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ISSN 2519 1888 (Online) |
 Electronic catalog NSAL NAAS online
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| 03 |
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE UKRAINIAN ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES V. B. BABUK AND HIS ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN UKRAINIAN SSR (1930s–1960s)
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full article |
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doi.org/10.31073/istnauka202602-03
BUDNYK S.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7515-1454
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41-68 |
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Article received: 06.04.2026 р.
Article accepted for publication: 27.04.2026 р.
Article published: 29.05.2026 р.
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| Summary |
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The article presents the first comprehensive study of the scientific and organizational activities of Volodymyr Borysovych Babuk (1910–1978), an outstanding scholar in the field of agricultural mechanization and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture (UNDIMESG) from 1943 to 1960. The research is based on an extensive source base, including unpublished archival materials from state and sectoral archives, as well as a substantial body of published works by V. B. Babuk and his contemporaries. Drawing on these sources, the article reconstructs the main stages of Babuk’s biography: his early professional work within the Machine and Tractor Station (MTS) system in the 1930s, his wartime experience in 1941–1943; his long-term directorship of UNDIMESG; his subsequent leadership of the all-Union scientific and research institutions and his work in the Ukrainian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (UASGN). The study characterizes Babuk’s scientific and organizational activities and evaluates his contribution to the development of the institutional framework of agricultural mechanization and electrification in the Ukrainian SSR during the post-war period. Special attention is given to his role in shaping the system of comprehensive agricultural mechanization in the Ukrainian SSR, the development and implementation of the modular (unit-based) repair method for agricultural machinery, his scientific support of the “corn campaign”, and the 1958 MTS reform. The research also highlights Babuk’s involvement in international scientific exchange, particularly through his analysis of mechanization practices in Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. Babuk’s scholarly legacy comprises more than 130 scientific and methodological works and 16 books. The study concludes that V. B. Babuk was one of the key figures in the institutional and scientific history of agricultural mechanization in the Ukrainian SSR from the 1930s to the 1960s.
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| Keywords |
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Volodymyr Borysovych Babuk, agricultural mechanization, Ukrainian Research Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture (UNDIMESG), Machine and Tractor Stations (MTS), modular (unit-based) repair method, «corn campaign», the 1958 MTS reform, history of agricultural mechanization in the Ukrainian SSR.
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