“Ars longa, vita brevis” Life is short, art is eternal. Hippocrates

On May 10, 2010 there was 120 years since the birth of Professor Ohiyevskiy Volodymyr Vasyliovych, the founder of the Radio Engineering Faculty NTUU “Kyiv polytechnic institute”.

In 1997 I participated the European Conference of microwave equipment in Jerusalem. In the framework of cultural program I was fortunate to visit the Garden of Gethsemane, there are old oil trees which are more than 2000 years. Being in this holy place you feel in especially how fast time flies and the preservation of historical monuments of past events and their teachers has the inestimable value for future generations.

The sycamore of Professor Ohiyevskiy.

The Kyiv Polytechnic Institute also has its own “gethsemane tree”. There is the sycamore that was planted in 1965 by Professor Ohiyevskiy Volodymyr Vasyliovych together with his students, graduated students and students of the Department of Theoretical Foundations of Radio Engineering that he headed. It is on the hill behind the recently built Radio Building (building №12 today). I was also lucky to be one of the gardening. Resort gardener in Nemyriv presented a seedling of sycamore for Volodymyr Vasyliovych. In the ancient Greece culture sycamore which can grow up to 2000 years is associated with education and science. It’s considered that exactly under sycamores Hippocrates holded scientific discussions with his students.

In 1965 Professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. celebrated his 75th birthday. The years of hard work connected with formation electronic specialty in the institute, training for new field and education of outstanding students were already behind. Planting the tree Volodymyr Vasyliovych was sure that it would bethe witness of transfering the case of his life into the hands of students - future scientists, teachers, organizers of science and industry.

Ukrainian roots

Volodymyr’s Vasyliovych father, Ohiyevskiy Vasyl Dmytrovych was born in 1861 in Krolevets town in Sumy region. He got his secondary education in Poltava military high school and he got the University degree in St. Petersburg Forest Institute. He was both a forester’s assistant of Odoevskogo forestry in Tula province and taught at the local forest school. At that time, to be exact on May 10, 1890 his son Volodymyr was born in Krapyvna town. Vasyl Dmytrovych devoted all his life to the forestry deal and became famous scientist. In 1912 – 1918 Ohiyevskiy V.D. worked as professor at St. Petersburg Forest Institute. In 1920-1921 he was the professor of Forestry Department in Kiev Polytechnic Institute. Volodymyr Ohiyevskiy got his primary education at home due to lack of schools in places where his father worked. In 1903 his family moved to Kyiv where they lived mainly in winter and the whole summer adults and kids lived in the forestry. In the same year Volodymyr entered to the 4th grade of the Kyiv real school. He studied well. We can see with his certificate that by results of his education in 4th grade he was called "the first student". For participating in the strike he was expelled from school in autumn 1905. Herewith Volodymyr took his final test externally in in spring 1907. In the same year he entered the mechanical department of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. His education in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute went on from 1907 to 1914 with the two years break, because in 1912-1914 he was military service in the 4th Spark company in Kyiv where he became acquainted with radio communication at first time. After doing military service when he received the title of "Warrant Stock" Volodymyr returned to the native institute.

Since the beginning of World War I Ohiyevskiy was conscripted to army. On July 26, 1914 Volodymyr already appointed as a chief’s assistant of the 3rd Polyova spark station. On August 6, 1914 he opened the campaign in the company and became a chief’s assistant of station at the headquarters of armies commander of the Southwestern front on 12th of September. The military career of Volodymyr Vasyliovych is rapid: on September 22, 1914 he was appointed as the chief of staff at the armies commander station of the Southwestern front.

