History of an Edition: Ukrainian Archaeologists' Activity during the World War II

In 2023, the Scientific Library of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine received books from the private library of our colleagues, O. V. Tsvek and I. I. Movchan. During the processing of these incomings, the attention was paid to the book Essay on the History of Ukraine. It was published by the Institute of History and Archaeology of Ukraine of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian RSR in 1942 in Ufa. The Academy’s institutes were evacuated there during the World War II.

Authors of the book Essay on the History of Ukraine were the following scholars: K. H. Voblyi, K. H. Huslystyi, V. A. Diadychenko, F. Ye. Los, M. N. Petrovskyi, L. M. Slavin, M. I. Suprunenko and F. Yu. Sherstiuk. K. H. Huslystyi, L. M. Slavin and F. O. Yastrebov were the editors. At the time of the publication of this book, all of them were employees of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian RSR and were evacuated to Ufa. The book was bound in a soft cover and costed six karbovantsiv at the time of publication. The circulation of the publication was quite large — 5000 copies. However, this book became the first copy of this edition for the Scientific Library of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

It is important that the term “Ukraine”, not “the Ukrainian RSR”, was used in the title of the publication, and also the book was published in Ukrainian. The publication contains a preface and 19 chapters.

On the title page of the book, there is the autograph of the first owner of this copy — O. F. Lahodovska. On the cover there is a simple pencil autograph of I. H. Shovkoplias. It is logical to assume that later the book became his property. Perhaps it happened during the years of his postgraduate studies or while he had been working at the Institute of Archaeology. The reason for this publication was the content of this book’s preface. The book impressed with its complete consonance with the present. If you replace the phrase «german-fascist invaders» with «russian invaders\rashysts», the rest of the text remains relevant and consistent with the current russian-Ukrainian war.