MYKOLA KOVALSKYI’S LETTERS TO OLENA APANOVYCH

Abstract

The paper contains the analysis of academic ties between two famous Ukrainian researchers Mykola Petrovych Kovalskyi and Olena Mykhailivna Apanovych. For both of them, 2019 is a special year: it is the 100th anniversary of Olena Apanovych and the 90th anniversary of Mykola Kovalskyi. Each of them made a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian historical science. The author of the paper overviews the circumstances in which they met and the details of their further cooperation.
From the point of view of the activity of both historians, the author explores the peculiarities of historiography of that day Ukraine, characterizes the wider circle of their contacts, specific traits of organization of research events and functioning of the periodicals. The analysis of their public and academic activity allows to observe the researchers’ relation to the authority, which is another essential aspect of their work. Their correspondence makes it possible to broaden one’s vision of Ukrainian scholars’ everyday life, their mutual help in resolving research and practical issues, academic plans and implementation thereof, mutual assessment of the works, and hardships, especially the ones which Mykola Kovalskyi was facing in his life. It is also worth mentioning the importance of the information about the creative laboratories of the researchers, specifically Kovalskyi’s evaluation of his own works. A specific attention in the correspondence between Kovalskyi and Apanovych is paid to the revival of Ostroh Academy in 1990s and propagation of its historical past of 16th – 17th centuries.
Attached to the text of the present paper is a collection of letters of the researchers which was recently discovered. It is the first time the collection is introduced to the general academic public, which allows to obtain a deeper understanding of the ways the national historical science was developing in the previous century. Until now the epistolary fund of Olena Apanovych was stored in the Institute of Manuscript of Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, and the one of Mykola Kovalskyi was being stored in Kovalskyi family archive which is situated in Ostroh.