A WORD IN MEMORY AN OUTSTANDING UKRAINIAN HISTORIAN, ACADEMICIAN VOLODYMYR HRABOVETSKY

. The article deals with the scientific work of a famous Ukrainian historian and source scholar Volodymyr Hrabovetskyі. In the creative heritage of the scientist there is a series of works dedicated to the history of Galicia and Precarpathia, studies on the times of Cossacks, national struggles of liberation. Volodymyr Grabovetskyi joined the scientific paradigm as a researcher of the history of the Opryshky movement, the life and activity of Oleksa Dovbush. On the basis of archival materials and contemporaries’ memoirs the scientist wrote the history of many Precarpathian cities and villages. Volodymyr Grabovetskyi is also well-known as a researcher of the church history.

History was Volodymyr's favourite school subject. His family had a great respect for the national traditions and the historical experience of past generations. His father, a former rifleman of the Ukrainian Galician Army, an active member of the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, told the young man about the Cossacks, the Carpathian Opryshky * , the struggle for the independence of Ukraine in 1918-1920; Volodymyr read books on world history, the history of Ukraine and the Hutsul land, the land of his birth. It was crucial in choosing his career. Volodymyr Hrabovetsky became a student of the Faculty of History at Ivan Franko University of Lviv.
At the University, he joined the scientific society at the Department of the History of Ukraine and started his research on the history of the Opryshky movement guided by the famous Oleksa Dovbush. In 1953, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky obtained the position as researcher at the Department of the History of Ukraine, the Institute of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Lviv. The Opryshky movement became the central topic of the scholar's research. At that time, the study of the medieval history, the Cossack period in particular, was unofficially tabooed; so exploring the history of the Opryshky acquired a special social meaning.
At the Institute of Social Sciences in the 1950s-1960s, there was created a new scientific historical school led by Ivan Krypiakevych, an outstanding Ukrainian historian. The names of its representatives are well-known in Ukraine today -Yaroslav Isaievych, Yuriy Slyvka, Volodymyr Baran, Yaroslav Shashkevych, Mykola Kravets, Feodosii Steblii, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky. Under very unfavourable conditions of political repressions and total censorship, in the atmosphere that did not encourage any unbiased research, this generation of scholars had to further the cause championed by the distinguished Ukrainian historiographers Volodymyr Antonovych and Mykhailo Hrushevsky in the second half of the 19 th -the early 20 th century; thus a new generation of the Ukrainian scientifichumanitarian elite was being formed.
For fifteen years Volodymyr Hrabovetsky had been working under the guidance of Academician Ivan Krypiakevych; he proved himself a talented researcher of the history of his land. Having studied numerous archival records in Lviv, Kyiv, Moscow, Kraków, Wrocław, he presented significant scientific findings, which bridged many gaps in Ukrainian historiography. In 1958, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky defended his Candidate Dissertation; and in 1968, his Doctoral Dissertation; he became a well-known researcher in the field of Ukrainian medieval and modern history.
In 1975, Professor Volodymyr Hrabovetsky became a staff member of the Faculty of History at Ivano-Frankivsk State Pedagogical Institute named after Vasyl Stefanyk; in 1990, he was elected Chairperson of the Department of the History of Ukraine. The statehood formation processes in Ukraine, a new social, political, and scientific context stimulated Professor Hrabovetsky's professional activity; he had an opportunity to reveal his talent as a scholar, educator, and public activist.
In 65 years of research work, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky had published about 1.5 thousand scientific and popular scientific papers, including more than one hundred monographs; it was the most significant scientific legacy among the Ukrainian medievalist historians of the second half of the 20 th century -the beginning of the 21 st century.
The array of Professor Hrabovetsky's research works was impressive; still, the history of Ukraine Still, the major theme of Volodymyr Hrabovetsky's research was the history of the century-long national liberation movement of the Carpathian Opryshky, Oleksa Dovbush in particular. The scholar found more than 350 hitherto unstudied archival documents concerning the Opryshky movement of the 16 th -18 th centuries, including 70 documents concerning the activity of Oleksa Dovbush; the latter issue was the focal point of 150 works written by Professor Hrabovetsky, the major ones being the monographs Antyfeodalnyi rukh na Prykarpatti v druhii polovyni XVII -pershii polovyni XVIII stolit (The Antifeudal Movement in Prykarpattia in the Second Half of the 17 th -the First Half of the 18 th Centuries), Karpatske opryshkivstvo (The Carpathian Opryshky Movement), and Oleksa Dovbush. The publications were remarkable events in Ukrainian historiography. The scientific, national, cultural, and educational significance of these works published in the time of the totalitarian Communist regime can hardly be overestimated. At that time, Oleksa Dovbush and the Oprysky movement were the symbols of the undefeated nation and its fight for freedom; they heightened the people's national awareness. Thus we can regard Volodymyr Hrabovetsky's activity of that period as a phenomenon of the national-cultural movement of the 'Sixtiers' -moral resistance to the regime. The researcher was closely watched by the so-called 'competent bodies', their attempts at his 're-education' were nothing less than blackmail and threats. Yet

