Studies in history and philosophy of science and technology

Jubilee XXХ international scientific conference of young historians of science, technology and education and specialists «Science for a just peace in Ukraine. April 25, 2025, Kyiv

2025-12-24T11:01:05+02:00

Polish engineers in the mining industry of the Donets basin at the end 19th – early 20th centuries

2025-12-23T10:32:10+02:00

Introduction. In the post-reform era, entrepreneurial activity of enterprising individuals, which included many representatives of the technical intelligentsia, was actively developing in the Ukrainian ethnic lands of the Russian Empire. The Аім of the study is to reconstruct the activities of representatives of the Polish technical intelligentsia in the coal industry of the Donetsk Basin in the modern period and to highlight the peculiarities of their business practices. Research methods used: historical-genetic, statistical, diachronic. Scientific novelty: The article identifies the place and role of engineers of Polish origin in the development of the mining industry of the Donetsk Basin in the post-reform era, their participation in the creation of coal mining enterprises in the region. Main material and results. In the Donetsk coal basin in the second half of the 19th century, large mining companies and sole proprietorships were opened one after another, which required more and more qualified specialists – engineers and technicians. Among such individuals were many Polish engineers, were subjects of the Russian Empire, who while settling in the mines and shafts of Donbass, eventually demonstrated extraordinary managerial abilities. According to our calculations, from the 1880s to 1917, approximately up to twenty five representatives of the Polish technical intelligentsia – mining engineers, process engineers and railway engineers – worked in the mining industry of the Donetsk Basin. At the same time, there are many known cases when, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, they not only performed purely engineering functions, but also created powerful coal enterprises, became co-owners or even heads of significant coal mining companies. Among such individuals, one should mention K. Mscykhovsky, J. Krzywycki and K. Tolvynsky. Polish engineers also held important positions in the organizations of mine owners of the Donetsk basin. In particular, the secretary of the Council of Congresses of Miners of Southern Russia was the ethnic Polish, engineer М. Yashevsky. At the same time, engineers of Polish origin (Й. Knotte, Л. Pidhayecki, К. Trzetrzewinski) held leading positions in the Prodvugolya syndicate. Ultimately, it can be argued that representatives of the technical intelligentsia of Polish origin made their contribution to the industrial development of the Donetsk Basin, establishing strong traditions of entrepreneurship in Southern Ukraine in the modern period.

The role of the Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS in the creation of the municipal water supply system (late 19th – early 20th century)

2025-12-23T13:20:36+02:00

A centralized water supply system is a key attribute of a modern city, on which public health, sanitation, fire safety, and industry depend. Mykolaiv, founded in 1789 at the confluence of the Southern Bug and the Inhul rivers, constantly experienced a shortage of drinking water. By the late 19th century, the city authorities initiated the transition to a centralized system. The Mykolaiv branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (IRTS), reestablished in 1893, became an independent expert center that combined science and engineering and influenced decisions regarding water supply and sewerage. Its institutional precursor was the Mykolaiv Technical Society (1869/1872). The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS in shaping the city’s water supply and sewerage systems at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and to analyze its organizational activities in the design, construction, and commissioning of the system in 1906. The research applies historical-genetic, comparative-historical, and biographical methods, as well as content analysis of the press and statistical analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the use of a significant corpus of published sources and the reconstruction of the branch’s activity as an independent institution of urban infrastructure policy. Main results. The Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS acted as a bridge between science and municipal self-government, transforming discussions into a program of action: from hydrogeological surveys and public lectures to project expertise, cost estimate reviews, and technical supervision. Four stages of the branch’s involvement in the creation of the water supply system are identified: I (1893/1898) – organizational formation and substantiation of the priority of groundwater; II (1898/1904) – systematization of data, competitive selection of technical solutions, and review of cost estimates; III (1904/1909) – construction and commissioning of the network, including the erection of V. Shukhov’s hyperboloid tower (1907); IV (1909/1917) – technical supervision, resource conservation, tariff policy, and educational initiatives. The contributions of H. Teodorovych, V. Veber, Kh. Matveiev, L. Yustus, V. Soboliev, H. Vlastelytsia, E. Kiber, V. Shukhov, O. Sokovnin, among others, are analyzed. The experience of the Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS in shaping the city’s infrastructure is of relevance for the contemporary reconstruction of Mykolaiv’s water supply system.

