Viktor Platonovych Petrov (, pen names V. Domontovych (), Viktor Ber (); 10 October 1894 – 8 June 1969) was a prominent Ukrainian

existentialist Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

writer. Together with

Valerian Pidmohylny Valerian Petrovych Pidmohylny ( Ukrainian: Валер'ян Петрович Підмогильний; 2 February 1901 - 3 November 1937) was a Ukrainian modernist, most famous for his novel '' The City'' (). Like a number of Ukrainian writers ...

, Petrov is considered to be the founder of the Ukrainian intellectual novel. Although Petrov is remembered as a writer today, during his life he was a scientist in the first place. He wrote papers on

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

Biography

Viktor Petrov was born on 10 October 1894 in Yekaterinoslav (today's

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

). In 1918, he graduated from historical-philological faculty of

Kiev University The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. Later he worked at the ethnographic committee of the

Ukrainian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; , ; ''NAN Ukrainy'') is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine that is the main center of development of Science and technology in Ukraine, science and technology by coordinatin ...

. In 1930, he obtained his doctorate for a study titled "Panteleymon Kulish in the 50s. Life. Ideology. Creativity". During World War II he was in the territory occupied by Germans where he worked in several Ukrainian magazines and newspapers. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Petrov stayed in emigration in Germany, during which he was a professor at the

Ukrainian Free University The Ukrainian Free University is a private graduate university located in Munich, Germany. History The Ukrainian Free University (UFU) was established in Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in A ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He was also one of the founding members of the Ukrainian artist movement, a literary organization of the Ukrainian intellectual diaspora. At a later time Petrov disappeared from Germany under unknown circumstances. Later it was discovered (due to a reference to him in Aleksandr Mongait's survey book) that he returned to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and kept working at the Institute of Archaeology in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. Petrov died in 1969 and is buried in Kyiv.

Writings

Novels

* Without Foundation (''Без ґрунту'') (1942–1943) * Girl with a Teddy Bear () (1928) * Doctor Seraficus ( "Doctor Seraficus"
website with the book
) (1928–1929, published in 1947) * Alina and Kostomarov () (1929) * Kulish's romances () (1930) * Doctor Seraficus (English translation of excerpt), translated by Yuri Tkacz, in ''Before the Storm'', Ardis Publishers USA

Scientific publications

* Origin of the Ukrainian Nation * Scythians — language and ethnicity * Ethnogenesis of Slavs * Development of Ukrainian People
Ukrainian cultural activists - victims of repressions

Biography

Writings

Novels

Scientific publications

References

Further reading