V.N. Beneshevich was a tragic figure in the history of the Russian scholarship. A scholar of Byzantine studies of an international level, he was repeatedly exposed to repressions in the 1920th-30th and was virtually unable to implement the plans for promoting the Byzantine studies in the USSR. In 1933 Beneshevich tried to return to scholastic activity, as he worked out plans for promoting the Byzantine studies in the USSR and tried to adapt them to the predominant course of scientific policy. In the meantime, he quite understood that the preservation of the Byzantine studies in the USSR could only be achieved through flexibility in the relations with the state and respect for the main principles of scientific activity. Beneshevich repeatedly addressed the leaders of the Soviet academic science - V.P. Volgin and N.P. Gorbunov, appealed to the General Sessions of the Academy, looked for support from his colleagues - D.M. Petrushevskiy and V.I. Vernadskiy. However, as the documents first published in this article demonstrate, he found no understanding and his colleagues could not help him. The fate of V.N. Beneshevich in many respects reflected the fate of the whole Byzantine studies during the interwar period.