New book published about Mohyla Academy

On July 16 Kyiv Mohyla Academy hosted a celebration to mark the 60th birthday of the man who revived this distinguished institution, Viacheslav Briukhovetsky.

Briukhovetsky’s name is directly associated with the revival of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, one of Eastern Europe’s oldest universities. This process has been described in the retrospective book The One Who Revived Mohyla Academy, published on the occasion of the jubilee. It includes scholarly articles and personal reflections by Mykola Zhulynsky, Ivan Vakarchuk, Oxana Pachlowska, Ihor Pasichnyk, and other public figures and leading academics. The book was officially launched at the soiree. The official ceremony was very brief: letters of greeting from the president and the education and science minister were read out, some colleagues and partners of the academy gave short speeches, and a group of actors from the Ivan Franko National Ukrainian Drama Theater performed a skit.

The guest of honor gave a short speech. “I was only going to say a few serious words to the deputy mayor (they won’t connect our library’s plumbing to the city grid), but unfortunately he didn’t show up. In fact, I am reflecting on what the difference is between 59 and 60 or 61. The only point of a jubilee is that you get to see people you love and thank them for everything, including being able to tolerate me (I know I’m not exactly a treat).”

There was some sadness in the air because a few days ago Dr. Briukhovetsky left his post as president of the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. His second term is coming to an end and the statute does not allow a third. He did so in compliance with European practice, whereby a university president resigns shortly before the contractual term expires in order to help his successor take over. In fact, he is not leaving this institution — he will now be the academy’s honorary president, while Prof. Serhii Kvit will replace him as president.

The Day asked some guests of the soiree to describe what Viacheslav Briukhovetsky and Mohyla Academy signify for Ukrainian society.

Bohdan HAWRYLYSHYN, economist and member of the Club of Rome:

“In my opinion, the revival of Kyiv Mohyla Academy was an epochal event. First, it is one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. Second, we badly needed modern universities. Other educational institutions also tried to modernize, but they found it difficult to meet the challenges of time because in the former Soviet Union only natural sciences were taught at the proper level. Mohyla has always had high standards. In my view, the young people who come to study here are already aware of their duty to Ukrainian society. They are going to be our elite, and by the elite I mean people who take on more commitments to society. There is no elite as such in Ukraine. There is only a handful of individuals. We still need a critical mass of real elites: a new Verkhovna Rada, a new cabinet, and, a new presidential staff. These types of people have been trained here since 1994. They may also be forming in other establishments, but Mohyla is doing this in a more concentrated fashion.”

Mykola ZHULYNSKY, director, Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences:

“When we say Briukhovetsky, we mean Mohyla Academy and vice versa. Only a person of Dr. Briukhovetsky’s character — adventurous, self-confident, and stubborn — could attempt to revive Kyiv Mohyla Academy. He did what other universities could not: he reformed the academy as much as he could by preserving its traditions and at the same time always setting his sights on European-style free universities. He also managed to combine state support with private funding. He had masses of energy, traveling far and wide much to the detriment of his health. But by far the most important thing is that he was involved in designing the curricula in all disciplines and personally drafted a testing system now considered one of the best in the world. He has regularly invited progressive lecturers, who meet the highest standards and principles of teaching.

“We should also remember that he didn’t just care about his own educational institution: the Mykolaiv Humanitarian Institute and Ostroh Academy arose from inside Mohyla Academy. In other words, Dr. Briukhovetsky was aware of the need to spread the principles of a new type of university education that meets world standards.”

Volodymyr LAVRYNCHUK, chairman of the board of governors, Raiffeisen Bank Aval:

“Our bank is part of an Austrian banking group and thus represents the entire financial world. It is also a Ukrainian bank with branches in Ukraine’s cities, towns, and villages. This is precisely the image we want to project: a Ukrainian bank with international capital. The bank is also Ukrainian because it is staffed by Ukrainians. So we have chosen several ways to position ourselves like this.

