V. M. Korpusova

Candidate of Sciences in History, independent researcher

V.P. PETROV – RESEARCHER OF THE FOLKLORE STUDIES

A prominent Ukrainian and World War II veteran, Viktor Platonovych Petrov (Domontovych) (1894-1969) was a thinker and scientist who made a significant contribution to the development of world thought, ahead of his time. His activities covered various areas of science, such as philology, philosophy, folklore, archaeology, linguistics, history, religious studies, as well as writing, pedagogy and the organisation of science.

Despite his considerable intellectual heritage, his scientific achievements remain only partially explored for various reasons, particularly in the area of folklore studies. Professor Petrov’s contribution to the theory and history of folklore studies, his research, organisational, editorial, publishing, collecting and expeditionary activities in Ukrainian folklore studies require in-depth and comprehensive coverage. However, this part of his heritage remains underestimated and insufficiently researched, which was pointed out by researchers about a quarter of a century ago (I. Berezovsky, 1970; M. Dmytrenko, 2000). As of 2024, no special study of this part of his scientific work has been conducted. This short text only briefly highlights certain aspects of his research in folklore studies.

Professor Petrov has been working professionally in the field of folklore and ethnography since the beginning of his work at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences . In his words: ‘In the 20s, folklore work in the USSR Academy of Sciences [In the 20s, the USSR Academy of Sciences was called the UAS. This is not a mistake of the scientist, but the requirements of the 60s, when a scientist wrote this document for the defence of his dissertation – V.K.] was concentrated in the Ethnographic Commission, headed by academician A.M. Loboda. I was a member of the Commission since 1919, later its secretary since 1923, and since 1927 its head (‘leader’).’ (Abstract … of the Candidate of Philology ’Language. Ethnicity. Folklore’ (1966)).

The scientist further noted that due to the serious illness of A. M. Loboda, since 1925 he personally carried out all the organisational work of the Ethnographic Commission, whose membership was significantly limited. Already in the 1920s, V. Petrov demonstrated outstanding organisational skills in the scientific sphere. Under his leadership, the Ethnographic Commission launched an active scientific and organisational activity, the main directions of which were research and publishing.

Since 1925, the Commission has published the journal ‘The Ethnographic Bulletin’ (10 books were published from 1925 to 1932) (in the 30s and 40s this publication was called ‘Folk Art’, and from 1957 to the present day – ‘Folk Art and Ethnography’). The Bulletin of the Ethnographic Commission was also published (25 issues were published). Ukrainian folklorists, as well as prominent scholars from Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Moscow, published in these publications, as Ukrainian publications were ahead of Russian ones in terms of their content and significance. V.P. Petrov published dozens of scientific studies, articles, programmes, and reviews in these publications. The Ethnographic Commission also ran numerous programmes to collect folklore and ethnographic materials. The Commission worked closely with the local history movement. The correspondent network which included up to 10,000 participants was created.

V.P. Petrov wrote many scientific and methodological programmes on collecting, recording, and researching the phenomena of traditional folk culture. On the basis of his correspondent texts, he prepared for publication corpuses of folk calendar folklore, industrial folklore, etc.

V.P. Petrov’s work in the Ethnographic Commission was highly appreciated by the State Russian Geographical Society (Leningrad), which in the RSFSR was subordinated to the People’s Commissariat of Education – ‘The Glavnauka’. The Society awarded Professor V.P. Petrov a silver medal on 19.04.1927 (NA IA NASU. – F. 16. – File 269). The following year, on 30.11.1928, the State Russian Geographical Society elected Professor V.P. Petrov as its Full Member (NA IA NASU. – F. 16. – File 269).

