The Unrealized Project of the Edition of Documents on the History of Lviv University

Abstract

The purpose is to clarify the circumstances of the preparations of the archeographic edition on the history of Lviv University in the middle of the 20th century. General scientific methods of empirical research, theoretical research, historical-comparative method, methods of historiographic analysis were used.

The scholarly novelty. It was found that during the first half of the 20th century, there was a discussion about the official founding date of Lviv University. At the end of the 1950s, the management of this educational institution made a decision to recognize 1661 as such a date and took a course to celebrate its 300th anniversary in 1961. As part of preparations for this anniversary, it was decided to prepare, in addition to essays on the history of Lviv University, a corresponding archeographic publication as well. The practical work of compiling this archeographic edition was carried out by a team of university teachers-historians and Lviv archivists under the leadership of a well-known Ukrainian scholar, associate professor of Lviv University, Ya. Kis. This collection of documents was to be formed according to the chronological principle and to consist of materials from all historical periods of this educational institution, from the time of its foundation to the 1960s. At a certain stage of the work on the book, it was decided to divide it into two parts — documents before 1939 and Soviet documents. As of February 1961, Ya. Kis prepared for printing the first part of the collection, which included 110 documents both in the original language and their Ukrainian translations, totalling 22 printed sheets. However, due to the opposition of a part of the party leadership of the university and a number of teachers of the Faculty of History, the publication of this part of the archeographic edition was postponed and completely suspended later. Over time, some parts of this edition ended up in the Lviv University History Museum.

Conclusions. The collection of documents and materials on the history of Lviv University that was prepared in the middle of the 20th century could have become an important event in Ukrainian archaeography assuming its thematic focus (it was entirely devoted to the history of a single higher educational institution) as well as the used methods. The preserved remains of the collection demonstrate the proper level of its preparation and compilation, which will allow the preparation of a new edition, taking into account previous experience and the requirements of the time.