To the history of the founding of the Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Ukrainian Academy of Science: new facts and documents

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to insufficiently studied history of founding of the leading scientific legal institution of Ukraine. On a purely documentary basis, with the introduction to the scientific circulation of new archival materials the events that accompanied the creation of the State and Law Branch in the AS UkrSSR system are highlighted and analyzed. The circumstances that accompanied the foundation of the Institute were analyzed for the first time in 1999 by the academician Yu. S. Shemshuchenko. The aim of the article. The purpose of this exploration is to complete the scientific reconstruction of the process of founding of our institute through the introduction of new archival documents into the scientific circulation, clarification of the author's idea of creating the institute, deepening of the understanding of the position of the state institutions of the UkrSSR and the USSR and the personal role of the academician V. M. Koretsky in this process. Results. A true history of legal science is only possible on the basis of a critical understanding of the primary sources, the search of which was the most important component of this study. The author analyzed the little-known published documents; the documents from the funds of the Central State Archives of Public Associations of Ukraine, the Central State Archives of Higher Authorities and Administration of Ukraine and the State Archives of the Russian Federation that have been introduced into scientific circulation; generalized information from the materials of the scientific archive of the Koretsky Institute of State and Law and some other primary sources. The question of formation of the idea of creating a legal academic institute and its development in the decisions of state, communist and academic structures is investigated. Particular attention is paid to Professor V. I. Boshko's appeal to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (b) on the expediency of establishing of a Law Institute in the system of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, registered on April 4, 1947, and the figures of those party functionaries (who also happened to be highly qualified scientists at the same time) directly involved in reviewing this appeal. Сonclusions. Many well-known personalities and qualified scientists have made efforts to establish an academic law institution in Ukraine. At the same time, no confirmation has been found for the thesis about the decisive role of D. Z. Manuilskyi in this process, as well as for the opinion that the academic institution of the legal profile was needed first and foremost for the theoretical substantiation of the international legal personality of the Ukrainian SSR. Ways of further investigation of the problem are proposed, and a proposal for publishing of a large collection of documents and materials on the basis of an in-depth archival search is introduced.