"The kaptur courts" [kapturovi sudy] by Petro Sosenko: history of one studying case during the great turn times

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"The kaptur courts" [kapturovi sudy] by Petro Sosenko: history of one studying case during the great turn times Preparation of this article was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Alexander and Helen Kulahyn Endowment Fund (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta).

Svitlana Blashchuk

In historiographical studies are useful not only published academic papers, but planned and not completed indeed researches projects too, as well as lost works of historians. 4s for the later point, we have no approximate statistical information, despite some attempt to generalize these information are made periodically.

Based on the logics of historical development of Ukraine in XX century, one can conclude, that the most amount of the lost researching projects accrue to 1920th and 1930th. It was the period of the totalitarian regime consolidation, following the control of Communist Party over academic researches and repressions against the academicians.

Searching, finding and renewal of the lost projects are important for the contemporary Ukrainian historiography. It allows the deeper comprehension of the situation with scholarly researches during the first three decades of XX centuries, as well as the condition of the Ukrainian society of that time. In particular, the newly found texts can impact the advancement of researching and can point towards methodology and trends of further investigations or even can outline the primary sources depository that was completely perished during the Soviet period.

The article considers the scholarly investigations of the kaptur courts by Petro Sosenko. The Commission for the Study of the History of Western- Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law (functioning in 1920th and being chaired by Mykola Vasylenko) paid the attention to the evidently insufficient state of the mentioned subject researches on the basis of materials of Ukrainian territories of the Early Modern Period. They tasked a new post graduate student Petro Sosenko with investigation of this subject. He belonged to the circle of returned migrants and entered the post graduate study after the order of the People's Commissariat of education of Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. He had got experience of academic work and academic management before his migration to the Soviet Union, he was editor in chief of the Lviv almanac "Science and Literature", and he wrote at least one article on the history of Ukrainian Law.

P. Sosenko used sizable primary sources base for his post graduate studying. He was the first person who had exceptional chance to investigate the whole array of the historic acts of Kyiv Central Archive of Ancient Acts. His work "Origin ofKaptur Courts and Their Development at Right-Bank Ukraine in the 16th Century" is lost now. Neither his manuscript nor the text prepared for publication in "The Proceedings of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law " survived, any more than a special monograph. The study was prepared and even defended, rather with some problems. It's publication as a single issue or as an article in an academic collected works/periodical was disturbed by the policy of terror and repressions. But a typing of the promotional report points/thesis by P. Sosenko survived, which he made at the a meeting of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law in January, 4, 1930. These points/thesis was found in the Mykola Vasylenko's personal fonds being held in the Manuscript Institute of the V. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine. They are published in the present article.

Keywords: kaptur court, interregnum, academic paper, history of law, the lost paper, the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law.

Світлана Блащук, кандидат історичних наук, науковий співробітник, Інститут історії України Національної академії наук України

(Україна, Київ)

"КАПТУРОВІ СУДИ" ПЕТРА СОСЕНКА:

ІСТОРІЯ ОДНІЄЇ СТУДІЇ ЧАСІВ "ВЕЛИКОГО ПЕРЕЛОМУ"

Для історіографічних студій важливі не лише оприлюднені наукові розвідки, а й заплановані, однак нереалізовані дослідницькі проекти, а також втрачені праці істориків. Чи не найбільше таких проектів припадає на 1920-1930-ті рр. Саме у цей час відбувалося утвердження тоталітарного режиму, що супроводжувалося встановленням компартійного контролю як над науковими дослідженнями, так і репресіями проти вчених.

Пошук і відновлення втрачених проектів вельми важливі для сучасної вітчизняної історіографії. Це дасть змогу глибше зрозуміти не лише стан наукових студій першої третини ХХ ст., а й тодішнього українського суспільства загалом. Частково віднайдені тексти щонайменше зможуть надати нового імпульсу дослідженням, підказати методологію, напрями подальших пошуків, а також указати на джерельну базу, безповоротно втрачену в радянський час.

