МОЇ ПІВСТОЛІТТЯ З ВОЛОДИМИРОМ ЧОРНІЄМ. СПОГАД

Abstract

The article is a memoir about a Ukrainian scholar-slavist Volodymyr Chorniy (1931–2018), who worked almost all his life at Ivan Franko Lviv University, he set up an authoritative center for Slavic studies of the international level as well as he headed the Institute of Slavic Studies and the editorial board of the scientific journal “Problemy Slovianoznavstva” (“Problems of Slavonic Studies”). The Author shares his own memoirs about organizational, scientific, pedagogical and public activities of V. Chorniy, emphasizing his personal qualities and relationships in the scientific environment. Volodymyr Chorniy had to live in four different, even antagonistic states: he was born and spent his childhood in Poland, later he experienced the regime of "Soviet liberators", the occupation of Germany, a long period in the Soviet Union, including young and mature years as a scientist, and, finally he lived in the independent Ukrainian state.The author of the memoirs describes his encounter and cooperation with V. Chorniy from 1966 till 2018. V. Chorniy received author’s entrance examination at the University, taught the historical disciplines, and then they worked together at the same Department of History of Southern and Western Slavs at Lviv State University for a long time. Memoirs contain descriptions of meetings and communication with V. Chorniy in different situations as well as personality traits of this scholar-slavist and the manager of educational institutions. Much of the descriptions are devoted to the period of the USSR, when Lviv University managed to create a powerful scientific center for Slavic studies. Its formation was merited by Volodymyr Chorniy too. The last part of the memoirs describes the significant patriotic activity of the protagonist in independent Ukraine. V. Chorniy made a lot of effort to form Ukrainian humanities and overcome the Soviet consciousness. Memoirs include evidence of the dramatic circumstances in which V. Chorniy had to live and work, who passed through national liberation struggles, totalitarian regimes and finally lived up to his dream of independent Ukrainian statehood. Key words: Volodymyr Chorniy, History, Slavic Studies, Ivan Franko University of Lviv.