Peresonnel files as a source of scholars' biographies(on example of Yiurii Zakharuk)

Abstract

The goal of the research. The article deals with analysis of the content of the main published biographies of Yu. N. Zakharuk and the scholar's personal files from the Institute of social sciences AS UkrSSR, the Institute of archaeology AS UkrSSR and the Institute of archaeology AS USSR are characterized as historical sources. Methodology. The historical comparative method is used to parallel five published Yu. N. Zakharuk’s biographies. It is also applied combining with historical critical method to attribute documents from the personal files are stored at scientific archives of three establishments. Scientific novelty. For the first time the comparative analysis of biographical data of Yu.N. Zakharuk's life and activity from two obituaries and three articles have been completed. The description of the archaeologist's personal files from archives of Ukraine and Russia and the evaluation of the documents from there as historical sources for study the outstanding scholar's biography have been made never before. Conclusions. The biographical articles written by S. M. Liashko & M. Yu. Videiko and O. S. Sytnyk & O. M. Adamyshyn contain the fullest information on Yu. N. Zakharuk’s research activity. But they have inaccuracies and the theoretical work of the scholar was not analyzed by the authors. That's why there is a necessity in detailed life story of Yu. N. Zakharuk with an emphasis to Kiev and Moscow periods of his life which are the most unexplored. The documents from personal files of the archaeologist ought to be used as sources to reconstruct a detailed chronology of his life and research activity correcting the mistakes. The lists of Yu.N. Zakharuk's publications from the Moscow file should be the basis for the full list of his published works but it has to be complemented by information from other sources because of the existed gaps.