Статтю присвячено науковій розвідці Петра Сосенка про каптурові суди. Комісія для виучування історії західноруського та вкраїнського права, що діяла в 1920-хрр. під керівництвом Миколи Василенка, звернула увагу на явно недостатній стан досліджень зазначеної тематики для українських теренів ранньомодерного часу. Розробку цієї проблеми доручили новому аспірантові Петру Сосенку. Він належав до кола "пово- ротців" і вступив до аспірантури за розпорядженням Народного комісаріату освіти УСРР. До переїзду у «країну Рад» уже мав досвід наукової та науково-організаційної роботи: очолював редакцію львівського часопису "Наука й письменство", написав щонайменше одну статтю з історії українського права.

П. Сосенко у своїх аспірантських студіюваннях користувався ґрунтовною джерельною базою. Він здобув унікальну можливість першим опрацювати цілісний масив актів у Київському центральному архіві давніх актів. Ним була підготовлена праця під назвою "Походження й розвиток каптурових судів на Правобережній Україні (XVI ст.)", друк якої мав відбутись на сторінках "Праць Комісії для виучування історії західноруського та вкраїнського права". На превеликий жаль, на сьогодні нам не вдалося віднайти ні рукопис, ні запланований до друку текст. Не відомо також, чи було підготовлено окреме монографічне дослідження. Проте нам вдалося встановити, що робота П. Сосенком була виконана та (не без проблем) захищена. В Інституті рукопису Національної бібліотеки України ім. В. Вернадського (особовий фонд голови «Комісії для виучування історії західноруського та вкраїнського права» акад. М. Василенка), зберігається машинопис написаних П. Сосенком тез промоційної доповіді, що її він виголосив 4 січня 1930 р. на одному із засідань "Комісії... ". Опублікувати окремим відбитком працю П. Сосенка або ж у форматі статті у науковому збірнику завадила репресивна політика радянських каральних органів. Зазначені тези публікуються у додатку до нашої статті.

Ключові слова: каптуровий суд, безкоролів'я, наукова праця, історія права, втрачена праця, Комісія для виучування історії західноруського та вкраїнського права.

The subject of kaptur courts, special courts which were organized and were functioning during the period of interregnum in Rzecz Pospolita does not belong to the well-researched themes of Ukrainian historiography (Starchenko, 2009: 256). So this theme came in view of an academician Mykola Vasilenko, the member of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (hereafter AUAS) in the 20th of 20th century. M. Vasylenko was a chairman of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law of AUAS, so he paid a special attention to the under-investigated issues of the history of Ukraine. It was under his leadership that the investigations on the history of Ukrainian law became the priority area of the activity of the Commission. The elder generation of the Commission members consists of the well-known specialists following their investigations on the chosen themes. In contrary, the interests of the young researchers who started their work in the Commission were focused in the direction considered to be important. So in 1926 M. Vasylenko proposed a new and unexplored subject for investigation for a new postgraduate student Petro Sosenko. It was "Origin of Kaptur Courts and Their Development at Right-Bank Ukraine in the 16th Century".

Unfortunately, the manuscript of this work seems to be lost, at least it was not found in any archive of Ukraine till now. But existence of the work is proved with the fact it was discussed and recommended for publishing at meetings of the Commission.

Ukrainian historians paid attention to the question of the forbidden and annihilated publications as well as partly implemented projects not ones. As in exact paper by Serhiy Bilokin ("Prohibited Publications at the Stage of Layout or Destroyed Circulations (1920-1941)") (Bilokin', 2004: 554-602) were a number unique editions annihilated in the first half of the 20th century because of the political reasons. However he omitted the publications of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law in his article.

It was Ihor Usenko, who contributed greatly to the study of the legal heritage of All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (hereafter AUAS) as well as the academic heritage of Mykola Vasylenko. He noted that the legacy of AUAS is traditionally reduced to the published materials of academic publications, such as "The Commission Proceedings for Studying Customary Ukrainian Law", "The Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law", "The Commission Scientific Researches and Articles of the Soviet Law", "Notes of the Social Economic Department". Additionally there is a number of monographs, archaeographical and other juridical publications which were published as the series "Social Economic Department Collection". Some articles on the history of Ukrainian law and justice were published in the collected works in commemoration of the Members of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Dmytro Bahaly and Mykhailo Hrushevsky as well as in the journal "Ukraine", professional law journals "Soviet Justice Herald", "Red Law" and other publications (Usenko, 2013: 6-7).

