The scientific readings dedicated to the 80th birth anniversary of the prominent Ukrainian scientist and statesman, professor at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Mykhailo Pavlovskyi (1942 - 2004), were the first to be held at the Boris Paton State Polytechnic Museum at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute after the beginning of the full-scale war, which was unleashed by russia against Ukraine. They became a certain symbol of the restoration of the university's full-on life. In general, the word "the first" should probably run as a golden thread through the story of the life, scientific achievements and public and political activities of M.A. Pavlovsky. Because his life developed in such a way that he was a pioneer in many areas that he had to deal with. As for these Scientific Readings, they were actually supposed to take place on his birthday on March 13, but were held only on June 9 and, despite the war, gathered in the hall of Administrative Council of the university many people who once worked with Mykhailo Antonovych or were his students.
He was an extraordinary individual, a breed apart who is sometimes called "Renaissance men". He had those qualities that are not always combined in one person: the real talent and curiosity of an outstanding scientist, excellent leadership potential and sincere love for the Motherland. All this was multiplied by enormous diligence and capacity for work. It is not for nothing that he managed to do twice, and maybe even three times more than an ordinary educated person, in his not so long years of life. That is why he succeeded in everything to which he only applied his mind, hands and will.
"Mykhailo Antonovych Pavlovsky figured in the history of Ukraine and the history of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as an distinguished scientist, engineer, teacher and mentor, an ardent fighter for justice, a politician and a public figure," - Michael Zgurovsky, rector of the university, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, said opening the Scientific Readings. - He was an all-arounder and structured his life in such a way that he confidently achieved success in all the things he did!"
However, at the beginning of his life, there was no intimation that Mykhailo Pavlovsky would be able to become one of the leading scientists and politicians of Ukraine one day. After all, he was born during the Second World War in a very poor family that lived in the village of Ruzhychna near the town of Proskuriv. Now the name of this city is Khmelnitsky, and Ruzhychna is its district. The parents had practically no education - the father was completely illiterate and worked as a wagon boy; the mother finished only one grade of primary school and worked at a collective farm "for workdays' '. There were other children in the family, and all of them were trained to work on the land and manage cattle. But Mykhailyk really wanted to study. He even went to school not at the age of eight or seven, as was customary in those days, but at six. To be honest, at first, he did not go there for knowledge. He mentioned in one of the interviews: "... my neighbor-chatterbox told me, a six-year-old boy, that I could get slippers that let me jump over the house at school. So, I followed him, not knowing the letters, not being able to count. I was put at the last desk: "If you catch up on in a month, you will study." I caught up on.``
The school teachers immediately recognized his abilities and desire to study, and let him stay and study. He could learn anything with ease, despite the fact that no one dismissed him from running errands. And he also worked part-time at the collective farm: sometimes on beets, sometimes as a combine harvester's assistant, sometimes as a loader. But if other children sometimes tried to run away from school, he sometimes ran away from home to school. He especially liked exact sciences. He graduated from school with honors and became the first medalist in his village. He was also the first in several sports and even the champion of the region in freestyle wrestling.
Of course, the family decided that Mykhailo would continue studying. He chose Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. He got full marks in an examination (in 1958, medalists entered on a general basis) and at the age of sixteen became a student of the Mechanical faculty (now the Educational and Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering). In 1959, the training of instrumentation engineers was started at this faculty in response to the needs of industry, and in 1962, an Instrumentation Engineering Faculty was separated from it. Mykhailo Pavlovsky was among the students who switched to a new specialization, so he graduated from Instrumentation Engineering Faculty.
He studied with enthusiasm, it was interesting for him. Moreover, among his teachers were such famous scientists and lecturers as professor, later an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR Mykola Kilchevskyi (theoretical mechanics), the author of the classical textbook on aerodynamics professor Artashes Mkhitaryan, a prominent specialist in the field of inertial navigation professor Mykhailo Zakharin (control systems of moving objects), and others. After graduating from the institute with honors, Mykhailo Pavlovsky is again the first. Now he is already the first graduate student of the Department of Gyroscopic Devices.
Pavlovsky prepared his thesis on the topic "Influence of instrumental errors on the dynamics of gyroscopic devices used in control systems of moving objects" in two years. Successful defense in 1967 - and now he is already the youngest candidate of sciences at the department, first, an assistant, and later - an associate professor. The thesis became the basis of his first monograph. After a while, there will be many of them: during his lifetime, Mykhailo Antonovych wrote 24 monographs and textbooks, and in total - 450 scientific works not only on technical problems, but also on economics. Let's add that he was also the author of 80 inventions. At the same time, as his colleague, a veteran of the instrumentation engineering faculty, PhD in Engineering, Vladyslav Meleshko, told the participants of the readings, he also paid a lot of attention to his students and raised a number of serious scientists and specialists, many of whom later realized their potential within National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”. Suffice it to say that among his students there are 12 doctors and 50 doctors of philosophy.
