Mykola Kostomarov

Mykola Ivanovych Kostomarov (Ukrainian: Микола Іванович Костомаров; 16 May [O.S. 4 May] 1817 – 19 April [O.S. 7 April] 1885) or Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov (Russian: Николай Иванович Костомаров) was one of the most distinguished Russian–Ukrainian historians, one of the first anti-Normanists, and the father of modern Ukrainian historiography. He was a professor of Russian history at the St. Vladimir University of Kiev and later at the St. Petersburg University, an Active State Councillor of Russia, an author of many books, including his biography of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, research on Stepan Razin, and his fundamental three-volume Russian history in the biographies of its most important figures (Russian: Русская история в жизнеописаниях её главнейших деятелей).

Kostomarov was also known as one of the main figures of the Ukrainian national revival society best known as the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, which existed in Kiev from January 1846 to March 1847. Kostomarov was also a poet, ethnographer, pan-Slavist, and promoter of the so-called Narodnik movement in the Russian Empire.