Ukrainian Medieval Studies (Early Modern Studies) through the Personalities of Scholars: Serhii Plokhy in the Memoirs of Fr. Prof. Yurii Mytsyk

Abstract

The publication includes the memoirs of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Yurii Mytsyk about one of his students, the Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard Serhii Plokhy. The historians first met in the mid-1970s at the Historical department of Dnipropetrovsk State University. Yurii Mytsyk was the lecturer at the Chair of general history, and Serhii Plokhy was a first-year student. The memoir reveals the circumstances of acquaintance and the beginning of young scholar’s scientific work under the supervision of Yurii Mytsyk. It was at the latter's suggestion that Serhii Plokhy began to study Latin-language historiography, wrote his first research paper sand published articles. In addition, the professor talks about the problems that his student faced when entering postgraduate school and how he managed to overcome them. The historian also recalls Serhii Plokhy's preparation of his PhD thesis “Latin-language works of the mid-seventeenth century as a source on the history of the Liberation War of the Ukrainian people in 1648-1654” at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. The stories of personal friendships and inter-family communication between historians are of special interest. Yurii Mytsyk talks about Serhii Plokhy’s arrival at the Department of General History as a lecturer, his professional growth and career progression, and participation in the life of the Historical department. He talks about the complicated relations between colleagues-historians during the election of Serhii Plokhy as head of the chair, his work as dean of the Faculty for Foreign Students, and the circumstances under which Plokhy had to leave Dnipro University.

A separate part of the memoirs is devoted to Serhii Plokhy’s academic trips abroad and the impressions he shared with his colleagues, including a joint trip to an international conference in Italy. A part of the memoirs is devoted to the contacts between the historians when they both stopped working at the Dnipropetrovsk University and met during Yurii Mytsyk’s internship in Canada.