On November, 7, a commemorative mark was unveiled in the KPI at the site of the construction of the Kudashev-1 aircraft, the first airborne aircraft of the national design.
The memorable sign is a granite slab with a plate depicting an airplane in flight (the authors of the project are the leading architect of the KPI Vyacheslav Snezhkin and the chief engineer of the company “Libava” Dmitry Yaremchuk). It was installed on the site of a wooden hangar, in which an extraordinary professor of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, engineer and scientist-agrarian, Count Alexander Kudashev built his airplane. This device became the first domestic aircraft that was able to take off from the ground. On May, 23, 1910, it was set off by the developer himself. Until that day, citizens of the Russian Empire saw flights of only foreign airplanes.
“Today we have a significant event. We revive the memory of a prominent man who changed the world through his work. This is Count Olexandr Sergiyovych Kudashev” stressed the academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the rector of the Igor Sikosrky KPI Michael Zgurovsky during the opening ceremony of the commemorative sign. - We honor the achievement of human thought, the achievements of his engineering creativity. We honor the achievements of our professor, who made his breakthrough into the future here”.
The President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine Yaroslav Hazalo, Assistant on University and Scientific Cooperation, Director of the French-Ukrainian Center for University and Scientific Collaboration, Silvan Rigolet and Director of the National Agricultural Library of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences Victor Vergunov took part in the ceremony of opening and cutting the symbolic tape in front of a memorable sign.
A memorable sign between the building number 6 University and the Scientific and Technical Library after G.I. Denysenko was erected now not by chance, because in 2017 we celebrate celebrated the 145th anniversary of the birth of Olexander Sergiyovych Kudashev and the 100th anniversary of his death. Therefore, on this occasion, after the solemnity of the open air ceremony there was a round table devoted to the life and activities of this outstanding engineer and scientist held in the State Polytechnic Museum of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Olexander Kudashev, a graduate of the Institute of Communications Engineers in St. Petersburg, left heritage not only in the railway industry and in the construction industry (he worked on the construction of the railway line from Tiflis to Kars), but also in agrarian science (he conducted the study of the soils of the humus strip of the European part of the Russian Empire, he substantiated the most profitable type of agricultural use for a grain size of 50-100 acres), taught at the KPI (at the Department of Building Arts and Architecture), held high positions in the Kiev province council subsequently taught again, but now at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and so on. However, today he is known, all the same, first of all, thanks to the contribution he made to the cause of the establishment of domestic aircraft. And it was in the KPI that he built three of his four airplanes. However, despite the fact that the name of Olexander Kudashev is now familiar not only to specialists in the history of aviation, but also to many who are simply interested in the past of our country, there are still many “blind spots” in his biography Even the exact place and circumstances of his death are still unclear. We only know that he finished his earthly path during the First World War in France. The majority of his scientific works were forgotten.
The round table was hosted by Michael Zgurovskyi, who, after a brief introduction, gave the floor to one of the initiators of the creation of a memorable sign of Olexander Kudashev, a researcher of scientific creativity and the way of life, the Academician of NAS of Ukraine Victor Vergunov. His report was called “From the renowned Kudashev: agricultural studies of Count O.S. Kudashev. Presentation of the bibliographic index about Count O.S. Kudashev”, but its contents went far beyond the limits of agrarian studies of a remarkable scientist and engineer and revealed the facts of his biography unknown to the general public and created a new image to his scientific work.
The issues that were also considered by the participants of the Round Table i.e. the topics of their reports: “Aviation Activities of Count O. S. Kudashev: Specific Aspects” (Head of the Department of History of the KPI’s State Polytechnic Museum Vitaliy Tatarchuk), “Scientific Findings in archives about the fate of the descendants of Count O. S. Kudashev» (researcher of the Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studied after M.S.Hryshevsky of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Yuriy Netreba),«Kudashev's family estate in Mala Vystsia» (associate professor of the Department of History of Ukraine of All-Ukrainian Center of the State Pedagogical University named after Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Kropivnytskyi, Oleksandr Chornyi), “Famous names in the history of Little Vyska and the development of the tourism industry (for example, the Kudashev family)” (deputy head of the Mala Vyska City, Council of the Kirovograd region, Lesia Postolyuk). Oleg Vynnychenko, one of the descendants of the famous Kudashevs of Kyiv who is currently studying the history of his family and his family ties spoke at the round table.
On the photo: the president of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine Yaroslav Hazalo, the Rector of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Michael Zgurovskyi and the director of the National Agricultural Library of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Victor Vergunov at the opening ceremony of the memorial