Ukrainian cultural and educational figure, writer, composer, historian. One of the founders and permanent head of Prosvita in Mykolaiv.
The son of Mykola Arkas, nephew of Zakhariy Arkas, father of Mykola Arkas (junior) and Oksana Shesterikova-Arkas. In 1901, he adopted his grandson Mykola Arkas.
Biography
Mykola Arkas
The house where Mykola Arkas was born (13 Nikolska Street)
Mykola Arkas was born on December 26, 1852 (January 7, 1853) in Mykolaiv in a wealthy family of an ethnic Greek, Admiral of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Mykola Andrii Arkas.
His mother, Sofia Petrivna, came from the ancient Cossack family of Bohdanovych, and had a significant influence on the formation of her son's strong interest in the Ukrainian language, culture, and customs. Mykola Arkas was a cousin to the Russian lawyer, attorney, and court orator Mykola Karabchevsky. Their mothers, Sofia Arkas and Liubov Karabchevska, were sisters and came from the ancient Cossack family of Bohdanovych. Their father, Petro Hryhorovych Bohdanovych, was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet in 1793 from the bunch of comrades of the Poltava Regiment.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in the Mykolaiv region.
As the son of a high-ranking imperial official, he dressed in Ukrainian folk clothes. In summer, he wore an embroidered shirt and a straw bril, and in winter, a striped hat and a scroll. Mykola persisted in wearing them, despite his father's irritation.
Mykola received a versatile education at the School of Law in St. Petersburg and the Odesa Gymnasium. Later, he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Novorossiysk University in Odesa.
After graduation (from 1875 to 1881), according to family tradition, Mykola Arkas served in the naval department in Mykolaiv. In his free time, he indulged in his favorite pastime: collecting and recording folk melodies and studying the history of Ukraine. Under the influence of his teacher Petro Nishchynskyi, a Ukrainian composer, conductor, and writer, he began to master musical knowledge, composing skills, and compose music on his own. He was fascinated by the art of kobzars and bandura players, whom he invited to Mykolaiv from all over Ukraine and housed in his house.
At the initiative and at the expense of Mykola Arkas and his wife Olha Ivanivna, a zemstvo school was built in the village of Khrystoforivka, the property of the Arkas family, and regular classes began in the fall of 1890.
Mykola Arkas
Mykola Arkas devoted a significant part of his life and work to the Mykolaiv Prosvita, which he founded on February 25, 1907, and which, along with Kyiv and Odesa, was one of the best educational institutions in sub-Russian Ukraine. As a patron of the arts, Mykola Arkas largely covered the financial needs of Prosvita, helped the Rada newspaper, and sent money to Mykhailo Hrushevsky for the construction of a student dormitory in Lviv. He was a member of the Mykolaiv Society of Nature Lovers.
At home, Mykola Arkas collected an impressive library, including a historical one (several thousand books).
He died on 13 (26) March 1909 in Mykolaiv from an unexpected heart attack. Mykola Arkas's funeral was attended by about 10 thousand people. He was buried next to the church at the Mykolaiv Necropolis in the family crypt next to his parents. In 1936, after the Bolshevik authorities destroyed the tomb-crypt of the founder of Mykolaiv, Mykhailo Faleiev, the coffin with his remains was tied with wire and transported by cart to the old city cemetery, where it was placed in the Arkas family crypt.
By a decision of the Executive Committee of the Mykolaiv Regional Council of Workers' Deputies of July 2, 1971, the Arkas crypt was protected as a historical and cultural monument.
Family.
Mykola Arkas was married to Olga Ivanovna Shyshkina, the daughter of a naval officer, second-rank captain of the Black Sea Fleet Ivan Stepanovich Shyshkin. He came from an ancient boyar family, whose ancestor was Theodosius Shyshka, who defected from the Polish-Lithuanian state (Commonwealth) in 1556 to serve Moscow. The couple had a daughter, Oksana, and sons, Petro and Mykola. Olha Ivanovna was Mykola Mykolaiovych's assistant in her husband's public activities. When her daughter Oksana grew up, she helped Mykola Mykolaiovych collect Ukrainian folk songs in various places, visiting villages in Mykolaiv and Poltava regions in search of them, and recording the songs of the peasants of her estates. In total, she collected over 400 folk songs. In her diary, the Arkas children's home teacher noted:
"Both parents and children, especially the eldest son (Mykola), are great patriots who love their Little Russia very much and hate Peter the Great and everyone who does not appreciate and love Little Russia."
(Russian: "Both parents and children, especially the eldest son, are great patriots who love their Malorossia very much and hate Peter the Great and everyone who does not appreciate and love Malorossia.")
Creative activity
Ukrainian stamp dedicated to Mykola Arkas
The composer's creative work consists of solos, vocal ensembles and arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs (about 80). The most significant work of Mykola Arkas, which brought him recognition, was the opera Kateryna based on the poem by Taras Shevchenko (1890). This work initiated the operatic Shevchenkoiana and became the first Ukrainian lyrical folk opera. "Kateryna" was staged with great success by Marko Kropyvnytskyi's troupe in Moscow in 1899, and later in Minsk, Vilnius, and Kyiv. To this day, the opera is constantly being revived. Inspired by the success of Kateryna, Arkas planned to compose several more musical works, but his illness (a cerebral hemorrhage and paralysis of his right arm) prevented him from sitting at the piano. The opera Catherine remained the only one in the composer's oeuvre.
After completing his naval service in 1881, Mykola Arkas became a justice of the peace in Kherson. He devoted a lot of time to cultural and social work. He became the founder and chairman of the Prosvita Society in Mykolaiv, and at his own expense opened a public school with Ukrainian as the language of instruction, which was immediately banned by order of the authorities.
In 1902, he began to write the History of Ukraine-Rus', aiming to create a non-scientific but reliable book as a gift to his son, thus sharing with him his love for his native land and people. In 1908, in St. Petersburg, the book was published in 7000 copies, written in a "kulishivka" script. In order to publish it, M. M. Arkas had to borrow considerable money at a high interest rate. The book was a great success, and the author initiated a second edition, which had additions and was published after his death in 1912 in Krakow. The editor of both editions was Vasyl Domanitsky.
He is the author of the poem "Hetman Pylyp Orlyk", which was first published only on February 2, 1993, in the Mykolaiv newspaper "Ridne Prybuzhzhia".
Mykola Mykolaiovych's grave in the Arkas family crypt
Honoring the memory
Monument to Mykola Arkas in Mykolaiv
On October 27, 1992, a memorial sign was erected on the site of the Arkas house - a copper wall with a bas-relief of Mykola Arkas. The authors of the monument are Vasyl Fedorchuk and Oleksii Bondarenko.
On April 18, 1996, by the order of the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, the Regional Cultural Award named after Mykola Arkas was established.
By the order of the head of the regional state administration of August 6, 2001, the period from January 7, 2002 to January 7, 2003 was declared the "Arkas Year in Mykolaiv Region".
In October 2002, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the house where Mykola Arkas was born (13 Nikolska Street) (sculptor Yurii Makushyn).
Scientific conferences, exhibitions, Arkas readings, etc. at Mykolaiv State Pedagogical University have become traditional.
There is a Mykola Arkas Street in Lviv and in the town of Bashtanka, Mykolaiv region.
Arkasivska Street in Kyiv is also named after him.
The Museum of Village History and Fine Arts of the village of Khrystoforivka, a branch of the Bashtanka Museum of Local Lore, has an exhibition hall dedicated to the Arkas family.
