Report of V. M. Turok-Popov at the 1964 meeting of the section of social sciences of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the tasks of Soviet Slavic studies

This article presents V. M. Turok-Popov’s contribution to the critical reflection of methodological problems of Soviet historical science, including Soviet Slavic studies, during the thaw. From the documents of the scientist’s personal fund kept in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, his report on the tasks of Slavic studies for the meeting of the Section of Social Sciences of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1964, the purpose of which was to develop methodological issues of history, is published for the first time. The proceedings of the meeting were published in the collection ‘History and Sociology’ (1964), but Turok-Popov’s report was not included in it, which limited the circle of people who could have familiarised themselves with it. The publication is accompanied by a letter from V. V. Altman’s letter, which conveys the reaction to the report of the participants of the meeting and indicates some reasons for its absence from the collection.