The article examines the formation of the departments of national history at Moscow and St. Petersburg Universities. Two factors influenced this process: the internal development of the history of Russia as a scientific discipline and the triad “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, nationality” proposed by the Minister of Public Education S. S. Uvarov. The initial stage of the formation of the national history departments was closely connected with the views and activities of two the most famous historians of this era – M. P. Pogodin and N. G. Ustryalov. Important results of their scientific and pedagogical work were the introduction of a large number of sources into science, the identification of significant problems of Russian history and its features, as well as the desire to teach students independent scientific research.