Professor V.P. Petrov studied folklore as a discipline, as well as Ukrainian folklore within a broad chronological scope and geographical context. The methodology of these studies was based on his historiographical concept known as the “The theory of epochs.” His research in folklore was not only a duty during his work with the Ethnographic Commission and while leading the Institute of Folklore of the Ukrainian SSR in 1941. The scientist conducted his research throughout his life. His interest in folklore began in his student years and remained a focal point until his death. Despite numerous historical challenges, he published his folklore studies during various periods: 1935–1936, 1943–1944, 1947, 1949, and 1958–1963, as well as in 1969. Among his publications, his work as a theorist and historian of Ukrainian folklore and ethnography deserves special attention. Notably, his articles in the “Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies” (Munich – New York, 1949) were reprinted in Ukraine in 1994, and materials published in the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia from 1958 to 1963 did not acknowledge his authorship.

V.P. Petrov’s manuscripts and materials on folklore are preserved in various archives across different countries, including the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the NAS of Ukraine (personal fund No. 16). Some of these manuscripts have been published.

● Race theory in modern Germanic folklore studies. Theses. (File 199)
● Ancient Slavic gods and their origin. Drafts. (File 202)
● Ancestral mothers. Anthropomorphic images of ancestral mothers. Unpublished. 1st and 2nd versions. (File 262)
● The main problems of folklore and ideology of the primitive-communal (system) period. Monograph. Published. (File 211)
● Ideological beliefs of the peoples of Siberia. (File 209)
● Ethnography. Beliefs about fire in ancient society are a reflection of the economic system. (File 204)
● Ritual folklore of the family cycle. (File 205)
● Gogol’s ‘Viy’. Folklore sources. The meaning of M. Gogol’s work. ‘The Enchanted Place’ by M. Gogol. Folklore sources. Materials about M. Gogol. (File 243)

V.P. Petrov, as a theorist and historian of folklore studies, noted that folklore emerged as a scientific discipline in the 19th century. The term “folklore” corresponds to the Ukrainian concept of “peoples oral literature.” Consequently, in some of his works, Petrov preferred the Ukrainian term, substituting it for the English equivalent.

He wrote: “Peoples oral literature, or folklore (from the English ‘folklore’—folk knowledge, folk wisdom; this term was introduced in 1846 by W.J. Thoms to denote ancient poetry, rituals, and beliefs), in contrast to written literature, is preserved in the memory of the people and is transmitted through tradition, sometimes for centuries, from mouth to mouth from generation to generation” (1949).

Professor Viktor Platonovych Petrov viewed science from a philosophical perspective as a process in which historical worldview changes lead to the emergence of new theories, concepts, and scientific schools that replace previous ones (1949). This approach demonstrates Petrov’s foresight, as the philosophical understanding of science as a process that transforms existing paradigms into new ones—termed a “scientific revolution”—was articulated later (Kun, 1962; 1970).

Professor V.P. Petrov analyzed the evolution of scientific theories across various disciplines, particularly in ethnogenetics, where the “migration” theory was replaced by the “autochthonous” theory, which he later supplanted with his own “specifically-historical” theory. In his study of the development of folklore studies from the 19th to the early 20th century, Professor Petrov identified the theories of folklore that were systematically developed in accordance with historical stages—specifically, the “mythological”, “anthropological” “formalistic”, and “migration” theories (which were viewed as ‘stages’ during the 1930s).

In the 1920s, the new “phenomenological” theory replaced the previous schools in folklore studies. V.P. Petrov conducted a thorough analysis of the content of these theories, their methodologies, methods, and objectives. He examined in detail the contributions of prominent scholars who established their own scientific schools to the development of folklore studies and critically evaluated these approaches in a number of his publications:

● New Genetic Theory of the Origin of Folklore (Poznansky N. Folklore, P., 1917) (1923);
● Academician Volodymyr Hnatiuk in his folklore studies (1927);
● Racial Theory at the Service of German Fascism (1934);
● Bourgeois Folklore Studies and the Problem of Stages (1935);
● Racial theory in modern German folkloristics. (1936);
● Academician F.M. Kolesa and His Book “Ukrainian Oral Literature” (1940);
● In Memory of Academician D.I. Yavornytsky [1855-1940]. // Proceedings of the NASU. 1940. No. 7-8, pp. 107-109.
● O. Potebnia – Folklorist (1943);
● Methodological and Worldview Directions in Ukrainian Ethnography of the 19th-20th Centuries (1949).

