Том “Луганська область” енциклопедичного багатотомника “Історія міст і сіл Української РСР”: особливості підготовки

Abstract

The paper deals with problems and process of preparation of the “Luhansk Region” volume as part of the unique encyclopedic project “The History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR” in 26 volumes. The study is based on the documents of the central Ukrainian archives. The author focuses on the fact that due to the coordinated professional work of the regional executors of the project, the volume was prepared in a very short terms compared with the overwhelming majority of the volumes on other Ukrainian regions. After all, starting from 1967 to 1968 only 5 from the 26 volumes (that were planned according to the “On the publication of the history of cities and villages of the Ukrainian SSR” Decree of the Central Committee of the Ukr. SSR Communist Party on the May 29, 1962) were published. In addition, the publication of all the volumes had to be devoted to the 50th anniversary of the “Great October” (November, 7, 1967). It is worth emphasizing that initially the Main editorial board of the project did not considered the “Luhansk Region” volume to be among first volumes to be published. However, in the preparatory process, the order and timing of the publication of volumes differed from the planned due to various objective and subjective reasons, and the last book of the Ukrainian-language version of the project, namely the “Crimean Region” volume was published in 1974 only. The author on the example of the Luhansk volume creation has showed the character of that reasons. They were uncovered at the meetings of the “History of cities and villages of the Ukrainian SSR” Main editorial board and of the “History of cities and villages of the Ukrainian SSR” department of the Institute of History of the Ukr. SSR Academy of Sciences during discussions on various stages of the volume creation and scientific problems regarding the writing of texts. The positive role of the State Archives of the Luhansk region’s and the regional editorial board’s management in its preparation has been highlighted. The difficulty to create both the introductory article and essays about the settlements of the region was that it was formed from the territories that had been previously parts of other regional entities. Therefore, the authors not only studied a large number of literature, including the pre-revolutionary, but worked a lot in various Ukrainian and Russian archives to collect information. It happened due to the organizational support and promotion of the regional party Committee that seriously attributed to the intensive and successful process of the volume preparation.