War Evacuation and the Exercise of Power examines the history of the Pedagogical Institute located in the USSRamp39s Kirov region from 1941 to 1952. Holmes reveals a tangled and complex relationship of local regional and national agencies. While it recognizes the immense strength of the center it emphasizes a contentious diffusion although not a confusion of authority. In so doing it departs from traditional models of Soviet power with their neatly drawn vertical and horizontal lines of command. It also demonstrates institutional and personal behavior simultaneously consistent with and at odds with a triumphalist wartime narrative.The Nazi invasion of Sovietheld territory in 1941 set off a massive evacuation eastward that included the relocation in Kirov of the Commissariat of Forest Industry and a large factory under the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of Aviation Industry. By occupying the two main buildings of Kirovamprsquos Pedagogical Institute these commissariats forced the Institute to abandon the provincial capital for a remote rural location Iaransk. Then and for years thereafter the Pedagogical Institute portrayed itself as the victim of these commissariatsamp39 bad behavior that included the physical destruction of the Instituteamprsquos buildings and much of its property. In its quest for justice as it understood it the Institute had the support of the Commissariat of Education. But that agency was far too weak in comparison with its institutional competitors the offending commissariats to provide much help. Of greater significance the Institute forged a remarkable alliance with governing party and state organs in the city and region of Kirov. A united Kirov compelled the entry into the dispute of the Council of Peoples Commissars of both the Russian Republic and Soviet Union and the partyamprsquos Central Committee.In addition to a focus on the exercise of power at the center and periphery this study also assesses the Instituteamprsquos wartime exile i