«It is My Dream to Write my Memoirs»: From the Documentary History of Natalia Polonska-Vasylenko’s «Memoirs»
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to analyse the corpus of epistolary documents of Natalia Polonska-Vasylenko (1884–1973) and her circle of associates, to trace the genesis of the idea of creating the historian’s memoirs, the conditions, motivating factors and goals of working on them. Having outlined the history of the memoirs, the article aims to create conditions for further analysis of the memoirist’s tools, methods of working on memoirs, style, etc. The methodology of the article is based on general scientific principles of historical research, methods of source analysis of documents that make up the source base, mainly sources of personal origin. Scientific significance and novelty. The documentary history of the compilation of N. Polonska-Vasylenko’s memoirs is considered for the first time in historiography; the corpus of epistolary sources from the historian’s archive, preserved in the collections of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in USA, the Ukrainian Free University in Munich and the Shevchenko Library and Archive in London, which reflect the factors, events and individuals that influenced the process of working on the memoirs, is introduced into scientific circulation. Conclusions. The memoirs of N. Polonska-Vasylenko occupy a special place in her creative legacy. The memoir discourse permeated the historian’s life, activities, and her many scientific works. Variations in the texts of N. Polonska-Vasylenko’s memoirs preserved in the archives suggest that her memoirs went through a certain evolution. At the initial stage, i.e., when the first version was written (memories of events up to 1918, written in Transfelden), they were characterised by the feature of personal memory as a guide to the tragically changing world. With the advent of plans to publish the memoirs, the text was adjusted in accordance with the conventions of the group to which the memoirist considered herself a member. Correspondence on the subject of memoirs provides an insight into the kind of ‘hints’ N. Polonska drew on from correspondents to fill in the gaps of her memory, and the socio-scientific expectations of her colleagues that she sought to fulfil. The communicative and social functions of her memoirs became more pronounced, which affected the length of the text, the coverage of events and personalities, and some interpretations. At the same time, N. Polonska kept a typewritten copy of all versions of her memoirs, and actively and consistently sought to ensure the preservation of her archive, including memoir texts. Of particular interest are the statements of N. Polonska and her correspondents about the importance of memoirs as historical sources. References: 1. Kipa, A. (2011). Oseredok ukrainskoi nauky v Niu Yorku [Center of Ukrainian science in New York]. Novyny z Akademii. UVAN u SShA, 35, 2–4 [in Ukrainian]. 2. Makarenko, T. (2017). Dokumenty Natalii Polonskoi-Vasylenko u fondakh Tsentralnoho derzhavnoho arkhivu zarubizhnoi ukrainiky. In Ucraina Magna. Vol. II : Ukrainska zhinka u іnshonatsionalnomu seredovyshchi : pobutovyi ta hromadyanskyi vyyavy (Piskun, V., Ed.; Hordienko, D. & Horbach, Yu., Comps.) (pp. 453–457) [in Ukrainian]. 3. o. Mytsyk, Yu. & Tarasenko, I. (2015). Z lystuvannia N. Polonskoi-Vasylenko z mytropolytom Ilarionom (Ohienkom). Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Istorychni nauky, 169, 94–101. Retrieved from http://nbuv.gov.ua/UJRN/NaUKMAi_2015_169_19 [in Ukrainian].4. Polonska-Vasylenko, N. (2003 & 2004). Spohady. Ukraina. [Memoirs. Ukraine]. Ukrainskyi istoryk, 1–5, 386–396; 1–2, 202–222 [in Ukrainian]. 5. Polonska-Vasylenko, N. (2011). Spohady [Memoirs]. (Shevchuk, V., Comp.) Kyiv. Vydavnychyi dim «Kyievo-Mohylianska akademiia». 542 s. [in Ukrainian]. 6. Serhiienko, V. (Comp.). (2023). Mykhailo Mohylianskyi. Lystuvannia z Nataliieiu Polonskoiu-Vasylenko 1929–1941 [Mykhailo Mohylyanskyi. Correspondence with Natalia Polonska-Vasylenko 1929–1941]. Kharkiv. 496 s. [in Ukrainian].7. Sydorchuk, T. (2016). Lysty Natalii Polonskoi-Vasylenko do Omeliana Pritsaka yak dzherelo pro vydannia prats Mykoly Vasylenka v «Harvardskii serii ukrainskykh studii» (1970–1971) [Nataliya Polonska-Vasylenko’s letters to Omelyan Pritsak as a source for the publication of Mykola Vasylenko’s works in the «Harvard Series of Ukrainian Studies» (1970–1971)]. Ukrainskyi arkheohrafichnyi shchorichnyk, 19–20, 60–72 [in Ukrainian].8. Ulianovskyi, V. (2004). Zhyttia i tvorchist Natali Polonskoi-Vasylenko : Try derzhavnytski konteksty [Life and work of Natalia Polonska-Vasylenko : Three state contexts]. In States, societies, cultures East in Honor of Jaroslaw Pelenski (pp. 1107–1151). New York [in Ukrainian].9. Vasylenko, M. P. (2008). Vybrani tvory. U 3 t. T. 3. Spohady. Shchodennyky. Lystuvannya [Selected works. In 3 volumes : Vol. 3. Memories. Diaries. Correspondence]. Usenko, I. B., Bondaruk, T. I., Ivanova, A. Yu. & Rominskyi, Ye. V. (Comps.); Shemshuchenko, Yu. S., Usenko, I. B. (Eds.). Kyiv. 720 s. [in Ukrainian].10. Yas, O. (2012). Retsenziia na knyhu : Polonska-Vasylenko N. Spohady [Book review : Polonska-Vasilenko N. Memoirs]. (Shevchuk, V., Comp.). Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal, 5, 199–201 [in Ukrainian]. 11. Yurkova, O. (2021). «Pytannia vlashtuvannia moiei spadshchyny nabuvaie dlia mene zhyttievoho znachennia» : do istorii arkhivu Natalii Polonskoi-Vasylenko v UVAN u SShA [«The issue of arranging my inheritance is of vital importance to me» : to the history of the archive of Nataliya Polonska-Vasylenko at UVAN in the USA]. In Akademichna tradytsiia ukrainskoho zarubizhzhia : istoriia i suchasnist. Liber amicorum na poshanu prezydenta UVAN u SShA prof. Alberta Kipy (pp. 313–352). Kyiv [in Ukrainian].12. Zavhorodnii, A. H., Onyshchenko, O. S. & Smolii, V. A. (Eds.). (2011). Vybrani naukovi pratsi akademika V. I. Vernadskoho : T. 2. Volodymyr Ivanovych Vernadskyi. Lystuvannia z ukrainskymy vchenymy. Kn. 1 : Lystuvannia : A–H [Selected scientific works of Academician V. I. Vernadskyi : Vol. 2. Volodymyr Ivanovich Vernadskyi. Correspondence with Ukrainian scientists. Book 1 : Correspondence : А–H]. Kyiv. 824 s. [in Ukrainian].
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; both teacher heads agree on what is shown here.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".