Astronomy in Odesa under totalitarianism (1933–1944)

2025-12-23T13:26:51+02:00

The socio-political conditions of the development of astronomy in Odesa in 1933–1944 of the 20th century are studied. The degree of politicization and ideologization of the system of higher education and science in the 1930s of the 20th century was traced using the example of the Astronomical Observatory of Odesa University. The formation of relations between the state and science is shown in the conditions of the formation of a command-administrative system of management and the strengthening of the totalitarian regime, which determined the development of science throughout Soviet history. The special role of astronomy in the development of the materialistic worldview is noted. This branch of scientific knowledge was considered as a powerful means of anti-religious propaganda. In the 1930s, the astronomical observatory of Odesa University became a subject of new collective relations in the field of Soviet astronomy, which were characterized by processes of unified planning, centralization, concentration of forces, and the transition to solving large-scale tasks through collective efforts. Odesa astronomers are involved in compilation of the Catalog of Faint Stars, participate in the work of the Time Service, the Sun Service, the Latitude Service, observations of the Solar Eclipse, etc. Scientists actively carry out cultural and educational work, master new forms of socialist competition, which have encouraged students, graduate students, and research staff to show creative initiative, mobilize their experience, use it to fulfill and exceed plans, and have also become a means of involving the scientific community in the process of ideologizing the educational and scientific spheres. The forms and methods of ideologizing at Odesa University in the Transnistrian governorate during the temporary German-Romanian occupation during World War II are investigated. It has been established that the employees of the Odesa Astronomical Observatory had to work in conditions of collision and confrontation between two opposing totalitarian ideologies – communist and national socialist. The scientific biographies of Odesa astronomers K. D. Pokrovsky, V. B. Balasoglo, A. S. Tsesulevych, K. Ya. Horiaistov, M. M. Mikhalsky, B. V. Novopashenny have been supplemented with new facts. The materials presented in the article, using the example of the Astronomical Observatory of Odesa University, prove the prospects of further research into the influence of socio-political conditions on the development of astronomy as a science in Ukraine using the example of other astronomical institutions and in other chronological periods.

The fate of the wachmans after the service in the Belżec death camp

2025-12-23T13:34:11+02:00

The Wachmann Institute was the Nazi military guard of concentration camps and death camps, which was staffed at the expense of Soviet prisoners of war and was actively involved in implementing the policy of genocide against Jews and Roma in the Nazi-occupied territories. The purpose of the article is to highlight the fate of the guards of the Belżec camp (territory of Poland) after the latter’s liquidation. The relevance of the study is determined by the possibility of introducing documentary materials from the SBU archives into scientific circulation, as well as the political and legal significance of studying the topic of collaboration in the context of the aggression of Putin’s neo-imperial regime against sovereign Ukraine. Important research methods, given the processing of little-known archival sources, are heuristic and hermeneutic. During the work, the chronological method, the method of collective biographies, was also used, which made it possible to present the fate of the Wachmans as a certain holistic historical phenomenon. Main results. Based on primary source data, the general life trajectory of the Bełżec camp guards after the camp’s liquidation was reconstructed: the vicissitudes of their further service with the Nazis after special retraining; filtration processes after the end of the war; post-war life; Soviet investigation and trial. Conclusions. Analysis of archival materials showed that the fates of the Wachmans after serving in the Belżec death camp were different. Some tried to desert, but the majority remained with the Nazis until the end of the war, continuing to perform security or punitive duties. A feature of this period was the constant change of the Wachmanns’ locations, mainly due to the advance of Allied troops across Europe. At this time, the attitude towards the Wachmanns by the German command was contradictory: on the one hand, they were constantly controlled on the other, they were left with all the benefits and privileges they had previously. Upon entering Soviet territory, they usually went through filtration, trying, of course, to hide the fact that they were serving for the Nazis. Some succeeded, but they were often let down by deviant behavior. Sooner or later, former Wachmans fell under Soviet investigation and trial, the materials of which thus became an important historical source on the topic.

