The First Institutional Encyclopaedia in Ukraine

The article discusses the first four volumes of the Encyclopaedia of Shevchenko Scientific Society . It traces the genesis of the idea of this publication in Ukrainian science of the 20 th and PUBLICATION


The idea of an encyclopaedia
Shevchenko Scientific Society (hereinafter: SSS) is the oldest Ukrainianlanguage public scientific institution in Ukraine. The beginnings of the Society date back to 1873: to the literary, cultural and educational Shevchenko Society, which would become the Shevchenko Scientific Society 1 since 1892. Despite the difficulties in its development (lack of Ukrainian state and later official closure by the Soviet occupiers in 1940) the Society continued to work. It worked underground from 1940 to 1944 and resumed its activities abroad in 1947. Since 1989 to present, it has operated successfully in Ukraine. SSS has a unique role in the history of science and the consolidation of national forces in Ukraine. This was the first unofficial Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, which defended the national culture before the establishment of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv in 1918. The history of SSS is associated with the names of hundreds of Ukrainian scientists and foreign researchers, who have made significant contributions to the Ukrainian and world science. Moreover, the society's past represents transformations, processes and phenomena that have taken place in the history of Ukrainian science from the last quarter of the 19 th century to the first decades of the 21 st century.
Given the importance of the SSS and its contribution to the development of Ukrainian science, its members have nurtured the idea of creating an encyclopaedia dedicated to the Society for a long time. In 1922, Vasyl Shchurat proposed preparing of a historical guide for the 50 th anniversary of the SSS. 2 However, this idea was never implemented due to lack of funds. However, all generations of Ukrainian scholars of the twentieth century were aware of the need for such publication.
The idea of preparing and publishing the SSS encyclopaedia became even more urgent after restoring the society in Lviv in 19893. After the proclamation of Ukraine's independence, the idea was repeatedly discussed at various scientific forums. Thus, at the III Scientific Annual March Session of the SSS in Lviv in 1992, the concept of the project was announced in the report "On the preparation of the Shevchenko Scientific Society Encyclopaedia", 3 in which a dictionary of entries and the formation of a bibliography of the subject was started. However, it was not possible to start the implementation of the project at that time due to significant financial and staff difficulties, so the work was postponed for many years.
Discussions on the SSS encyclopaedia project resumed in the second half of the 2000s. In particular, in 2007, the initiative group of SSS members posted a preliminary list of 3,820 entries of the SSS Encyclopaedia for general discussion on the Internet. 4 Finally, in 2008, due to the favourable conditions, support and funding of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (from now on -NAS of Ukraine), scholars started the Encyclopaedia of SSS project in Lviv, which is being continued to this day. This project has been led by Oleh Kupchynsky, a well-known Ukrainian historian, philologist, archeographer, doctor of historical sciences, professor, chairman of the SSS in Ukraine (2005--2014), editor of the Visnyk NTSh (Herald of SSS) and Zapysky NTSh (Notes of SSS) since their transfer to Ukraine, member of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, and honorary member of the Ukrainian Heraldic Society. He proposed theoretical foundations, organizational algorithms and principles for organizing the register of articles and the selection of encyclopaedic entries.
The editor-in-chief engaged more than a hundred scientists and dozens of institutions from Ukraine and abroad, primarily the Institute of Encyclopaedic Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, regional SSS organizations in Australia, Europe, and Canada, the USA, and other institutions and foundations.
It should be noted that in his work, O. Kupchynsky relies on a longstanding SSS tradition in the field of encyclopaedic studies. For example, it is appropriate to mention such well known publications as Ukrainian people in its past and present (St. Petersburg, 1914-1916Stanislaviv;Kolomyia, 1930Kolomyia, -1935, Encyclopaedia of Ukrainian Studies 1995) that involved editors, authors, leaders, organizers, etc. In addition, SSS is a partner of the Institute of Encyclopaedic Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in implementing one of the most significant projects of modern Ukrainian encyclopaedias -Encyclopaedia of Modern Ukraine (22 volumes published to this date).

Concept and methodological basis
Among many modern Ukrainian publications in encyclopaedic studies, the Encyclopaedia of SSS has well-thought-out conceptual and methodological principles. They are all set out in an extensive preface to the first volume by the editor-in-chief O. Kupchynsky (vol. 1,. This fundamental publication aims to reveal the role of SSS in the history of Ukraine, Europe and the world; to characterize critical scientific problems that SSS members have been working on; and emphasize the achievements and discoveries of the Society in various fields. The encyclopaedia represents a holistic and multidimensional image, focusing on personalities and institutions, including regional centers operating in Ukraine and abroad. The publication describes the development of scientific knowledge from 1873 to the present day. O. Kupchynsky defines the Encyclopaedia of SSS as a branch or departmental encyclopaedia (vol. 1, pp. 26-27). It would be more accurate to describe it as an institutional encyclopaedia since the four published volumes comprehensively represent the history of the scientific and cultural environment created by this institution, as well as its structure, networks, communication contacts and creative connections, scientists who have collaborated with the society and areas of activity, various practices, projects, works, periodicals, series, and other publications. In addition, the national and international scope of SSS significantly expands the area of encyclopaedic studies of its history.
