On June 3, 2026, the 22nd Biographical Readings, organized by the Institute of Biographical Research of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine with the participation of the V. O. Sukhomlynsky State Scientific and Pedagogical Library of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, dedicated to the memory of Professor Vitaliy Chyshko (1951–2003), DSc in History, the founder and first director of the Institute, who would have turned 75 years old these days, were held online. Leading researchers from scientific institutions, higher education institutions, libraries, archives, and museums from various cities of Ukraine joined the event. This year, the discussions of biographers focused on the problems of transforming research discourse, mastering fundamentally new issues, and deepening theoretical vision in the context of large-scale social changes.
Opening the event, Volodymyr Popyk, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Biographical Research of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, welcomed the participants of the readings and noted that modern Ukrainian biography is getting rid of the inertia of stereotypes of the template illustration of history with one-dimensional images, idealization and heroization, instead absorbing the achievements of European and world humanities, the focus of which is a complex, multidimensional, contradictory personality. The new social situation generated by the war forces researchers to focus on what is essential – the fate of people, their experience and life values, in particular, on the resilience of Ukrainians in the face of the challenges of fate..
Over 20 scientific reports were heard, covering a wide range of issues: the actualization of autobiographical writing, memoirs, and ego-documents; personal biographies; individual information about persons who have contributed to Ukrainian science; modern biographical and quasi-biographical narratives, their reproduction and interpretation in the system of modern artistic discourse of the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war; theoretical and methodological foundations of digital biography; specifics of the heuristic potential of archival and library funds; and integration of biographical research into the modern socio-cultural and informational space.
In particular, Halyna Aleksandrova, DSc in Philology, the leading researcher of the Department of Theory and Methods of Biobibliography of the Institute of Biographical Research of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, spoke on the topic “On the 190th Anniversary of the Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Memory of M. I. Storozhenko: Reconstruction of the Scientist’s Biography Based on Memoir and Epistolary Sources”.
Nataliia Marchenko, PhD in History, a senior researcher of the same department, presented the report “Transformations of the pantheon in the Ukrainian biography book for children of the wartime (2014–2025)”. .
“The Forgotten Name and Works of Andriy Kryzhanivsky” was the theme of the report by Roksana Kharchuk, PhD in Philology, a senior researcher at the Department of Foreign Ukrainian Studies of the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the NAS of Ukraine.
Colleagues from the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, the V.O. Sukhomlynsky State Scientific and Pedagogical Library of Ukraine, the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Berdiansk State Pedagogical University (Zaporizhzhia), and other specialists shared the results of their research in the field of biography.
The reports and presentations at the 22nd Biographical Readings outlined new research guidelines, genres, and creative techniques that are being successfully implemented in Ukrainian science. They demonstrated that modern Ukrainian biography is an effective tool for preserving historical memory and consolidating society.
Video recordings of the speeches are available on the YouTube channel of the Institute of Biographical Research of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.
Information is provided by the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine