National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Establishment of the Academy

The predecessors of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences were the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kyiv, which, due to various circumstances did not develop into a national academy, and the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lemberg (modern Lviv).

The initiative to create the institution came from the Ukrainian Science Society in April 1917, eight months before the beginning of the Soviet-Ukrainian War. The institution materialized during the time of the first Ukrainian State, when Mykola Vasylenko, at that time the Minister of Education and Arts, proposed the formation of a special commission. Led by Volodymyr Vernadskyi, an academic of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the commission produced a bill for the creation of a Ukrainian Academy of Science in Kyiv, a National Library, a National Museum, and other scientific institutions. At the end of June 1918, the creation of the Academy was raised at the Ukrainian Science Society Extraordinary General Assembly. By 17 September, a bill for the creation of the Academy had been written, and the statute drafted. On 14 November 1918, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was established in law. and also approved the UAS statute, the UAS staff and its institutions and the order of the Ministry of National Education about appointing the first 12 full members (academicians) of the UAS.

According to its original statute, the Academy consisted of three research departments covering history and philology (first department), physics and mathematics (second department), as well as social studies (third department). Its structural units became permanent commissions and institutes. There were planned 15 institutes, 14 permanent commissions, six museums, two offices, two laboratories, botanical and acclimatization gardens, an astronomical observatory, a biology station, a printing house, and a national library. All publications of the academy were to be printed in Ukrainian. Its statute emphasized the all-Ukrainian nature: the members could be not only citizens of the Ukrainian State, but also Ukrainian scientists of West Ukraine (at that time citizens of Austria-Hungary). Foreigners could become academicians as well, but with the resolution of 2/3 of the active members' composition.

The presidium of the newly created academy and its first academicians (three for each department) were appointed by the Ukrainian government, while the future members were expected to be elected by those academicians (as active members). Among the first academicians were historians Dmytro Bahaliy and Orest Levytsky, economists Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovsky and Volodymyr Kosynsky, eastern studies Ahathanhel Krymsky and Nikolai Petrov, linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky, geologists Volodymyr Vernadsky and Pavlo Tutkovsky, biologist Mykola Kashchenko, mechanic Stepan Tymoshenko, law studies Fedir Taranovsky. For the post of the president of the Academy, the Hetman of Ukraine (head of state) Pavlo Skoropadsky invited Mykhailo Hrushevsky, who at that time was the president of the Ukrainian Science Society and before World War I served as the president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lemberg, neighboring Austria-Hungary. Hrushevsky declined the invitation, yet later (sometime after 1923), he became a major figure in the Ukrainian Academy of Science (UAS) in Kyiv.

The Academy started official operations at the end of November 1918 with several sessions of the General Assembly and assemblies of its departments. At the first General Assembly (Constituent) that took place on 27 November 1918, academician Volodymyr Vernadsky was elected the President of the Academy, while the permanent secretary became Ahathanhel Krymsky. On the same day, at the sessions of the 2nd and the 3rd departments, Mykola Kashchenko and Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovsky were elected as chairmen, respectively. On 8 December 1918, the chairman of the 1st department was elected Dmytro Bahaliy. All appointments were approved by Hetman Skoropadskyi.