LETTERS FROM FEDOT FILIN

The documents on the awarding of Viktor Petrov’s doctorate on Ukrainian literary studies in 1930 were lost. So in the 1960s, he tried for a long time to get his degree back. Having realised the futility of his attempts, he succeeded in defending his dissertation again. His dissertation ‘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’.

Petrov’s Doctor of Philology degree was dated 1 July 1967. His PhD defence was replaced by a doctoral thesis, which the Academic Council approved unanimously. From a letter from linguist Fedot Filin we can learn some details:

9.1.1967

Dear Victor Platonovich!

I have just returned home from the meeting of the expert commission of the HAC. At this meeting I made a report on your works, giving them a high assessment. The expert commission unanimously decided to award you the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences. Now your ‘case’ is transferred to the last instance – to the meeting of the plenum of the HAC. At these meetings I am also present and report on the degrees and titles in linguistics. I am sure that everything will go well with you, and your doctoral epic will be over soon. Of course, I will inform you about the decision of the plenum of the HAC and will have a pleasant opportunity to congratulate you. Of course, all this is ‘pro forma’ (I almost wrote ‘pra forma’), as in essence you are already a doctor of sciences for a long time. I read in your file that you were awarded this degree back in 1930. Pro forma is pro forma, but a lot depends on it in the material and moral life of a scientist.

I wish you good health and successful completion of the very interesting research you have started. […]

I shake your hand tight!
Loyal to you F. Filin.

Four months later, Fedot Filin was already congratulating Viktor Petrov and explaining the circumstances under which the decision of the Higher Attestation Commission was made:

15.5.1967

Dear and sweet Victor Platonovich!

Finally, I have the opportunity to congratulate you on the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences, which you earned many years ago. The Plenum of the HAC approved you in this degree the day before yesterday, 13.5.

But there was a delay, and I was worried about you. The Academic Council of the Section of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR allowed a violation of the rule: it had to first ask the permission of the Higher Attestation Commission for your defence of a doctoral dissertation at once, and did not do it. The bureaucratic apparatus of HAC got worried, did not know how to deal with the violators and dragged the case. There was even a project to deprive the mentioned council of the right to defend dissertations for a certain period of time. I repeatedly had to have all sorts of conversations about these essentially trifling matters. Finally, everything ended well for you. 13.5. 19 members of the HAC voted in your favour, and only 1 was against. The Chairman of HAC Minister Elyutin proposed to make a strict warning to the Academic Council, where you defended, set out in the relevant letter, so that the Council in the future did not make such violations.

I did not want to upset you, so I did not write to you. And now that everything has turned out well for you, I am telling you these unfortunate details. We can forget them now, and it is better if we forget them.

I am very happy for you. I shake your hand tight and give you a big hug.
Yours, F. Filin […]

According to witnesses, the defence was a triumph: ‘the academics, recognising themselves as Petrov’s ‘grandsons in science’, awarded him, an untitled academician, the degree of Doctor of Science. For many of us present at this defence, it was a celebration of justice’ (from the memoirs of Nadiia Kravchenko).

Bibliography:

Кравченко, Н. (2008). Збагнення. Українська біографістика. Збірник наукових праць, 4, 400–415.

Reprint (pp. 327-329) from the article:

Бузько О., Володарець-Урбанович Я. (2020). Документи до біографії Віктора Петрова з Наукового архіву Інституту археології НАН України. Віктор Петров-Домонтович: мапування творчости письменника, за ред. К. Ґлінянович, П. Крипи, Й. Маєвської, Краків: “Універсітас”, p. 317-339.