Mykola Sumtsov

Mykola Sumtsov was born into a noble family, descendants of Cossacks. His father, Fedor Ivanovich Sumtsov, worked in the Imperial Ministry of Finance in St. Petersburg, and after his retirement in 1856, moved to Kharkiv, where he died the same year. Sumtsov’s mother, Anna Ivanovna, brought him up on her own. She had thorough knowledge of traditions and customs of Sloboda Ukraine as well as folk medicine. It was Anna Ivanovna, who inspired and supported his interest in folklore and traditions.[4]

He studied at the 2nd Kharkiv Boys Gymnasium (high school), which he graduated with silver medal. The native Russian-speaker learned French and German in the gymnasium, and taught himself Ukrainian.[5] Afterwards, he graduated History and Philology Faculty at Kharkiv University (1871–1875). In 1876 he undertook several courses at Heidelberg University, Germany. In 1878 Sumtsov returned to Kharkiv as a lecturer of Russian Literature. Supported by his mentor, Alexander Potebnja, he dedicated his introductory lecture to Ukrainian duma (Cossack epic song).[6]

In 1880, he defended his Master thesis On the Wedding Rites, Mainly Russian. In 1885 Sumtsov was awarded a PhD degree for his thesis Khleb v Obriadakh i Pesniakh (Bread in Rituals and Songs) and in 1888 he was appointed professor.

In 1902, the 12th Archaeological Congress was held from August 15 to 27 in Kharkiv, organised by the Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society, chaired by Mykola Sumtsov. At the congress he organised an ethnographic exhibition consisting of impressive 26 sections and 1,490 artefacts. That exhibition became the foundation of Kharkiv University Ethnographic Museum, with Sumtsov as first curator from 1905 to 1918.

One of the most notable of Mykola Sumtsov’s activities in support of the Ukrainian national movement was his public lecture in Ukrainian on 28 September 1907, when the ban on using Ukrainian in Ukraine had not yet been lifted.[3]

In 1916, the Russian Geographical Society awarded Mykola Sumtsov a gold medal.

In 1917, Mykola Sumtsov, along with other members of Special Committee of Kharkiv University Board, signed an appeal to the government asking to allow free use of Ukrainian in all Kharkiv institutions.[7]

One of the last projects undertaken by Mykola Sumtsov in 1920 to 1922 was overseeing gathering information on the local kobzars and their songs for the Gregory Skovoroda Museum of Sloboda Ukraine (now — M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum).

Mykola Sumtsov

Mykola Sumtsov wrote extensively. The bibliography of his known works contains 1,544 entries.[8] His writings mainly concern two areas of science: ethnography and literature. In addition to the local periodicals, his works were also published in Bulgarian, Polish, Bohemian, German and French academic publications.

• 1880–1896 – Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society, secretary
• 1897–1919 – Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society, president
• 1905 – Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member
• 1908 – Shevchenko Scientific Society, full member
• 1919 – All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, full member

• An Essay on the History of the Witchcraft in Europe. Kharkiv University, 1878. (in Rus.)
• On the Wedding Rites, Mainly Russian. Kharkiv University, 1881. (in Rus.)
• Prince V. F. Odoyevsky. Moscow, 1884. (in Rus.)
• Khleb v obriadakh i pesniakh (Bread in [Folk] Rituals and Songs), 1885. (in Rus.)
• Research on Koliadki and Shchedrivki. Kiev, 1886. (in Rus.)
• Raven in the Folk Literature. Moscow, 1890. (in Rus.)
• Contemporary Malorussian Ethnography. Kiev, 1893-1897. (in Rus.)
• On the Influence of Malorussian Scholastic Literature of the Seventeenth Century at the Great-Russian Old Believers Literature of the Eighteenth Century, and on the Reflection of Masonry // Kievskaya starina. 1895, vol. 51, No 12, Dep. 1, pp. 367-379. (in Rus.)
• On the Bibliography of Old Malorussian Religious Tales. Kharkiv University, 1896. (in Rus.)
• Razyskaniia v oblasti anekdoticheskoi literatury (Research in the Field of Anecdotal Literature), 1898. (in Rus.)
• Ocherki narodnogo byta (Sketches of Folk Life: From the 1901 Ethnographical Excursion to the Okhtyrka District of the Kharkiv Governorate), Kharkiv University, 1902. (in Rus.)