The Laboratory of Biogeocenology of the V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences was established in Moscow in 1963 by Academician V.N. Sukachev, the founder of the theory of biogeocenosis. In 1967, after his death, the laboratory was named in his honor. In 1978, the laboratory, together with the Malinki biogeocenological station, was transferred to the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals (IEMEZh) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1967 to 1985, the laboratory was headed by V.N. Sukachev's colleague and follower, Prof. N.V. Dylis, Doctor of Biological Sciences. In 1985 several other research units joined the laboratory, and it was renamed the V.N. Sukachev Laboratory of General Ecology and Biogeocenology. In 1993, the original name was restored. From 1985 to 1989 the laboratory was headed by Yu.G. Puzachenko, Dr. Sci. (Geogr.); from 1989 to 2001, by N.N. Vygodskaya, Dr. Sci. (Geogr.); and from 2002 to 2006, by A.N. Kozharinov, Dr. Sci. (Biol.). In 2006, as part of the reorganization of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, it was merged with the Group of Historical Ecology (headed by A.B. Savinetsky, Dr. Sci. (Biol.)) into a single laboratory under the general name "V.N. Sukachev Laboratory of Biogeocenology and Historical Ecology." The status of the V.N. Sukachev Laboratory of Biogeocenology as an independent structural unit of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS was restored in May 2014 (headed by Yu.A. Kurbatova, Cand. Sci. (Biol.)).