In the 1930s and 1940s, Professor V.P. Petrov proposed a new original theory of the origin and development of folklore. Although he did not name his concept, it can be referred to as “specifically-historical”, similar to the ethnogenetic theory, as both are subordinate to his historiographical concept of the “theory of epochs,” which serves as their methodology. Petrov wrote about the essence of his new theory: “In the following stage, in the 30s and 40s, initial attempts were made to replace the anti-evolutionist anti-historicism and formalist anti-genetism of the 10-20s with an anti-evolutionist historicism, applying the principle of historical epochs to the study of folklore and ethnographic phenomena, with a clear distinction of individual historical stages. No folklore or ethnographic phenomenon is studied in isolation, but in connection with its epoch, its structure, and its worldview” (1949).

In his concept, the scientist posits that folklore originated in early tribal society and served as its ideology. He asserts that “only the study of folklore and the ideology of the primitive communal period will allow for a historically accurate reconstruction of the content and meaning, as well as the genetic foundations of folklore images, motives, themes, and plots”. The new epoch alters human ideology, and accordingly, folklore changes as well. The scholar emphasized: “This foundational primacy of ideology is what makes folklore what it is for us today in all its specific uniqueness. With the change of ideological foundations, the creative function of the folklore image also changes. The traditional image, with its established content, detaches from its representation as an ideological category of folklore thinking, enters the realm of a different worldview, and here, on the basis of that latter, under the influence of changed worldview factors, in conjunction with the new worldview, this given image either perishes or acquires a different content and a different creative orientation that was not previously inherent to it” (1947). Professor V.P. Petrov reiterated the main tenets of his folklore theory in various works published over the years.

Among them, the main topic is the importance of the genus in folklore, since the scientist claimed that “Only by mastering the science of the genus, especially the one presented, dating back to the primitive communal era, we will be able to explain the origin, understand the meaning and content of folklore categories, clarify the direction of development of individual folklore genres” . (1966)

The topic of “Tribal society” V.P. Petrov devoted a number of publications:

● Against the revision of Marx’s doctrine on tribal society. (1932)
● From the class about the pre-class society. (1933)
● On the Question of Genetic Study of Hunting Games. (1935)
● About the tribal system among the ancient Germanic peoples. (1935)
● About the tribal system among the ancient Germanic peoples. (1936)
● The teachings of Fr. Engels about the genus and the main issues of folklore of the primitive communal period. (1941)

Professor V.P. Petrov emphasized that at the center of human worldview during the early stages of the primitive communal period was tribal, comprising living, dead, and unborn individuals along with their environment. Tribe dominated in all aspects, and everything belonging to the tribe was seen as its components. People, nature, and animals were perceived in relation to the tribe, through tribe, and by tribe. Ideological categories were gentilistic, and people thought in terms of tribal and local spatial concepts. Universal and individual categories did not exist in the earliest ideology. “The consciousness of people in ancient tribe times was confined within the boundaries of tribe and did not transcend them. General categories such as being, human, animal, and natural were not inherent to this consciousness” (2006), the scholar asserted. The consciousness of that time was hierarchical but did not recognize hierarchies among beings, objects, phenomena, or nature, nor the contrasts between human and natural, human and animal.

V.P. Petrov believed that in the consciousness of people during the early stages of tribal society, death was viewed as a tribal act. There were “no abstractions, nothing metaphysical or mystical” in the understanding of death. A person, in the act of dying, simply joined the group of ancestors, who were regarded as a separate part of the tribe, not worshipped but cared for. The concept of “ancestor cult” as such did not exist yet. The difference between the living and the dead was perceived through spatial representations. Death was seen as a departure or journey, arising from the wishes of the deceased’s relatives for a living tribe to come to them. The dying tribe did not oppose the deceased tribe taking their life. If death was viewed as a departure, then birth was seen as the return of a tribe member, with the specific identity of the returnee determined through special divination rituals and omens.

