The article deals with the role of the principle of integration in the process of formation of metasubject skills of students in teaching history. The types of metasubject skills and specific skills formed in historical education are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the principle of integration, to the functions and implementation of interdisciplinary connections that contribute to effective formation of meta-subject skills.

The article continues the series of the authors’ publications on the history of the higher historical education and science in the Soviet period. The evolution of the system of the higher historical education in the Lower Volga region during the Great Patriotic War is under consideration. The role of the history faculties and departments, the historians of Saratov, Astrakhan and Volgograd universities in the development of the historical education in the region is analyzed based on various sources. Their importance in formation of the pedagogical cadres of the region is noted.

There is carried out the analysis of the reform of national historical science and higher historical education in the period of perestroika. There are identified the manifestations of the crisis in this sector and the attempts to overcome it. The analysis allows us to better understand the state of the modern historical education, the basic outlines of its structure and function in today’s society.

There is analyzed the establishment and development of medieval study in the Saratov university in the first half of the XX century. There are represented the areas of scientific work of the department of Middle Ages history of the Saratov State University. there is considered the work of such scientists as G.P. Fedotov, A.S. Bartenev, S.M. Pumpyansky and others.