People · Kyivans in history
Famous Kyivans
Princes and saints, poets and aviators, patrons and adventurers — people who were born, lived or worked in Kyiv. Biographies, addresses and places to visit.
- 56 people
- 11 categories
- 12 centuries (X–XXI c.)
Princes and rulers
5 people Yaroslav the WiseGrand Prince of Kyivбл. 978–1054The prince under whom Kyiv became one of Europe’s great cities: he built the “city of Yaroslav” with the Golden Gate and St Sophia’s Cathedral, where he lies buried.
Volodymyr the GreatBaptizer of Rus’бл. 960–1015The Kyivan prince who brought Christianity to Rus’ in 988. He built the Church of the Tithes and enlarged the city; his statue on Volodymyrska Hill is a Kyiv landmark.
Princess OlhaRegent of Kyiv? – 969The first woman to rule Rus’: after her husband Ihor was killed, she governed from Kyiv for her young son Sviatoslav and was the first of the dynasty to be baptized. Her statue stands on Mykhailivska Square.
Sviatoslav the BraveWarrior princeбл. 942–972Son of Ihor and Olha, a prince of Kyiv who spent almost his whole life on campaign, from the Volga to the Danube. His statue stands on Peizazhna Alley.
Volodymyr MonomakhGrand Prince of Kyiv1053–1125Grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, called to the throne by the people of Kyiv during the uprising of 1113. He ruled until 1125, wrote the “Instruction” for his sons, and lies in St Sophia’s.
Clergy
4 people Feodosiy of the CavesAbbot, co-founder of the Lavraбл. 1029–1074With Antoniy, the founder of the Kyiv Caves Monastery. As abbot he moved the community from the caves to the hilltop, introduced the Studite rule and laid the Dormition Cathedral.
Metropolitan IlarionMetropolitan and writerXI ст.The first native of Rus’ to become Metropolitan of Kyiv (1051) and author of the “Sermon on Law and Grace”. As a priest at Berestove he dug the cave where the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra began.
Nestor the ChroniclerMonk and chroniclerбл. 1056 – бл. 1114A monk of the Kyiv Caves Monastery, traditionally credited with the Primary Chronicle — the main source for the history of Kyivan Rus’. He rests in the Lavra’s Near Caves.
Petro MohylaMetropolitan of Kyiv1596–1647Archimandrite of the Pechersk Lavra and Metropolitan of Kyiv, founder of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium (1632). He restored St Sophia’s Cathedral and the Church of the Saviour at Berestove.
Writers and poets
8 people Lesya UkrainkaPoet and playwright1871–1913Author of The Forest Song, who lived in Kyiv from the 1880s. The Kosach family house at 97 Saksahanskoho St is now a museum, and she is buried in Baikove Cemetery.
Mikhail BulgakovNovelist and playwright1891–1940Kyiv-born author of The Master and Margarita and The White Guard. His home at 13 Andriyivskyy Descent, where he lived in 1906–1919, is now a museum.
Taras ShevchenkoPoet and artist1814–1861The author of Kobzar lived in Kyiv in 1846–1847 in a house on Kozyne Boloto (now a museum), worked for the Archaeographic Commission and was arrested here.
Ivan Nechuy-LevytskyNovelist1838–1918A classic of Ukrainian prose and author of The Kaidash Family. He studied at the Kyiv Theological Academy, lived in Kyiv from 1885 until his death in 1918 and is buried in Baikove.
Sholem AleichemYiddish writer1859–1916Classic of Yiddish literature and author of Tevye the Dairyman. He lived in Kyiv in 1887–1890 and 1893–1905, portraying it as “Yehupets”; Kyiv has a museum in his honour.
Konstantin PaustovskyWriter1892–1968A prose writer who grew up in Kyiv, attending the First Kyiv Gymnasium and Kyiv University; he described his Kyiv childhood in Distant Years, the first book of his Story of a Life.
Viktor NekrasovWriter and dissident1911–1987Kyiv-born author of In the Trenches of Stalingrad. In 1959 he was the first to call publicly for a Babyn Yar memorial; he lived in the Passage at 15 Khreshchatyk until forced into exile in 1974.
Maksym RylskyPoet and translator1895–1964Kyiv-born Neoclassicist poet and translator of Pan Tadeusz. He spent his last years in Holosiiv, at 7 Rylskoho St, where his house is now a museum.
Artists and architects
8 people Mykhailo VrubelPainter1856–1910One of the most original painters of the turn of the 20th century. He lived in Kyiv in 1884–1889, painting St Cyril’s Church and working on sketches for St Volodymyr’s Cathedral.