Hence the works prepared to publication but not published or published but further confiscated and annihilated also are the part of historiography. So I. Usenko made considerable investigation and found out a number of the Commission members' works, which hadn't been published or had been destroyed on the stage of layout due to various reasons (Usenko, 2013: 6-14). But I. Usenko didn't include the contribution of Petro Sosenko to the development of Ukrainian law and jurisprudence historiography. The present paper aims to eke out this lacuna with presenting the results of our researches about Petro Sosenko's contribution to the Ukrainian law and jurisprudence historiography.

Petro Sosenko was born in 1900 in the village Duliby (Bibrsk region) in the family of the Greek-Catholic priest and well-known Ukrainian ethnologist Xenophont Sosenko (ЦДАГО України, ф. 263, оп. 1, спр. 66457, т. 21, арк. 1а.). He got his education in Lviv at first in a gymnasium and then entered Lviv University (Dilo, 1918: 3). He had to interrupt his education because of the First World War, he was conscripted to the Galician army and later he was captured. After his liberation he returned to Lviv but he could not resume his studying at the university, therefore he entered the one year courses of the Prosvita Society. When Ukrainian Secret University came into existence in Lviv he entered the faculty of law (Mudryi, 2011: 36-41). In 1924 he was arrested by Polish authority through his participation in a demonstration on the occasion of the public figure Olga Besarab's funeral (ЦДАГО України, ф. 263, оп. 1, спр. 66457, т. 21, арк. 2-3).

He graduated from the university with the proceeding about the Soviet state system and constitution. He was noticed. AUAS academician and the active member of Shevchenko Scientific Society Stanislav Dnistryansky spoke positively about Sosenko in his article "In Defense of Ukrainian Science of Law" (Dilo, 1924: 2). But Volodymyr Galan, who became later a well-known diaspora figure, criticized Petro Sosenko's work quite acutely (Dilo, 1929: 1).

After several attempts to deal with publishing business he decided to move to sub-Soviet Ukraine.

In 1925 he pretended to be a former expatriate named Anton Dosenko to move to Kharkiv first and then to Kyiv. In 1926 he met and married Maria the daughter of the priest Mykola Shchepaniuk.

At first he worked in Kharkiv as an assistant of the secretary for the Criminal Cassation Board of the Supreme Court of Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. However Petro Sosenko obviously disliked the practical aspects of jurisprudence. Instead he had a steady interest in the law history studies.

So he gained for himself a business trip to Kyiv for academic research reimbursed by the People's Commissariat of Education of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. In fact it was a permission to enter the postgraduate study (ЦДАГО України, ф. 263, оп. 1, спр. 66457, т. 21, арк. 2 зв.; Sokolovskyi, 1999: 197).

Since 1926 Petro Sosenko became a post-graduate student of the Commission and got a special scholarship from Uprnauka, the Higher Administrative Office of Soviet Ukrainian science (Okynshevych, 1929: XVII).

He grew up in academic community, and he ready comprehended the specifics of academic research. Therefore he began to work willingly.

At his early postgraduate activity he already had an experience of academic researches. When he lived in Lviv in 1924 he became the editor-in-chief for Lviv "young Ukrainian generation" journal "Science and Literature" (Ukrainski chasopysy, 2003: 445), that was supposed to rally the "young writers' forces" (Nauka i pysmenstvo, 1924: 3).

The first part of his academic research "Ethnological Origins of the Old Ukrainian Law (Experiments with the Beginnings of Ukrainian Legal Culture)" was published in this edition (Sosenko, 1924: 23-42; Okynshevych, 1929: XVII).

Even at the first meetings of the Commission which Petro Sosenko attended as a post-graduate student he actively came in on the consideration, took part in the discussions, made additions and proposals (Protokoly Komisii, 1927: 466-500).