In 1976, Mykhailo Pavlovsky defended his doctoral thesis, the topic of which was related to the study of the vibration resistance of command-measuring devices of torpedo weapons. He again became the first - the first doctor of sciences in Ukraine in the field of gyroscopic devices and navigation systems. The following year, the scientist headed the Department of Theoretical Mechanics, where he worked until the beginning of the nineties of the last century.
Come Pavlovsky and a new scientific field appeared in the work of the department - the applied theory of gyroscopes and nonlinear oscillations, and a new scientific school "Gyroscopes and navigation systems" was born. And as his former student, follower and junior colleague, professor at the Education and Research Institute of Aerospace Technologies of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Oleksandr Zbrutsky, told at the Scientific Readings, a few years later Pavlovsky himself prepared and published the world's first industry-specific textbook on the theory of gyroscopes. This and other textbooks and educational guides by Pavlovsky and, especially, "Theoretical Mechanics", on which he worked until the last days of his life, became classics and remain basic in the training of instrumentation engineers up to this day. By the way, the circulation of the two-volume "Theoretical Mechanics", published by the "Tekhnika" Publishing House in 2002 was a record for books on technical disciplines, and what is more, published in the early 2000s - 10 thousand copies! And there were also numerous monographs dedicated to solving the problems of creating new gyroscopic devices and navigation complexes, developing theoretical foundations for the engineering of a new generation devices and control systems for rocket-space, aviation and marine technology, based on the use of physical principles new for inertial navigation, etc. In addition, all these works were not purely theoretical. "Mykhailo Antonovych's scientific achievements did not only end with the development of theories. All of them were implemented in production. And many of them are still used today," Oleksandr Zbrutsky emphasized in his speech.
Moreover, new devices and systems were created under the supervision and through direct involvement of M.A. Pavlovsky precisely in order to meet the most urgent needs of the country. A vivid example of such systems is a line of automated and remotely controlled ground mobile robotic complexes for carrying out work with radioactive materials, which performed unique work in the zone of the fourth unit during the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. And under the leadership and, again, through the direct involvement of Mykhailo Pavlovsky, unique equipment was developed for ground tests of the "Energy-Buran" rocket-space complex.
The research, development, design and engineering of the groups of scientists and engineers under the management of Mykhailo Pavlovsky naturally led him to realizing the necessity to create a specialized research unit on the relevant problems within the structure of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Therefore, he, having ensured the support of the university (more precisely, the institute at that time), began to raise this issue at all levels and, in the end, it was addressed. Thus, in 1989, the Intersectorial Scientific and Research Institute for Problems in Mechanics ``Rytm" was created (now - the Intersectorial Educational and Research Center "Rytm"), which quickly grew into a powerful center for fundamental and applied research in the field of applied mechanics and the development of modern equipment for inertial navigation and noninteracting control for the movement of objects of aviation, rocket and space, and marine equipment; development of remotely controlled complexes and robots for performing work in dangerous and hazardous conditions; development of information systems and technologies in the fields of control of commodity and money circulation and prevention of financial improprieties, etc.
It should be added that at the same time with the decision to create the institute, a decision to build its own building was made (now this is the Building 28, which houses the Educational and Research Institute of Aerospace Technologies). Those who worked in those years knew that it was nothing short of miraculous. And an absolute miracle was the quick construction of the building, and Mykhailo Pavlovsky was the real driver of that. "Rytm" became the first research institute (again the first!) within Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the rest were created later, following his example. In 1993, Mykhailo Pavlovsky became one of the initiators of the creation of the Faculty of Aviation and Space Systems at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, which he headed until 2000. At the same time, since 1995, he was the chief designer of platformless inertial navigation systems of the Ministry of Machinebuilding, military industrial establishment, and Conversion of Ukraine.
Extraordinary organization and dedication to work helped to manage everything. His working day started very early and ended very late. His son, Andriy Mykhailovych, recalled his childhood at the readings: "I go to bed, I ask my mother where my father is. "He hasn't come home from work yet," she replies. I wake up in the morning: “Where is my father?” And he has already gone to work..."