At a later stage of the primitive communal period, the scholar argued that there was a historical deformation of the tribe understanding of “death as taking”: “…with the decline of its tribal content, new elements and meanings, devoid of tribal character, layered onto archaic categories and images”. Death began to be viewed by ancient people as a taking away by the dying individual of someone close. The scholar suggests that this notion contains the roots of “common burials”, which emerged already in the Paleolithic era. V.P. Petrov argues that the concept of “death as departure-taking” represents one of the most archaic layers in Ukrainian folklore.

With the development of human thought during the tribal era, beliefs in animism, magic, and totemism emerged. Professor V.P. Petrov considered it fundamentally flawed for scholars to characterize primitive thinking using any single term, reducing its essence to magical, animistic, or totemistic. He emphasized that magic, animism, and totemism are merely specific aspects of primitive communal consciousness, reflecting its characteristic features. They are not stable or unchanging throughout the development of the primitive communal era but result from the connections of ideas, language, and thought at specific stages of the epoch’s development.

Studying the thought and beliefs of ancient people, particularly animism, V.P. Petrov, in contrast to Tylor and Spencer, believed that the “double” of an individual, their “soul,” was the community, tribe, or totem. To be another, to exist in another, to act in another, and to “have a soul” all meant, in Petrov’s view, being part of the tribe, acting as a collective unified entity comprising not only the existing members of the tribal community but also the totality of the living, the dead, and the unborn. This led to the idea of multiple souls and the terriomorphic nature of the soul, as well as the intersection of animistic and totemistic notions. The consciousness of ancient tribal times was undivided and multiple. In this undivided unity of the concept of tribe, professor V.P. Petrov saw not a limitation, but rather the complexity of primitive thought and its “unique all-encompassing breadth”.

In studying Ukrainian folklore from the earliest, pre-Christian era, professor V.P. Petrov emphasizes its worldview elements. He traces the genesis of folk customs and rituals related to tribe and spatial concepts. In the pre-Christian epoch, as the author notes, “tribal concepts are interconnected with spatial ideas, the most elementary categories that lie within human consciousness. […] In the folk worldview, all phenomena and acts are perceived as acts of arrival and departure, the coming and going of ancestors” (1949). The scholar explores the folk worldview and people’s perspectives on nature, tribe, and death.

In his studies of the oldest genres of folklore, V.P. Petrov refers to invocations, wails, ritual-song poetry of the folk-calendar cycle. The scientist investigates their genesis, purpose, structure, and development. He refutes existing concepts about these genres and offers his views. Thus, researching conjuration, the scientist claims that the indispensable act of conjuration is “the identity of the verbal text and the ritual action, subordinated, on the one hand, to the imagination, on the other, to the practical purpose of the conjuration, the unity of “imagination-action-word-goal-image.” (1949). Investigating manifestations of worldview in the rites of the folk-calendar cycle, V.P. Petrov disagrees with the existing solar-cult or astronomical-seasonal interpretations of this issue and offers his own view on this issue: “in their essence, they [manifestations of the folk-calendar cycle – V.K.] are rather of a production-seasonal nature, directly related associated with the economic year and the undifferentiated notion of work-play. In the annual cycle, the following ritual groups are distinguished: the spring celebration of calling spring and the first furrow-seedling; flowering-earing of rye (“Rusalne svyato”); summer harvest rites, rites before the beginning of the harvest (“Kupalske svyato”) and rites at the end of the harvest; autumn Stodolno-Molotnytsky celebration and collective winter (“Kolyadske”) “Svyat-Vechir” celebration. (1949) The scholar notes that “all ritual calendar festivals are built in the same way; they all have the same morphological structure, and each is an integral entity. Each folk calendar festival is, on one hand, a seasonal agricultural festival and, on the other hand, a commemorative, ‘parental’ festival.” He writes, “In folk consciousness, celebration and work, labor and festivities, agricultural acts and dance-song are not separated. A festival in folk religion is simultaneously work. […] Accordingly, due to the inseparability of ‘celebration-work’ and ‘festivity-labor,’ during every task (e.g., sowing, harvesting), cultic and playful, song-dance and festive moments are directly linked to the work being performed; labor is accompanied by songs, dances, and performances by masked participants” (1949).

