The article reconstructs the main milestones of the academic biography of the prominent art historian Dmitry Vlasievich Ainalov (1862-1939), analyzes the up to now neglected materials from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences regarding the attempts at electing him to full membership in the USSR Academy of Sciences. Ainalov's biography is examined in the context of the development of the Academy as a scientific and public institute, and particularly the reforms of its charter. Academician V.P. Buzeskul fought for the promotion of Ainalov, N.P. Kondakov's disciple, but in vain. Since the second half of the 1920s the pressure of state power on the Academy of Sciences was increasing and the elections of its new members began to be considered as one of the ways of sovietization of the Academy. The academic corporation in itself was not united and troubled by internal tensions. A group of academicians in Oriental studies, headed by S.F. Oldenburg, in particular, gained significant influence, and a number of the Academy members thought it necessary to oppose to it. In such conditions, the elections became a space for both fights within the corporation and opposition to the external pressure. The authors restore the context and circumstances of Ainalov's nomination to the academic department on the basis of the private correspondence of academicians. For the first time, they publish the notes on Ainalov's academic achievements, with which various groups tried to justify the feasibility of his election. The fight of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR for its autonomy in key decision-making turned out to be ineffectual, the control of the Soviet state over the Academy led to its total sovietization and attenuation of the freedom of scientific discussion. As a result, the USSR Academy of Sciences turned from a purely scientific institution into an instrument of political pressure, and the academicians-historians who survived repressions (S.A. Zhebelev, D.M. Petrushevsky) preferred not to show initiative and to follow the course determined from above.