The A.D. Xenopol Institute of History in Iași is a specialised research division of the Romanian Academy. The activity of this institution focuses on studying Romanian and European history. The A.D. Xenopol Institute of Romanian History, attached to the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Iași, was founded in 1940. It was headed by Ilie Minea. Thus, Iași gained its own institution of historical research, similar to the other two big university centres, Bucharest and Cluj, where national and world history institutes had been functioning for a long time. On 25 May 1943, this institute became a separate legal entity, under the name of the A.D. Xenopol Institute of National History, affiliated with the University of Iași. It functioned under the authority of the Ministry of National Culture and Religious Affairs. After the radical reform of the educational system and the Romanian Academy enacted in 1948, which created large research institutes with a strictly planned collective activity, according to the Soviet model, the A.D. Xenopol Institute of National History ceased to exist, becoming, from 1949, a section of the Institute of History and Philology of the Academy of the Romanian People’s Republic – Iași Branch. The activity of the history section was coordinated and led by Professor Valerian Popovici. The section comprised medieval and modern history sectors. From 1953, a sector specialised in the field of ancient history and archaeology was added. In 1958, a new subdivision dealing with contemporary history was created. Following another stage of reorganisation, in 1964 a separate Institute of History and Archaeology was established. From 1965, it regained its old name – A.D. Xenopol. In 1967, a separate section focusing on world history was created within the Institute. Its leadership was taken over by Professor Mircea Petrescu-Dîmbovița. After the creation, in 1970, of the Academy of Social and Political Sciences of the Socialist Republic of Romania, the A.D. Xenopol Institute of History and Archaeology was professionally subordinated to the new institution. From an administrative point of view, until 1975 the Institute was affiliated with the Iași Branch of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania. That year, the Institute was integrated into the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Al. I. Cuza University of Iași. Until the fall of communism, the institute had a dual subordination: to the Academy of Social and Political Sciences and to the Ministry of Education. In 1981, the Institute was reorganised into separate research departments (colective), according to the main research interests of the Iași-based historians: the department of prehistory; the Dacian and Roman archaeology department; the feudal archaeology section; the modern methods in archaeology group; the medieval history department; the modern history section; the contemporary history department; the department of the history of international relations; the history of the Second World War section; and the department of the history of culture. In early 1990, the Institute was transferred under the aegis of the Romanian Academy. Shortly thereafter, the former Archaeology Section was established as a separate Institute of Archaeology, while the History Section continued as a separate A.D. Xenopol Institute of History, under the leadership of Professor Alexandru Zub. After 1990, the Institute consisted of five research departments: history of the Middle Ages; modern history; contemporary history; history of international relations, and history of culture. At present, twenty-five researchers and three members of administrative staff (including a librarian) are employed at the A.D. Xenopol Institute of History. The library is designed primarily to support the research and academic work of the historians affiliated with the Institute. Therefore, it is not a public library. However, although it employs only one librarian, it provides open access to Al. I. Cuza University staff and students, and also to other interested researchers. The library’s collection amounts to over 50,000 books and over 900 journals (totalling several thousand volumes of periodicals).
