 The institute's vice director S. A. Makaryev, leading specialists E. A. Haapalainen, N. V. Khrisanfov, N. N. Vinogradov, director of the library E. P. Oshevenskaya were arrested and executed on false accusations of setting up an espionage and rebel nationalist organization at the institute.When the Karelian-Finnish Republic was founded in 1940 it was announced that KRIC needs to be transformed into the regional branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (AS), but World War II impeded the realization of this intention.During the war, the institute's archives were moved deeper into the country, and KRIC itself was evacuated to Syktyvkar (Komi ASSR), where the institute's activities were temporarily halted in 1942 and resumed in 1943.