leadership, in 1925, a signaling and pest spreading forecasting service was organized
in Ukraine, the methods of which were later extended in the territory of the former
USSR, and in 1926 Izium and Kupiansk observation posts were organized. In
accordance with the task of the “Soviet of Labor and Defense” organization under the
guidance of O.O. Mihulin (1927) a comprehensive survey of the Ukrainian vineyards
was conducted; the map of phylloxera spreading in the republic was made. On the basis
of this work, the law about the measures to combat this pest has been issued. Professor
O.O. Mihulin founded a historic and statistical approach to the protection of plants
when analyzing the population dynamics of harmful organisms. He trained two Doctors
of Sciences and 23 Philosophy Doctors [8, 11, 12, 14, 15].
Under the direction of V.G. Averin and O.O. Mihulin (1924) for the first time in
Ukraine in the area of Savyntsi village in Balakliiskyi district of Kharkiv region an aero-
chemical way of protecting crops from the Italian locust was tested, and it was introduced
into production. In 1931–1932 V.G. Averin and O.O. Mihulin took an active part in the
creation of the first Plant Protection Faculty in Ukraine at Kharkiv Agricultural Institute
named after V.V. Dokuchaiev [14, 15].
From 1971 to 1991 the Department was headed by the Doctor of Biological
Sciences, Professor B.M. Lytvynov, a well-known scientist and teacher, a follower of
the scientific and pedagogical school of Professors V.G. Averin and O.O. Mihulin. The
Department was well known far beyond Ukraine [8, 9, 10, 11, 12].
Lytvynov B.M. is the founder of the fundamental trend, namely the population
dynamics of fruit crop pests and he also developed a complex environmentally-oriented
system of crops protection. His thesis research goes beyond the traditional chemical
methods of plant protection and has all the signs of the integrated protection, although
this term is not used in his work of many years. The protection of fruit plantings
proposed by him combines the study of a complex of organisms interrelated for a long
time (15 years) and a special tactics of destructive measures by regulating the number of
the pests and bringing it to a certain size, as well as the use, in addition to chemical, biological
and microbiological methods of protection [8, 9, 10, 11, 12].
Lytvynov B.M. has trained two Doctors of Sciences and 24 Philosophy Doctors.
The students and followers of B.M. Lytvynov continue the researches of his scientific
school concerning the urgent issues of improving the environmentally-oriented
protection of fruit and other crops from pests.
Lytvynov B.M. is a co-author of two editions of the textbook “Agricultural
Entomology” (1976, 1983) edited by A.O. Mihulin, the “Guide to the Protection of
Plants” (1989), the manual “Agricultural Entomology” (1997), the last two works were
published by his edition. To ensure the educational process during the years of
Ukraine's independence, the editorial board published the textbooks “Agricultural
Entomology” (2005), “Agricultural Entomology Workshop” (2009), two editions of
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