Ethnic Geography and the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War

The article examines the history of the project “The Study of the Ethnic Composition of Central and South-Eastern Europe”, commissioned by the General Staff of the Red Army and carried out at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1943–1945. Soviet ethnographers prepared maps and reports on ethnically-mixed territories and ethnic borders. This information was important in the context of the post-war reorganization of Europe. The article also looks into other studies, prompted by the ideological confrontation with Nazi Germany.