Mykhailo Hrushevskyi

Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky (Ukrainian: Михайло Сергійович Грушевський, romanized: Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevskyi, Ukrainian pronunciation: [mɪˈxai̯lo serˈɦʲijowɪd͡ʒ‿ɦrʊˈʃɛu̯sʲkɪi̯]; 29 September [O.S. 17 September] 1866 – 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is often considered the country's greatest modern historian, the foremost organiser of scholarship, the leader of the pre-revolution Ukrainian national movement, the head of the Central Rada (Ukraine's 1917–1918 revolutionary parliament), and a leading cultural figure in the Ukrainian SSR during the 1920s.

Early life

Mykhailo Hrushevsky was born on 29 September 1866 to a Ukrainian noble family in Chełm, in Congress Poland, an autonomous polity in the Russian Empire. His father Serhii Fedorovych Hrushevsky was a son of an Orthodox priest from the vicinity of Chyhyryn, who had come to Chełm to teach Russian language at a Greek Catholic gymnasium in 1865. Serhii Fedorovych's father, Fedir Hrushevsky was a highly-decorated official (his awards included the two Orders of Saint Anna and the Bronze Cross, and a title of nobility). Later, upon enrolling into Saint Volodymyr University, in Kyiv, Mykhailo received blessings from his grandfather who had graduated from its History Department.

Mykhailo's mother, Glafira Zakharivna Oppokova, was born into a family of Orthodox priests in the village of Sestrynivka, Berdychiv povit, Podillia Governorate. Due to specifics of Serhii's employment, the family frequently changed their place of residence: two years after Mykhailo's birth, in 1868, Serhii was employed as a teacher at a classical gymnasium in Łomża; one year later the family moved to Kutaisi, and in 1870 to Stavropol. Despite having been educated in Polish and Russian herself, Glafira worked to teach her children Ukrainian language. Mykhailo spoke warmly of his parents and described them as real patriots of Ukraine, who managed to instill a sense of national pride in their children.