The social role of the historian has not changed since the time of Herodotus, who considered the main goal of history to be the desire to preserve valuable experience for humanity. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the work of representatives of historical science in any society – they lay the foundation of historical consciousness, are the keepers and conductors of reliable knowledge about the world. Therefore, more and more scientists are turning to the study of the historian, his "life world", ideals, socio–cultural environment, within the framework of "everyday history" – a new direction of historical research. Scientific Community of historians of Semipalatinsk (since 2007 – the city of Semey [1]) of the 90s of the XX century is the object of this study, and the subject is scientific everyday life (the "production sphere" of scientists' activities), reconstructed by the authors based on the analysis of a number of its components: motivation for choosing a profession, social well-being of a scientist, the choice of scientific issues, the structure of time, features of communication in the scientific environment , etc . In general, the task is to show the process of transformation of the scientific everyday life of scientists as they carry out their professional activities as a result of external influences, the internal state of the community of scientists and the individuality of the historian.

   The historian works in a specific social environment and at a specific social time that influence his activities. The relevance of the article is due to the local and temporary approach to the consideration of the problems of scientific everyday life. The choice of the place and time of the study is not accidental: Semey is one of the cultural and historical centers not only of Eastern Kazakhstan, but also of the whole republic: the great names of Abai, Shakarim, Mukhtar Auezov, significant for world culture, are associated with the history of the city; the abundance of historical and archaeological sites; priority positions of education and enlightenment. Representatives of the historical science of the city of the crucial 90s contributed to the development of culture, the formation and development of historical science of the newly independent Kazakhstan.

In choosing the methodology and research methods, preference was given to historical-anthropological and generational approaches related to the study of the human factor in history and the influence of the social and cultural environment on the personalities of scientists who make up the generation. Traditional historical problem-chronological and historical-genetic methods were also used, which made it possible to highlight the stages of professional formation of historians of Semipalatinsk in connection with previous generations, an attempt was made to use modern methods of oral history ("oral history").