The theme of his research was the ethnological method in the history of Ukrainian law, the beginnings of local communities of the old Ukrainians in ethnological interpretation in conjunction with the development of organic communities and the development of courts of interregnum (kapturowi) on the Right- Bank Ukraine (Okynshevych, 1929: XVI).

In meetings on May 10, and May 21, 1927 P. Sosenko made a report "Ethnological Method for the History of Ukrainian Law" (Protokoly Komisii, 1927: 495497). The minutes of the meetings record the fact that his report faced critique of his colleagues, they were displeased by his speech and immediately pointed out abstractedness of his statements as well as the vagueness of his conclusions (Pro- tokoly Komisii, 1927: 495-497). The presentation of the material was "unsystematic, verbose, evidently incomprehensible to the author himself (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 315).

However the young researcher was rather skeptical in respect of his senior colleagues' criticism and comments. The reproaches they addressed to him were fair, but P. Sosenko himself was a kind of "persistent" person and was not about to give up. He promised to show the results of his research via a particular material then and he did it shortly. But this work failed as well. And he simply stopped this work and focused his interest on other theme.

As for his postgraduate thesis on the kaptur courts he had a large aria for investigations, because actually nobody worked with the concerning archive materials of Kyiv Central Archive of Ancient Acts (now it is the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv).

The fact should be noted that since 1920-th till 1930-th a large number of archival documents and acts became accessible for researchers, the documents were restored, conserved, the archive fonts were ordered in the system and catalogized. All this became possible thanks to the efforts of the Archive Director V. Romanovsky. So P. Sosenko received a unique opportunity to be the first in order to investigate a whole array of acts. It had become a certain academic impact but this fact hadn't significant impact on his work, as it is evident from the results.

Sosenko's years of postgraduate studies were rather peculiar. The explanation for this statement is found in the memories of N. Polonska-Vasylenko (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46). Since the first months of his work the members of the Commission "had pointed out his laziness and inability for scientific work" (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 314). As I. Cherkasky wrote in his memories about M. Vasylenko, the later academician had a soft character and due to him the meetings of the Commission always had been held in the favorable academic atmosphere (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 312). The minutes of the meeting where the report of P. Sosenko was discussed, prove M. Vasylenko tried to smooth all the "sharp angles" being arisen during the discussions. I. Cherkasky mentioned only two cases of sharp disputes and contradictions. One of them concerned "the post-graduate student Sosenko's contribution who even refused to get through a colloquium on his speciality" (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 314).

In the span of the years of postgraduate studies P. Sosenko published only one small work. It was a review of Joseph Vydaevych's publication (Sosenko, 1929: 493-500).

In 1927 O. Malynovsky (the academic supervisor of P. Sosenko) made record in the scientific annual report that his postgraduate had advanced in researching of various themes except his post-graduate thesis (ЦДАГО України, ф. 263, оп. 1, спр. 66457, т. 30, арк. 5-5 зв.). The supervisor expected his postgraduate student would be able to finish his announced postgraduate thesis. However his expectations never had been realized.

When the term of postgraduate training for P. Sosenko expired, his academic supervisor I. Malynovsky refused to continue his supervising because the postgraduate could not achieve any results (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 315).

M. Vasylenko tried to save the situation. He asked S. Borysenko and L. Okyn- shevych to help the post-graduate student to streamline somehow his materials at least. By that time the members of the Commission had already believed that he would be unlikely to handle the materials on his own. The report of P. Sosenko about ethnological method of researches proved these worse expectations.

Despite that situation, in May 1928 P. Sosenko asked the Commission for academic trip to Bukovyna, Zakarpattya and Galicia for researching the "home communities" in local archives (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 682, арк. 1). In his application he also emphasized that he intended to complete his postgraduate program in summer of 1929 and to begin studying of another theme. This fact was recorded in the Commission plan for 1928/1929: "Postgraduate student P. Sosenko should complete his postgraduate experience in his 1928/1929 years and the Commission intended to test his knowledge in a special interview. Sosenko researches the subject of primitive law and had to present it as his postgraduate work" (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 239, арк. 2).

