Kysil, Oleksander [Кисіль, Олександер; Kysil'; pen name of O. Kyselov], b 27 March 1889 in Krasylivka, Chernihiv gubernia, d 28 November 1937 in Kyiv. Theater critic and pedagogue. He developed an interest in Ukrainian culture under the influence of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. He studied at Saint Petersburg University (1907–12) and was involved in Saint Petersburg in the Philanthropic Society for Publishing Generally Useful and Inexpensive Books. He lectured on the history of Ukrainian theater at Kyiv University (1918) and the Kyiv Music and Drama Institute (from 1922), directed the Theater Section of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN), and was a senior associate of the VUAN Museum of Theater. He is the author of the popular studies Ukraïns'kyi vertep (The Ukrainian Vertep Theater, 1918) and Shliakhy rozvytku ukraïns'koho teatru (The Paths of Development of Ukrainian Theater, 1920); the monographs Ukraïns'kyi teatr (Ukrainian Theater, 1925) and a book on Karpo Solenyk (1928); and articles on the history of theater and reviews in Soviet Ukrainian periodicals. He was arrested during the Stalinist terror in 1937 and executed. He was ‘rehabilitated’ in 1957. A collection of his selected works, many of them abridged, was published in Kyiv in 1968.

[This article was updated in 2026.]