This article deals with the 75-year period of writing textbooks on the history of Southern and Western Slavs in the Department of History at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The first textbook was conceived in 1947 and published in 1957. It resulted from the fruitful researching and teaching of the members of the Department and the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Theoretically, it testified to the victory of the Marxist-Leninist concept in the University Slavic Studies. The preparation of the second textbook took place against the backdrop of a heated debate on the replacement of the former discipline with the history of the countries building socialism. For the first time the article introduces the archival materials relating to the preparation, course and decisions of the interuniversity conference of historians in the area of Slavic Studies (February 1962). This allowed us to reveal the attitude of the entire Slavistic community of the USSR to the concept of the second edition. The completely new textbook came out in 1969. However, a signifi cant part of its print run was destroyed for purely political reasons. This fact is little known even to the scholarly community. Another textbook in the form of a course of lectures on the history of Southern and Western Slavs appeared only ten years later, in 1979. Its 13 000 copies were distributed by the Department to 58 universities of the USSR. 20 more years were necessary to prepare a new textbook. In 1998 it appeared in two volumes and was reprinted in 2001 and 2008. A current view of the Slavic history from antiquity to 2019 is presented in the just published standard textbook in three volumes (September 2022). The emergence of this particular version was predetermined by the very logic of the history of the Slavic peoples, as well as the necessity for application of its authors’ educational and methodological approaches and a fresh look at the discipline.

The article is devoted to an exposition of the activities of the Department of the History of Southern and Western Slavs at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. It traces the early stages of Slavic studies in Russia, beginning during the reign of Nicholas I. The authors examine the revival of this interdisciplinary field in the interwar Soviet Union, driven largely by foreign policy considerations. The article delineates the primary phases in the development of the department, which was founded on the eve of the Great Patriotic War through the efforts of the eminent Slavist V.I. Picheta. The subsequent sections focus on the department’s evolution during the second half of the twentieth and the early twenty first century, assessing its role and significance in shaping both Soviet and post-Soviet Slavic studies. The authors emphasize the department’s guiding principles in training researchers of Slavic history, underscoring the significance of a meticulously structured curriculum and an individualized approach to working with students, graduate students and doctoral candidates. It is vital to note the particular focus that has been placed on the department’s trajectory in the wake of the Bologna system’s implementation. The article sets forth a thorough examination of the reform, its implications for the training of historians specializing in Slavic countries, and the outcomes and consequences thereof, which are predominantly negative. It delineates the specific measures that the department has initiated with the objective of optimizing the benefits of the two-tier higher education model, while concomitantly seeking to minimize its adverse effects. The article also presents recent innovations in the department’s curriculum, offering insights into newly introduced courses. Moreover, the authors address the challenges currently affecting both the educational process, including the training of young scholars, and the scholarly and teaching activities of the department’s staff . The article reflects on the recent generational renewal of faculty members, which the authors of the article view as being crucial for the preservation of academic traditions and scholarly schools. Among the department’s recent major publishing initiatives, particular mention is made of the new three-volume textbook History of the Southern and Western Slavs and the Historians-Slavists of Moscow State University series. T e article concludes with reflections on the future of Slavic studies teaching at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.