The concept of the publication involves inclusion of a diverse set of biographical and thematic articles. The line of a comprehensive presentation of the society's activity was chosen. O. Kupchynsky writes in the preface that, as the chairman of the publishing council, he decided to publish encyclopaedic articles that would depict the Society not as a narrowly localized and closed institution, but in the context of the general development of national science and the direct contribution of SSS to the scientific process. Therefore, it is planned to cover the widest range of scientific interests of the Society and emphasize the special status of its work as a public scientific institution (vol. 1, p. 28).
Such a contextual approach is the most optimal, because SSS, especially during its heyday in the last quarter of the nineteenth and in early twentieth century, was not only a scientific institution, but also a kind of laboratory of socio-political thought of modern national ideology, moderator of cultural and social life in all Ukrainian lands divided by imperial borders. SSS spread national ideology among the masses and initiated many important cultural and political projects.
Given this understanding of the conceptual foundations of the publication, we distinguish the following types of articles: 1) biographies dedicated to scientists, members of the Society, researchers related to the institutions of the Society, and prominent historical figures whom members of the SSS studied; 2) thematic articles (events, facts, phenomena from the history of SSS, its structures, institutions, with which the society cooperated, regional organizations, etc.); 3) serial editions of SSS; 4) periodicals of SSS; 5) critical historical events, that were the subjects of research by scientists of the Society (vol. 1, p. 33). The published four volumes present a more comprehensive range of problem-oriented topics, but the types of articles generally cover most of the contained materials. It is important to note that all articles have a detailed reference apparatus, which consists of bibliographic description of various categories: works of researchers, literature about them, and, if available, archival sources and more. In many articles, this apparatus is a significant part of the entry that increases value of the encyclopaedia's entry for various bibliographic and source heuristics. The publication is designed for different categories of readers, i.e. takes into account the needs of search in a pure reference format, as well as thorough queries on relatively narrow topics and issues.

Structure and content
We would like to note some general observations about outer characteristics of the peer-reviewed volumes of Encyclopaedia. The first volume contains 248 entries; the second includes 293 entries; the third has 305 entries; the fourth consists of 227 entries, which is 1,073 articles in total. Focusing on the projected number mentioned above, the four books constitute more than a quarter of the planned articles. However, let us note that the number of scheduled entries is approximated. In preparation and processing, contributors usually find additional areas and contexts, as well as new sources, facts, personalities, and terms. Therefore, large encyclopaedic projects often expand at certain stage, as it has happened here. As a result, the peer-reviewed volumes of the SSS encyclopaedia are the substantial part of this great project, with colossal range and specific features.
The content of Encyclopaedia of SSS acquaints us with the historical conditions, in which the Society was created, developed, and reached the status of an authoritative scientific institution. The encyclopaedia reveals the main stages of development of the society and contains articles that characterize the trends and specific phenomena of the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, medicine, and even some technical sciences from the second half of the nineteenth century to present day. The Encyclopaedia also informs the reader about inter-institutional relations between the SSS and its members.
The first four volumes of the encyclopaedia focus on biographical articles about Ukrainian and foreign intellectuals, whose activities were connected with the SSS. It is dominated, in respect of quantity, by reports about a relatively large cohort of researchers in history, philology, literary studies, ethnology, folklore, and others. Articles about writers and artists also share the spotlight. Relatively small number of articles cover representatives of natural sciences due to dominance of humanities and social sciences in the SSS, especially during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. At the same time, some biographical entries are innovative research, both in terms of volume and depth of the researched issues, and the range of processed source materials. For example, the entry "Mykhailo Hrushevsky" (vol. 4, pp. 369-392) describes the state of historiographical reflection on this outstanding scientist and the most successful leader in history of SSS.
The next largest group of articles is devoted to various research fields developed by the members of the SSS, with humanities and social sciences in the spotlight. To illustrate, we would like to mention such entries as "The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the research of the Shevchenko Scientific Society" (vol. 2, pp. 545-554), "Armenia and Armenian colonies in Ukraine in the research of members of the Shevchenko Scientific Society" (vol. 3, pp. 152-160), "Greek colonies in the research of members of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and other institutions" (vol. 4, pp. 255-262).
