Leontii Voitovych

Born in Yemanzhelinsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, in the Ural region of the Russian Federation, Voitovych's family was from Western Ukraine.

His family was deported across the Ural Mountains during the Stalin period and he grew up in small mining town with many other children of Soviet exiles.

Because in the Soviet Union Voitovych was considered to be an "unreliable element" by state authorities (i.e. a family of former exiles), he was discouraged to even try to enroll in the University of Lviv.

After graduation Voitovych worked in Berehove at a local branch of the All-Union Institute of maintenance and exploitation of vehicle-tractor park.

In 2001 he defended his doctorate dissertation "Princely dynasties of Eastern Europe (9–16th centuries): composition, social and political role".