Liaskoronsky, Vasyl [Ляскоронський, Василь; Ljaskorons'kyj, Vasyl'], b 5 January 1860 in Zolotonosha, Poltava gubernia, d 1 January 1928 in Kyiv. Historian and archeologist. He graduated from Kyiv University in 1885 where he studied under Volodymyr Antonovych and Ivan Luchytsky. He participated in several archeological excavations throughout Ukraine (with Vikentii Khvoika and others), publishing articles about the findings in Kievskaia starina and elsewhere. He edited the bulletins of the all-Russian archeological congresses held in Kyiv in 1899, Kharkiv in 1902, and in Katerynoslav in 1905, and led several expeditions under the auspices of the congresses. A privatdocent at Moscow University (1903–7), eventually he was allowed to assume a similar position at Kyiv University (1907–9) before becoming a full professor at the Nizhyn Historical-Philological Institute in 1909. After the Revolution of 1917 he worked in a variety of institutions, but his most important appointment was as the head of the archeological department of the All-Ukrainian Archeological Committee.

A specialist in historical geography, historical topography, numismatics, and other ancillary historical disciplines, Liaskoronsky’s major works include Istoriia Pereiaslavskoi zemli s drevneishikh vremen do poloviny XIII st. (The History of the Pereiaslav Land from the Earliest Times to the 13th Century, 1897 [his PH D dissertation]), Inostrannye karty i atlasy XVI i XVII vv. otnosiashchiesia k Iuzhnoi Rossii (Foreign Maps and Atlases of the 16th and 17th Centuries Concerning Southern Russia, 1901), Gil'om Levasser de-Boplan i ego istoriko-geograficheskie trudy otnositel'no Iuzhnoi Rossii (Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan and his Historico-Geographic Works on Southern Russia, 1901), and dozens of articles on excavations of the Trypillia culture; kurhans throughout Ukraine; excavations of the Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Golden Gate, and other sites around Kyiv. A biography of Liaskoronsky and bibliography of his works by Kateryna Antonovych-Melnyk appeared in Zapysky Istorychno-filolohichnoho viddilu VUAN, no. 24 (1929).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]