Kazymyr Malevych (Kazimir Malevich)Avant-garde artist1879–1935Kyiv-born founder of Suprematism and author of the Black Square. He studied at a Kyiv drawing school and taught at the Kyiv Art Institute in 1928–1930.
Vladyslav HorodetskyArchitect1863–1930The “Gaudí of Kyiv”: for almost 30 years he worked in the city, leaving it the House with Chimaeras, St Nicholas Church, the Karaite kenesa and the National Art Museum building.
Oleksandr MurashkoPainter1875–1919Kyiv painter, author of “Carousel” and “Girl in a Red Hat” and a co-founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. He was murdered in Kyiv in June 1919.
Mykola PymonenkoGenre painter1862–1912Master of genre painting who celebrated Ukrainian village life. Born in Priorka, he spent his whole life in Kyiv, teaching at Murashko’s Drawing School and the Kyiv Polytechnic.
Oleksandra Ekster (Alexandra Exter)Avant-garde artist1882–1949One of the “Amazons of the avant-garde”, a painter and stage designer. She grew up and studied in Kyiv, and her studio on Fundukleivska Street was a hub of the city’s art life.
Oleksandr Arkhypenko (Alexander Archipenko)Sculptor1887–1964A Kyiv native who pioneered Cubist sculpture and made empty space part of the form. He studied at the Kyiv Art School until he was expelled in 1905.
Vikentiy BerettiArchitect1781–1842Italian-born architect of the Red Building of Kyiv University and the Institute for Noble Maidens. He worked in Kyiv from 1837 until his death.
Musicians and performers
8 people Mykola LysenkoComposer1842–1912The father of Ukrainian classical music. He lived in Kyiv for over half a century, wrote his operas and founded the first music and drama school here; his house-museum and grave are in the city.
Alexander VertinskySinger-songwriter1889–1957Legendary chansonnier and actor, the “sad Pierrot” of the stage. Born at 43 Volodymyrska Street, he went to school in Kyiv; a monument to him stands on Andriyivskyy Descent.
Serge LifarDancer, choreographer1905–1986A Kyivan who led the Paris Opera Ballet for over 30 years. He sang in the St Sophia Cathedral choir and took his first ballet steps in Bronislava Nijinska’s Kyiv studio.
Bronislava NijinskaDancer, choreographer1891–1972Sister of Vaslav Nijinsky and one of the first great women choreographers. She lived in Kyiv in 1915–1921, founding her innovative School of Movement and training Serge Lifar.
Mariya ZankovetskaActress1854–1934The great tragic actress of the Ukrainian “Theatre of Coryphaei”. She played in Sadovsky’s Kyiv theatre and spent her last years at 121 Velyka Vasylkivska Street, now her museum.
Mykola SadovskyActor, director1856–1933A giant of Ukrainian theatre. In 1907 he brought his company to Kyiv and opened the city’s first permanent Ukrainian theatre in the Trinity People’s House, today’s Operetta Theatre.
Oleksandr DovzhenkoFilm director1894–1956A classic of world cinema, maker of Earth and Arsenal. He studied and worked in Kyiv and filmed at the Kyiv film factory, named after him since 1957.
Sergei ParajanovFilm director1924–1990Director of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. He worked at Kyiv’s Dovzhenko Film Studios for over twenty years and was arrested in his Kyiv flat in 1973.
Scientists and doctors
5 people Borys PatonWelding scientist, Academy president1918–2020Kyiv-born son of Yevhen Paton who led the Electric Welding Institute for 67 years and Ukraine’s Academy of Sciences for 58; the first Hero of Ukraine.
Mykola AmosovHeart surgeon, writer1913–2002Surgeon who worked in Kyiv for 50 years: Ukraine’s first heart operations, heart-lung bypass and valves of his own design. Founder of the cardiac surgery institute that bears his name.
Volodymyr VernadskyNaturalist, first Academy president1863–1945Founder of geochemistry and the biosphere concept. In Kyiv in 1918 he created the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the National Library that now bears his name.
Feofil YanovskyPhysician1860–1928Founder of the Kyiv school of internal medicine and of the city’s fight against tuberculosis, remembered as the “saintly doctor”. He lived at 13-B Yaroslaviv Val for 25 years.
Mykhailo MaksymovychFirst rector of Kyiv University1804–1873Botanist, historian and folklorist; first rector of Kyiv’s St Volodymyr University (1834–1835) and the first historian of ancient Kyiv.