“We have established scholarships for the best students at Mohyla’s School of Economics and set up a foundation to support various professorial programs. Knowledge should be expensive. From a pragmatic angle, as a representative of the institution for which I work, I prefer graduates from the finest institutions of higher education. It is obvious that the specialists trained by Kyiv Mohyla Academy are among the best. This is undeniable. Naturally, it will take them some time to become experts. I will point out that we instantly note their devotion to the institution that employs them and to their homeland. It is a very good thing that we have leaders like Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, who succeeded in making the academy one of the most modern and effective institutions of higher education that is producing talented cadres for Ukraine.”

Vira SOLOVIOVA, director of the KM Academia publishing house:

“Viacheslav Briukhovetsky showed us how much one individual can do and how many people can be inspired and led. Ivan Dziuba often says, ‘Let us work, work, and work.’ Obviously, Dr. Briukhovetsky also follows this credo. He has a superb feel for people. This is probably what helped him form such a professional team. For example, he enabled me to discover myself and take on responsibility — in other words, he put his trust in me. At first our publishing house was part of this university, then a subsidiary, and in 2004 it became a self-sustaining publishing house.

“In my opinion, it is also important that the academy has a full-fledged life and is developing under all kinds of political regimes. This is perhaps the reason why its graduates are qualitatively different Ukrainians.”

Volodymyr PANCHENKO, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy:

“Viacheslav Briukhovetsky is an historic figure. I am saying this without any exaggeration. Reviving Kyiv Mohyla Academy was an undertaking of colossal importance and scale for Ukraine, and not just for Ukraine.

“He once said that he was tempted to take up politics in the early 1990s. Then he decided against this and instead made plans to set up an educational institution to train experts, including politicians. He said half-jokingly that the president of Ukraine who will be elected in 2014 will be a Kyiv Mohyla alumnus. In other words, when he was launching the project to revive Mohyla Academy in 1991, he must have had this historical prospect in mind and was aware that what had been laid down at the time would sooner or later be useful for Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian state. Frankly speaking, I don’t like the word ‘elite’ and try to avoid it. But there is a distinct lack of moral authorities among our politicians and intellectuals. I am convinced that what Dr. Briukhovetsky launched almost 20 years ago is working for Ukraine. Our country now has its own intellectual foundation that will lead the entire nation to the values which can unite Ukraine with the European world and world civilization.

“I would also like to say that Dr. Briukhovetsky is an interesting personality. He is an avid chess player and amateur archeologist (he digs for fragments of ancient crockery in his vegetable garden near the Dnipro), and he adores his country house near Kyiv, which he calls Dyvosyl Hamlet. I hope that there he will spend the next part of his lifetime, which I call philosophical (until now it was the pre-philosophical period). I also hope that he returns to his original profession; he is an excellent literary scholar. It will be wonderful if he manages to write the books that he did not have the time to write when he was president of the academy. It will be the Briukhovetsky whom I have known for the past 33 years: a stubborn, persevering, determined, purposeful, and active individual.”

THE DAY’S REFERENCE

Viacheslav Briukhovetsky is a well-known literary scholar, member of the National UNESCO Commission, and one of the founders of Rukh. He has taught at Rutgers University (USA) and the University of Manitoba (Canada). He is the author of numerous publications, including several books.

Under his presidency, Mohyla Academy became a hub of intellectual life, attracting such speakers as Lina Kostenko, Ivan Dziuba, Mykola Zhulynsky, Roman Szporluk, the late Yurii Sheveliov (USA), Aleksander Kwasniewski (Poland), Zbigniew Brzezinski (USA), and others. Some people even found refuge at the academy. One of them was James Mace, the distinguished American researcher of the Holodomor, who taught political science here and also worked for our newspaper.

Mohyla Academy now tops various prestigious ranking lists. It is in third place on the Ministry of Education and Science’s list. According to polls conducted by the journal Dengi, the academy is in first place in terms of training specialists in economics and liberal arts, and second place in the juridical sphere.