THESIS DEFENCE CASE

In 1965, Viktor Petrov was awarded the Soviet Order of ‘The Great Patriotic War’, 1st Class. His colleagues congratulated him at the Institute. According to Nadiia Kravchenko’s recollections, since then the topic of his spying activities has become more open. […]

Colleagues and friends petitioned for the restoration of Viktor Petrov’s doctorate, although unsuccessfully. Documents on the awarding to him of the PhD of Ukrainian Literature degree in 1930 were lost. In fund No. 16, there are handwritten extracts from the regulatory documents:

4. The academic degree of Doctor of Sciences may be awarded by the Higher Attestation Commission, with special exception, and without defending the dissertation to persons known for their outstanding scientific works… In these cases, the petition for awarding the degree is initiated by the council of one of the universities ( scientific institutions), which has the right to accept for defence doctoral dissertations on the given speciality.

5. With the permission of the HAC, the Councils of higher education institutions and non-research institutions may accept for defence for the degrees of candidate and doctor of sciences, along with dissertations, published works. […].

In 1963, Petrov collected letters of petition from his friends, the linguists Borys Larin and Maksym Rylskyi:

To the Academic Council of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR

I ask you to attach my recommendation to the petition to award Viktor Platonovich Petrov the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences. I have known V.P. Petrov for more than 40 years, I have always closely followed his research work and highly appreciated it. The events of the war years, the loss of documents on the awarding of the doctoral degree even before the Great Patriotic War – cannot now prevent him from renewing his deserved right to this high academic degree, after a number of brilliant works on archaeology and philology published in the most recent years.

Honoured Scientist of the RSFSR
Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR
Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR
Doctor of Philological Sciences /prof. B.A. Larin/
Leningrad
15 June 1963.

Maksym Rylsky’s letter read as follows:
TO THE SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR
With all determination and full confidence I support the Institute’s petition to award the academic degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences to Viktor Platonovich Petrov. V.P. Petrov’s works on ethnography, folkloristics, archaeology, literary studies, linguistics testify to the versatility of the author’s scientific interests and true depth of knowledge, to his consistent fidelity to Marxist-Leninist methodology, to his courage in raising questions and thoughtfulness in solving them, to his maximum scientific integrity.

The awarding of the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences to V.P. Petrov will be quite fair and fully deserved. I ask the Council to bring this opinion to the attention of the USSR Higher Attestation Commission.

ACADEMIC
Doctor of Philological Sciences M. Rylsky
12 September 1963.

The review was accompanied by a handwritten letter from Rylsky:

Dear Viktor Platonovich!
I am sending you, along with the materials you sent me, a letter to the Academic Council of the Institute of Archaeology. It is extremely brief, but it seems to say what is needed.
Yours, M. Rylsky
12/IX 1963

The following year, in 1964, Rylsky died. Lukeria Rutkivska wrote in her memoirs: ‘Viktor Platonovych had a long-standing friendship with Maksym Tadeyovych Rylsky. When Maksym Tadejovych was terminally ill, Viktor Platonovych visited him, and when he came to the institute, he was in a grave mood and painfully told me about Maksym Tadejovych’s almost hopeless state of health and his thirst for life. His sad stories were always accompanied by words about how much Maksym Tadeyovych could still do for science, culture and our people. I did not feel hopelessness in Viktor Platonovych’s words, he hoped for life and could not imagine anything else. I could see that he was suffering and that the loss of his old friend was a heavy blow to him.’

Viktor Petrov tried to get his degree back for several years, but after realising the futility of his attempts, he succeeded in defending his thesis again. The abstract ‘Language. Ethnicity. Folklore’ “on the totality of works for the degree of candidate of philological sciences” covered Petrov’s scientific works from 1918 to 1965 and contained 138 items. As Petrov pointed out in his introduction, works on linguistics and ethnogenesis are largely directly related to research in the history of material culture, ethnography, and archeology, so Petrov divided the list of his works into sections: ‘Philological sciences. Linguistics. Semasiology. Onomastics’; “Ethnogenesis”; “Folklore”; “Literary Studies”; ’Historical Sciences. History of Material Culture. Archaeology’. Separately highlighted are the works ‘Published’; ‘Manuscripts. Monographs’.

Viktor Petrov’s Doctor of Philology degree was awarded on 1 July 1967. His PhD defence was replaced by a doctoral thesis, which the Academic Council approved unanimously.

References:

Reprint (pp. 324-328) from the article: