The Organizational Maturation of International Congresses of Historical Sciences (1920s-1930s)

Keywords: international congresses of historical sciences, International Committee of Historical Sciences, academic communication, academic community

Abstract

The article is concerned with the organization of international congresses of historical sciences in the 1920s and 1930s. The author identifies the organizational innovations and factors that led to the transformation of this platform into the largest form of academic communication for the global community of historians. Analysis of the sources leads the author to argue that the key roles in the organizational evolution of international congresses of historical sciences were played by the geopolitical situation in the aftermath of World War I and the dynamic development of historical scholarship around the world in the interwar period. The article pays special attention to the establishment of the International Committee of Historical Sciences as a structure that promoted communication between national communities of historians within the congress space, and to its activities aimed at reducing the destructive influence of political and ideological factors on the work of these forums. In particular, it is found that the efforts of the International Committee of Historical Sciences in the 1920s and 1930s contributed to the reintegration of historians from the Central Powers and the USSR into the global research community and helped expand the reach of congresses to involve researchers from previously unrepresented countries. Based on the analysis of the programs of the international congresses of historical sciences that convened in the interwar era, the author establishes that the modernization of approaches to the structuring of the system of sections was greatly influenced by the processes of specialization of historical knowledge and institutionalization of new areas of historical research. The author concludes that the innovations introduced into the work of international congresses of historical sciences in the interwar era were far-reaching and proved essential for the organizational maturation of this form of academic exchange.

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Published
2025-07-10
How to Cite
Dotsenko, M. (2025). The Organizational Maturation of International Congresses of Historical Sciences (1920s-1930s). The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series History, (67), 152-165. https://doi.org/10.26565/2220-7929-2025-67-08