Zakrevsky, Mykola

Zakrevsky, Mykola [Закревський, Микола; Zakrevs'kyj; pseudonym: N. Shaginian], b 21 June 1805 in Kyiv, d 10 August 1871 in Moscow. Historian, ethnographer, and writer. A graduate of Kharkiv University, he continued his studies at Dorpat (Tartu) University, worked as a teacher in Revel (now Tallinn), and lived in Moscow from 1859. He wrote Ocherk istorii g. Kieva (An Outline of the History of the City of Kyiv, 1836), Letopis' i opisanie g. Kieva (A Chronicle and Description of the City of Kyiv, 1858), and Opisanie Kieva (A Description of Kyiv, 2 vols, 1868). He also researched Ukrainian folklore and published a collection of dumas, folk songs, proverbs, and riddles in Starosvetskii bandurista (Old World Banduryst, 3 vols, 1860–1), the third volume of which contained a dictionary of Little Russian (Ukrainian) idioms (over 11,000 words). Part of his collected data, including materials for two dictionaries, remained in manuscript form in Katerynoslav. Zakrevsky was an ardent defender of the right of Ukrainians to literature in their native language.

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