On the History of the Formation of Physics in Ukraine

Abstract

The period of the 1920s and 1930s became one of the most difficult in the history of Ukrainian science. During this time, mass repressions were carried out against scientists, who were accused of "bourgeois nationalism" or espionage. Many physicists were arrested, imprisoned, or deported to Siberia, where they either perished or found themselves in conditions incompatible with further scientific activity. The destruction of entire scientific schools, which were just beginning to form in Ukraine, significantly hindered the development of physical sciences for decades to come.

In the 1920s, within the then All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN), the issue of creating a scientific institution where physical research could be concentrated was discussed. At the origins of this scientific institution—which is now known as the Institute of Physics of the NAS of Ukraine—were such scientists as Yosyp Kosonohov, Oleksandr Goldman, and Viktor Bernatskyi. This publication attempts to consolidate scattered information about these prominent figures in the history of the establishment of physics in Ukraine.