Grapevine sprouts appeared on the campus in the terrible year of 2022 - when members of the KPI Pupils' Section in Poland addressed the KPI management with a proposal to plant grapes in KPI in honour of the 100th anniversary of their NGO, which is a symbol of vitality and prosperity. This idea was gratefully supported by the university. Therefore, the representative of the Section, Andrii Yaroshevskyi, brought grape seedlings to Kyiv and shared with the specialists of the KPI's Economic Department his own many years of experience in planting and growing grapes in climatic conditions similar to those in Kyiv.
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According to Anna Bidniuk, Deputy Director of the Ukrainian-Polish Centre of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the variety chosen was Isabella, which is resistant to the peculiarities of our weather. On 16 June of the same year, representatives of the departments of international cooperation, economic work and educational work, as well as students of the Educational and Scientific Mechanical Engineering Institute, together with the donor, planted the plants in the open ground in a sunny place protected from the winds near building 6.
Now the ‘Ukrainian-Polish vineyard’ has taken root in the Kyiv soil and is developing well. On 19 September 2024, a commemorative plaque with the inscription in Ukrainian and Polish ‘Grapes planted in 2022 on the centenary of the KPI Pupils’ Section in Poland’ was unveiled on the wall near the building No. 6, which was made in Poland and brought to Kyiv on the initiative of the long-time chairman of the Section, Doctor Emeritus of KPI Janusz Fuchsy.
Rector Anatoliy Melnychenko, Vice-Rector for International Relations Andriy Shysholin, Director of the SMS Alla Kovtun, honorary guest from Poland - member of the Board of the KPI Alumni Section in Poland Dorota Jaworska and others took part in the modest celebrations. Rector told about the long-term active cooperation between KPI and the Section, outlined the prospects and future directions. In her turn, Dorota Jaworska conveyed greetings to Kyiv Polytechnicians from the chairman of the Section, Dr Janusz Fuchsy, and presented a golden badge of the Main Technical Organisation of Poland to Anatoliy Melnychenko for great achievements in cooperation with Poland (by the way, the decision to award this award was made in the spring of this year).
It is worth adding that Kyiv dendrologists consider the KPI park to be one of the richest in the Ukrainian capital in terms of the number of tree and shrub species - there are more than a hundred of them. We write ‘park’ because the territory of university parks and squares is not limited to the areas defined on the plan - in fact, the buildings and buildings of the old part of the campus stand in one luxurious park, which has recently been replenished with a vineyard thanks to our Polish friends.
By the way, on 23 September, a great friend of our university, chairman of the KPI Alumni Section in Poland since 1974, KPI graduate of 1959, Honorary Doctor of KPI, initiator of many interesting initiatives, author of ‘Kyiv Polytechnic’ Janusz Fuchs celebrated his 89th birthday. Although belatedly, the editorial board joins in the congratulations on his birthday and wishes him good health and many more years of fruitful creative activity!