The story
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.
The first institutions of the UAS established in December 1918 were such commissions:
for compilation of a historic and geographic dictionary of the Ukrainian land (director Dmytro Bahaliy)
for compilation of a historic dictionary of the Ukrainian language (director Yevhen Tymchenko)
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for compilation of the Ukrainian living language dictionary (director Ahathanhel Krymsky)
for publishing landmarks of the modern Ukrainian script (director Serhiy Yefremov)
(archaeographic commission) for publishing landmarks of language, script and history (director Vasyl Danylevych)
acclimatization garden (director Mykhailo Kashchenko)
Institute of technical mechanics (director Stepan Tymoshenko)
Institute of geodesy, institute of economic conjuncture and national economy of Ukraine (director Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovsky)
The next month, the following commissions were added:
Institute of demography
in research of common law (director Orest Levytsky)
in research of social issues (director Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovsky)
in research of national economy (director Volodymyr Kosynsky)
First years
In its early years, the academy operated during the period of political instability and economic ruin (Ukrainian–Soviet War, Russian Civil War, Polish–Soviet War). The leadership of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences sought its recognition by each new power and principally emphasized the non-political background of the main science center. Despite the financial hardship, famine, arrests, and emigration of some of its members, the UAS has not only survived as an institution, but developed its structure and directions of research, and began to prepare for publication its scientific works.
On 3 January 1919, the Direktoria of the Ukrainian People's Republic adopted legislative changes to the UAS statute, according to which provisions were made concerning printing of works in Ukrainian and foreign languages (the volume of publications in foreign languages should not exceed 1/4 of the amount in the Ukrainian language), all the UAS officials had to freely possess the Ukrainian language, and full members, upon their approval, would swear in allegiance to the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Supreme power also retained the right to approve the newly elected members at the UAS General Assembly.
Following the occupation of Kyiv by Bolshevik forces, on 11 February 1919 the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences received as its own property the mansion and former boarding house of Countess Levashova. This happened on the order of People's Commissar of Education of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, Volodymyr Zatonskyi. The next day, on 12 February 1919, an extraordinary UAS General Assembly took place, during which Ahatanhel Krymsky passed on the order of Zatonskyi to immediately start the work. Since the late 1920s, in the Soviet historiography that day was considered the date of establishment of the Academy of Sciences, instead of 14 November 1918, when Hetman Skoropadskyi signed the law on the creation of the Academy.
All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
After several changes of power and the withdrawal of Denikin's forces in December 1919, the Bolsheviks permanently established themselves in Kyiv. With the second arrival of the Bolsheviks, Vernadsky resigned. Orest Levytsky was elected President of the Academy for the next couple of years. In 1921, Levytsky was replaced by the newly elected Mykola Vasylenko; however, he was not approved by the authorities and soon was replaced with Levytsky. Vasylenko himself was arrested in 1923 and convicted (later released on amnesty).
On June 14, 1921, the Council of People's Commissars of Ukrainian SSR adopted a decree "Resolution on the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences", according to which the Academy was recognized as the highest scientific state institution and subordinated to the Narkom of Education. The Academy was renamed from UAS to VUAN (Ukrainian: ВУАН) – All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences – underlining its importance for Ukrainian territories under Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and declaring its intentions to unite within one organization the scientific intelligentsia of all Ukrainian lands. The relationship between members of VUAN and the Soviet authorities soured, while the relationships with the Ukrainian scientists abroad had completely ceased. After historian Orest Levytsky, botanist Volodymyr Lypsky became president of the Academy. Between 1919 and 1930, 103 academicians were elected to the Academy. In 1924-25, the Academy held its first election for foreign members. However, none of the candidates were approved by the Narkom of Education.
Between 1927 and 1930, the takeover of the Academy by the Soviet authorities was completed. Mykhailo Hrushevsky had been a candidate for the presidency, but by the end of 1927 Hrushevsky's candidacy was no longer supported by the authorities. He had been considered a counterweight to the "constitutional-democratic" faction led by Serhiy Yefremov and Ahatanhel Krymsky, but the three of them had actually agreed on opposing state interference. The authorities removed Yefremov and his supporters and dropped all support for Hrushevsky, who was arrested in 1931, taken to Moscow, and never returned to Ukraine. Danylo Zabolotny, a microbiologist, was instead put up as president of the Academy, followed by Oleksandr Bohomolets in 1930.
Repressions against the Academy reached their peak in 1933-1934 and were conducted under the leadership of Pavel Postyshev. Numerous academicians were imprisoned, exiled, and deprived of their titles. According to Natalia Polonska-Vasylenko, during the 1930s over 250 members of the Academy became victims of persecution. Humanitarian sciences were hit especially hard. From that time on, technical sciences became the Academy's main focus point. In 1934 it was directly subordinated to the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Ukraine, and in 1936 was deprived of its national status and renamed to the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
Second World War
After the Soviet annexation of Galicia and Volhynia, in 1940 the property of local branches of the Shevchenko Scientific Society was transferred to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. After the start of German-Soviet War in 1941 the Academy was evacuated from Kyiv to Ufa and then to Moscow.
The non-Soviet Ukrainian Academy of Sciences renewed its activities soon after the capture of Kyiv by German troops in 1941, electing its presidium and management. It organized weekly scientific lectures and seminars on various topics. Among the questions discussed by the academy under German occupation was the possible adoption of Latin alphabet for the Ukrainian language which, was to replace Cyrillic. However, the Academy failed to restore its activities due to opposition from German occupying authorities, which greatly damaged its funds.
Postwar years
The Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR returned to Kyiv in 1944. In 1946 it was headed by Oleksandr Palladin. According to a decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in 1963 the Academy was subjected to the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union and de facto turned into its filial. As a result of Russification, during the 1970s the majority of the academy's publications were issued in the Russian language.
2026 Russian bombing
At around 1.30 pm local time on 28 September 2026, the Academy's historic Presidium headquarters in Kyiv was bombed by a Russian attack drone, causing a fire. At least one person was killed and three wounded, according to Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv. The fire meant that occupants had to climb out of windows on the upper floors to escape, with firefighters helping people to evacuate the building through the windows as black smoke poured out. The president of the Academy, Anatoliy Zahorodniy, stated that the attack happened while many members of staff were inside the building. He said: "We are not connected with the military. This is an attack on science. It is terrorism." There are no military targets near the building.
From Wikipedia’s article on National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4