P. Sosenko wrote his thesis on kaptur courts at last. On January 4, 1930 the promotional defense of his thesis took place. S. Ivanytsky (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 671, 5 арк.) and V. Romanovsky (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 678, 4 арк.) were the official academic referee of the thesis and additionally I. Cherkasky (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 162-237, арк. 1) was unofficial reviewer.

All the referees approved the postgraduate work in general, they recognized its scientific value. First of all the reviewers noted the fact of the archival material investigation made by a young researcher: "The strength of the archival materials which never had been printed and which the author used imposes on the whole his work a special colour that is inherent to all the works which are based on the new materials. Namely such works compel the authors to quote the archival materials widely and to add the most important documents at the end of the work as addendum. Therefore this fact sometimes affects in a bad way on the architectonics of the work, complicates the verification of evidences and makes the reader be contingent on the author who may dispose his critical apparatus freely as well as the whole system of his evidences" (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 678, арк. 2).

Though the comments of the referees were considerable and they influenced the impressions concerning the post-graduate work but they were veiled. This is true especially for the comments that arrangement of the thesis chapters was chaotic and the actual conclusions were absent in the thesis (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 678, арк. 3-4).

The rather friendly air of the thesis defense was not haphazard. Later M. Vasylenko would call it his own mistake because he believed that P. Sosenko would leave the academy after his dissertation defending and obtaining the scientific researcher degree; thus the Commission would be able to dispose of him. Nonetheless after the thesis defence procedure P. Sosenko made every effort for to remain a regular staff member of the academic institution and became (according to M. Vasylenko) "a ballast who does nothing but occupies a somebody's place" (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 316).

S. Borysenok became an irreconcilable opponent of the thesis defence; initially he even didn't intend to be present during the P. Sosenko's dissertation defence, as he seems to have foreseen the results. Nevertheless he joined the discussion and voted "pro", in accordance to the minutes of meeting (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 162-237, арк. 2).

The points of criticism by V. Romanovsky, S. Ivanytsky and I. Cherkasky are rather similar; they emphasized the same mistakes of this thesis. Everybody concluded that "the author had a various material at his disposal, but he was not able to use it properly" (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 678, арк. 3 зв.). In their reviews for thesis (deposited in the personal fonts of M. Vasylenko at present) all their comments are detailed with concrete examples from the thesis under

consideration (IP HEyB, 40, on. 1, og. 36. 671, 5 apK.; IP HEyB, 40, on. 1, og. 36. 678, 4 apK.).

As for the main points of their criticism, they can be summarized as the next: significant faults of the thesis composition (V. Romanovsky pointed out "inconsistency and illogicality of the thesis"), the academic reviewers emphasized the thesis must be re-made thoroughly. It makes sense that the Chapter XIII to be removed at the beginning of the thesis, since it influences understanding of further chapters. A few of chapters the history of kaptur courts and their structure are confused, but each of these issues should be highlighted separately. The author uses the material chaotically, therefore his certain sentences remain completely without argumentation (additionally every statement must be confirmed by the documents, the author's evidences sometimes contradict to what he wants to prove); there are no conclusions in the thesis. In accordance to the opinion by I. Cherkasky, each issue should be considered within the context of all cases of interregnum courts, so such approach enabled study of the development of such courts. But the author of the dissertation studied in details the first case of the interregnum court (16-th century) only. As for the second and the third cases of interregnum courts, he made the common researching of them. Such approach was completely inconsistent (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 1-1 3B.).

It was necessary to take the kapturs as the basis for subject of researches only, and the judiciary practice should be used for explication only. However the author once again gives preference to legal matters. It is noteworthy that kaptur courts replaced some previous courts, there was no revolution and only the form of the court had been changed. The fact that the author considers the ordinary kaptur law was obviously just the use of previous practice (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 1-1 3B.).

At the end of the discussion P. Sosenko responded to some remarks only, as he was short of time. In particular he did not recognize the criticism of the thesis design flaws to be fair. He also noted that all his statements were supported by the aappropriate references but he did not specify which ones exactly. He additionally emphasized that he could not give more substantive conclusions since his work considers the 16th century (!) only (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 1). This means he actually agreed with the fact that he did not research the kaptur courts systematically but only isolated moments had been torn apart from the general historical context. At the subsequent meetings he will continue to "respond" to the comments of his opponents. It looks quite interesting that in the middle of February, when reading the protocols of the previous meetings, P. Sosenko will ask to add to them his answers to S. Ivanytsky (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 6).

