Studynsky, Kyrylo

Studynsky, Kyrylo [Студинський, Кирило; Studyns'kyj], b 4 October 1868 in Kypiachka, Ternopil county, Galicia, d 1941. Literary scholar and community activist; member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) from 1899; full member of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) from 1929; father of Yurii Studynsky. He was dismissed from the VUAN in 1934 for ‘counterrevolutionary activities,’ but was readmitted to the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in 1939. He studied at universities in Lviv and, later, Vienna where he studied primarily under Vatroslav Jagić. After completing his studies he worked as a researcher at Berlin University, under the guidance of A. Brückner. From 1897 to 1899 he was a docent at Cracow University, and then he became a professor at Lviv University (1900–18, 1939–41), where he also served as vice-rector (1939–41). Studynsky was one of the leading members of the Christian Social party in Galicia and coedited its organ Ruslan. He was head of the Teachers' Hromada (1916–20) and of the Ukrainian National Council (1921–2). He was head of the NTSh (1925–31) and was instrumental in establishing close relations between the NTSh and the VUAN in Kyiv. During the first Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine in 1939, he headed the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine; then, in 1940, he was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. His influential positions enabled him to intervene and save many Ukrainians from Soviet repressions. During the evacuation of the Red Army from Lviv in June 1941, he was deported. The circumstances of his death are unclear.

Studynsky is the author of over 500 works, mainly scholarly works on literature, in which he generally employed sociological and comparative methods. He published writings on polemical literature, such as Perestoroha (A Warning, 1895), Pam’iatky polemichnoho pys'menstva kintsia XVI i pochatku XVII viku (Monuments of Polemical Literature of the Late 16th and Early 17th Centuries, 1900), Pierwszy występ literacki Pocieja (Ipatii Potii’s Literary Debut, 1902), Antigrafe, polemichnyi tvir M. Smotryts'koho (Antigraph, a Polemical Work of Meletii Smotrytsky, 1925); works on the cultural and literary movement in Galicia, such as Geneza poetycznych utworów Markiana Szaszkiewicza (The Genesis of Markian Shashkevych’s Poetry, 1896; Ukrainian trans 1910), Korespondentsiia Ia. Holovats’koho (The Correspondence of Yakiv Holovatsky, 2 vols, 1905, 1909), Kopitar i Zubryts'kyi (1918), and Materiialy do istoriï kul'turnoho zhyttia v Halychyni v 1795–1857 rr. (Materials on the History of Cultural Life in Galicia, 1795–1857, 1920); works on folklore, such as Lirnyky (Lirnyks, 1894); works on relations between Galicia and Russian-ruled Ukraine, such as Do istoriï vzaiemyn Halychyny z Ukraïnoiu (On the History of Relations between Galicia and Ukraine, 1906) and Z lystiv P. Kulisha do Om. Partyts'koho (From the Letters of Panteleimon Kulish to Omelian Partytsky, 1908); works on 19th-century Ukrainian literature, such as Kotliarevs'kyi i Artemovs'kyi (1901), Literaturni zamitky (Literary Notes, 1901), and V piat'desiatylitie smerty T. Shevchenka (On the 50th Anniversary of Taras Shevchenko’s Death, 1911); and works on Ukrainian-Polish relations, such as Pol'ska konspiratsiia sered rus'kykh pytomtsiv i dukhovenstva v Halychyni v rokakh 1831–1848 (The Polish Conspiracy among Ruthenian Seminarians and Clergy in Galicia in 1831–48, 1908) and Lysty ministra Fl'oriiana Ziemialkovs'koho do iepyskopa Ivana Stupnyts'koho (Letters of Minister Florian Ziemiałkowski to Bishop Ivan Stupnytsky, 1908). Studynsky also wrote poetry and short stories, which he published in the Ukrainian press under the pseudonyms K. Viktoryn, I. Lavryn, K. Zorian, and others.

Dmytro Shtohryn

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]