Palytsyn, Oleksander

Palytsyn, Oleksander [Палицин, Олександер], b 1741, d 1816 on the Popivka khutir (now part of Zalizniak), near Sumy, Slobidska Ukraine. Poet, architect, and patron of the arts. After serving in the army in Saint Petersburg he settled on his estate, where he drew together a circle of literati (dubbed the Popivka Academy), including the writers Vasyl Kapnist, I. Bohdanovych, and S. Glinka, the artist M. Alferov, and the architect Petro Yaroslavsky. The ‘Academy’ was also visited by Hryhorii Skovoroda and Vasyl Karazyn. Palytsyn donated his collection of paintings to Kharkiv University (it later formed the basis of the Kharkiv Art Museum), and in 1810 he became an honorary member of the university’s presidium. He designed several buildings and churches in the Sumy region and published a poetic translation of Slovo o polku Ihorevi (The Tale of Ihor’s Campaign, 1807), as well as translations of French authors, such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Jacques Delille.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]