Where did he draw strength for this constant intense and multifaceted activity? Probably in childhood memories, and in the parents’ example, in family, and in dedication to work. And also, in sports. He was very fond of volleyball and for many years played in the university team of veterans. His teammate, Professor at IATE Mykhailo Abdulin, told the participants of the Scientific Readings about his passion. There was a lot to talk about, because Pavlovsky went all out in it, so he even traveled with the team to friendly matches to other cities and countries.
At the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century, Mykhailo Pavlovsky went into politics. Or, rather, he immediately plunged into it, because he was looking for neither personal gain nor career opportunities - his heart bleeded for what was happening in the national economy, in science and education. And, of course, he could not watch indifferently how ordinary people, with whom he had never lost contact, were rapidly impoverished. And people trusted him. So, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine three times (in 1994, 1998 and 2002). Moreover, he was elected by the first-past-the-post system from constituencies located in his "small motherland" twice. Before his first election as a People's Deputy in 1992, Mykhailo Pavlovsky worked for some time as the Minister of Industry of Ukraine, but not finding support for a number of his ideas regarding the rescue and development of the real sector of the national economy in the Government, he resigned. In the Verkhovna Rada, he held the positions of a chairman of the Committee on Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety, in the next convocation – a chairman of the subcommittee on the organization of the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; headed the interparliamentary group "Ukraine-China". He worked very actively, prepared a number of bills important for the state, spoke from the rostrum of the parliament on the most urgent economic issues, regularly met voters and helped them solve sometimes very acute problems.
As Andriy Pavlovsky said, his father started working on economic issues as a scientist when he was almost 55 years old. By that time, he had already accumulated a sufficient baggage of ideas and theoretical concepts in this field. In 1996, he published the book "The Way of Ukraine" with the eloquent subtitle "The way to the left, the way to the right is the wrong way..." And in 1997, he prepared and defended his doctoral thesis "Social-economic transformations of the transitional economy of Ukraine" - the first (again, the first!) thesis in Ukraine on this topic. Almost at the same time, his book "Society and Economy of the Transitional Period. The Way of Ukraine" was published, later - "The Ideology of Progressive Reforms for Ukraine" (1998), "Macroeconomics of the Transitional Period. The Ukrainian Context" (1999), "Strategy for the Development of Society: Ukraine and the World" (economics, political science, sociology)" (2001). The last was a collection of op-ed articles "I live and breathe you, Ukraine", which was published in 2003 shortly before the death of M.A. Pavlovsky. He was the first to formulate and prove the theorem on liberalization for geoeconomics, introduced the concept of "stability of the economic system" into scientific discourse, derived the laws of the development and degradation of the market, formulated the conditions and devised the analytical formula for economic growth and the growth in prosperity of the population, etc.
Talking about Mykhailo Pavlovsky, we should also touch on some aspects of his social activities. But each of them needs a separate page, because he did everything very carefully and always achieved significant results. Therefore, we will only give a list of his public positions and achievements. Mykhailo Antonovych Pavlovsky headed the Advisory Council on issues of state formation of the Congress of National Democratic Forces, was one of the initiators of the creation of the Academy of Technological Sciences of Ukraine and its full member, an active member of the Academy of Economic Cybernetics of Ukraine, the International Academy of Navigation and Management of Moving Objects and other international academies.
Mykhailo Pavlovsky was awarded numerous prestigious prizes and awards for his scientific achievements. He was an Honored Science and Technology Figure of Ukraine, a laureate of the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR (1980), the State Prize of the USSR (1986), and the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology (1992). He was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour, a Recognition Certificate of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and had the title of Honorary Professor of National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”.
Today, students and lecturers of IAT see a memorial plaque to M.A. Pavlovsky on the facade of Building 28; an auditorium named as tribute of him has been opened at the institute. There is a school named after Pavlovsky in Ruzhychna district of Khmelnitsky, the school he once graduated from. His museum was opened there in 2004. But even today there is no Mykhailo Pavlovsky Street in Kyiv. So, as the participants said after the readings, it was time to turn to the Kyiv City Council with a proposal to name one of the capital's streets in his honour. Especially since the city is now being cleansed of names associated with russia and its imperial ambitions.
You can learn more about the life journey and scientific and political activities of Mykhailo Antonovych Pavlovsky from the materials of the readings, which, as the moderator of the event, Scientific Secretary of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykhailo Ilchenko, said, will be published in the next volume of the issue "Outstanding Designers of Ukraine", on publication of which traditionally works the Borys Paton State Polytechnic Museum of Ukraine.