All-Ukrainian Association of Marxist-Leninist Scientific Research Institutes

All-Ukrainian Association of Marxist-Leninist Scientific Research Institutes (Всеукраїнська асоціяція марксистсько-ленінських науково-дослідних інститутів; Vseukrainska asotsiiatsiia marksystsko-leninskykh naukovo-doslidnykh instytutiv or ВУАМЛІН; VUAMLIN). An association of scientific research institutes established in 1931 in Kharkiv by the merger of the philosophy-sociology, economics, and history sections of the Ukrainian Institute of Marxism-Leninism (founded in 1922). Like the Russian Institutes of Red Professors, VUAMLIN trained professors and researchers who were loyal to the Party to replace older, independent scholars in institutions of higher learning. Studies for a degree lasted three years, preceded by two preparatory years. There were 625 students in 1932 in six institutes—economics, philosophy and natural sciences, history, agriculture, law and Soviet construction and cadres, technology and technical policy—and two chairs—literature and arts, and the national question. In Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa VUAMLIN branches were founded, each with three departments (philosophy, economics, and history). Affiliated with VUAMLIN were professional associations of Marxist historians, economists, and other scholars. The Communist Academy in Moscow supervised VUAMLIN's academic activities, and policy guidance came from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Presidents of VUAMLIN were Oleksander Shlikhter and, later, O. Dzenis; among the noteworthy heads of departments were Mykola Skrypnyk, Matvii Yavorsky, Nikolai N. Popov, Samiilo Shchupak, Yurii Mazurenko, and Volodymyr Yurynets. VUAMLIN published periodicals—Prapor marksyzmu-leninizmu (1931–4), Pid markso-lenins’kym praporom (1934–6), and Istoryk-bil’shovyk (1934)—and monographs. Its predecessor, the Ukrainian Institute of Marxism-Leninism, particularly from 1929, and VUAMLIN exerted pressure on the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences to adapt its scholarly work to the Party line, and under Party pressure the leading members of VUAMLIN were made academicians. In 1933–8 many VUAMLIN members fell victim to the Stalinist terror. In 1936 VUAMLIN was transferred to Kyiv; soon after it was dissolved. Some of its work was taken over by the newly founded Ukrainian branch of the Institute of Marx-Engels-Lenin (see Institute of Party History of the Central Committee of the Communist Party or Ukraine), based in Moscow. The VUAMLIN Institute of the History of Ukraine became the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

Mykola Hlobenko

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]