Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University’s international cooperation with scientific and education institutions of Western countries in 1944–1975’s

Abstract

The article reveals the international cooperation of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University with scientific and educational institutions of Western countries in 1944–1975. It was noted that at the end of the Second World War (1944–1945), Kyiv University couldn’t establish ties with educational and scientific institutions of Western countries due to the reconstruction of the city and the university itself. During the period of post-war reconstruction (1946–1950), the Soviet-Western confrontation was added to the mentioned problems, which then turned into the Cold War. However, the liberal social and political changes in the USSR associated with de-Stalinization (1953–1956) and the Khrushchev «Thaw» (1956–1964) had a positive impact on the international activities of the Soviet higher school and KSU named T. G. Shevchenko. It is indicated that since the mid-1950s, delegations and individual scientists from France, Austria, Belgium, and Sweden began to visit Kyiv University. Since the second half of the 1950s, teachers and scientists from Finland and Great Britain, as well as Communist Party leaders, and representatives of student and trade union organizations from Western countries visited Kyiv University to give lectures and deliver scientific reports. However, in 1959–1960, plans for the teaching work of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University ​in the Great Britain universities remained unrealized. Nevertheless, since then, teachers and scientists of Kyiv University have actively participated in international scientific events held in Western countries (Madrid, Paris, London, Vienna, and Stockholm). Some teachers completed internships at universities in Italy, France, and Great Britain. Students also did internships in these countries. Mostly, these were senior-year students of the Faculty of Philology who were studying foreign languages. It is noted that the scientific works and teachers of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University were published abroad. Among them were Professor Mytropolskyi Yu. (in Great Britain and Sweden), Professor Vsekhsvyatskyi S. (in Great Britain and Belgium), Professor Bileckyi A. (in Greece), Professor Marynych O. (in Great Britain and Sweden) works. Scientists of Kyiv University worked with colleagues from universities and scientific institutions of the West on common scientific themes. The international book exchange of Kyiv State University, as of July 1, 1965, was held with such universities as the Taylor Institute at the University of Oxford, the University of Oslo, the Mathematical Institute at the University of Bonn, Liège (Belgium), Besanson and Cannes (France) universities, and also by the academies of sciences of Denmark and Ireland. The emergence of an international détente in the relations between the West and the USSR at the end of the 1960s had a positive effect on the ties of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University with the countries of the West. The number of their youth at Kyiv University continued to grow. Thus, if in 1969 one representative of a Belgian and a Frenchman studied at the university, then as of January 1, 1975, 60 students from the «capitalist countries» studied at the university. In turn, the cooperation of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University with educational and scientific institutions of Western countries in 1975–1991 remains understudied. However, this is the subject of the next scientific research.