centuries: A Brief Historical Essay), Narysy istorii Ivano-Frankivska (Brief Essays of the History of Ivano-Frankivsk), Narysy istorii Prykarpattia (Brief Essays of the History of Prykarpattia) (a six-volume publication), Iliustrovana istoriia Prykarpattia (An Illustrated History of Prykarpattia)
(a three-volume publication) contributed to the historiography of his native land. According to the researcher, a comprehensive study of the historical legacy of regions has to be the basis for a new conceptual comprehension of the history of Ukraine, its role and place in the past and modern geopolitical space.
Volodymyr Hrabovetsky adopted a new approach in the Ukrainian historical urban studies. His first historical essay in this field was Zvenyhorod (1959), then followed a series of essays -Istoriia Kolomyi (A History of Kolomyia), Istoriia Kalusha (A History of Kalush), Narysy istorii Halycha (Bries Essays of the History of Halych), and others, which later developed into profound monographs. The idea to write a history of the cities, towns, and villages of Prykarpattia belonged to Volodymyr Hrabovetsky.
The scientific legacy of the scholar includes about fifty papers in the fields of specific historical sciences -historiography, archeography, genealogy, heraldry, chronology.
In the early 1990s, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky started organizing scientific conferences. It was important to draw attention to vital issues of national historiography after a long period of suppression and distortion of the facts of Ukrainian history. Thus in 1990, there was held a scientific Conference dedicated to the 500 th anniversary of the peasants' rebellion under the leadership of Mukha; in 1991, two scientific Conferences dedicated to the 125 th anniversary of the outstanding Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the 105 th anniversary of Academician Ivan Krypiakevych; in 1995, an interuniversity Conference dedicated to the 150 th anniversary of a Ukrainian historian Iuliian Tselevych; in 1999, a scientific Conference dedicated to the 120 th anniversary of Stepan Tomashivsky.
Another important aspect of Volodymyr Hrabovetsky's activity was archival and museological work. For fifty years he had been collecting documents and data on the Opryshky history; for instance, he had found over a thousand documents concerning Oleksa Dovbush. The scholar contributed to the foundation of the Historical and Memorial Museum of Oleksa Dovbush in Ivano-Frankivsk (1995), which developed into a centre of research and patriotic education.
Professor Hrabovetsky successfully combined research and educational work. He was the originator of a new historical school, an educator of a new generation of Ukrainian scholars; its representatives -Igor Tsependa, Petro Siredzhuk, Volodymyr Pryshliak, Mykola Vehesh, Bohdan Havryliv, Vasyl Pedych, and others -are well-known in Prykarpattia and in Ukraine. I can state that in Prykarpattia every new generation historian learned from Volodymyr Hrabovetsky.
As to the scholar's public activity, since 1966, he was a member of the Ukrainian Association for Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. In the 1960s-1970s, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky was the recurrently elected member of the Presidium of the Board and the permanent President of the Section of Historical Monuments. He was Honorary Head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Branch of the National Union of Ukrainian Regional Ethnographers. The researcher initiated setting up the monument to Oleksa Dovbush in the village of Pechenizhyn, and the obelisks and memorial boards to honour the people's hero and his followers in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kosmach, Yaremche.
The atmosphere of the national and state revival encouraged Volodymyr Hrabovetsky to explore little-known periods in Ukrainian history; his publications highlighted the activity of the forgotten heroes of the national liberation movement, scientists, and artists. The researcher presented his findings to teachers, students, the general public; he had his own radio and TV programmes.
For his long and fruitful scientific and pedagogical work, Volodymyr Hrabovetsky was honoured with many awards. In 1995, he was awarded with the title of 'Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine' for his contribution to the national historiography. That same year, the scholar was elected Academician of Higher School Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; between 1998 and 2015, he received the Order of Merit, First, Second, and Third Class. Volodymyr Hrabovetsky was an Honoured Citizen of eight cities, towns, and villages of Prykarpattia.
Volodymyr Hrabovetsky died on December 4, 2015. His works are a significant contribution to Ukrainian historiography; his contribution to regional ethnography is invaluable. The range and diversity of his studies is truly impressive. For 65 years he had been tirelessly working for the benefit of his nation, studying its glorious past, educating a new generation of Ukrainian scholars and students, promoting the spirit of patriotism.