“The Stolen Title”: Striving to Return the Title of Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

Abstract

An exciting and eye-opening event in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Ukraine is the 10-year long ban in 50s of the last century on using the title of academician in the Academy. It raised concern of Ukrainian researchers, as it gave evidence of a discrimination of republican academies, because it meant that the titles of their members were aligned with the titles adopted in 20–30s of the last century for heads of research departments, research institutions at various agencies and higher education institutions. But not everyone dared to voice a protest at that hard time. It was only after I. Stalin’s death of in 1953 and change of the country’s leadership that this decision could be disputed by Ukraine. As a result, the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, issued on February 20, 1956, set the titles “honored academician” and “academician” in the academies of sciences of the soviet republics. But relapses of the decree of 1945 would have been felt a long time. The article contains archive documents disclosing nuances of these events.

Introduction and documents prepared for publication by:
A. H. Luhovskyi
Dobrov Institute for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History Studies of the NAS of Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7644-5995