author
Stepan Rudnytskyi
1877–1937
A pioneering Ukrainian geographer and cartographer, he helped shape modern ideas about Ukraine’s land, regions, and national identity. His work joined scholarship with public life, and his career ended tragically during Stalin’s Great Terror.
1 Audiobook
Ukraine, the land and its people : an introduction to its geography
by Stepan Rudnytskyi
About the author
Born in Peremyshl in 1877, Stepan Rudnytskyi became one of the key founders of modern Ukrainian geography. He studied at Lviv University and later at the University of Vienna, then built his reputation through research, teaching, and wide-ranging work in geography and cartography.
He taught in Lviv and later worked in Kharkiv, where he served as a professor and directed the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Geography and Cartography. He was also a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and, later, the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. His writing helped explain Ukraine as a distinct geographic and cultural whole, including for English-language readers through Ukraine, the Land and Its People.
Rudnytskyi died in 1937 in Sandarmokh, in Karelia, after repression by the Soviet regime. Today he is remembered not only as an important scholar, but also as a figure who helped place Ukraine clearly on the intellectual and political map of Europe.