Kovalivsky, Andrii

Kovalivsky, Andrii [Ковалівський, Андрій; Kovalivs'kyj, Andrij], b 1 February 1895 in Rozsokhovate near Zolochiv, Kharkiv gubernia, d 29 November 1969 in Kharkiv. Historian and specialist on Oriental sources of Slavic history. He was one of the founders of the All-Ukrainian Learned Association of Oriental Studies. He worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Leningrad (1934–9) and at the Saransk Pedagogical Institute in Mordovia (1939–44). In 1947 he returned to the Institute of Oriental Studies in Leningrad and lectured at the university there. In 1951 he received his doctorate from Kharkiv University, and in 1964 he was appointed head of the Chair of Medieval History. Apart from Middle Eastern studies, he was interested in the history of Kyivan Rus’ and 18th-century Ukraine. He is the author of over 90 works, including Rozvytok etychnykh pohliadiv Hryhoriia Skovorody v zv’iazku z ioho zhyttiam (The Development of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s Ethical Views in Relation to His Life, 1923), Kniga Akhmeda Ibn-Fadlana o ego puteshestvii na Volgu v 921–922 gg. (Ahmad Ibn Fadlān’s Book on His Travels to the Volga in 921–2, 1956), Antolohiia literatur Skhodu (Anthology of Oriental Literatures, 1961), translations of medieval Arabic accounts and works by Middle Eastern writers, and studies of Ukrainian folk beliefs, Ahatanhel Krymsky, Pavlo Ritter, and Paul of Aleppo. Kovalivsky is the subject of a biobibliography published in Kharkiv in 1966.

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