This article focuses on the circumstances surrounding the doctoral defense in philology of Ieremiia Isaevich Ioffe, one of the most outstanding early Soviet scholars of culture and art. Based on recently discovered archival materials, the authors explore the
history of a doctoral defense delayed for eight years. This Ioffe case is analyzed in the
context of granting doctoral degrees in Soviet science throughout the 1930–1940s.
The article explores the interplay between academic and administrative approaches
to academic decision-making as well as the importance of disciplinary boundaries in
assessing interdisciplinary research at the time.