Zagrebin Alexey
The article is devoted to the history of relationship between the community of humanitarians and regional authorities on the example of Udmurt Institute of History, Language and Literature. Since 1920s, the process of national-state construction among Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia was in need of scientific foundation of the legislation and administrative decisions. Questions related to management, determination of boundaries of the autonomies, language policy and relationships between various groups of population became the sphere of activities of historians, ethnographers, folklorists and linguists. In many autonomic republics scientific-research institutes were founded, which were called to facilitate the construction of «socialist culture». Due to cooperation of science and policy, the researchers were supposed to search for a delicate balance between practices that reflect mosaic picture of native life, and biased texts of official reports. The inclusion of the Institute into academic infrastructure liberated scientists from many bureaucratic conventions, at the same time preserving a number of rituals and directions of activity, which link the Institute with local authorities.
Keywords: humanitarian research, Udmurtia, authority, Academy of Sciences