Poletyka, Vasyl

Poletyka, Vasyl [Полетика, Василь], b 1765 in Saint Petersburg, d 1845 in Korovyntsi, Romny county, Poltava gubernia. Historian and civic figure; son of Hryhorii A. Poletyka. After studying at Vilnius University he served in the Russian army (1786–90), from which he retired with the rank of second major to his estate in Korovyntsi. In 1802 and 1805–12 he was marshal of the nobility in Romny county. His study of the history of ancient Egypt and the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians was published in Saint Petersburg in 1788, and a few of his shorter works were printed in various publications of the period. He collected many materials for a history of Ukraine he planned to write. According to Oleksander Lazarevsky, Vasyl Horlenko, L. Maikov, Elie Borschak, and other scholars Poletyka was the author, alone or with his father, of Istoriia Rusov.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]