Shteingel, Teodor

Shteingel, Teodor (Fedir) [Штейнґель, Теодор (Федір); Štejngel'], b 9 December 1870 in Saint Petersburg, d 11 April 1946 in Dresden, Germany. Political and cultural leader and diplomat. A graduate of Kyiv University, he set up a school, hospital, co-operative (see co-operative movement), and reading room in Horodok [now Horodok (Rivne oblast)], as well as a museum (1902) to house his valuable archeological, historical, and ethnographic collections. He excavated burial sites of the medieval period in Rivne county. Although he was a Russian baron, he supported the Ukrainian national movement. In 1906 he served as deputy from Kyiv to the First State Duma and joined the Ukrainian caucus in the Russian State Duma. He was a member of the Society of Ukrainian Progressives and vice-president of the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kyiv. After the February Revolution of 1917 he chaired the executive committee of the Kyiv City Duma, the precursor of the Central Rada. In 1918 the Hetman government sent him as a diplomatic envoy to Berlin. He returned to live in Western Ukraine during the interwar era but left for Germany in 1939.

[This article was updated in 2015.]