Novytsky, Yakiv

Novytsky, Yakiv [Новицький, Яків; Novyc'kyj, Jakiv], b 14 October 1847 in Auly, Katerynoslav county, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 19 May 1929 in Zaporizhia. Ethnographer, historian, and educator. While teaching in rural schools in the Oleksandrivske region (1869–77) he collected Ukrainian folklore. He was dismissed for his Ukrainophile sympathies but a few years later was appointed school inspector. On the basis of the materials he gathered he published collections of Ukrainian historical songs (1894), of Zaporozhian Cossack traditions and stories (1907), of Ukrainian folk traditions, folk beliefs, and folk stories (1907), of Ukrainian historical songs gathered in the Katerynoslav region from 1874 to 1903 (1908), of popular recollections of Zaporozhian historical figures (1909) and the Zaporizhia (1911), and of Ukrainian folk charms, spells, prayers, and remedies (1913). He also prepared a history of the city of Oleksandrivske (1905).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]