in Sverdlovsk and teaching aids on special courses, and M.Ja. Sjuzjumov – novelties of American scientific literature and classical editions, which were previously available to him only in the capital’s libraries. The authors of the article also managed to identify an error made by the compilers of the Who Was Who at Dumbarton Oaks index, 1940–2015. This edition indicates that the library employed female employees Lois Smith and Lois Hassler. Meanwhile, the analysis of correspondence with M.Ja. Sjuzjumov and the data of the American periodical press prove presented one person – Lois Hassler-Smith.

Abstract: Interest in biography is steadily growing in modern Russian society. Mythologized concepts, stamps and "dark spots" are increasingly discredited by archival data. The article is devoted to the scientific biography of the candidate of Historical Sciences, associate professor of the Department of General History N. N. Belova (1917-2012). The author reconstructs the course of work of the Soviet epigraphist on the problems of dialectical continuity based on archival materials. In the second half of the 1960s, N. N. Belova worked on a set of problems concerning the Gallo–Roman villa as an economic unit connected with the city. N. N. Belova considered the history of the late Roman Republic and the Gallia of the principate era as the history of the relationship between Rome and Italians, i.e., the struggle of Italian communities against Roman-Italian slavery. The author used a biobibliographic method, as well as developments in the field of everyday history. The article presents for the first time a letter from M. Ja. Sjuzjumov to N. N. Belova. The materials presented in this article allow us to highlight an important aspect of the scientific work of the outstanding Soviet historian M. Ja. Sjuzjumov (1893-1982) - the study of the genesis of the ancient city. The most important result of the work was the formation of the most important milestones of the scientific biography of N. N. Belova, a historian who is part of the "inner circle" of M. Ja. Sjuzjumov.