Supplement to Political Essays of Volodymyr Vernadsky in 1918

Abstract. Рurpose of the study is the publication and analysis of a manuscript of prominent scientist and public fi gure, fi rst president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Volodymyr Vernadsky, which he wrote in March 1918 in Poltava, where he was forced to leave in November 1917 from Petrograd after the Bolshevik coup. The research methodology is based on a systemic analysis of historiographical facts, the use of archival heuristics, analytical and synthetic critique of sources based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. Methods of archeography were also used for the publication of the texts. Scientifi c novelty: For the fi rst time Vernadsky's draft manuscript, which is obviously a draft of a political article with a clear anti-socialist message, is presented uncut and with comments. Most of the text of these few manuscript pages has already been published as fragments of the scientist's diary of 1918. Based on some sources, fi rst of all the diary, against the backdrop of well-known political essays of the time of V. Vernadsky's stay in Ukraine, an attempt was made to analyze the context of this manuscript, the infl uence of political conditions on the process of understanding and rethinking the social task of a scientist amid the turmoil of the revolutionary wars. Possible reasons for the author's refusal to convert them into an article or articles and publish them are also analyzed. Conclusions. Although there is a connection between the diary and the proposed text, the latter is an independent piece which can be viewed as working material for the scientist's speech, which he wanted to call «At This Grim Hour». Such a speech was to be aimed at the entire Russia. Possible reasons for the decision not to do this plan may include an internal search for social «backing», V. Vernadsky's sense of lack of strength, which at the time could «begin to unify Rus» and fi ght Bolshevism. That is why later he pinned his hopes on the Volunteer Army and returned to writing political essays. However, this manuscript is a vivid refl ection of the perception by the liberal intelligentsia of the Bolshevik coup and the revolution in Russia.