Professor Mykola Petrov: a personality, a scientist, a teacher, the founder of the department of History of Ukraine (dedicated to the 70th anniversary)

Th e purpose of the article is to model the personality of Professor Mykola Petrov, his development as a talented scientist – an outstanding researcher of the medieval and early modern history of Podillia, the importance of scientifi c work, pedagogical activity, and manage- rial skills in the foundation and successful functioning of the Department of History of Ukraine. Th e methodological foundation of the research is the principles of objectivity, historicism, sys- tematicity, and comprehensiveness. Among the methods, the problem-chronological, historical- genetic, historical-comparative, synchronous, and diachronic methods are the most widely used. Th e scientifi c novelty lies in an attempt to reconstruct the portrait of Mykola Petrov as a fa- mous scientist and teacher, a skillful organizer of the Department of History of Ukraine, and its 18-year-old head. Conclusions. Th ere are three stages in Mykola Petrov’s life and work: the 1st (1952-1977) – the time when the foundations of the personality were formed, from childhood to the end of his studies at the historical faculty of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Pedagogical Institute (now Ivan Ohiienko National University); the 2nd (1977-1990) was characterized by the forma- tion of his professional qualities as a scientist (in 1986 he graduated from postgraduate studies at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and successfully defended his PhD dissertation the following year) and as a teacher – an instructor at a higher education institution (1986-1990 – assistant and senior lecturer of the Department of History of the USSR and Ukrainian SSR, Kamianets-Podilskyi Pedagogical Institute); the 3rd (1990-2008) was the fl owering of the talents of a scientist, a teacher (Associate Professor (1995), Professor (2002)), a manager-organizer of the Department of History of Ukraine, whose life was tragically cut short by an incurable disease. Th e scientifi c heritage of Mykola Petrov includes more than 200 works, as well as two fun- damental monographs. Its analysis confi rms the existence of three leading directions of scientifi c research. Th e fi rst of them is related to the history of Kamianets-Podilskyi in the XII–XVIII centuries, the second – to the history of the urban settlements of Podillia and Volyn in the Middle Ages and early modern times, and the third – to the study of the historiographic work of the re- searchers who studied Podil and Volyn antiquities. Th e history of Kamianets-Podilskyi occupied the leading place in his scientifi c work during the Middle Ages and early modern times.