Viktor Platonovych Petrov ( uk, Віктор Платонович Петров, pen names V. Domontovych ( uk, В. Домонтович), Viktor Ber ( uk, Віктор Бер); 10 October 1894 – 8 June 1969) was a prominent

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

writer. Together with

Valerian Pidmohylny Valerian Petrovych Pidmohylny (Ukrainian: Валер'ян Петрович Підмогильний; 2 February 1901 - 3 November 1937) was a Ukrainian modernist, most famous for the realist novel '' Misto'' (The City). Like a number of Ukra ...

, Petrov is considered to be the founder of the Ukrainian intellectual novel. Although Petrov is remembered as a writer today, during his life he was a scientist in the first place. He wrote papers on

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, philosophy and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

Biography

Viktor Petrov was born on 10 October 1894 in Yekaterinoslav (today's Dnipro). In 1918 he graduated from historical-philological faculty of

Kiev University Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

. Later he worked at the ethnographic committee of the

Ukrainian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...

. In 1930 he obtained his doctorate for a study titled "Panteleymon Kulish in the 50s. Life. Ideology. Creativity". During World War II he was in the territory occupied by Germans where he worked in several Ukrainian magazines and newspapers. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Petrov stayed in emigration in Germany, during which he was a professor at the

Ukrainian Free University The Ukrainian Free University ( ua, Український Вільний Університет, german: Ukrainische Freie Universität, la, Universitas Libera Ukrainensis) is a private graduate university located in Munich, Germany. History ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. He was also one of the founding members of the Ukrainian artist movement, a literary organization of the Ukrainian intellectual diaspora. At a later time Petrov disappeared from Germany under unknown circumstances. Later it was discovered (due to a reference to him in Aleksandr Mongait's survey book) that he returned to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and kept working at the Institute of Archaeology in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. Petrov died in 1969 and is buried in Kyiv.

Writings

Novels

* Without Foundation (''Без ґрунту'') (1942–1943) * Girl with a Teddy Bear ( uk, Дівчина з ведмедиком, italic=yes) (1928) * Doctor Seraficus ( uk, Доктор Серафікус, italic=yes) (1928–1929, published in 1947) * Alina and Kostomarov ( uk, Аліна й Костомаров, italic=yes) (1929) * Kulish's romances ( uk, Романи Куліша, italic=yes) (1930) * Doctor Seraficus (English translation of excerpt), translated by Yuri Tkacz, in ''Before the Storm'', Ardis Publishers USA

Scientific publications

* Origin of the Ukrainian Nation * Scythians — language and ethnicity * Ethnogenesis of Slavs * Development of Ukrainian People
Ukrainian cultural activists - victims of repressions

References

Literature

in the ''

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' ( uk, Енциклопедія українознавства, translit=Entsyklopediia ukrainoznavstva), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was creat ...

'' * Andreyev V
"Epoch theory" by Viktor Petrov: frustrated revolution of the Ukrainian historiography
// Scriptorium nostrum. - 2015. - No. 1-2. - С. 7-34 Existentialists Ukrainian novelists Writers from Dnipro Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni 1894 births 1969 deaths Ukrainian literary critics 20th-century novelists Soviet literary historians Soviet male writers 20th-century male writers {{Ukraine-writer-stub