Yaroslav Steshenko

Yaroslav Steshenko
Ярослав Стешенко
Born
Ярослав Іванович Стешенко
Yaroslav Ivanovych Steshenko

6 April [O.S. 24 March] 1904
Kyiv, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died11 March 1939(1939-03-11) (aged 34)
Nagaev Bay, Russian SSR, USSR (Now Russia)
EducationKyiv Higher Institute of Education, 1921
Kyiv National Economic University, 1930
Occupations
Parents
RelativesMariia Starytska (aunt)
Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska (aunt)
Mykhailo Starytsky (grandfather)
Veronika Chernyakhivska (cousin)
Mykola Lysenko (great-uncle)

Yaroslav Ivanovych Steshenko (6 April [O.S. 24 March] 1904–11 March 1939; Ukrainian: Ярослав Іванович Стешенко) was a Ukrainian and Soviet bibliographer, bibliographical scholar, bibliophile and art critic.[1][2][3][4] Frequently arrested by the Soviet authorities, Steshenko died in a gulag camp and is considered part of the Executed Renaissance.[1][2][4]

Biography

Steshenko was born 6 April [O.S. 24 March] 1904 in Kyiv, Russian Empire (present-day, Ukraine) to Ivan Steshenko and Oksana Steshenko (née Starytska).[1][2][3] Steshenko's father was a politician, literary scholar, poet, writer, translator and his mother was a children's writer, translator and teacher.[2][5][6][7] Steshenko was the younger brother of the actress Iryna Steshenko.[2][8] Through his mother Steshenko was the grandson of Mykhailo Starytsky and Sofiia Starytska, and the nephew of Mariia Starytska and Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska.[6][7][4] Steshenko was also the cousin of Veronika Chernyakhivska, and the great-nephew of Mykola Lysenko.[4]

In 1918, aged 14, Steshenko witnessed the assassination of his father by members of the Red Army.[9][4] In 1920, Steshenko graduated from gymnasium in Kyiv.[1] During this time Steshenko also attended a course in librarianship, and worked at the Dneprosoyuz book warehouse from 1919 to 1920.[1][2] From 1920 to 1921, Steshenko studied literary cycles at the Kyiv Higher Institute of Education.[1][2] In 1930[a], Steshenko graduated from Kyiv National Economic University.[1][2]

Career

In 1928, Steshenko became a member of the Russian Bibliographic Society at Moscow University and became a member of the Leningrad Society of Bibliophiles in 1929.[1][2]

Steshenko compiled indexes of works by Heorhiy Narbut and Sergiy Maslov, and co-authored a catalogue of publications of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences with Mykola Ivanchenko.[2][10]

Steshenko collected bookplates, and was a corresponding member of the Leningrad Society of Bookplate Artists.[1][2] Part of Steshenko's bookplate collection is housed at the Museum of Outstanding Figures of Ukrainian Culture.[4]

Arrests and death

In 1921, aged 17, Steshenko was arrested on charges of belonging to a counter-revolutionary youth organisation, but was later released due to lack of evidence.[1][2] Steshenko was arrested in 1923 on charges of belonging to the anti-Bolshevik Cossack Council of Right-Bank Ukraine, but was later released due to lack of evidence.[1][2]

In autumn 1929, Steshenko was imprisoned as part of the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine trial.[2] Steshenko plead not-guilty and was later released in 1930 due to the absence of criminal wrongdoing.[2] In 1933, Steshenko was arrested in Kharkiv as part of the "Archaeologists–Zhupans" (Ukrainian: Археологів–Жупанів) case and was exiled to Uralsk, Kazakh SSR (present-day Oral, Kazakhstan).[1] Steshenko was sentenced in 1936 to hard labor at a gulag camp in Kolyma.[1]

On 11 March 1939 Steshenko died aged 34 at a gulag camp in Nagaev Bay.[1][2][4] Steshenko was posthumously rehabilitated in September 1956.[1][2]

Legacy

A compilation of Steshenko's letters by Yevhen Pshenichny was published as Yaroslav Steshenko: Epistolary Monologue in 2020.[4]

Publications

  • Steshenko, Yaroslav (1926) Heorhii Narbut: Posthumous Exhibition of Works, T. Shevchenko All-Ukraine Historical Museum. Kyiv: Derzhvydav Ukraїny. [2][11]
  • Ivanchenko, M.; Peretz, V.; Steshenko, Y. (1927). Sergiy Maslov 1902–1927. Kyiv: Ukrainian Scientific Institute of Book Studies. [10]
  • Steshenko, Yaroslabv; Ivanchenko, M. (1930). Systematic Catalog of Publications of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, 1918–1929'. Kyiv: All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Unpublished

  • Bibliography of Ukrainian Bibliography and Bibliology [2]
  • Bibliography of the History of Ukrainian Printing (1925) [2]
  • Bibliographic Index of Books Printed in Ukrainian on the Territory of Russia in 1798–1916 [b][2]

Notes

  1. ^ Also cited as 1928.[3]
  2. ^ A version of which is held at the Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Ковальчук, Галина Іванівна (12 December 2025). "Стешенко Ярослав Іванович" [Steshenko Yaroslav Ivanovych]. Українська бібліотечна енциклопедія (in Ukrainian). Kyiv, Ukraine: Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine. Retrieved 22 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Bilokin, S.I. (2024). Dziuba, I. M.; Zhukovsky, A. I.; Zhelezniak, M. H. (eds.). "Стешенко Ярослав Іванович" [Steshenko Yaroslav Ivanovych]. Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Kyiv: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Shevchenko Scientific Society. Retrieved 22 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b c Struk, Danylo Husar, ed. (1993). Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Volume V: St–Z. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442651272.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Мельник, Ярослава (21 December 2021). "Українотворець Ярослав Стешенко". Збруч (in Ukrainian). Lviv. Retrieved 23 February 2026.
  5. ^ Senkus, Roman (2014). "Steshenko, Ivan M." Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  6. ^ a b Міхно, Олександр Петрович (2025). "Січень – лютий 2025. Постаті" [January-February 2025. Figures] (PDF). Освіта і суспільство (in Ukrainian). 1 (82): 36–38. Retrieved 15 February 2026.
  7. ^ a b "Turning the pages back... August 29 1868" (PDF). The Ukrainian Weekly. Vol. 35. Jersey City, New Jersey. 28 August 1994. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2025. Retrieved 15 February 2026.
  8. ^ "Steshenko, Oksana". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. 2001. Retrieved 15 February 2026.
  9. ^ "1873 – народився Іван Стешенко, перший міністр освіти УНР" [1873 – Ivan Steshenko, the first Minister of Education of the UNR, was born]. Historical calendar (in Ukrainian). Kyiv: Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  10. ^ a b "Сергій Маслов 1902–1927". Digital Library of Historical and Cultural Heritage. Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine. Retrieved 23 February 2026.
  11. ^ Mudrak, M. M. (2017). "Ukrainian Ex Libris in the Slavonic Library in Prague". Slavic & East European Information Resources. 18 (3–4): 185–202. doi:10.1080/15228886.2017.1393261. Retrieved 23 February 2026.
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