Engineers and designers
4 people Igor SikorskyAircraft designer1889–1972Kyiv-born creator of the world’s first four-engine aircraft and first mass-produced helicopter. He built his first helicopters and planes in the courtyard of the family home on Yaroslaviv Val.
Yevhen PatonBridge engineer1870–1953Bridge engineer and Kyiv Polytechnic professor from 1904. He designed the park footbridge over Petrivska Alley, founded the Electric Welding Institute and gave his name to an all-welded Dnipro bridge.
Oleh AntonovAircraft designer1906–1984Chief aircraft designer whose bureau was based in Kyiv from 1952, creating the An-10, An-12, An-22 Antei, An-24 and An-124 Ruslan.
Serhiy KorolyovRocket designer1907–1966Zhytomyr-born chief designer of Sputnik and the Vostok spacecraft. In 1924–1926 he studied at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where he took up gliding.
Patrons and entrepreneurs
6 people Mykola (Nikola) TereshchenkoSugar magnate and philanthropist1819–1903The “sugar king” who lived in Kyiv from 1875 and funded its gymnasiums, schools, shelters, the Polytechnic Institute and the city museum. Tereshchenkivska Street bears his name.
Bohdan and Varvara KhanenkoArt collectors and patrons1849–1917 · 1852–1922A collector couple who spent 40 years assembling one of the finest private art collections in the empire and left it to Kyiv. Their home at 15 Tereshchenkivska Street is now the Khanenko Museum.
Lazar BrodskySugar magnate, philanthropist1848–1904Kyiv’s “sugar king”, who paid for the Choral Synagogue (1898) and the Bessarabsky Market and backed the Polytechnic, the Bacteriological Institute and the Jewish hospital.
Halshka HulevychivnaFounder of the Kyiv Brotherhood Schoolбл. 1575–1642A Volhynian noblewoman who in 1615 gave her estate on Podil to the Kyiv Brotherhood for a monastery and school — the date from which Kyiv-Mohyla Academy counts its history.
Ivan MazepaHetman, church builder1639–1709The hetman who made Kyiv a showcase of “Mazepa Baroque”: the Lavra’s stone walls, All Saints Church, St Nicholas Military Cathedral, a remodelled St Sophia and the Mohyla Academy building.
Mykhailo DehteriovMerchant and philanthropist1831–1899A Kyiv merchant who left the city about 4.5 million rubles. The money built the Dehteriov almshouses in Lukianivka — hence the name of Dehtiarivska Street.
Statesmen
3 people Mykhailo HrushevskyHistorian, head of the Central Rada1866–1934Ukraine’s foremost historian, who chaired the Central Rada in 1917–1918 in the Pedagogical Museum on Volodymyrska Street. He lived at 9 Pankivska Street, now his memorial museum.
Golda MeirPrime Minister of Israel1898–1978Israel’s fourth prime minister (1969–1974) was born in Kyiv to a carpenter’s family and lived on Baseina Street near Bessarabka until 1903, where a memorial plaque now hangs.
Pavlo SkoropadskyHetman of the Ukrainian State1873–1945Proclaimed hetman in Kyiv on 29 April 1918, in seven and a half months he founded the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the National Library and the State Ukrainian University in the capital.
Our contemporaries
3 people Valeriy LobanovskyiFootball coach1939–2002A born Kyivan and the most decorated coach in Soviet football, he twice won the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Dynamo Kyiv. The Dynamo Stadium, with his monument, bears his name.
Vitali KlitschkoBoxer, Mayor of Kyivb. 1971WBO and WBC world heavyweight boxing champion. Mayor of Kyiv since 2014, re-elected in 2015 and 2020.
Andriy ShevchenkoFootballer, UAF presidentb. 1976A Dynamo Kyiv academy graduate, 2004 Ballon d’Or winner and Champions League winner with AC Milan. He grew up in Kyiv’s Obolon district and has led Ukraine’s football association since 2024.
Adventurers and criminals
2 people Dmitry BogrovAssassin of Stolypin1887–1911A Kyivan anarchist who was also a secret-police informer. On 14 September 1911 he fatally shot Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin in the City Theatre (now the National Opera); hanged at Lysa Hora.
Vera CheberyakFigure in the Beilis case?–1919Keeper of a thieves’ den in Kyiv’s Lukianivka district, whom detectives and most historians linked to the 1911 murder of Andriy Yushchynsky – the crime pinned on Menahem Mendel Beilis.
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