Circumstances of the Opening of the Polytechnic Institute in Guides to Kyiv (1900 – Early 20th Century)

Abstract

In the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. in Kyiv, a city that attracted many visitors, nationwide trends in the development of the coal, metallurgical, machine-building, light, food industry, and agriculture industries were marked, and at the same time, there was a lack of engineers, agronomists, and technicians. Against this background, there was an urgent need to establish a higher institution of technical education in Kyiv, which became the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, opened in 1898. At the same time, it was during this period that tourism, which before was rather a supplement to pilgrimage, gradually grew into a mass one, and accordingly, guides, as a publication outlining noteworthy routes, became more and more popular. Therefore, it is important to trace how the new university entered the sphere of attention of visitors to the city, and what role the authors of guidebooks – valuable comprehensive sources on the history of everyday life in the city – played in this. The article examines the peculiarities of coverage in Kyiv guidebooks of the circumstances of the opening of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. It can be concluded that the most information about the circumstances of the opening of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is contained in those guides (except K. Svirskiy) that were published immediately after the opening of this educational institution (in 1900 and 1901), although one of them – a reprint of M. Sementovskyi – in the first in the first turn it was aimed at pilgrims, and only in the second – at social guests of the city. Probably, the compilers sought to record as accurately as possible the still unfinished process unfolding before them.V. Chekhovsky, who openly positioned his work as dedicated to the modern features of the Kyiv of that time, disclosed in it the main, in his opinion, prerequisites and key aspects of the establishment of the institute from planning to the implementation of a concrete project, and among the most prominent persons involved, he did not overlook those ethnically related to Poles, but did not exaggerate their role. Later editions do not go beyond the placement of information, according to the authors, most important for average travellers. Even in the most succinct coverage of events, the importance of the role of donations from private individuals is noticeable, sometimes with an indication of the cost of the project.