The Institute of Russia’s Regional History of the Faculty of Humanities at HSE University was established in 2023 on the basis of the Laboratory 'Russia’s Regions in Historical Perspective' at HSE University, which had been operating since 2019.

The Institute conducts a comprehensive study of the social and sociopolitical development of Russia’s regions from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The research program addresses such issues as established geographical positioning; the emergence and development of imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet historical-geographical formations; cross-border processes and exchanges; territorial development and colonization; social engineering; regional governance practices; the creation and development of human capital; as well as the formation of regional identities, mental maps, and local modes of representation.