According to V.P. Petrov, the original close connection with archaic ritual acts and their structure was present in both fairy tales and myths, which had not yet become separate genres of oral folk literature. Later, with the development of folklore, fairy tales and myths represented distinct stages and levels. The scholar demonstrated the morphological similarity of fairy tales, where the recurring plot structure of “departure-return” aligns with the overall essence of tribal concepts of “departure-return” and the ritual acts associated with these actions. V.P. Petrov considered the views of Paul Sentyv and V. Propp on this plot as an initiation—asserting that the “development proceeded from ritual to fairy tale”—to be erroneous. He argued that myths and rituals “were never something autonomous. They never existed as self-sufficient and isolated monads. Both myth and ritual are derivative: The development progressed from idea to image and ritual actions”. Thus, according to the scholar, the evolution of folklore followed the scheme: imagination – image – ritual. V.P. Petrov connects the fairy tale scheme of “departure-return” with the spatial concepts of ancient humanity, which perceived death as a journey. He argues that the difference between myths and fairy tales, despite their common origins and genetic foundations, is determined by their different paths of subsequent development. Myths, as the scholar demonstrated using examples from ancient Greek materials, took on the characteristics of genealogical legends, just as Scythian deities belonged to the category of progenitors.

The following studies by V.P. Petrov are dedicated to the issues of primitive, pre-Christian folklore:
● Ukrainian Christmas Traditions (1945)
● Ukrainian Folklore: Charms, Mourning Songs, and Ritual Folklore of the Folk Calendar Cycle (1947)
● Christmas Rituals of the Ukrainian People: An Attempt at Research Analysis (1948)
● Ritual Folklore of the Folk Calendar Cycle as a Methodological Problem (1948)
● Remnants of prehistoric material culture. (1949);
● Pre-Christian Religious and Worldview Elements: The Genesis of Folk Customs and Rituals. Perspectives on Tribe in Folk Worldview. Folk Views on Death. Concepts of Birth and Marriage. Manifestations of Folk Worldview in Rituals. (1949)
● Folk Oral Literature (1949)
● Folk Prose: General Observations. Fairy Tales. (1949)
● Slavo-Rus’ Mythology: Vily – Khors (1958-1963)
● Scythian Genealogical Legend (1963)
● Scythian Religion: Names of Scythian Deities in Herodotus work (1963)
● Names of Slavic (Old Rus’) Deities (1964)
● Ritual Folklore of the Calendar Cycle and Its Community-Production Foundations (1966)
● “Thinking of the Tribe Society (Based on Archaeological and Ethnographic Sources)” (2006)

V.P. Petrov studied the changes in various genres of folklore under the influence of Christianity and Byzantine-Hellenistic culture. He provided several examples on this topic. Regarding changes in folklore within the agrarian-seasonal cycle, the scholar noted: “With the introduction of Christianity, images, concepts, and cults of the lower mythology mixed with elements of the Christian religion. This resulted in what is called ‘dual belief’.” Agrarian and seasonal celebrations are detached from their seasonal basis and are associated with the day of John the Baptist (Івана Хрестителя); the celebration of the first frosts and the ritual calling of frost, originally occurring in autumn, later became linked to Christmas. Cult figures lose their initial clan significance and are interpreted from a church perspective as “entrusted dead”; the navya, navkі are no longer deceased ancestors residing in rivers, but rather women who died by unnatural deaths, such as drownings, suicides, or unbaptized children. “Verbal formulas continuously intertwine with the texts of church prayers; ‘I-formulas’ of ritual actions transform into formulas grounded in the authority of God.” (1949). Regarding changes in conjuration, he wrote: “Based on medieval Christian-religious ideology, the traditional text of conjuration becomes associated with mentions of saints, the Holy Mother, and phraseological expressions and formulas from church prayers.” In examining carols and shchedrivkas, V.P. Petrov notes that “the process of Christianization consistently encompasses the entire content of the caroling rituals, introducing significant shifts.” The scholar emphasizes that the creative function of the demiurgic-mythological and praise carols has been preserved with the advent of Christianity. Chronologically, carols were tied to church holidays: “The Feast of Kolyada, in its church-calendar adaptation, covered the period from Holy Evening (‘rich kutya’ or ‘viliya’) on December 24, the eve of Christmas, to Vodohreshche on January 19.” Alongside the name Kolyada in the west of Ukraine, the term “korochun” also appears. The most archaic carols have a mythological essence, focusing on the theme of the world’s creation. They feature the world tree as a cosmic symbol and birds as demiurges, along with the cosmic sea and a stone island. “In ‘Christianized’ carols,” the scholar writes, “instead of birds as the demiurge, Christ appears; the eternal tree replaces the green maple with a ‘cedar tree,’ from which Christ is either crucified or from which a holy church is built (variant—St. Sophia in Kyiv). The demiurgic motive of world creation transforms into a pious theme of church construction.” (1949)