The builder of the first radio communication systems and radio broadcasting

The World War I was going on. On October 21, 1917 Volodymyr Vasyliovych was “presented to production the rank of lieutenant”. But circumstances made so that the entire way of life broke in the Russian Empire: there were notable October events in St. Petersburg. The revolutionary mood in army was intensified, the known military committees which took the lead were created. Volodymyr Ohiyevskiy was elected as a member of the regimental and divisional committees and as a delegate to the Congress of the military telegraph. In December 1917 he went to Petrograd. By the order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs №102 on 27th of January 1918 the military aerograph Council was founded. Volodymyr Ohiyevskiy was elected as a member of the Council, and in February 1918 he became its chairman. On April 19, 1918 just as chairman of the Soviet aerograph Volodymyr Vasyliovych was present at the RNA meeting under the chairmanship of Lenin V.I. At the end of 1918 it was determined as necessity to establish in Moscow a new two-way radio station of undamped oscillations to organize a reliable operative connection between fronts of the Civil War. At that time there was not such connection. Ohiyevskiy V.V. was appointed as the chief of that defunct radio station and as the compliance operations director’s assistant. In summer 1920 the equipment of radio station was completed and at the end of 1920 within the festive atmosphere by the presence of the Red Army connection administration the testing of radio station was conducted. Contact was set with all indicated items: station came into operation. In 1928-1929 Ohiyevskiy V.V. advised the construction of powerful radio stations in Odessa, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Tiraspol. In June 1929 he was appointed as the responsible superintendent for the construction of the Kyiv radio station. It should be said that during the construction of radio stations in the Ukrainian SSR Volodymyr Vasyliovych widely attracted the students who took an active part in it. Thus, in 1928 the KPI Radio Laboratory is committed to pose the high filter capacitors for the construction of the radio station in Odessa. By that time those capacitors imported into the USSR from Germany. In the USSR only Nizhny Novgorod Radio Laboratory engaged the developing of such capacitors, but its capacitors withstood not more than 7 kilovolts voltage and also they were made of imported material. In the KPI Radio Laboratory Ohiyevskiy V.V. developed and proposed a simple and original method of production the high voltage filter-capacitor, that gave the opportunity to use only domestic raw materials. The first model withstood 35 kilovolts and was made personally by Ohiyevskiy V.V. In 1929 in the experimental production Lab Radio Engineering Institute studio by the Ohiyevskiy’s V.V. initiative and under his leadership the production high voltage capacitors for radio stations was adjusted. The filters made here were smaller and cheaper than those bought from the German company "Lorenz".

In 1931 it helped to completely abandon the German import filters. During World War Ohiyevskiy V.V. worked at the Urals industrial institute and he was also the consultant on the radio at the Academy behalf of Zhukovskyi, he participated in the development of acoustic instruments in radio engineering laboratory of the 4th special department of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, in the Sverdlovsk branch of the Research Institute №3. For participation in solving the problems of War Ohiyevskiy V.V. was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War".

The founder of Radio specialization in KPI

In 1921 Ohiyevskiy V.V. was moved to Kyiv as the head of military radio station. In the same year he began to teach at the Kiev military school of communication and Electrical engineering department of KPI. The Faculty of Electrical engineering was founded in autumn 1918 and one of the first it started to gain momentum rapidly, despite the fact that there were not any funds for the construction of new laboratories and classrooms.

Radio specialization at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute was originated exactly at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. In 1921 Ohiyevskiy V.V. organized the Radio Laboratory which became the basis for the development of specialty, and further – the Faculty of Radio Engineering. First the small workshop arised at the Radio Laboratory, there students mounted special equipment for the Radio Laboratory of the Institute and various agencies. The shortwave installation was built there for main radio communication South Western Railway which operated there for several years. Considering the growing interest of KPI students and staff to the radio affairs in 1924 Volodymyr Vasyliovych organized the radio group in the walls of Radio Laboratory, and in 1925 the first in the USSR amateur collective radio station R1KPI (Russia-first-Kyiv Polytechnic Institute) was aired.

All its transmitter-receiver equipment was made by the members of the group. Ohiyevskiy V.V. worked fast enough on hand key and exactly he was entrusted to hold the first session of the two-way radio with the callsign "R1KPI".

In 1921 by the Radio Laboratory on Faculty of Electrical Engineering in KPI Ohiyevskiy V.V. started reading the general course of radio engineering. In 1928 specialization "Radio Engineering" was separated on Electrical Engineering Faculty. The groups of students were formed on all courses by Radio specialization. Radio Laboratory workshops which linked teaching staff and students with the production helped to replenish the equipment of Radio Laboratory, played a major role in the development of radio specialty in the Institute.