Children in criminal proceedings in southern Ukraine in the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries

2025-12-23T13:39:55+02:00

Introductions. The history of childhood as a component of social history, the history «from below», is a field that has been extensively studied by European researchers: historians, demographers, and sociologists. Many studies are conducted on an interdisciplinary basis. Domestic achievements in historical science remain modest, but experts have already outlined promising directions. One such prospect is the active use of court materials in scholarly research. This article analyses the ‘presence of children’ in the judicial documentation of Southern Ukraine in the last quarter of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The social history of this region at that time is only accumulating data, with a general picture gradually emerging from individual fragments. The purpose of the article is to form a general picture of society’s attitude towards children and child deviance, based on the analysis of court materials from the region, and through the everyday extremes (that is exactly what court process represents). Research methods: internal criticism of sources, historical-legal, historical-comparative, retrospective. The novelty lies in the use of group sources that have hardly been used by researchers to date. Main results. In criminal proceedings, a child could act as a victim, a criminal, or a witness. For each ‘role’ specifically related to children, there is an optimal age when there is a consensus in society. As an unconditional victim, a child was generally perceived as being up to 10–12 years old. As a criminal with a certain understanding of the crime committed, they were considered responsible from the age of 14 and bore full liability after the age of 16–17. As a witness, they were worthy of attention after the age of 10–12. The ideas of the Enlightenment, which were spreading during this period, penetrated the judicial system partially and primarily from the legislator. Society as a whole had not yet embraced them: children were not regarded as individuals, and violence against them was normalised in many spheres (the authority of parents/guardians over children, of masters over underage servants). Crimes against children were primarily assessed in terms of physical rather than moral harm. Juvenile criminals, having received leniency from the law, began to be more actively involved in crime by adults.

«Paying for moments of weakness»: Professor Оleksandr Mikey – victim of the Soviet repressive policy

2025-12-23T13:50:05+02:00

The article is devoted to the repressive case of geologist Oleksandr Mikey as a typical example of the persecution of intellectuals by the Soviet authorities during the «Great Terror» – one of the most tragic periods in Ukrainian history. New opportunities for a detailed study of this tragic period in the scientist’s life have emerged as a result of the discovery of his archival investigation file in the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Dnipropetrovsk region. This is a unique source containing detailed information that makes it possible to investigate the reasons for the repression, the details of the investigation and, ultimately, to reconstruct as fully as possible the tragedy that befell the scientist. The purpose of the article is to analyse archival investigative documents to determine the circumstances of the violation and the course of the repressive case against Oleksandr Mikey, to identify the content of the charges and the peculiarities of the investigative practices of the Soviet state security organs in the context of the Stalinist regime’s policy. Main results. The article examines the archival and investigative case of Oleksandr Mikey as an example of the fabrication of criminal charges by the Soviet repressive authorities during the «Great Terror». Based on the materials introduced into scientific circulation, it has been shown that the accusations of belonging to a fictitious counter-revolutionary organisation were groundless and fabricated. This is confirmed by: the absence of real evidence; the refusal to «confess» during the trial and confrontations; inconsistencies and contradictions in the case materials; falsifications and the use of illegal investigation methods; the formal nature of the trial. The authors analyse the methods of investigation, the nature of the trial, and the consequences for a person destroyed by repression. Particular attention is paid to the materials of the additional investigation in 1940 and the rehabilitation process of O. Mikey in 1956. Conclusions. The article not only clarifies the biography of Professor Mikey, but also highlights the systematic nature of the NKVD’s crimes using Mikel’s case as an example and demonstrates the tragedy of an innocent person’s fate under a totalitarian regime. The article is analytical in nature.

