Корифей української археології Дмитро Якович
Телегін (1919—2009) доклав чимало зусиль до становлення курганної археології, очоливши дві новобудовні експедиції — Вільнянську (1968—1969) та «Дніпро—Донбас» (1969—1975). Він же, спільно з
С. Н. Братченком, зробив великий внесок у розроблення сучасної методики розкопок давніх могил з
використанням важкої землерийної техніки. А ще
виявив громадянську позицію, захищаючи на засіданні вченої ради ІА АН УРСР молодшого колегу
Олександра Михайловича Лєскова (1933—2017), де
було поставлено питання щодо звільнення останнього з роботи на початку 1973 р. Відтоді минуло
понад 40 літ, коли О. Лєсков на схилку свого життя вирішив пригадати все щодо тих драматичних
подій та оцінити свій внесок в археологію.
The book of memoirs of our teacher, Professor Alexander
Leskov (1933—2017) prompted us to address the
topic of the deployment of a wide front of archaeological
research in the areas of reclamation construction in
the south of Ukraine. Unfortunately, posthumously. It
is said that one can say either good or nothing about
the departed. Such approach is appropriate in memorial
ceremonies or in nostalgic memories of a round
date. But «Archaeologist’s notes» was announced in
the Preface of the Corresponding Member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences A. Ivanchik as «an important
document for the historian of Russian science».
In this case the document, left to the descendants by
the famous scholar, requires meticulous approach by
colleagues, especially those who were the witnesses of
events which are set forth in the lengthy and not easy
to read text. The attention of authors of the paper is
focused on the fruitful Ukrainian period of scientific
and organizational activity of the famous scholar, his
successes and blunders. The events, described in the
memoirs, reflect not only his personal dramatic life but
also the archeology of the Ukraine, the acquisition of
its independence in the conditions of inevitable political
crisis.
O. Leskov’s expeditions like a powerful bulldozer
have passed through the kurgans of steppe Ukraine
plowing many artifacts to the surface.
The wavering between the glitter of Scythian gold
and the urgent problems of the Late Bronze Age left
the author of the «Memoirs» in the grip of scientific
stereotypes and ideas of the 1970s. Archaeologists in
Ukraine have switched to a more informative method
of excavating of mounds with several parallel balks but
this has already happened without the detonator of the
kurgan boom.
After all, the science has never been for O. Leskov
above all but was only a tool for achieving specific life
positions. Sometimes it seems that the scholar in him
always competed with the manager, but it didn’t occur
to the author of «Memoirs» to choose between those
entities.
