The article covers the biography of the famous Ukrainian anatomist, histologist and embryologist Oleksiі Andriyovych Ivakin and for the first time published memoirs about the scientist. The author of the memoirs is the wife of the scientist Iya Sergiyivna Ivakina, who together with her husband worked at the Department of human anatomy, histology and embryology at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University. The memoirs reflect the history of the department of human anatomy, histology and embryology at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University, the activity of O. Ivakin at the head of the department, and the work of the department’s staff before the Second World War.

The methodology of work is based on the use of source, archival, chronological, comparative, biographical and prosopographic research methods.

Memories about O. Ivakin were deposited in the personal archival fund of Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Оleksandr Prokopovych Markevych, stored at the Institute of Archival Studies of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine. The same archival fund contains letters from I. Ivakina’s to O. Markevych, which make it possible to reveal the history of writing memoirs. Memoirs are an important source for studying the biography of O. Ivakin and reveal little-studied pages of his life and scientific activity. The introduction of memoirs about O. Ivakin into scientific circulation can become an impetus for further research about the scientist and the writing of his true biography.

1. Olejnykova, T. I. (2002). Ximiky [Chemists]. In Vcheni vuziv Odesy: biobibliografichnyj dovidnyk (Series Ed.): Vol. 2, part 3. Odesa [іn Ukrainian].
2. Ganitkevych, Ya. (2002). Ukrayinski likari-vcheni pershoyi polovyny XX stolittya ta yixni naukovi shkoly: biografichni narysy ta bibliografiya [Ukrainian doctors-scientists of the first half of the twentieth century and their scientific schools: biographical essays and bibliography]. Lviv [іn Ukrainian].
3. Ganitkevych, Ya. (2004). Istoriya ukrayinskoyi medycyny v datax ta imenax [History of Ukrainian medicine in dates and names]. Lviv [іn Ukrainian].
4. Institute of Archival Studies of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine. Fund 121, Inventory 1, Unit 63 [In Russian].
5. Institute of Archival Studies of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine. Fund 121, Inventory 1, Unit 147 [In Russian].
6. Institute of Archival Studies of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine. Fund 121, Inventory 4, Unit 252 [In Ukrainian].
7. Liubovets, N. (2009). Memuary (spohady) yak dzherelo biohrafichnykh doslidzhen [Memoirs (memories) as a source of biographical research.]. Naukovi pratsi Natsionalnoi biblioteky Ukrainy imeni V. I. Vernadskoho, vol. 24, pp. 277–291. Kyiv [іn Ukrainian].
8. Markevych, O. P. (1946). Nauka i naukovi pracivnyky v Kyyivskomu derzhavnomu universyteti za 112 rokiv jogo isnuvannya (1834–1946) [Science and researchers at Kyiv State University for 112 years of its existence (1834–1946)]. Naukovi zapysky Kyyivskogo derzhavnogo universytetu im. T. G. Shevchenka, vol. 5, issue 1, pp. 9–64. Kyiv [іn Ukrainian].
9. Markevych, O. P. (1957). Zoologiya v Kyyivskomu universyteti za roky radyanskoyi vlady [Zoology at the Kiev University during the years of soviet rule]. Naukovi zapysky Kyyivskogo derzhavnogo universytetu im. T. G. Shevchenka. Biologichnyj zbirnyk, vol. 16, issue 20, pp. 5–19. Kyiv [іn Ukrainian].
10. Musienko, M., Ostapchenko, L., Taran, N., Batsmanova, l., Storozhenko, V. (2015). Kyivskyi derzhavnyi universytet – Kyivskyi derzhavnyi universytet imeni T. H. Shevchenka: stanovlennia i rozvytok biolohichnoi osvity i nauky (1933–1945) [From Kiev state university to Taras Shevchenko state university of Kiev –the formation and development of biological education and science (1933–1945)]. Visnyk Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni Tarasa Shevchenka. Biolohiia, vol. 69, issue 1, pp. 5–14. Kyiv [іn Ukrainian].
11. Plyushh, V. (1975). Medychna osvita v Ukrayini [Medical education in Ukraine]. Materialy do istoriyi ukrayinskoyi medycyny, vol. 1, pp. 11–95. Nyu-Jork; Myunxen [іn Ukrainian].
12. Plyushh, V. (1975). Medychna nauka v Ukrayini u pershij polovyni XX-go storichchya [Medical science in Ukraine in the first half of the twentieth century]. In Materialy do istoriyi ukrayinskoyi medycyny, vol. 1, pp. 96–160. Nyu-Jork; Myunxen [іn Ukrainian].
13. Spirov, M. S. (1965). Kyyivska anatomichna shkola [Kyiv anatomical school]. Kyiv [іn Ukrainian].
14. Ganitkevych, Ya., Pundij, P. (2008). Uchasnyky nacionalno-vyzvolnoyi borotby j ukrayinskogo derzhavotvorennya, represovani ta reabilitovani likari Ukrayiny [Participants of national liberation struggle and Ukrainian state-building, repressed and rehabilitated doctors of Ukraine]. In Ukrayinski likari: biobibliografichnyj dovidnyk (Series Ed.): vol. 3. Lviv [іn Ukrainian].