The theme of the influence of Christianity and Byzantine-Hellenistic culture on Ukrainian folklore is explored by the scholar in the following publications:
● “Mythologeme of the ‘Sun’ in Ukrainian Folk Beliefs and the Byzantine-Hellenistic Cultural Cycle.” (1927)
● “Kuzma-Demyan in Ukrainian Folklore.” (1930)
● “Pre-Christian Religious and Worldview Elements.” (1949)

Significant changes in Ukrainian folklore took place in the 20s of the XX century according to the new Soviet worldview. The scientist traced them in separate genres, for example, in mythology: about miracles, diseases, the origin of ‘evil women’, a barren mother and unborn children. The scientist did not miss the novelty of oral folk art: short songs, folklore about criminals, etc.

About the changes of the 1920s V.P. Petrov wrote in studies based on correspondence from local historians:
● Folk Legends about Miracles. (1925)
● Short Songs (‘Chastushki’): Collection of Songs. No. 137, 1917-1925. (1925)
● Beliefs in Whirlwind and the Black Disease. (1926)
● From the Folklore of criminals: Collection of Songs. Introductory Article. (1926)
● To studies on short songs. (1926)
● Mythologeme of the ‘Sun’ in Ukrainian Folk Beliefs and the Byzantine-Hellenistic Cultural Cycle. (1927)
● New Ukrainian variants of the legend about the origin of ‘evili women’. (1928)
● Ukrainian variants of the legend about the Barren Mother and Unborn Children. Records by Y.S. Vynogradskyi and S.M. Tereshchenko. (1929)

The study of the modern Ukrainian folklore in the 1920s by Professor V.P. Petrov is based on correspondence with local historians whom he engaged in folklore collection. The scholar published programs for collecting various folklore genres and defined the place of folklore in local studies. Appreciating the work of local historians in preserving Ukrainian folklore, V.P. Petrov dedicated a study to local historian Y.S. Vynogradskyi in the 1960s. This theme of the scholar’s studies is reflected in the following publications:
● Program for collecting song material. (1925);
● A program for collecting stories, fairy tales and songs. (1925);
● The place of folklore in local history. (1926);
● To studies on short songs. (1926) ;
● The local historian Yu.S. Vinohradskyi. (1966).

As mentioned earlier, V.P. Petrov did not abandon his research on folklore problems throughout his life, which is evident in his calendar plan for 1969–1972: “Calendar Plan
1969
1. Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: Problems and Sources. Submitted to the publisher in March-April 1968. 18 printed sheets.
1970
2. Classics of Marxism-Leninism on Primitive-Communal Society. To be submitted for printing in April 1969. 20 printed sheets.
1971
3/ Thoughts on tribal society /Based on archaeological and ethnographic sources/. 20 print. sheet
1972
4/ Ritual Folklore of the Calendar and Family Cycles. 20 printed sheets. (SA of the Institute of Archaeology, NASU, Fund 16, File 267)

