Isaiv, Petro

Isaiv, Petro [Ісаїв, Петро; Isajiv], b 26 June 1905 in Lisky, Kolomyia county, Galicia, d 23 February 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Historian, pedagogue, and journalist. A graduate of Lviv University (MA 1931) and the Ukrainian Free University (PH D 1947), he taught secondary school in Lviv and edited the journals Molode zhyttia (1927–9) and Dzvony (1931–9). During the Second World War he headed the educational department of the Ukrainian Central Committee and edited Ukraïns’ka shkola (1942–3). In 1944 he immigrated to Germany and in 1949 to the United States of America. Isaiv served as head of the executive of the Obnova Society of Ukrainian Catholic Students, edited the weekly Shliakh (1949–63), and was active in Ukrainian education. On the strength of his scholarly contributions he was elected full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (1952) and professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University (Rome) (1965). His publications include numerous articles, particularly on the history of the Ukrainian church, entries in Entsyklopediia ukraïnoznavstva, and the monograph Prychyny upadku ukraïns'koï derzhavy v kniazhi i kozats'ki chasy (The Causes of the Fall of the Ukrainian State in Princely and Cossack Times, 1975).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]