Svystun, Pylyp

Svystun, Pylyp [Свистун, Пилип], b 15 November 1844 in Toboliv, Zolochiv circle, Galicia, d 21 July 1916 in Rostov-na-Donu. Historian, educator, and Russophile leader in Galicia. After teaching at a gymnasium in Rzeszów he served as director of the library of the People's Home in Lviv (1904–12) and editor of its organ Vistnyk Narodnoho doma. He was an executive member of the Stauropegion Institute and president of the Kachkovsky Society and editor of its publications. He wrote many articles and several books on the history of Galicia, including the study of Taras Shevchenko Chem est' dlia nas" Shevchenko (What Shevchenko Is for Us, 1885) and Prikarpatskaia Rus' pod" vladeniem Avstrii (Subcarpathian Ruthenia under the Rule of Austria, 2 vols, 1896–7; repr 1970), which criticized both the Austrian and the Polish authorities for restricting contacts with the Russian Empire as well as aiding Ukrainian ‘separatism.’

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