The article reviews the process of formation and improvement of hypotheses of periodization in the Soviet and Russian historiography of the USSR war against the Axis, the key provisions of these hypotheses are given and revealed. Taking into account the comments of military experts of the past years, the author proposed a periodisation, where the criteria for the division of the war into periods include: changing the war activities ways – the determining criteria; the war activities conditions (the nature of war, coalitions creation or split, changes in the international and internal situation of the warring countries, etc.); organisation, training, combat experience, armed forces (and others) and their influence on the combat capabilities of the army; the level of the struggle of peoples against the occupation, the development of the Resistance movement (including Germany); the evolution of the war economy of the warring countries and its influence on the armed struggle. In the author's periodisation, the periods are divided into stages, taking into account the conditions, features and specifics of war activities. The features and trends of history description at different stages of the evolution of scientific knowledge are identified and the main scientific schools and institutions that studied the periodisation of the World War II East Front are named.
On the issue of formation of the new periodisation of the USSR vs Axis part of World War II: experience of solving the problem