Summing up the discussion the Commission unanimously acknowledged the work to be satisfactory for granting its author the title of academic fellow, and they decided to refer the case to the authorized representative of Uprnauka (Supreme Science Body of Ukraine) and ask for the approval of P. Sosenko as a researcher (IP HEyB, 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 2).

Afterwards we can follow rather interesting behavior of P. Sosenko. Being no longer a graduate student, he began to criticize his colleagues and especially those ones who once expressed their remarks to him. In January 23, 1930 S. Borysenok had a report about the custom in ancient Ukrainian law at the meeting. P. Sosenko was the first to speak in the discussion and noted: "the conclusions are baseless and the work has the character of a sketch" (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162237, apK. 26). Thus and so I. Cherkasky say that "Sosenko makes remarks in the same way which he had been previously reproached for" and other members of the Commission supported this view (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 26 3B.). In November 1930 during candidacy for the post of the Commission staff, two candidates (P. Sosenko and V. Gryshko) were discussed (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 26). All members unanimously supported the latter nominee despite the fact that he began to work for the Commission much later (Okynshevych, 1929: XVIII). P. Sosenko was entrusted with certain tasks from the Commission such as to run a workshop of history in the printing house, there were commissions which did not require special abilities and knowledge of the performer (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 34). In the report about his academic trip to Zhytomyr in early 1931, P. Sosenko demonstrated once again his not exactly active attitude to his new academic investigations. During his academic trip he didn't set a goal of his investigation so he had nothing to report on. However he announced a new subject of his researches at the time. It was the history of the Soviet law before codification (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162237, apK. 34).

But in any case Petro Sosenko with the help of his colleagues had done a great job and involved a large array of archival materials. In the fonds of M. Vasylenko only the compendium of his theses is stored, therefore currently it is difficult to say in what form the text of this work existed. The further fate of it is rather complicated. At the beginning of the 1930's P. Sosenko's work "Kaptur Courts of the 16th Century" was included into the Commission plan, even its volume of ten printed sheets was indicated (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 238, apK. 2). But it never had been published, as well as the articles of the indicated theme.

Some fragments of P. Sosenko's work might be published in the ninth issue of the "Commission Proceedings...". However this issue remained in the Commission plans only. Now we only know the previous content. It was planned to collect and to complete the periodical in a rather short term, the issue might be sent for printing within May 23 till December 1, 1930 (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162237, apK. 17). If the Commission made a plan for this publication, we are more than convinced that the text actually existed and the members of the Commission saw it. It is proved in the protocols of the Commission meetings and in N. Polonska-Vasylenko's memories.

At the same time an urgent problem with the seventh issue of "Proceedings ..." arose, which might be resolved quickly. M. Slabchenko had been arrested in 1929 and it was necessary to replace his article in a short time by the material that had been already prepared for publication. N. Polonska-Vasylenko notes that it was decided to replace the article with the paper "Kaptur Courts in Ukraine" of P. Sosenko (Polonska-Vasylenko, 1948: 53; Polonska-Vasylenko, 1962: 109). But in the process of the replacement preparing P. Sosenko was also arrested and exiled. Thereon the Commission was closed as well. Therefore in fact the collected papers were not published (Polonska-Vasylenko, 1948: 53). But there were pilot copies. L. Okinshevych notes in his memories: "While understanding the hopelessness of the 7th issue publication I tried to keep it" for the best of times." Before sending a printed book to Glavlit (a Soviet censorship), I had taken two copies of it from the print shop. ... I left one of the copies for myself and the second one handed over to M. Vasylenko" (Okinshevych, 1995: 42-43). A copy of L. Okin- shevych burned during a fire in Smolensk but the fate of the second copy is unknown. L. Okinshevych notes that according to N. Polonska-Vasylenko's memories this copy together with the library of M. Vasylenko was transferred to the library of the Academy of Sciences (Okinshevych, 1995: 43). N. Polonska-Vasylenko wrote about it in 1948 (Polonska-Vasylenko, 1948: 53). Later in her article "Historical Science in Ukraine for the Soviet Era and the Fate of Historians" she wrote more details about the replacement of articles.

