Письмо Анатолия Ивановича Романюка

В предыдущем номере Демоскопа мы поздравляли с 90-летием известного демографа украинского происхождения, живущего сейчас в Канаде, Анатолия Ивановича Романюка. Анатолий Иванович откликнулся на наше поздравление письмом, которое мы помещаем ниже.

Ottawa, March 11, 2014
Professor Dr. Anatoly Vishnevsky
Dear Anatoly Gregorovich!

By opening the Demoscope, as I periodically do, I was pleasantly surprised to see posted congratulations on my 90^th jubilee from colleagues of both Moscow and Kyiv Institutes of Demographic Studies. I am sending separately my thanks to my Kyiv colleagues. Therein I wish to address my warmest gratitude to you personally, Anatoly Gregorovich, and your distinguished colleagues for this friendly memorable gesture.

Over years of my activities as demographer, I had the privilege of sharing the pleasure of meeting on various occasions many Russian scientists in the fields of population studies. The first meetings took place at the 1989 conference in Tbilisi, and Demoscope had the delicacy of posting one of the pictures. There I met you, as well as in Moscow and years later in Toronto. Many other Russian colleagues I met at the international conferences over the years in Paris, Montreal, New York, Beijing, New Deli and other places. Some of them, I had the honour of hosting at my home in Ottawa. I will not mention specifically the names of those I met over the years as I may omit some names inadvertently. However, one who comes compellingly to my memory is the distinguished Russian demographer and statistician, Andrej Gavrilovich Volkov. He just impressed me so much by his dignifying personality.

The 90th is not the end. I still nourish some ambitions. In the theoretical field, I am fascinated by what I call the emerging worldwide regime of the demographic maturity, whereby we live longer and healthier while reproducing ourselves less and less, with all its attendants - population implosion and aging. This calls for new innovative population policy approaches. I hardly have written anything about Ukraine's demography. Yet, this country has endured in the XX century a succession of large-scale devastations. This is in need of a systematic study. Finally, I still have something to say about Africa, specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to which a consecrated great deal of work over my sixty years of professional career.

My warmest regards to you personally and colleagues from the Institute.

Romaniuk Anatoly Ivanovych