Borys Ivanyckyj

Identification, names and limits of the object

Borys Heorhiiovych Ivanytskyi; in Czech Borys Ivanyc’kyj (also Ivanický / Ivanyckyj in search variants); in English Borys Ivanytsky. Born in Sumy on 8 (20) March 1878; died on 4 April 1953 in Detroit. The date 8 March Old Style (20 March New Style) is given by the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine and by “Visti UTHI” of 1948; the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine gives 21 March. [BI01; BI02; BI07]

Do not confuse this specialist with namesakes in Ukrainian archives. Main roles: forest scientist, dendrologist, teacher, organiser of professional education, public figure of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and of émigré institutions. The personal record R0031 differs from the institutional records R0035 (Ukrainian Economic Academy) and the separate Ukrainian Technical and Economic Institute; the person’s offices are not identical with the institutions. [BI01; BI03]

Education and the formation of a professional method

Ivanytskyi graduated from the Saint Petersburg Forestry Institute in 1902. In 1902–1917 he worked in state forestries of Ukraine and the Russian Empire. This stage provided practical experience that later became the basis of his interest in dendrology, afforestation, forest protection and natural-resource policy. A complete list of his posts cannot be reconstructed without service records; short encyclopedic entries give a generalised chronology. [BI01; BI02]

Ivanytskyi’s scholarly output is worth reading not only as the history of one scholar but as an attempt to move Ukrainian forestry from administrative practice to systematic higher education in Ukrainian. This is an interpretation of his career on the basis of teaching publications and professional posts, not a documented authorial self-characterisation. [BI01; BI04]

Ukrainian state service, 1917–1921

In 1917 he was among the organisers of the forestry department of the Ministry of Land Affairs of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and from the end of 1918 he headed the department. In 1919–1920 he worked and taught in Kamianets-Podilskyi; the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine also mentions administrative duties. Correct typed relationships: co_organized with the specialist department, headed with a clear time interval, taught_at with the university. Do not create a relationship with Czech institutions on the basis of his work in Ukraine. [BI01; BI02]

The public story can show continuity between forest-protection policy in the time of state-building and professional education in Czechoslovakia. However, the historical context does not permit the claim that specific projects of the Ukrainian People’s Republic were carried out in Poděbrady as a Czechoslovak state programme: curricula and ministerial correspondence must be sought. [BI01; BI03]

Emigration and the organisation of the Academy in Poděbrady

According to the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine, Ivanytskyi left for Poland in 1921 and arrived in Czechoslovakia in 1922. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine states briefly immigration to Czechoslovakia in 1921. Do not identify the beginning of emigration with the date of physical arrival in Poděbrady. In 1922 he joined in creating the Ukrainian Economic Academy, and in 1922–1924 he was its pro-rector. [BI01; BI02]

T-UHA of the Slavonic Library remains a catalogue pointer to the academy and the Ukrainian Technical and Economic Institute. The full description is unavailable this time, so 25 inventory units and two boxes are not presented as a re-verified extent. The catalogue is not equal to the minutes of rectorial elections that have been read. [BI03]

Pro-rector, dean, rector: the exact sequence of offices

The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine records the pro-rectorship in 1922–1924, the deanship in 1926–1927 and the rectorship in 1926–1935. Encyclopedia of Ukraine names the rectorship as 1928–1932. The institutional publication “Visti UTHI” of 1948, pp. 29–30, which was read, confirms the pro-rectorship and deanship but gives the rectorship as 1925 and 1928–1935. The third scheme is thus attested by a specific contemporary printed item, not by an unidentified PDF in CORE. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine entry on the Ukrainian Husbandry Academy gives Ivanytsky’s rectorships as 1925–1926 and 1928–1935 (Ivan Shovheniv 1922–1925 and 1926–1927, Serhii Tymoshenko 1927–1928); this agrees with “Visti UTHI” of 1948. We therefore adopt 1925–1926 and 1928–1935; the years 1926–1935 (Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine) and 1928–1932 (biographical entry in Encyclopedia of Ukraine) differ from it. [BI07; BI09; BI01; BI02]

The 1948 publication that was read reports Ivanytskyi’s election as professor and pro-rector on 22 April 1922. This is an institutional account, not a viewing of the election minutes. The terms of different heads of the academy should not be reduced to simultaneous leadership; the catalogue BI03 was not read this time. [BI07; BI03]

Teaching subjects and the forestry school

Ivanytskyi taught dendrology, forestry and related subjects. The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine describes “Kurs lisivnytstva” in three parts of 1922–1923, while Encyclopedia of Ukraine briefly gives 1922; these bibliographic formulas are compatible. The entries also name “Dendrolohiia” of 1924, “Die Entwaldung der Ukraine” of 1928 and A. Bühler’s translation “Nauka pro lisovi zaimyshcha”, Poděbrady 1925. These are bibliographic data that were read, not a viewing of all the editions. [BI01; BI02]

The Ukrainian school of forest science that he founded combined natural-science knowledge with practical training. The teaching significance of the Poděbrady centre is confirmed by institutional information from the Slavonic Library: the Academy had agronomy and forestry, engineering, and economics and cooperatives faculties. To attribute to Ivanytskyi the authorship of all the programmes of these faculties without information on the division of labour is wrong. [BI01; BI03]

Publishing output and scholarly networks

The main synthetic work “Lisy i lisove hospodarstvo na Ukraini” appeared in two volumes in 1936 and 1939. It links his professional biography with the history of Ukrainian use of natural resources and with interwar European science. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine names his membership of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences. These institutions are separate Organizations, and for each relationship the date of election and membership status should be checked. [BI02; BI04]

The bibliographic catalogue of the future website should distinguish Ivanytskyi’s work, its physical edition and a library copy; a copy preserved in a holding does not automatically show that the author personally used it in that very library. [BI03]

Second emigration and Ukrainian institutions in Germany

The Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine dates Ivanytskyi’s departure to Poland to 1935; the cessation of the academy’s work in that year is separately attested by an archival exhibition. From 1944 he was in Germany and joined the post-war Ukrainian Technical and Economic Institute. The entries give a leading post in 1947–1952; “Visti UTHI” of 1948 directly reports only an election in November 1947 for the academic year 1947/48. This publication confirms the beginning, not the whole interval up to 1952. [BI01; BI02; BI07; BI08]

His public activity included participation in the Ukrainian National Council. The date of election and the specific title of the post require study of minutes in the different sources; a political status cannot be added merely on the basis of the generalisation “public figure”. [BI02; BI04]

Personal life, correspondence and lost contexts

The available encyclopedic entries contain no confirmed quotations from Ivanytskyi’s private letters to colleagues. The personal story is therefore built around verified professional activity, not invented dialogues. The archival search should include a personal file, manuscripts of lectures, correspondence with the dean’s office and membership documents of professional societies. [BI01; BI03]

Typed relationships for the graph

Locations and possible archival images

Sumy — confirmed city of birth; Poděbrady — academic activity; Kamianets-Podilskyi — teaching; Regensburg — later leadership of the institute; Detroit — place of death. The château R0071 should be shown only as a verified historical building with which the Academy was connected; neither a classroom nor Ivanytskyi’s residential address has been established. Potential images: a photograph of Ivanytskyi from the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine; covers of scholarly works; archival group photographs of the Academy. Rights for reuse have not been verified. [BI02; BI03]