Vozniak, Mykhailo
Vozniak, Mykhailo [Возняк, Михайло; Voznjak, Myxajlo], b 3 October 1881 in Vilky-Mazovetski (now Volytsia), Rava-Ruska county, Galicia, d 20 November 1954 in Lviv. Literary scholar. He graduated from the Lviv University in 1908, was a professor there from 1939, and was director of the department of Ukrainian literature at that university from 1944. He was a full member of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences from 1929 (which later became the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR), was barred from membership during the 1930s, and was reinstated as a full member in 1939. He began to publish his work in 1902, and for many years he worked on Shevchenko Scientific Society publications and commissions. He is the author of many studies on the history of Ukrainian literature (he adhered to the historical-cultural approach), in particular on the Galician rebirth during the 19th century, including Pysannia Markiiana Shashkevycha (The Writings of Markiian Shashkevych, 1911) and Prosvitni zmahannia halyts’kykh ukraïntsiv 19 v. (The Enlightenment Efforts of Galician Ukrainians in the 19th Century, 1912), and on Yakiv Holovatsky, Ivan Vahylevych, and Mykola Ustyianovych. His works include Rizdviani i velykodni virshi—Oratsiï zi zbirnyka kintsia XVII–pochatku XVIII v. (Christmas and Easter Poems: Orations from a Collection of the Late 17th and Early 18th Centuries, 1910), Materiialy do istoriï ukraïns’koï pisni i virshi (Materials for the History of the Ukrainian Song and Verse, 3 vols, 1913–25), and Pochatky ukraïns’koï komediï (1619–1819) (The Beginnings of Ukrainian Comedy [1619–1819], 1919). Vozniak’s most notable work is Istoriia ukraïns’koï literatury (The History of Ukrainian Literature, 3 vols, 1920–4) from its beginnings to the 18th century. Vozniak published the anthology Stare ukraïns’ke pys’menstvo (Old Ukrainian Literature, 1929) and many popular publications, notable among which are Kyrylo-metodiïvs’ke bratstvo (The Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, 1921) and Iak probudylosia ukraïns’ke narodne zhyttia v Halychyni za Avstriï (How Ukrainian National Life Awakened in Galicia under Austrian Rule, 1924). He also published a great number of works on folklore and on old and modern literature. A posthumous collection of Vozniak’s articles about the literary work of Ivan Franko, Z zhyttia i tvorchosty I. Franka (From the Life and Works of I. Franko), was published in 1955.
Ivan Koshelivets
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]