Encyclopaedia of SSS also focuses on institutional topics. Here, we have several articles covering the organizational and administrative activities of the Presidium, sections and commissions of the Society; its printing, binding, office, bookstore, library, museum, academic house (dormitory), charitable foundations, and finally, research institutions. A separate group of articles acquaints the reader with the activities of foreign departments of the Society, which are still a little-known question even for researchers of the history of science. In addition, many articles are devoted to institutions that collaborated with members of the Society and periodicals founded by them.
Given the contextual concept chosen by the editor, the encyclopaedia presents several major review articles, such as "Austria" (vol. 1, pp. 67-76), "Abstractionism" (vol. 1, pp. 58-61), "Bilingualism" (vol. 2, pp. 142-152), "Bulgaria" (vol. 2, pp. 268-274), "Vatican" (vol. 2, pp. 522-527), "Galicia" (vol. 3, pp. 438-451), etc. The authors of these articles focused on the connections between SSS members and covered phenomena, processes and events. Thus, in the first of the articles mentioned above, the emphasis is on the support from the Austrian government for establishing Ukrainian socio-cultural and scientific organizations, including SSS during the imperial era. The second article, "Abstractionism", contains brief information about the artistic trend and its reflection in various practices and studios of SSS members.
Ukrainian scientific issues dominate the volumes. In addition, the publication also contains many articles on foreign scholars and public figures, who have influenced their Ukrainian colleagues and collaborated with SSS and other institutions. This is not accidental, because the history of SSS in the initial, pre-war, periods unfolded in Austria-Hungary, in the interwar period: within the Second Commonwealth, in the diaspora: mainly in the Western world. Thus, the authors of the SSS encyclopaedia focus on the biographies of foreign members of the Society and numerous partner institutions (societies, libraries, magazines).
It should be noted that Polish stories dominate in this solid layer of diverse information about non-Ukrainian issues, testifying to close Polish-Ukrainian cultural relations and long-term residence in the same states. And so, the authors reveal little-known, even to researchers, biographies of Polish intellectuals or facts about Polish--Ukrainian institutional cooperation. This information will undoubtedly be of considerable interest to the Polish users of the SSS encyclopaedia. Many Polish articles are already presented in the first volume of the Encyclopaedia of SSS. For instance, the biographical entry "Abraham Vladyslav" (vol. 1, pp. 52-54), along with general biographical data, shows in detail Abraham's contribution to the study of the past of the Ukrainian lands of the ancient Commonwealth. Additionally, it provides little known information about the reception of his historiographical ideas among his colleagues from SSS. Another example of the institutional issues is the article "Akademia Umiejętności w Krakowie" (vol. 1, pp. 118-120). The article focuses on the participation of Ukrainian scientists (A. Petrushevych, M. Hrushevsky, I. Franko, etc.) in the activity of this institution. Numerous facts about Polish-Ukrainian inter-institutional cooperation are provided in the article "Akta grodzkie i ziemskie ..." (vol. 1, pp. 120-122), dedicated to an important archaeographic project, in which historians of the two nations collaborated. This example is just one of the many.
Moreover, in the following volumes of the SSS encyclopaedia more and more articles uncover Polish public figures who have contributed to establishing of the Polish-Ukrainian dialogue. A good example here is a thorough article about Jerzy Giedroyc (by Oleg Kupchynsky) (vol. 4, pp. 508-513), who influenced a new concept of Polish-Ukrainian relations, which, according to the author, had a significant impact on the formation of state policy and relations in general between independent Poland and Ukraine.
As mentioned above, the pages of the Encyclopaedia of SSS are dominated by information on the development of humanities, given the peculiarities of the institutional formation of the Society, in the early stages of its history, especially. At the same time, the peer-reviewed volumes of the encyclopaedia provide information about outstanding Ukrainian and foreign scientists cooperating with the Society in other fields: medical, natural, technical, military, etc. The reader can also find articles on the institutional history of branches of science mentioned above.
The described above diversity of the articles constitutes the original integrity of the project, designed for various categories of readers. This, in turn, shows the editor-in-chief 's challenges in selecting authors: these who are specialists in particular disciplinary fields and those who can organically link general and institutional layers of information. Let us note that the vast majority of articles in the Encyclopaedia of SSS is a result of successful combination of authorial, editorial, and bibliographic practices, among others.
Finally, the first four volumes of Encyclopaedia are illustrated very well, which facilitates presentation of the main layers of information. Sometimes there are up to 20 or more items of illustrative material per article. The illustrations are of high quality; the photos are remarkably