Three works from the plan (2, 3, 4) relate to folklore studies; however, the author’s death hindered the realization of these projects. It should be emphasized that the scholar repeatedly planned to publish comprehensive monographs on the issues of human thinking in tribal society and the development of its primitive ideology—folklore. The author dedicated studies to the theory of the origin of folklore, the methodology of its study, and the development of primitive, pre-Christian folklore, as mentioned earlier. In addition to the published works of V.P. Petrov, there are many unpublished archival materials on this topic, including archival documents stored in the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Archaeology NASU, and the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of Ukraine. However, these archives do not encompass all of V.P. Petrov’s folklore works. It is known that many of the scholar’s manuscripts are stored in various archives across different countries and are not accessible to the broader academic community. It is also unclear whether all of V.P. Petrov’s manuscripts have been preserved. Among them should be the work “Ideology of the Primitive-Communal Period,” which the author intended to publish in the collection “Culture of Primitive Society” (Vol. I, IIMK, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1938), but this plan was not realized. The fate of other works mentioned by the scholar remains unknown. In the document “V.P. Petrov. Works on Philosophy” (Institute of Archaeology, NASU, Fund 16, File 268, p. 3), there is a section titled “Ideology of the Primitive-Communal Era,” in which the author references the work “Primitive Thinking: Concepts of Birth and Death in the Ideology of the Primitive-Communal Era. Monograph. 1939, manuscript. 10-12 printed sheets.” The document also contains a version of this work in Ukrainian: “Thinking of the Era of Primitive-Clan Society. Part 1. Concepts of Birth and Death. Spatial-Clan Concepts. 1938–1940, up to 30 printed sheets.” It is also known that V.P. Petrov submitted the work “Folklore – Ideology of Tribe Society” for publication just before World War II in the collection “Scientific Notes of the Institute of Folklore,” but it was never published. The fate of that manuscript remains unknown to me.

It is worth noting that the content of the monograph planned by V.P. Petrov for 1971, “Thinking of the Clan Society (Based on Archaeological and Ethnographic Sources),” corresponds to his manuscripts: “The main problems of folklore and ideology of the primitive-communal (system) period.” (IA, NASU, Fund 16, File 211, 162 sheets) and a manuscript whose title has not been preserved. The title “Ancestral mothers. Antropomorphic images of ancestral mothers” was assigned by archivists based on the first subtitle of the manuscript (IA, NASU, Fund 16, File 262, 108 sheets). Thus, both manuscripts were published by me in a single book titled “Thinking of the Tribe Society (Based on Archaeological and Ethnographic Sources)” (2006).

The problem of “Thinking of the Tribe Society” holds broader significance than the issues of individual scientific disciplines such as folklore studies, archaeology, and ethnography, extending beyond their competencies. This is one of the key problems that V. P. Petrov, guided by the methodology of his historiosophical “theory of epochs”, solved on the basis of the sources of these sciences, which is already obvious from the subtitle of his work. The problem of “Thinking of the Tribe society” emphasizes a special plane of thinking of V. P. Petrov – to think in terms of problems, and not in terms of separate sciences, which he used for solving the problem. “Thinking of the Tribe Society” as a philosophical problem is one of those that, according to V.P. Petrov, belongs to the “human problem.” It fits within the context of European modern philosophy of the mid-20th century, often referred to as the “science of a man.” Some of the broadly discussed ideas of V.P. Petrov were formulated earlier and, at times, more convincingly than those of renowned philosophers such as A. Toynbee, O. Spengler, J.-P. Sartre, H. Ortega y Gasset, and A. Einstein. The philosophical views on the “essence of the human” and the call for science to “turn towards humanity” that Professor V.P. Petrov published in the 1940s predated similar ideas of French structuralists and post-structuralists of the 1960s-80s (such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Michel Foucault), who established the foundations of modern humanities within the context of European philosophical and scientific thought.

Viktor Platonovich Petrov, as a thinker and scholar, remains undervalued in his homeland—Ukraine—and is almost unknown beyond its borders, particularly in the West. Meanwhile, the literary legacy created under the pseudonym V. Domontovych has gained recognition in Ukraine and is gradually, yet steadily, integrating into the European intellectual landscape.