Sitsinsky, Yevtym
Sitsinsky, Yevtym or Yukhym [Сіцінський, Євтим (Юхим): Sicins'kyj, Jevtym (Juxym); aka Sichynsky, Sitsynsky], b 1 October 1859 in Maznyky, Letychiv county, Podilia gubernia, d 7 December 1937 in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Historian, archeologist, teacher, and civic activist; member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1894; father of Volodymyr Sichynsky. A graduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy (1885), he taught in the Kuban and then was ordained and stationed in Kamianets-Podilskyi (1889), where later he became archpriest of the cathedral parish. He established an eparchial historical-archeological museum (now the Kamianets-Podilskyi Historical Museum and Preserve) in 1890 and directed it until 1922, headed the Podilia Church Historical-Archeological Society (1903–21) and edited its publications Podol’skie eparkhial’nye vedomosti and Trudy (vols 6, 8–12), helped establish the Prosvita society in Podilia (1905), and carried out extensive field research throughout the region, during the course of which he studied architecture and collected museum pieces. His magnum opus was Istoricheskie svedeniia o prikhodakh i tserkvakh Podol'skoi eparkhii (Historical Information about the Parishes and Churches of Podilia Eparchy, 7 vols, 1895–1911), and his other works included Arkheologicheskaia karta Podol'skoi gubernii (Archeological Map of Podilia Gubernia, 1901), Ischezaiushchii tip dereviannykh tserkvei Podolii (The Vanishing Type of Wooden Churches in Podilia, 1904), Oboronni zamky Zakhidn'oho Podillia (Defensive Castles of Western Podilia, 1928), and Narysy z istoriï Podillia (Studies of the History of Podilia, 2 vols, 1928). His most popular monograph was Gorod Kamenets Podol'skii: Istoricheskoe opisanie (The City of Kamianets-Podilskyi: A Historical Description, 1895).
In 1918 he helped establish the Kamianets-Podilskyi Ukrainian State University, at which he taught archeology and the history of Podilia (1918–20). Under Soviet rule he was given a lowly teaching position at the Institute of People's Education in Kamianets-Podilskyi (1920–6) and eventually dismissed. Sitsinsky was arrested in 1929, and spent 10 months in prison. Upon his release he worked for a short time at the museum of the Kyivan Cave Monastery. He returned to Kamianets-Podilskyi, where, forbidden to teach, he lived out his days in poverty.
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]