COMMUNICATIVE RELATIONS ODESSA HISTORIAN S. I.-YA. BOROVOY WITH KYIV COLLEAGUES I. D. BOYKО AND I. O. GURZHII

Abstract

The article is devoted to the representation of letters of well-known Kyiv historians I. O. Gurzhii and I. D. Boyko to the Odessa colleague S. I.-Ya. Borovоy. These letters for the period of the first half of the 1960’s are stored in the State Archives of Odessa region, in the fund of personal origin of Professor S. I.-Ya. Borovоy. The letters are a valuable source for studying the scientific biography and communication network of historians of the 1960s. Little-known archival documents were first published – correspondence with the Odessa historian of Kyiv colleagues who worked in various structures of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the 1940s and 1960s. These sources reflect their activities and connections with a colleague from Odesa. The purpose of this archeographic exploration is to update little-known archival sources, which significantly supplement the information about cooperation and personal contacts between Odessa and Kyiv historians, whose biographies and certain aspects of their scientific activity are revealed in the comments. The letters shed light on their scientific plans and creative laboratory of correspondents, views on social and cultural issues. The article examines the informative possibilities of letters from leading Kyiv historians of this period on the situation in historical science and the socio-cultural situation in the country as a whole. The epistles of these historians are of undeniable interest in the history of Soviet historiography, in particular, and the history of historical science. The provided materials reflect separate fragments of professional activity of two scientists and their personal and scientific communicative communications with some representatives of the Soviet scientific community. Epistles allow to reproduce some details of the history of Soviet historical science, certain episodes of the biography of a number of Soviet scientists of those years against the background of the events of the socio-cultural environment. The letters of scientists, despite the presence of powerful personal qualities, are characterized by high organization of the text, the ability to see the main things in events, extreme clarity in assessing the situation and expressing their opinions. The publication of the letters is accompanied by fairly complete comments on their content and introduces into scientific circulation a valuable historical source.