Klymovsky, Semen

Klymovsky, Semen or Klymov [Климовський, Семен; Klymovs'kyj], b 1705, d 1785 in Pryputni, Kherson gubernia. Poet. A Cossack in the Kharkiv regiment, in 1724 he dedicated two didactic poems to Peter I: ‘O pravosudii nachal'stvuiuchykh’ (On the Justice of the Rulers) and ‘O smirenii vysochaishikh’ (On the Humility of the Powerful). Prince Aleksandr Shakhovskoi’s Kazak-stikhotvorets (The Cossack Versifier, 1812), a comic opera about Klymovsky, had an influence on Ivan Kotliarevsky’s dramatic works. It is believed that Klymovsky was the author of a number of folk songs, such as ‘Ïkhav kozak za Dunai’ (The Cossack Was Traveling beyond the Danube).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]