The distinctive features of the formation, status and professional activities of a historian in the Soviet Moldavia are analysed. Relying mostly on interviews with many historians trained and activated during the Soviet regime, the paper presents a range of aspects – organization of the public historical educational and research institutions, training programs and curricula, writing of papers on the national history, human resources policy, etc. The author’s conclusion is that being a historian in the USSR was not easy, but history departments at universities were still very popular because they opened many job opportunities in state/party organizations, including in KGB. For better understanding of the historian career during the Soviet time we have to develop projects on the history of academic careers.