Syniavsky, Antin
Syniavsky, Antin [Синявський, Антін; Synjavs'kyj], b 24 June 1866 in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv gubernia, d 1951 in Simferopol. Historian and economist, teacher, and civic figure. After graduating from Kyiv University he worked under Volodymyr Antonovych and continued his studies (now in law) at Odesa University and in Germany. A member of the Odesa Hromada, he had contacts in Galicia (particularly with Ivan Franko) and published articles in Galician periodicals of the late 1890s, such as Narod and Zoria (Lviv), under various pseudonyms (A. Katran, Kh. Skrahliuk, and others). From the beginning of the 1900s Syniavsky was director of the commerce school in Katerynoslav and deputy head of the Katerynoslav Learned Archival Commission as well as editor of its publication Letopis' Ekaterinoslavskoi gubernskoi uchenoi arkhivnoi komissii (1904–15), in which he printed his own papers on the history and archeology of Southern Ukraine. He helped cofound a local Prosvita society (1906) and was a supporter of the Society of Ukrainian Progressives. In 1918–19 Syniavsky was director of the Department of Secondary Schools of the Ministry of People’s Education in Ukraine. During the 1920s he was a professor (lecturing on economic geography, statistics, and other subjects) at several institutes of higher learning in Kyiv, including the Kyiv Institute of People's Education and the Kyiv Institute of the National Economy. He was also a research associate of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) (working in the historical section, the Oriental commission, and other areas and heading the Dniprelstan commission). In 1931 Syniavsky was sent by the VUAN to teach among the Ukrainian population in the Soviet Far East. Within a year his position was canceled. He then moved among appointments in the Far East (until 1934), Stalingrad, the Crimea, and Caucasia before settling down in Simferopol. Syniavsky’s works include research and memoirs about Antonovych, Pavlo Tutkovsky, L. Dobrovolsky, D. Syharevych, and others as well as articles and critical reviews in a variety of Ukrainian, Russian, and other journals.
Arkadii Zhukovsky
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]