History Faculty turned 90 years old

22.3.2024

The History Faculty turned 90 years old: 1968–1991. 

Due to the need to increase the training of historians, in 1969 the Historical and Philological Faculty was again divided into Philological and Historical (in the 1970s, in connection with the introduction of the specialty “History and Pedagogy”, it was called Historical and Pedagogical). The restored faculty was headed by Volodymyr Motrenko until 1970, and later by Serhiy Mikhalsknyi (1970), Ivan Alimpiev (1970–1972), Ashot Petrosian (1972–1975), Borys Bazhutin (1975–1983), Anatolii Danyliev (1983–1987), Valentyna Tereshchenko (1987–1992).

The range of specialties for which students were trained at the faculty expanded. Since the mid-1950s, there has been a transition to the training of teachers of a broad profile or with dual specialties, in particular “Ukrainian Language, Literature and History”. In the 1960s, graduates of the Faculty received a major in the specialty “History and Social Science”, and in the 1970s and 1980s, training was conducted in double majors: “History and Pedagogy”, “History and English” – in the full-time form of study, ” History and Social Science” – pat-time form of study.

In accordance with the changes in specialties in 1974, the Department of Theory and Methods of Pioneering and Komsomol Work was added to the Department of History of the USSR and Ukrainian SSR and the Department of General History (its first head was Vera Tikhomirova). In the future, this Department changed its work profile and name several times, now we know it as the Department of Social Work.

The 1970s and 1980s were the time when many traditions of the History Faculty were compiled, some of which have survived to this day. These include annual archaeological expeditions (Olvia, Ingul, Seversko-Donetsk, North Ossetian, Yuzhno-Buzka, etc.), and summer practices in children’s health camps, and the creativity of student agitators, who, with their satirical and witty performances, initiated the development of the club movement of merry and clever. Created in 1990, the institute team “Voroshilov’s Arrows”, the basis of which was historians led by Andrii Yakovlev, took third place in the finals of the CIS team competition of the 1994 season.

The Budzagon movement spread. In 1972, Yevhen Hrykov, then a third-year student and student dean of the faculty, later a Professor, head of the Department of Public Service and Management of Educational and Social Institutions of the University, received the medal “For labor distinction”. Since 1974, for many years, the agricultural unit (the first commander was Leonid Bibikov, the commissar was Leonid Vakhovskyi) operated on the basis of student self-government, which not only excelled at harvesting crops, but also supervised the village school.

The 1980s ended under the slogan of democratization of the life of the faculty and the institute as a whole. A fundamental restructuring of the teaching of social sciences was carried out, the destruction of the ideological orientation of the educational process, and the depoliticization of the institute began.

In March 1989, for the first time in the history of the institute, elections of the rector were held on a democratic basis, where Anatolii Klymov, a graduate of the History Faculty in 1970, won. After graduating from the institute, he worked his way up from assistant to professor, head of the department, became a well-known researcher of the history of the working class of Donbas, the political history of Ukraine, the history of the youth movement, and local history. He started the specialty “History of Ukraine” in graduate school and trained 16 candidates of sciences, including the current teachers of the university – Vitalii Kurylo, Anton Bader, Nani Gogokhia, Olga Drobisheva. Professor Klymov headed the team until June 1997, during 1997–2015 he was the head of the Department of History of Ukraine, then a professor of this department. In 2020, he passed away, leaving behind a good memory in the hearts of colleagues and students.