Scientific and technical achievements of research centers for the development of computer design in Ukraine (2000s)

2025-12-23T13:58:03+02:00

In the conducted research, for the first time, a comprehensive list of institutions in Ukraine whose activities are directly related to the field of computer design has been compiled. This list includes several institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, namely: the V. M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics, the Institute for Information Recording Problems, the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Problems, the Institute of Software Systems, the Institute of Problems of Mathematical Machines and Systems, and the Institute of Information Technologies and Systems, along with a number of universities across the country. The scientific and technological achievements of these leading Ukrainian centers have been examined, as they played a decisive role during the 2000s in establishing and advancing computer design as an essential component of digital culture, while also demonstrating the potential of innovative design-oriented approaches. The study reveals the principal directions of scholarly research pursued by these institutions during that period, as well as the tools and technological solutions they developed, many of which can be effectively applied within both domestic and international markets. The pioneering projects in the sphere of design-oriented information environments have been stressed. The relevance of the research lies in the fact that the rapid evolution of mobile applications has significantly transformed the domain of computer design. These transformations have led to the emergence of upgraded educational systems capable of supporting an unlimited number of users, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and adaptability of the learning environment. By analyzing historiographical works devoted to computer design published in the Ukrainian Abstract Journal Dzherelo (Institute for Information Recording Problems of the NAS of Ukraine), the journal Cybernetics and Systems Analysis (V. M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics of the NAS of Ukraine), as well as in studies authored by B. V. Durnyak, O. I. Pushkar, V. V. Bratkievych, V. E. Klymniuk, H. V. Briukhanova, O. H. Yashok, S. M. Spivak, among others, it has been established that the representation of computer design development within these institutions during the 1990s remains insufficiently covered. This lack of comprehensive coverage complicates a deeper understanding of the subsequent stages of its evolution and hinders the identification of long-term tendencies in the integration of design practices into the digital transformation of Ukrainian society.

Formation and development of multi-party in the Kyiv region during the Perestroika years

2025-12-23T14:04:18+02:00

The article examines the process of formation, activity and development of newly created political parties against the background of the policy of perestroika and the processes of transformation of the socio-political life of the Kyiv region. Considerable attention is paid to the activities of such opposition structures as: the Ukrainian Republican Party, the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, the Green Party of Ukraine, the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine, the Democratic Party of Ukraine, the Party of Democratic Revival of Ukraine. The purpose of the work is to study and analyze the characteristic features and peculiarities of the processes of formation and development of multi-partyism in the Kyiv region during the years of perestroika, to study the interaction of regional centers of opposition parties of the national-democratic orientation with city centers. The main methods of our research are the principle of historicism, comprehensiveness and systematicity. In addition, retrospective, analytical, comparative-historical, general scientific methods are also used. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that today domestic historical science is represented by works of a general nature on this topic, while there are no publications on the regional specifics of this issue. Main results. This issue requires further indepth research into the activities of the aforementioned parties of the perestroika period in the Kyiv region. The practical activities of the parties, their participants, leaders, program ideas, the process of formation and establishment of multi-party system in the Kyiv region are analyzed, and the cause-and-effect relationships of this process are determined. Conclusions. The formation and development of multi-party system in the Kyiv region took place in the context of socio-political transformations in the USSR, taking into account the specifics of their development in the Ukrainian SSR and each individual region. The formation of opposition party structures was a natural continuation of the activities of informal organizations, which later, against the background of socio-political changes, were transformed into political parties with programs of specific political actions. The main feature of the formation and development of multi-party system in the Kyiv region was that the region was close to Kyiv, so the process of demarcation of central and regional structures took place more slowly here than in other regions of Ukraine.

The historical prerequisites and the stages of the evolution of housing policy in Ukraine

