ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE: THE MAIN AFFAIR IN THE LIFE OF ACADEMICIAN VOLODYMYR ZABOLOTNYI: (ON THE OCCASION OF THE 80th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE OF THE UKRAINIAN SSR)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Academy of Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR in 1945 (hereinafter – AA of the Ukrainian SSR, the Academy). It is about the most vivid pages of the architectural history of Ukraine in the middle of the 20th century. The retrospective study of the history of creation and development of the AA of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1940s–1950s under the leadership of one of the outstanding founders of the Ukrainian architectural school, a Doctor of Architecture, a talented scientist and teacher, a professor, a laureate of the State Prize in the Field of Architecture, an artist of a wide creative range Volodymyr Hnatovych Zabolotnyi is submitted in the article. It is noted that just thanks to this outstanding Person in the history of Ukrainian architecture the Academy of Architecture has been created in our country (then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) in the middle of the 20th century. Unfortunately, it has been eliminated later by the then Soviet government, but revived by students and followers of V. H. Zabolotnyi – the academicians of the newly created Ukrainian Academy of Architecture after Ukraine has gained independence in 1991. It is substantiated that already in the 1920s–1930s favorable conditions have been developed gradually for the creation of the Academy in the 1940s as a higher scientific institution in the field of architecture. Attention is paid to numerous historical archival documents, on the basis of which the decision to organize the Academy of Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR has been made long before the end of the Second World War. The main tasks set before the newly formed Academy in the mid-1940s by its first president V. H. Zabolotnyi, are considered. These are: the implementation of fundamental and applied research, the providing of professional support for the reconstruction of destroyed and building of new architectural and urban planning objects, the study and reproduction of historical architectural heritage, directing the opinion of architectural personnel to solving the problems of “great science” in the field of architecture and construction, creative and scientific activity in the difficult conditions created in Ukraine by the Second World War. It is proved that all the significant successes of the Academy at that time, without exaggeration, are directly connected with the talent of the organizer and manager, an architect and artist of a wide creative range, a connoisseur of the history of architecture and folk art – the first president of the AA of the Ukrainian SSR Volodymyr Zabolotnyi. Architectural achievements of the AA of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1940s–1950s on the background of purposeful unity of architects, true creative skill, their professional dedication and true patriotism have contributed greatly to the revival of our country after the Second World War.