Mykhailo Kozyk

His father noticed and encouraged his artistic skills so, from 1897 to 1904, he was able to study at the icon painting school in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

The primary teacher there, Ivan Yizhakevych, selected him to work on the iconostasis at the Church of Saints Boris and Gleb [uk].

When it was relatively safe, he joined a group of artists who were decorating Transfiguration Cathedral [uk] in Bila Tserkva.

During Operation Barbarossa, the Institute was relocated to Samarkand, but Kozyk remained in Kharkiv, taking charge of what was left in an effort to preserve it.

He spent his final years in Lviv, persona non grata for remaining in Kharkiv during the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.