Materials and documents on the history of Magadan in the first years after receiving city status and during the Great Patriotic War are contained. The source base of the study is genuine documents and rare copies of the archive funds of the GAMO, the Central House of Artists of the Moscow Region, the FSB of the Moscow Region and the SVZ, most of which are published for the first time. Thus, for the first time, a systematized set of materials on various aspects of the history of Magadan 1939-1945 was introduced into scientific circulation.