2025-12-23T14:31:43+02:00

The issue of housing policy in different times and countries is always relevant for scholars and practitioners, but no none has not studied sufficiently in Ukraine yet. Hence, there is a need to study the pre-Soviet and Soviet historical experience of housing provision for the Ukrainian population, which serves as a prerequisite for the development of modern housing policy. The purpose of the study is to characterize the evolution of housing policy in the Ukrainian lands and to find out its peculiarities at different historical stages in the context of the prerequisites for modern regulation of housing relations. The main methods in the work were the principles of dialectical logic, analysis and synthesis, historicism, as well as the problem-chronological, comparative, systemic-structural, and comprehensive methods. Main results. We are the first who describe the historical stages and circumstances of the transformation of housing policy in Ukraine from the formation of municipal administration to the modern state policy. The chronological boundaries of six historical stages of housing policy evolution, from its formation in the midnineteenth century to the period of Ukraine’s independence, are identified and clarified. The housing sector in the Ukrainian lands at different historical stages had peculiarities of construction and use of housing related to natural and socio-economic conditions, urbanization processes, as well as the socio-political structure of the states. National traditions had a greater influence on rural architecture, while the methods of construction and management of the housing sector in Soviet-era cities, which became unified, are a direct prerequisite for modern housing policy in Ukraine. Some progressive projects, forms and methods of Soviet-era housing provision, as well as legal achievements, such as the Housing Code, used in post-Soviet Ukraine, are described. The author identifies and analyses the shortcomings of the Soviet and pre-Soviet practice of housing construction and housing management. The modern housing policy of Ukraine has the radical changes after the mass privatization of housing in 1992, which prompts the study of the historical experience of regulating housing relations. Conclusions. The theory and practice of housing construction and management of the housing sector in the Ukrainian lands began to become systematic in the mid-nineteenth century. Since Ukraine gained its independence, housing policy has passed through six historical stages, which differed in socio-political, legal, socio-economic and technological features. The historical stages of housing policy reflect its evolution with all its shortcomings and achievements and are a prerequisite for effective regulation of the housing sector in the twenty-first century. We should study and use to meet the needs of citizens of the historical experience of housing policy development in the process of reforming and rebuilding of modern Ukraine.

Newtonian celestial mechanics as a componential prototype of specific theories

2025-12-23T08:54:02+02:00

Any scientific theory in the natural sciences is an artificial, complex, and abstract construct, consisting of many components (ingredients, constituents, structural elements). It is developed by scientists to gain and comprehend experimentally verified new knowledge about its domain of study. It is helpful to distinguish between two meanings of the term “theory”. The application domains of specific theories include particular kinds of realities. Examples include Newton’s celestial mechanics and various classical, quantum, and quantum- relativistic theories of gases, fluids, molecules, atoms, and elementary particles (theory of atomic spectra, Bohr’s atomic theory, Planck’s quantum theory of black-body radiation, quantum theory of the hydrogen atom, quantum- relativistic theory of black holes, etc.). The names of specific theories usually include the names of the types of realities they study. Abstract theories serve as general frameworks for a group of specific theories of the same kind (in particular, macroscopic, microscopic, or megascopic kinds). Examples of abstract theories are classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and the theories of relativity, which act as common frameworks for concrete theories from classical, quantum, and quantum- relativistic physics, respectively. The article compares concepts of complex structure and development of specific theories with notions of structure and development of automobiles. Such a comparison is more useful and heuristic than analyzing theories in terms of paradigms or interdisciplinary matrices, which, in any case, are not part of scientific theories. The work employed methods of terminological and content analysis of the original text of Newton’s Principia and the comparative method. The aim is to consider Newtonian celestial mechanics as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all particular specific theories. The role of Euclidean geometry as a potential LUCA for abstract theories will be explored in another article. An analysis1 of Newton’s Principia showed that celestial mechanics encompasses a wider range of components than physicists and philosophers of science typically consider part of a theory. Main results. Taking this theory as a prototype for all specific theories, the article demonstrates the existence of sixteen types of components within it. Components of the same type form a specific subsystem of the theory as a polysystem. In any specific scientific theory, all these subsystems together constitute an interconnected whole that is necessary but not sufficient for generating new knowledge. Conclusions. The article is of a historical- scientific and theoretical- cognitive nature, and the results obtained can be applied in research on the history and philosophy of science, as well as in the teaching of natural science disciplines.

