Stronin, Oleksander

Stronin, Oleksander [Стронін, Олександер], b 4 March 1826 in Rakitina sloboda, Belgorod county, Kursk gubernia, d 10 February 1889 in Yalta, Tavriia gubernia. Historian, sociologist, educator, and civic leader. After graduating from the philosophy faculty of Kyiv University (1848) he taught secondary school (1848–62) in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Novhorod-Siverskyi, and Poltava. He had a significant influence on Mykhailo Drahomanov, who was his student. In Poltava he was active in the local hromada and organized Sunday schools. In 1862 he was arrested for ‘disseminating Little Russian propaganda,’ held in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg, and exiled to Arkhangelsk gubernia. After his release (1869) he held a government job in Saint Petersburg and then presided over the Lublin gubernia conference of civil judges (justices of the peace) and acted as a legal consultant to the Ministry of Communications in Saint Petersburg. He wrote a number of historical-sociological studies, such as Istoriia i metod (History and Method, 1869), Politika kak nauka (Politics as a Science, 1872), and Istoriia obshchestvennosti (History of Society, 1885), as well as some popular books for the masses under the pseudonym Ivanov, including Priroda i liudi: Rasskazy o zemle i o nebe (Nature and Men: Stories about the Earth and the Heaven, 1896). His memoirs (1826–62) and diary for 1848–88 have not been published, but extensive extracts from them appeared in the journal Byloe (vol 7) in 1907.

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]