On 28 June 2025, at the age of 93, our colleague, science organiser, well-known historian of science and technology in Ukraine and the world, long-time head of the Department of History of Science and Technology at the H.M. Dobrov Institute for Research on Scientific and Technical Potential and History of Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, professor, founder of the Kyiv School of Historians of Science and Technology, publisher and Kyivan historian, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, professor, President of the Ukrainian Society of Historians of Science Yurii Khramov passed away.
The scientist was born in 1933 in Kharkiv to a family of scientists. In 1956, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute, and in 1956-1959 he taught physics at a secondary school in Kyiv.
Since 1960, his publishing and research activities have been associated with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1960-1964, he was a scientific editor of the Main Editorial Board of the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopaedia, and in 1964-1992 he worked at the publishing house Naukova Dumka (from 1967 – editor-in-chief, from 1975 – director). Under his leadership in the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century, Naukova Dumka became the centre of academic publishing in Ukraine. It launched the publication of the multi-volume Library of Ukrainian Literature, a three-volume Russian-Ukrainian dictionary of scientific terminology, thematic encyclopaedic reference books, a series of scientific biographies of Ukrainian science and culture figures, and established close cooperation with academic institutions. Yurii Khramov’s contribution to the development of culture is significant; he personally participated in the publication of the book Monuments of History and Culture of the Ukrainian SSR, the 50-volume Collected Works of Ivan Franko, a series of biographical reference books Scientists of the World, and the seven-volume edition Nature of the Ukrainian SSR. He organised the publication of the 100-volume Library of Ukrainian Literature and other publications on Ukrainian history, culture, language, art history, literature, and a series of scientific biographies of prominent figures of science and culture of Ukraine.
Since 1986, Y.O. Khramov has headed the Department of History of Science and Technology of the Dobrov Centre for Research on Scientific and Technical Potential and History of Science of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Department of History and Sociology of Science and Technology of the Dobrov Institute for Research on Scientific and Technical Potential and History of Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). During the activity of the scientific unit under the leadership of the scientist, the department became the main coordination centre for research in the field of history of science and technology in Ukraine. Already at the beginning of his work as head of the department, Yurii Khramov prepared and published a number of monographs and collections – ‘Mathematical Natural Science in its Development’ (1987), ‘Anniversaries of Science’ (1988-1990), ‘Essays on the History of National Astronomy from the Ancient Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century’ (1992). With the direct support of Yurii Khramov, a network of regional centres for the study of the history of science and technology was established in Ukraine, including a specialised department at the National Technical University ‘Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute’.
The priority area of Yurii Khramov’s research was the study of scientific schools in Ukraine and the world as a new scientific field on the border of the history of science and science studies. In 1988, he was the first Ukrainian scientist to defend his doctoral dissertation in the History of Science and Technology at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the topic ‘Historical and scientific analysis of the emergence and development of leading physical schools of the first half of the twentieth century and their contribution to the creation of the foundations of modern physics’. The scientist studied the characteristic features and structures in which scientific schools are formed and developed, as well as the factors that are prerequisites for the formation of schools. He used the developed model to identify scientific schools in physics, in particular in Ukrainian physics, while showing the possibility of its application in other sciences. On this basis, he first identified a number of informal groups of physicists of the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century as scientific schools, studied their emergence, formation and development, characteristics, and contribution to the formation of the foundations of modern physics and its individual fields. He identified the personal composition of these schools, reconstructed creative portraits of their founders and leaders in the context of scientific, organisational and pedagogical activities, showing each leader as a scientist, teacher and person. The monographs ‘Scientific Schools in Physics’ (1977) and ‘History of the Formation and Development of Physics Schools in Ukraine’ (1991) by Yurii Khramov were outstanding in this area. These results are also reflected in articles and monographs by Yurii Khramov, including the comprehensive monograph ‘History of Physics’ (2006), the first comprehensive publication in which the history of physical science is presented as a history of fundamental ideas, theories and individual trends within the developed periodisation scheme of development, taking into account the historical and cultural context, as well as in the biographies of its leading figures and through the prism of a number of physical schools. The article reveals the history of physical trends and fundamental theories, their genesis and logic of development, and proposes and scientifically substantiates the periodisation of physics. Many new and little-known facts from the history of physics were introduced into scientific circulation, priorities were restored, and clarifications and generalisations were made, in particular in the history of physics in Ukraine. In the monograph “Physics. The History of Fundamental Ideas, Theories and Discoveries‘ (2012), the scientist completed the development of an innovative model of the history of physics, considering its history through key turning points and facts (innovations), and developing this concept in the monograph ’Historical Physics” (2021). The monograph ‘History of Rocket and Space Science and Technology of Ukraine’, co-authored by Yurii Khramov, was also important (2021).
