M.I. GAVRILENKO’S SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN 1940–50s

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the research is to reveal the peculiarities of the naturalist M.I. Havrylenko (1889‒1971) research work during the 40’s ‒ 50’s years of the twentieth century; to show his personal ability to study nature in terms of the tendency attitude to the scientist in the postwar period, due to the peculiarities of the biography. The research methodology is based on the principles of historical reliability, objectivity, systemcity, multifactoriality, scientificity and comprehensiveness; use of general scientific research methods (analytical, synthetic, logical, classification); historical (problem-chronological, comparative-historical, historical-genetic, retrospective) and interdisciplinary. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that it is the first time in modern history the scientific heritage of the zoologist M.I. Havrylenko on the basis of his published works during the 40’s ‒ 50’s years of the twentieth century is learned. It is established that, despite the negative attitude of society to the scientist, he continued working productively. To form scientifically reliable results of studying different classes of animals, he used the methods of zoology, as well as botany, anatomy, osteology, physiology, physical geography, geology, paleontology, ecology, biocenology and other sciences. Conclusions. After almost twenty years’ study of the vertebrate fauna of Poltava region, the scientist obtained several fundamental results: 1) identified changes in species quantity, 2) deepened the knowledge of little-known animal species, 3) studied the herpetofauna of Poltava region, thus expanding his own scientific interests, 4) clarified the issue of zoogeography of black grouse in historical retrospect, 5) conducted a comparative species analysis of birds of the genus Ocheretyanka for different ecotopes in the biogeocenosis, 6) conducted an analysis of new and little-known bird species in the Poltava region in the space-time continuum (1929‒1958), 7) continued the formation of a unique ornithological collection, importantly. In general, it is emphasized that the scientific progress of the zoologist M.I. Havrylenko during this period was productive and effective.