Volodymyr Antonovych

Who was Volodymyr Antonovych?

Volodymyr Antonovych, was a prominent Ukrainian historian and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national awakening in the Russian Empire. As a historian, Antonovych, who was longtime Professor of History at the University of Kiev, represented a populist approach to Ukrainian history.

This approach, which earlier had been exemplified by another historian, Mykola Kostomarov, took the side of the common people in the recurrent conflicts between the state and the people which had characterized Ukrainian history over the centuries. Kostomarov, Antonovych, and other populist historians saw the spirit of the nation as embedded in the Ukrainian folk, and saw and the various states that had ruled Ukraine as being exterior to this folk and somewhat foreign.

Nevertheless, in his times he was considered one of the most prominent specialists on pre-history of western Russia.