Mykola Ivasyuk

One of his instructors there was the Ukrainian artist Yustyn Pigulyak, who discovered and encouraged his talent for art by giving him free lessons.

While there, he participated in student excursions to the Ternopil region, where he became acquainted with the nobleman, Volodyslav Fyodorovych [uk] and painted portraits of his family.

Just prior to World War I, however, the government of Bukovina offered him the sum of 1000 Crowns to establish another art school in Chernivtsi, so he returned.

It was there that he executed his most famous work; "The Entrance of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to Kyiv in 1649", a reproduction of which was once a common sight in Ukrainian homes.

As a supporter of Ukrainian independence, he created many similar paintings, but most of them were lost years later when he once again went to Kyiv.

In 1926 Vlas Chubar, Chairman of the People's Commissariat of Ukraine, invited him and his student, Evzebiy Lipetskiy [uk], to become professors at the Kyiv Art Institute.

At first, he was honored and praised but soon, following instructions from Moscow, he began to be criticized; initially for small things, then for more serious matters.