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Mykhailo Hrushevsky

Historian and public figure who chaired the Ukrainian Central Rada in 1917–1918. His multivolume History of Ukraine-Rus helped establish a distinct scholarly account of Ukraine's past.

Portrait of Mykhailo Hrushevsky

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Biography

Mykhailo Hrushevsky was a historian and political leader born in Kholm in 1866. Educated at Kyiv University, he took up a history professorship in Lviv in 1894. His multivolume History of Ukraine-Rus' presented Ukrainian history as a distinct subject rather than an appendix to an imperial narrative. He also developed the Shevchenko Scientific Society as a centre of scholarship.

In 1917 he became chairman of the Ukrainian Central Rada. Initially committed to a federal solution, he led the assembly through the decisions that culminated in the declaration of Ukrainian independence in January 1918.

After the overthrow of the Central Rada, Hrushevsky lived abroad before returning to Soviet Ukraine in 1924. He resumed academic work during Ukrainization, but the reversal of that policy brought attacks on his scholarship and repression against his colleagues. Detained in 1931 and subsequently kept in Moscow, he died in Kislovodsk in 1934. His historical writing and institutional work remain central to Ukrainian scholarship.

  • ODFFU Archive: People Biographies

    Biographical text adapted and translated from the supplied manuscript.

    Consulted 2026-09-14

Biographical sources