Vlasovsky, Ivan

Vlasovsky, Ivan or Wlasowsky [Власовський, Іван; Vlasovs'kyj], b 15 August 1883 in Vilshany, Kharkiv county, Kharkiv gubernia, d 10 October 1969 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Orthodox church historian and theologian, and civic leader. A graduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy (1908), he taught (1908–18) in various gymnasiums in the Poltava region (Lokhvytsia, Zolotonosha, Konotop) before becoming principal of a gymnasium in Lutsk (1918–26). In the interwar period he worked on the Ukrainization of the Orthodox church in Volhynia. With Arsen Richynsky he organized the Ukrainian church council in Lutsk in 1927. He was a member of the commission for the translation of liturgical texts into Ukrainian (1932–9), general secretary of the Mohyla Society in Lutsk and editor of its organ Za sobornist’, a member of the Metropolitan’s Council of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox church and editor of the journal Tserkva i narid (1935–8), and secretary of the Volhynia Theological Consistory in Kremenets (1934–9). He was one of the founders of the Prosvita society in Lutsk and a deputy to the Polish Sejm (1928–30) from the Ukrainian Socialist Radical party. For his political activities he was imprisoned by the Polish authorities several times.

During the Second World War, Vlasovsky assisted in the rebirth of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church (UAOC) in Ukraine, and served as adviser to Metropolitan Polikarp Sikorsky and secretary of the administration of the UAOC in Lutsk (1942–3). He fled from the advancing Soviet Army to Prague and then Munich in 1945, where he was director of the chancellery of the UAOC Synod and of the Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. In 1948 he emigrated to Canada. In Winnipeg he was a professor of Saint Andrew's College (1949–50) and edited the renewed journal Tserkva i narid (Winnipeg) (1949–51) before moving to Toronto. Vlasovsky authored numerous works on the history of the Ukrainian church and other subjects, including Kanonichni i istorychni pidstavy dlia avtokefaliï Ukraïns'koï Pravoslavnoï Tserkvy (The Canonical and Historical Bases for the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 1948), Korotka istoriia Pravoslavnoï Tserkvy (A Brief History of the Orthodox Church, 1948), Narys istoriï Ukraïns'koï Pravoslavnoï Tserkvy (An Outline of the History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 4 vols in 5 books, 1955–66; the first vols in English as Outline History of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 1956, 1979), and Kyievo-Pechers'ka Lavra ta ïï istorychne znachennia (The Kyivan Cave Monastery and Its Historical Significance, 1966). A memorial book in his honor, containing a bibliography of his works, was published in Toronto in 1974.

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]