HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF MINERALOGY IN UKRAINE

Abstract

We distinguished five periods in the history of mineralogy of Ukraine: the first – prehistory of mineralogy: mineralogical knowledge in ancient times and in Kievan Rus (the beginning of the XIII century); the second – the origin of mineralogy: expeditionary period of complex studies of Ukraine territory (XVIII century); the third – the formation and development of mineralogy: the university period of descriptive mineralogy (XIX century–1940's); the fourth – comprehensive development of mineralogy – “golden age” (1940–1990); the fifth – the modern development of mineralogy in Ukraine, the origin of nanomineralogy (from the 1990's to now). The article gives a brief overview of the history of the origin of mineralogy in Ukraine. Mineralogy in Ukraine originated in the second half of the XVIII century due to the complex expeditionary research carried out by geologists of predominantly non-Ukrainian origin. The first small mineralogical studies of present-day Ukraine territory are related to the scientists of Russia and Austria-Hungary, in 1919–1939 – of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The expeditions of Johann Anton Güldenstädt (1768) and academician V. Zuyev (1781–1782) to the Kryvyi Rih area as well as the expeditionary research in Crimea under the direction of academician Carl Ludwig Hablitz (1783) were of great scientific importance. In 1793–1795, the famous works of academician Peter Simon Pallas were published, in which the rocks and minerals of the Crimean and Kerch peninsulas have been described. The beginning of geological and mineralogical research of the Azov region is associated with the names of J. Güldenstädt, V. Zuyev (1787) and P. Pallas (1795). Quite interesting and important mineralogical investigations were carried during described period in the territory of Western Ukraine. The first geologist of the Lviv University – Austrian scientists Balthasar Hacquet (of French origin) – studied in detail the flints of Podillya region, the Carpathian iron ores, water and salts. Martin Heinrich Klaproth and Johann Tobias Lowitz initiated the introduction of analytical chemistry of minerals into scientific practice in Ukraine. However, in general, Ukrainian mineralogy in the context of European mineralogy of the eighteenth century significantly lagged behind. This is due to two main reasons. First, significant achievements of the Kievan Rus of princely era in many branches of economy, mining and culture in the XIII century were completely destroyed by the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which threw the country a few centuries ago. Secondly, in the eighteenth century (as before), in connection with the actual semi-colonial state of Ukraine, the mineral deposits in its territory were studied not by ethnic Ukrainians, but by representatives of the metropolis, mainly Russia and Austria- Hungary. The article briefly describes the life and creative path of Fedir Petrovych Moiseyenko (1754– 1781), the first scientist-mineralogist of Ukraine (in the words of N. Borysyak), one of the founders of the dynamic trend in mineralogy.