April 18, 2024 marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of the distinguished graduate of Karazin University, historian, ethnographer, and folklorist Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov.
Born in 1854, Mykola Sumtsov spent his entire life in Kharkiv and devoted many years to the revival of Ukrainian national culture.
Mykola Fedorovych received his higher education at Karazin University, and in 1889, he was appointed as a professor at the university. For over 20 years, he headed the Kharkiv Historical-Philological Society, editing all its collections, and chaired its Pedagogical Department (1908).
Mykola Sumtsov was one of the initiators of the establishment of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the opening of the Public Library in Kharkiv (now the V. G. Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library). He authored over 1,500 scholarly and popular works on Ukrainian folklore, ethnography, and the history of Ukrainian literature from the 18th to the 20th centuries.
The scholar worked on creating a systematic history of Ukrainian literature from the 17th to the 18th centuries, compiled a Ukrainian literature anthology, and wrote extensively on the history of Western European literature, fine arts, and the history of our university.
In 1907, it was Mykola Sumtsov who first among the Kharkiv professorship began lecturing in Ukrainian. He was known as an advocate and popularizer of Ukrainian national culture, actively defending the right to the existence of the Ukrainian language in printed publications and during the teaching of academic disciplines in primary, secondary, and higher education.
The works of Mykola Fedorovych are recognized not only in Ukraine but also beyond its borders. They have retained their value and continue to influence contemporary science, serving as the basis for further research in the field of ethnography and the history of Ukrainian and Slobozhanshchyna cultures.
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