In 1930 on the basis of Electrotechnical Faculty the KPI Kyiv Energy Institute which had radio engineering faculty and the Department of Radio Engineering was established (the head of Department and the decane of Radio Engineering Faculty was Ohiyevskiy V.V.). Since 1931 this institute regularly has graduated the radio engineers. In further reorganizations since 1934 the Radio specialization existed independently, since 1938 - as part of a special faculty, and since 1944 - again within the Radio Engineering Faculty of KPI, Ohiyevskiy V.V. was appointed as the decane. In 1962 Volodymyr Vasyliovych resigned the position of dean while remaining as the head of the department of theoretical foundations of Radio Engineering (TOR) and as a member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty.

After 1962 the positions of dean at the Radio Engineering Faculty were occupied by Ohiyevskiy’s V.V. students: professors Taranenko V.P., Trokhymenko Y.K., docents Mihatskyi Y.V., Goyzhevskyi V.A., Pravda V.I., Nelin Y.A.

In the 60-80's continuing the last decades tradition of their teacher to combine learning with practical realization of new radio means, at Department of TOR Ohiyevskiy’s V.V. students and docents Bokrynska O. Y, Goyzhevskyi V.A., Hudzenko J.P. formed the research groups with the participation of teachers, staff scientific and engineering employees and students who have completed tens scientific and technological projects by military topics on the instructions of the government. That implementation of those important public tasks created conditions for a high quality of training, involvement students and postgraduate students of the department, including myself, to scientific research. Bokrynska Olexandra Yakymivna and Kyslyakovskyi Anatolyi Viktorovich taught me the fundamentals of research activities. At scientific seminars with the participation of Bova M.T., Kuleshov Y.H., Trohymenko Y.K. and many others we were formed as young scientists which were grateful for the science to our teachers.

The number of employees in scientific research sector department that fulfilled those government’s specified tasks the for several years had reached over a hundred. Today I remember the day of his 80th birthday when professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. began his speech to the collective of the department with such words: “I believed the main objective of my life is to do not prevent people to live and work ... " These words were interrupted by long and sincere applause. Indeed for all the years of his research and teaching activities he laid the highest principles and traditions of diligence, adherence to principles and respect to people like at the Department and at the Faculty, so that he had extremely high authority among the colleagues. In 1960s Ohiyevskiy’s V.V. students affectionately called him “grandad” among each other with deep respect.

Talented and grateful students

Professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. educated several generations of highly skilled professionals - doctors, Ph.D., State Prizes laureates, heads of factories, scientific research institutes and construction bureaus of the domestic radio electronic industry. Engineers worked at almost all of the Soviet radioelectronic industries, they were professor Ohiyevskiy’s V.V. students. The creator of the first spacecraft, General Designer of space technology in the USSR Korolyov S.P. recalled his student days in the KPI and said about Ohiyevskiy V.V. as about the model for an engineer. In the book "Korolyov. Chronicle" Holovanov Y. writes: “Among all the labs most of all Korolyov liked the workshop on Electrical Engineering which was led by Ohiyevskiy, the old radio technician ... It was the calm authoritative man who had never carped did not try to win over cheerful jokes, but stubbornly demanded that he had the right to claim. He represented a man of action for Korolyov. The real engineer must be like him”.

In 1932 the Kiev Power Engineering Institute graduated Tetelbaum Simon Isakovych, one of the most talented students of Volodymyr Vasyliovych. He received the qualification as an electrical engineer in field of radio engineering and was left at the institute as a design engineer. Studying at the institute, he constructed many models of radio equipment which were produced commercially. In 1932 along with the practical activities Tetelbaum Simon Isakovych occupied the position of Department Assistant of Radio Engineering, headed by Ohiyevskiy V.V. Simon Isakovych gave lectures, managed laboratory sessions on all major radio engineering rates. His teaching was closely connected with the most important topics of research work. In December 1934 Tetelbaum S.I. defended his PhD thesis. In 1935 he was awarded the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences and the title of associate professor of radio engineering. In December 1939 Tetelbaum S.I. successfully defended his doctoral thesis and in 1940 he became a professor, and in 1948 - Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences in the USSR. One of the talented Ohiyevskiy’s V.V. students was Vollerner Nahum Philippovich, who headed the department of radio receiving devices at the Radio Engineering Faculty from 1945 to 1979. Later, recalling his education at the institute, he said that initially he had entered the evening department of faculty.