But it is unknown whether this copy got to the library as the transference of documents was held in difficult conditions. The fate of M. Vasylenko's materials is difficult to follow. After the death of her husband while fulfilling his will, N. Polonska-Vasylenko handed over a collection of documents to the Department of Manuscripts in the Library of the Ukrainian Academy of Science (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 305, apK. 1). In the letter which she addressed to the director of the library it only comes about the manuscript materials to which M. Vasylenko was directly related. It was also noted that she herself had begun to compile a scientific description of the materials along her husband lifetime and she wanted to complete this work. So the materials will be given over to the library gradually "as the description of them is drafted and they are ready to be transferred" (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 305, apK. 1 3B.).

A modern researcher D. Vashchuk even suggests the existence of two proof copies of the collection: the first one contains the article by M. Slabchenko and the second one contains the article by P. Sosenko (Vashchuk, 2017: 311). However in our opinion it is unlikely. Most likely there was one (and hopefully there is) a proof-reading copy and the very first version of the collection i.e. with the article by M. Slabchenko. That is why L. Okinshevych wrote about the "mistake" in the "Encyclopedia of Ukraine" and that the work on the Kaptur Courts had not been published in the volume of the seventh "Proceedings" (Okinshevych, 1995: 44). He pointed out: "As far as I know the theme of the kaptur courts was not ended by

P. Sosenko. And as a publisher of the collected papers I am better informed about its content. ... There was no work about the kaptur courts in the seventh volume" (Okinshevych, 1995: 44). There is no information about this article and in the preface that was prepared by M. Vasylenko (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 449, 6 арк.; Vasylenko, 2006: 448-451). According to the logics it contains the information about the article by M. Slabchenko related to the history of the Military General Court (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 449, арк. 4-5), since most likely the preface was written to the first version of the collected papers.

Though there is an indirect (but an important) argument proving thesis related to the kaptur courts work existence. It is a remark in the memories of L. Okinshevych, where he notes: "The central place in the seventh volume took the monograph by M. Slabchenko about the General Court of the Hetmanate. It was a large one (160 pages)" (Okinshevych, 1995: 43). M. Vasylenko together with his colleagues decided to replace this article by "the part of P. Sosenko's work about the Kaptur Courts" (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 366). So P. Sosenko's work existed because those 160 pages had to be replaced in a short term and in the same size (!). The article of M. Slabchenko was simply cut out of the printed book and another article of the same size should be inserted instead".

The procedure for the academic papers submitting was changed by that time. In accordance with the new requirements, the article must undergo a preliminary censorship, i.e. as N. Polonska-Vasylenko pointed out "must be revised by somebody from a Communist Party Academy" (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 366). As there was no such specialist in Kyiv, so the work was sent to Kharkiv. Who was a reviewer is not known currently, but the work was reviewed for almost a year. The reviewer approved the work but suggested some changes. What happened then is not entirely clear, perhaps P. Sosenko refused to make corrections, maybe there were other reasons, but the secretary of the Department did not let printing this article and all printed copies of the seventh issue were destroyed in 1930 (ЦДАМЛМ України, ф. 542, оп. 1, спр. 46, арк. 366).

However they were obviously short of time for the actual destruction of the collected papers. In so far as the publishing house of AUAS in November 12, 1931 will apply to the Commission: "In view of the printing house demand to unload its premises from the printed sheets of AUAS completed editions, publishing house asks to allow to stitch up issue VII of the Commission Proceedings" (ІР НБУВ, ф. 40, оп. 1, од. зб. 244, арк. 1). I.e. the printed version existed and the whole circulation was printed. But unfortunately it was destroyed.

