Kordt, Veniiamyn

Kordt, Veniiamyn [Кордт, Веніямин], b 19 February 1860 in Tartu, Estonia, d 24 December 1934 in Kyiv. Historian, cartographer, and bibliographer, of German descent. A graduate of Dorpat University (1888), from 1894 he lectured at Kyiv University and was the director of the university’s library. Kordt was a member of the Kyiv Archeographic Commission and the Archeographic Commission of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN), and one of the organizers in 1918 of the National Library of the Ukrainian State (now National Library of Ukraine), where he headed the cartography department. Kordt’s main works deal with the history of Ukrainian cartography: Materialy po istorii russkoi kartografii (Materials on the History of Russian Cartography, 2 vols, 1899, 1910) and Materiialy do istoriï kartohrafiï Ukraïny (Materials for the History of Ukrainian Cartography, 1931). He also wrote Chuzhozemni podorozhi po Skhidnii Ievropi do 1700 r. (Foreign Travels in Eastern Europe up to 1700, 1926), articles on Swedish sources to Ukrainian history in Zapysky Istorychno-filolohichnoho viddilu VUAN and Ukraïns’kyi arkheohrafichnyi zbirnyk, and several bibliographic studies.

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