Nikolay Kostomarov
| Nikolay Kostomarov | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
May 16, 1817 Voronezh Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | April 19, 1885 (aged 67) St Petersburg, Russian Empire |
Nikolay Ivanovich Kostomarov (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Костома́ров, Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov, Ukrainified: Микола Іванович Костомарiв, Mykola Ivanovych Kostomariv; May 16, 1817, vil. Yurasovka, Voronezh Governorate, Russian Empire – April 19, 1885, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was one of the most distinguished Russian historians, a Professor of History at the Kiev University and later at the St. Petersburg University, an author of many books, including his famous biography of the seventeenth century Hetman of Zaporozhian Cossacks Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and his fundamental 3-volume Russian History in Biographies of its main figures (Russkaya istoriya v zhizneopisaniyakh yeyo glavneyshikh deyateley). Nikolay Kostomarov was so important for Ukrainian culture, that some researchers observe him as a Ukrainian historian, as well as Russian.
His father was landlord Ivan Petrovich Kostomarov, his mother Tat'yana Petrovna Mel'nikova was of commoner origin, that's why Nikolay Kostomarov de jure was a "serf" of his father. As a historian, Kostomarov's writings reflected the romantic trends of his time. He was an advocate of the use of ethnography and folksong by historians, and claimed to be able to discern the "spirit" of the people, including "national spirit", by this method. On the basis of their folksongs and history, he claimed that the peoples of what he called Northern or Great Rus' on one hand and Southern or Little Rus' on the other (Russians and Ukrainians, respectively) differed in character and formed two separate nationalities. In his famous essay "Two Russian Nationalities" ("Две русские народности"), a landmark in the history of Ukrainian national thought, he propagated what some consider to be the stereotypes of Russians inclined towards , collectivism, and state-building, and Ukrainians inclined towards liberty, poetry, and individualism.
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