First of all these projects have not been implemented because of the conditions that the AUAS came to be in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

In 1928 after changing of the leadership of the People's Commissariat for Education as well as the decision to reform the Academy after its careful inspection (Rud'ko, 2012: 145), many academicians had to stop their own researches and continue to research in the "right" angle. At the beginning of 1928 the inspection of academic researching continued. It was noted in the conclusions: "the social and economic department is not enough developed ... In particular the study of the Soviet law is almost absent and in this area the main attention is paid to the study of the old law history. The ideological nature of the third department work (Social and Economic department - Author) proceeds mainly from these pre-revolutionary time disciplines and it is not connected with the new Marxist sociology at all" (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 50, apK. 2 3b.). On October 7, 1930 at a regular meeting the results of the inspection as well as the comments on the functioning of the Commission were discussed. It was decided "to follow the Marxist method of research in its further work and to supplement the programs of researches with the themes from the history of the revolutionary era" (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 20). In accordance with the decision each of the researchers had to change their research plans though such changes did not always have a positive impact on the quality of work and the ultimate scientific product. In addition the requirement of criticism was set for all previous work of "bourgeois", "liberal" and "nationalist" historiography (Korpus mahdeburzkykh, 2000: 10). The Commission members along with their own researches had to engage actively in criticism and self-criticism. They had to analyze the works of Rostyslav Lashchenko, Mikhailo Hrushevsky, Mikhailo Slabchenko, Mykola Vasy- lenko and others "newly" in the so-called "right" perspective (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, 123 apK.).

Therefore when Petro Sosenko made a report "Kaptur Court Process" at the meeting of the Commission in June 1931 then the first remark was that the work should be developed differently "in accordance with the requirements of the new methods". Both Mykola Vasylenko and Lev Okinshevych had noticed that the author wrote his work two years ago and since the theme of the kaptur court is new and there is a lot of material for its research, it is desirable to continue working in the light of the time new requirements (IP HEyB, ^. 40, on. 1, og. 36. 162-237, apK. 48-49).

All these fundamental changes in the areas of scientific activity, mass arrests of employees, and subsequently the liquidation of the Commission (by that time it was named the Commission for the Study of the History of Ukrainian Law - Author) had a very negative impact on the fate of its academic achievements. A large number of prepared works had been destroyed; many projects had never been implemented as well as many manuscripts had been lost forever.

When visiting the priest Mykola Shchepanyuk, who had been prisoned on the territory of TEMLAG, P. Sosenko was arrested on April 13, 1933. For some time he was detained in the psychiatric department of the house for preliminary imprisonment then the case was suspended (Sokolovskyi, 1999: 198). His father K. Sosenko concerned with the fate of his son and tried to help but all his attempts failed (U pivstolitnikh zmahanniakh, 1993: 610-611). In 1935 P. Sosenko was prosecuted for "The Case of the Counter-Revolutionary Fascist Organization of the

Roman Catholic and Uniate Clergy on the Right Bank of Ukraine" (ЦДАГО України, ф. 263, оп. 1, спр. 66457, т. 2, арк. 1-26). On May 14, 1936 he was convicted by the NKVD of the USSR Special Meeting for 5 years of labor camps but while moving on the milestone, he fell ill hard and died on October 20. Currently the fate of his archive is unknown. He had a wife and children (Zaklyns'kyi, 1943: 2). But taking in consideration the situation in which they were after the arrest of their husband and father, we believe it is unlikely that they had kept his manuscripts and documents. The wife had to testify against her husband as it often happened in those days (Obvynuvalnyi vysnovok, 2003: 328).

As addenda to this article we publish the thesis of the promotional report which was prepared and made by Petro Sosenko in January 4, 1930 at the meeting of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law. This manuscript is stored in the Manuscript Institute of the V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Mykola Vasylenko's personal fonds (f. 40). This is a typewritten text with author's corrections. The application is printed in the original language.

ARCHIVES

ІР НБУВ - Інститут рукопису Національної бібліотеки України ім. В. І. Вер- надського [Manuscript Institute of the V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine].

ЦДАГО України - Центральний державний архів громадських об'єднань України [Central State Archives of Public Organizations of Ukraine].

ЦДАМЛМ України - Центральний державний архів-музей літератури і мистецтв України [Central State Archives Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine].

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