Injuriarum remedium est oblivio

Balyshev M.A. Astronomical research in the Kharkiv region at late 19th — early 20th century. Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 2022, 560 p.

Abstract

The author of the reviewed book, a professional historian, apart from a scrutiny of the known sources, discovered and analyzed a large body of new records, first and foremost archived ones. The author took on to explore a unique documentary collection accumulated over more than 100 years in Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory. It is important to note that because the collection is yet to be subjected to appropriate scientific and technical processing, the author makes scientific use of many unknown sources. But the source base is not confined to this collection, because the author could pick up information from nearly twenty archives of various countries. The first section “Creation and development of Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory (1883—1945)” contains the author’s review of the observatory operation in times of stormy events of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917—1921, including studies of personal stories of representatives of Kharkiv astronomy amidst the civil war. The section “A biographic study of the life and scientific legacy of researchers of Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory (late 19th century till the earlier half of the 20th century)” contains a rich bibliographic material encompassing biographies of scientists (25 biographic essays) who worked in Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory in various periods of time. A detailed review of the observatory’s performance is given in the section “Scientific research in Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory (late 19th century till the earlier half of the 20th century). Chronicles.”