TO THE HISTORY OF LVIV NUMISMATICS OF THE MIDDLE OF THE XX CENTURY (A FEW NOTES THE MARGINS OF THE LETTER OF ACADEMICIAN IVAN KRYPIAKEVYCH TO IVAN SPASKYI)

Abstract

It was clarified that there was established a correspondence between academic Ivan Krypiakevych and the famous Russian and Ukrainian historian, numismatist Ivan Spaskyi in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In one of these letters (in March 1962) I. Krypiakevych mentioned the difficult situation with specialists in numismatics in Lviv. This article finds out what led to this state of affairs. We emphasized that Lviv has been one of the centers for the development of special (auxiliary) historical disciplines, including numismatics, both in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe from the end of the 18th century. At the same time, there were formed a few large numismatic collections in the city. It was confirmed that further development of special (auxiliary) historical disciplines in Lviv took place at the Institute of Auxiliary Historical Sciences of Lviv University and in the museums of the city. There was organized in 1925 the Union of Lviv Numismatists, which published several issues. It was stated that at the same time, there was not formed a permanent system of training relevant specialists in Lviv due to a number of subjective and objective reasons. The rather closed and conservative system of university training of future historians was largely tied to the figures and scientific interests of the heads of the Departments and Institutes. It was indicated that at that time Ukrainian scholars, especially humanitarians, found themselves in a difficult position. It was clarified that as a result, the number of people who really knew about coins or banknotes, could work with them, and, importantly, be engaged in scientific work, was quite small. It was investigated that the establishment of Soviet power in Lviv in the autumn of 1939 led to a radical reform of all spheres of life of the local population, including educational and cultural. As a result of the ill-considered reorganization of the system of museum institutions in the city, the work of several previous generations of Lviv museum workers was actually destroyed, and irreparable damage to the funds these institutions was caused. Some Lviv researchers of special (auxiliary) historical disciplines have become victims of the German regime or left the city in 1944–1946. It was found that all these circumstances affected the balance of scientific forces in the city, capable of solving problems by developing special (auxiliary) historical disciplines. It was emphasized that I.‑Yu. Shpytkovskyi resumed teaching numismatics at Lviv University only in the 1950s. However, he failed to train new specialists in this discipline. It was clarified that several numismatic works had been prepared by the scientific staff of the Lviv State Historical Museum (I. Zayats, I. Sveshnikov), but these studies have not been published at that time. We made a conclusion that all this indicates that I. Krypiakevych was not wrong in his assessment of the state of development of numismatics in Lviv in the early 1960s.