“When the evening department was canceled and there wasn’t the the same day parallel level, my teacher proffesor Ohiyevskiy said: ‘jump” and I jumped from the third-year evening course to the fourth day course and graduated it in 1935”. Nahum Pylypovych emphasized his high qualification and intelligence in that field, putting Ohiyevskiy V.V. the first of a number of his teachers. In 1939 Vollerner N.P.defended his PhD thesis, and in 1952 - his doctoral. There were conducted scientific researches at the Department of Vollerner N.P. on orders of Navy of the USSR in the field of noise-immune acceptance and processing signals, spectral analysis, the theory of errors and construction of radio electronic facilities. Large amount of carried out works made it possible for Nahum Pylypovych to create the first problem laboratory in KPI that in 1963 moved to the newly built case on the initiative and under the leadership of Nahum Pylypovych (today building №11), it was named the KB "Storm". And now this Polytechnic building is called the building of Vollerner.

In 1963 on the occasion of his Master’s 75th birthday the graduated student of Radio faculty Rogalskyi Y.E. writes: “Not everybody is destined to live out. Such three-quarters of a century. Such roads passed. Scientist’s and Man’s!”

Volodymyr Vasyliovych often consulted the students in the hostel and at home, where they were treated by his the wife Valentyna Olexandrivna. Going home the graduated studend of Radio Engineering Faculty in KPI Mohamed Ahmed from Yemen said: “I leave the person in Kyiv, for whom, if necessary, I am ready to die”. Ohiyevskiy’s student Ahmed Al Annecy from Yemen signed his letter to Volodymyr Vasyliovych so: “Your eternally respectful son”. Chinese Chen Zi Han wrote to Ohiyevskiy: "I often think of you, your style of conversation, smile. You taught me not only to learn, but also to work honestly and live properly”, and in the end the letter his son made the postscript: “I wish grandfather to live 10,000 years like pine trees live in the southern mountains”.

Recognition and the grateful memory

In 1948 Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was 50 years old. According to the order of the Higher Education Minister in the USSR for successful work in the preparation of engineering and technical staff for the national economy due to the fiftieth anniversary of the KPI founding there was announced thanksgiving to many employees of the Institute, including the professor Ohiyevskiy Volodymyr Vasyliovych, dean of Radio Engineering Faculty. On 27th of October in 1953 Ohiyevskiy was awarded with Order of Lenin. Also professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. was awarded with the Order of Labor Red Banner, many medals, Diploma of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. He had the title "Honored Worker of Higher School", "Honorable Radio Operator".

Volodymyr Vasyliovych died on February 26, 1979, he did not live a few months to his 90th anniversary. Today the Radio Engineering Faculty continues the cause of his life on the preparation of radio engineers. In building №17 there is the educational laboratory of professor Ohiyevskiy V.V., best students receive a scholarship of professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. The education of specialist signalers initiated in the 20s by Ohiyevskiy V.V. was restored in 1993 when organizing because of my initiative the new Department of Telecommunications which became the base for the creation in 2002. Institute of Telecommunication Systems. Today Serhiyenko M.I. continues the radio amateur work of his teacher. He is the Head of actively working radio club "Polytechnic". In the State Polytechnic Museum there are unique radio exhibits and papers of professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. His daughter Iya Ohiyevska, Candidate of Art, has recently given them to the Polytechnic Museum.

You can find the sycamore of professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. among the many trees growing today on a university campus as follows. On a hill behind the building №12 there are stairs leading to the case building of Vollerner. The sycamore grows to the left of the stairs. There are painful growths on its trunk, near the ground, then the trunk of sycamore is cleaned of greenish-gray bark and then it is brilliant yellow-brown and goes up to the sky. There is something symbolic in this directing: students of professor Ohiyevskiy V.V. continue the business of their teacher’s life.

Translated by Uvarenko Ol’ga, LA-02