Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky

November 25, 1838 — April 2, 1918

Novelist

A 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.

Biography

Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky (born Levytsky) was born in 1838 in the small town of Steblev in the Kyiv region, the son of a priest. He was educated in Kyiv, at the Kyiv Theological Seminary and then, in 1861–1865, at the Kyiv Theological Academy in Podil, graduating with a master's degree but turning down a career in the church.

After twenty years teaching at gymnasiums in Poland and Chișinău, he retired in 1885 and moved to Kyiv to write full-time. He lived modestly in rented rooms: at 31 Yaroslaviv Val (1885–1889), then for over twenty years in an outbuilding at 19 Pushkinska Street (now Yevhena Chykalenka St, 1889–1910), and later on Volodymyrska and Lvivska (now Sichovykh Striltsiv) streets. In Kyiv he wrote The Lost Ones, The Athonite Rogue, Among Enemies and The Kyiv Petitioners (1906), and the city often served as the setting for his stories.

In late 1917 he broke his leg, and he spent his last weeks in an almshouse at 19 Dehtiarivska Street, where he died on 2 April 1918. He is buried in Baikove Cemetery. A memorial plaque marks the house at 19 Yevhena Chykalenka Street, and a Kyiv street bears his name.

Kyiv in their life

Kyiv Theological Academy (Podil) — his studies in 1861–1865.
31 Yaroslaviv Val — his first Kyiv flat (1885–1889), since demolished.
19 Yevhena Chykalenka St (formerly Pushkinska) — his home in 1889–1910; memorial plaque.
19 Dehtiarivska St — the almshouse where he died in 1918.
Baikove Cemetery — his grave.