Faculty of History, Political Science and International Relations: Reflections of a Former Dean

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Chernivtsi University. The author has been working here since 1971 and led the Faculty of History for 27 calendar years (since 2005 known as the Faculty of History, Political Science and International Relations). For the same period, he also headed the Department of International Relations (now the Department of International Relations and Social Communications).

The material draws on publications about Chernivtsi University and its subdivisions, the author’s own memoirs, and family archival documents. The Faculty of History was officially established in 1940. However, historical courses had been taught since the founding of Chernivtsi University, which, over the years, went through four distinct stages: the Austro-Hungarian, the Romanian, the Soviet, and its current stage as a Ukrainian higher education institution.

The author begins with a brief overview of the University’s activities during the first two stages of its existence, describing its structure and the operation of its three original faculties.

With the transformation of the University into a Soviet institution, significant changes took place, reflecting the contemporary authorities’ vision of the role and mission of higher education institutions in training specialists for various sectors of society. At that time, the Faculty of History comprised three departments.

Upon joining the Faculty of History as a lecturer, the author, together with his colleagues, carried out important tasks throughout the Soviet period: increasing the number of full-time students, expanding the academic staff, optimizing the educational process, developing scientific research (within the constraints of the era), and elevating the Faculty to a level on par with other similar faculties.

After the collapse of the USSR and Ukraine’s independence, there arose an urgent need to fundamentally rebuild the Faculty’s educational and scientific work. Foremost was the transition to a Ukrainian perspective on national and world history. Equally important was the opening of new programs, such as International Relations, Political Science, and Public Administration, as well as the expansion of international cooperation, building upon earlier personal contacts and embodied in the University’s first international agreement, concluded during the Soviet period, with Canada’s University of Saskatchewan.

The article concludes with a brief summary.