During the 1930s, Losev composed what he intended to be a definitive work on classic aesthetics, titled "A History of Ancient Aesthetics". The manuscript was lost along with everything else in his Moscow apartment when it was hit by a German bomb in 1941. In 1943, Losev was awarded a doctorate degree in the classics "honoris causa": from the mass of work previously accomplished. From 1942 to 1944, Losev taught at Moscow University and from 1944 on at the Moscow State Pedagogical University. Also in 1944, the Losevs brought a young post-graduate student into their home—Aza Alibekovna Takho-Godi—who continued in her studies of classical philology. Both the Losevs grew fond of Takho-Godi; when Valentina died from cancer on 29 January 1954 it was with her blessing that Losev and Takho-Godi would join in marriage. Takho-Godi became Losev's second wife and eventually his widow.