Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky (Russian: Николай Овсянико-Куликовский, 1768–1846) was the purported author of a famous musical hoax Symphony No.
The discovery caused a great deal of excitement in Soviet musical circles, for it was seen as proof that Russia had been able to produce a symphonist of comparable stature to Joseph Haydn.
Furthermore, the symphony contained Ukrainian folk songs and ended with a Cossack dance, showing that the composer had a nationalist awareness.
A native of Kherson Oblast, he is known to have been a landowner and patron of the arts; in 1810 he presented his orchestra of serfs to the Odessa Theater.
One of the musicologists to study the work was a composer and Kyiv conservatory professor named Gleb Taranov [ru; uk], who was asked to examine the manuscript of the symphony.
[4] Goldstein was branded a liar and a traitor to Soviet culture for his actions; he emigrated from the USSR in 1964 and lived in West Germany from 1969.