Листи Віктора Петрова до Дмитра Чижевського (1946–1949)

Viktor Petrov’s letters to Dmytro Čyževskyj written in 1946–1949 from Dmytro Čyževskyj personal archive at the University Library of Heidelberg (Germany) are published for the first time. The introductory publication reconstructs the history of the acquaintance and academic interaction of two prominent Ukrainian scholars. Direct cooperation between Petrov and Čyževskyj became possible in postwar West Germany. The route of Petrov’s movements in 1941–1946 included the following amin spots: Kyiv — Ufa — Kharkiv — Berlin — Leipzig — Fürth — Munich. Čyževskyj, who had held a teaching position at the University of Halle (Salle) since 1932, was forced to hastily move to the western city of Marburg in 1945 before the approach of Soviet troops. In the fall of 1948, on the basis of common research interests, in particular, in the problems of the epoch and the rethinking of the history of Ukrainian philosophy and literature, Petrov proposed to Čyževskyj that they jointly prepare a course on Ukrainian literature. So, the main topic of two scholars’ correspondence was the work on the textbook “Ukrainian Literature” (Munich, 1949) for students of the Ukrainian Free University. The information and plans contained therein can be compared with the published text, in which the introduction written by Petrov seems to be an unfinished essay. It is also interesting that Petrov’s last letter to Čyževskyj is dated April 16, 1949, i. e., it was written two days beforeViktor Petrov’s mysterious disappearance/return to the USSR.