Mykola Bilyashivskyi

Mykola Biliashivskyi is one of the first and most successful museum managers of Ukraine. Descriptions of the history of the first museum institutions of Ukraine in the 19th and early 20th centuries cannot exist without his name. At the same time, everyone traditionally notes the difficult conditions of his work, due to censorship in the Russian Empire, lack of funds, and disagreements with museum patrons.

Mykola Biliashivskyi was born on October 24, 1867 in the city of Uman. His father, Fedot, was a priest, and his mother died when he was only four years old. Mykola Biliashivskyi received his secondary education at the Second Kyiv Gymnasium. While studying there, the boy became interested in numismatics and archeology. Biliashivskyi's family was not rich, but the young man used his pocket money to buy coins, old books, and drawings (he mentions this in his autobiography).

In the 1890s, Biliashivskyi became famous as a successful archaeologist, as he investigated a number of archaeological sites from the Neolithic era to Rus.

In 1899, he became the founder and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal, "Archaeological Chronicle of Southern Rus," for which he is rightly considered (together with Vikentii Khvoika) to be the founder of Ukrainian archaeological science.

The researcher participated in the creation of many museums in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine. The first such project was a museum in the village of Horodok dedicated to Volyn. The estate of Baron Teodor von Shteinhel, a great friend of Mykola Biliashivskyi, was located there.

The baron took care of the development of the village, and at the end of the 1890s, Biliashivskyi proposed to create a museum there. Under the leadership of the scientist, it was possible to collect a diverse collection, which was almost not preserved in the vortex of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1921.

Its construction began in 1897 with donations from philanthropists, at the expense of government structures. In 1902, the Antiquities and Arts Committee, which oversaw the project, appointed the researcher as director of the institution. During the two decades of his leadership (1902–1923), the museum became the largest in Ukraine.

Biliashivskyi, the director, developed the program of the museum, adjusted its work, and organized a large-scale replenishment of the collection with an emphasis on objects of Ukrainian ethnography.

Museum employees collected samples of embroidery, carpets, pottery, and other objects. The researcher found artifacts for the museum collection all over Ukraine. A large part of this large collection now belongs to the MIST collection.

The Soviet authorities reformatted the museum in accordance with their ideological needs. Soon, Mykola Biliashivskyi was removed from his post. In 1926, the famous researcher died.
After Biliashivskyi, the Bolsheviks appointed a former Chekist as the director of the museum. Few people were interested in preserving heritage. However, Mykola Biliashivskyi's achievements were not lost.

The National Museum of the History of Ukraine and the National Art Museum of Ukraine are still key museums of the country. In particular, MIST has collected artifacts related to the history of Ukrainian lands from the Stone Age to the present. And Mykola Biliashivskyi’s name occupies a prominent place in the history of Ukrainian museology and the protection of cultural heritage.