Theoretical features of the historical-anthropological version of the modern philosophy of history

2025-12-23T09:07:28+02:00

The purpose of this article is to identify and reveal the content of the theoretical features of the historical-anthropological version of the modern philosophy of history in the horizon of its comprehension of the mental-cultural plane of the past, causality, essence and alternatives of the development of historical dynamics. The methodology of this work is based on the principles, complementarity, structurality, dialogicity and methods of philosophical hermeneutics, system-structural, and interdisciplinary. Research results. Historical anthropology as a version of the modern philosophy of history began to form in the first third of the twentieth century. in the context of a number of important socio-historical, socio-cultural and theoretical-methodological reasons. The theoretical features of historical-anthropological explorations were formed on the intellectual basis of the achievements of a number of branches of philosophical and social-humanitarian thought, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of history, philosophy of structuralism and post-structuralism, theoretical sociology and ethnology. In the course of the intellectual and cognitive development of historical anthropology as a version of modern philosophy of history, a fundamental system of concepts and categories was formed for it, ontological (elements of the problem field and their content), methodological (cognitive methods) and axiological (system of values and ideals). The set of theoretical foundations, concepts and categories, research methods, problem field, mental and cultural plane of historical processes inherent in the historical-anthropological horizon of modern philosophy of history, determine its originality in relation to other paradigms of the philosophy of history of the 20th – early 21st centuries, linear, cyclical, the theory of «axial time» by K. Jaspers. The originality of the historical-anthropological version of the modern philosophy of history is manifested in its innovative cognitive activity, which is of significant importance for the development of philosophical and socio-humanitarian concepts. It is implemented in such areas as conducting an intensive interdisciplinary dialogue, applying the approaches of multi-valued logic and synergetics for the humanitarian plane of different-level historical processes. The extensive structure of historical anthropology, which includes the general-theoretical, particular-theoretical and special-theoretical levels of the mental core and the intellectual-cognitive periphery, allows this version of the modern philosophy of history to understand the mental-cultural, ethical-worldview aesthetic aspects of historical processes through the comprehension of a wide range of psychological-cultural causalities and phenomena of the past. Understanding the humanitarian horizon of history is carried out by historical-anthropological concepts on different horizons of historical existence in terms of complexity, individual, social groups, «local civilizations», global. The presence of theoretical features of historical anthropology, conceptual foundations, concepts and categories, intellectual and cognitive originality, innovative activity, structure determine its content as a version of modern philosophical-historical thought and its significance in the mental universe of philosophical and social-humanitarian cognition.

Theoretical features of the historical-anthropological version of the modern philosophy of history

2025-12-23T09:25:01+02:00

The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of unconscious components at the stage of discovery of new knowledge as a result of insight. Studies of the process of scientific creativity have proven that the main role in cognitive-heuristic activity at this stage is played by the unconscious sphere of the subject of knowledge. However, researchers have hardly considered the question of what processes occur at the subconscious level during heuristic search, what implicit cognitive components participate in these processes. Therefore, the purpose of our work is to analyze the specifics of the functioning of the subconscious at the stage of heuristic search and the role of unconscious factors in this, in particular, tacit knowledge. To achieve this goal, personal accounts, memories and reflections on the process of scientific creativity of prominent scientists of the 20th century were analyzed. The goal also determined the scientific novelty of this work, which consists in studying the participation of specific types of unconscious knowledge in the process of insight formation. The main part. At the heuristic stage, the limitations of verbal-conceptual cognition, which works only with rigidly formalized information, become apparent. In contrast, in the unconscious there are no such “rules” and limitations, so at the subconscious level there is always the opportunity to go beyond the known and discover new knowledge. Research has shown that one of the necessary stages for finding a new solution is the creation of a fundamentally new systemic cognitive integrity, which should replace the construction based on a rational basis. To do this, it is often necessary to radically change the conception of fundamental principles that are almost not realized by the subject of cognition. As a result, a new systemic cognitive integrity is formed, which replaces the previous one, which was based exclusively on rational principles. In the creation and effective functioning of this integrity, a significant role is played by implicit, tacit knowledge of various types, for example, such varieties as anti-paradigmatic, contextual, reduced and associative. The main principles of such cognitive integrity are not realized until the completion of the intuitive search and the stage of verbalization of the found knowledge. The conclusions are to prove the particularly significant role of unconscious factors at the stage of heuristic search for new knowledge. They can be used in the training of future scientists or in the study of already made discoveries for a better understanding of the process of scientific creativity.