Kievskaia starina (Russian: Киевская старина, literally "Kievan antiquity") was a monthly historically ethographic and literary chronicle.

The monthly chronicle played a major role in development of Ukrainian culture under the conditions of the Russian Empire.

Before the appearance of Kievskaia starina, Ukrainian magazines or collections had mainly literary and ethnographic orientation without historical emphasis.

[1] It is known that in 1881 preparatory work was carried out for the founding of the magazine, editorial meetings were held, a publication plan was developed, articles, reviews, and notes were prepared.

[1] The organizing committee of the future edition was formed of Volodymyr Antonovych, Oleksandr Lazarevsky, Feofan and Petro Lebedyntsev, Mykola Petrov and Orest Levitsky.

However, he recommended his younger brother, Theophanes, who had served in the Kingdom of Poland for 16 years, had Russian state awards, and gained editorial experience in the Kyiv Diocesan Gazette.

On April 29, 1881, during a meeting of Volodymyr Antonovych, Pylyp Ternovsky, Oleksandr Kistiakivsky, Stepan Golubev, and Igor Malyshevsky, it was decided to elect Feofan Lebedyntsev as the first editor of the publication.

Significant oppression of the Ukrainian language in the Russian Empire did not affect the journal's materials and its research and archeographic publications.

From 1882, on the initiative of Feofan Lebedyntsev and Stepan Ponomarev, an "Alphabetical Index of Personal Names and Remarkable Places and Objects" was compiled for each volume of the magazine.

The appearance of the magazine was changed, the cover became blue, the quality of the paper improved, the length of each issue has been increased to 18 to 20 leaves.