The scientist made a significant contribution to the development of historical biography of scientists and organisers of science, introduced many personalities, including those who were unfairly forgotten or repressed. This was summarised and highlighted in his books Physicists (1977, 1983), History of Physics (2006), Kyivans (2004), Physics. The History of Fundamental Ideas, Theories and Discoveries‘ (2012), ’History of Physics‘ (2015), the collective monograph ’Natural Science in Ukraine in the Early Twentieth Century‘ (2001), the publications ’National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Personnel” (2013, 2018). He is the author of more than 6,000 encyclopaedic biographical articles, including one of the authors and executive editor of the biographical dictionary ‘Kyivans’ (2004).
Yurii Khramov contributed to the establishment of the view of the history of science as a part of the general civil history, a component of cultural history. Based on a wide range of sources, he reconstructed events in the history of the creation and formation of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and its further development. This is reflected in his joint monographs with his colleagues ‘Early History of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1918-1921)’ (1993) and “History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. 1918-1998 in the Socio-Political Context‘ (2000), and the monograph ’Natural Science in Ukraine before the Beginning of the Twentieth Century” (2001) is the first to study the emergence and development of natural sciences in Ukraine in the global context. Some fragments of the history of natural and technical sciences of Ukraine, written under the guidance of Y.O. Khramov, were included as chapters in the five-volume History of Ukrainian Culture. Y.O. Khramov also worked fruitfully in the field of Kyiv studies, was one of the authors of the reference books ‘Kyivans’ and “Kyiv”, and was the executive editor of the three-volume book about Kyiv – ‘Outline of the History of Kyiv’, ‘Kyiv Sights’ and ‘Kyivans’.
The researcher developed the scientific foundations of the national history of science in Ukraine, showing that the contribution of Ukrainian scientists and the history of its science should be adequately reproduced in the global context, as well as in the context of its national history and peculiarities of historical and cultural development. While researching the early history of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, he considered it in close connection with the processes of state-building in Ukraine. This resulted in a monograph co-authored with Yurii Pavlenko ‘Ukrainian Statehood in 1917-1919 (Historical and Genetic Analysis)’ (1995). The collective monograph “The Case of the USTFI. 1935-1937” (1998, co-authored) reveals the early history of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology against the background of repressions of the 30s of the twentieth century in Ukraine.
Yurii Oleksiiovych devoted a lot of energy and effort to scientific, organisational and social activities. Since 1993, he has been the founder and President of the Ukrainian Society of Historians of Science; since 1986, he has been the editor-in-chief of the periodical Essays on the History of Natural Science and Technology and in 1997-2007 of the biographical yearbook Names of Ukraine; since 2000, he has been the deputy editor-in-chief of the journal Science and Science Studies and since 2005 of the cultural journal Sofia. In 1981-1992, he was a member of the Ukrainian Commission for UNESCO. Since 1986, he has been the head of the Republican Scientific Seminar on the History of Science and since 2004, the chairman of the Specialised Academic Council for the defence of doctoral and candidate dissertations in the speciality ‘History of Science and Technology’. In 2007, the scientist was awarded the academic title of professor.
The applied significance of the results obtained by Yurii Khramov is significant. The factual material on the history of physics and scientific schools, the history of natural science in Ukraine and the history of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is used in courses on the history of science at universities, and in writing historical reviews. He is the author of more than 400 scientific works, including 16 collective and 7 individual monographs, 5 reference books and 3 popular science publications – Atom and Man (1966), Guide to Space (1970) and The ABC of the Microcosm (1972). The scientist led a large scientific team of historians of science at the Institute, trained 6 doctors and 14 candidates of sciences. As a highly qualified scientist who enriched the history and culture of Ukraine with significant results, Yurii Khramov was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour (1981).
As a person and a leader, Yuriy Khramov was distinguished by his high efficiency and dedication, sense of duty, energy and optimism, friendliness and exactingness towards himself and his employees, ease of communication and sense of humour. The memory of Yuriy Oleksiyovych will always live in our hearts.