Yaroslav Hrytsak

Yaroslav Hrytsak
Born	(1960-01-01) January 1, 1960 Dovhe,[1] Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR
Education	University of Lviv
Occupation(s)	Historian, professor

Yaroslav Yosypovych Hrytsak (Ukrainian: Ярослав Йосипович Грицак; born 1 January 1960) is a Ukrainian historian and a doctor of Historical Sciences. He is also a professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University. He is also the director of the Institute for Historical Studies of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.^[2]

He is the chief editor of the scholarly journal "Ukraine Modern. He is also a member of the editorial board of the journals Ab Imperio, Critique, and Slavic Review, and a member of the supervisory board of Harvard Ukrainian Studies.^[2]

He is an honorary professor of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He was a guest professor at Central European University in Budapest and was the First Vice-President of the International Association of Ukrainians.^[2]

During the Russo-Ukrainian war since 2022, Hrytsak criticized Russian attack on Ukraine.^[3][4] He visited the British Parliament and took part in the Parliamentary Launch Event, The Ukraine Factor – Building Ukraine’s WWII Legacy and Understanding Its Vital Role in the Soviet Victory over Nazi Germany at the Houses of Commons in London on 25 February 2026.^[5][6]

At a lecture in the Hague University of Applied Sciences, Hrytsak claimed that the war would stop only with collapse on one side. He also claimed that if Ukraine has continous access to Western aid, the risk of collapse for Russia increases.^[7]

In 2025, He commented on the Volhynia massacre and called the 1943 massacre where 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II as an “extremely complicated story,” even after tensions exist between the two countries over the massacre's historical interpretation.^[8][9]

He was born on 1 January 1960 in the Ukrainian SSR^[10]

He earned his PhD in 1987 at the University of Lviv in History.^[10] Hrytsak passed his habilitation in 1996.^[11] He has been director of the Institute for Historical Research, at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv since 1992.^[10]

In 1998, he won an award of "Przegląd Wschodni" for the best foreign book on Eastern Europe.^[12] He won the Antonovych prize for Intellectual Achievements and the "Best Book in Ukraine" from the Ukrainian magazine Кореспондент^[12] and the Jerzy Giedroyc Award for his book about Ivan Franko in 2014.^[13]

• The Spirit that Moves to Battle... A political portrait of Ivan Franko (1856–1916) (Lviv, 1990, in Ukrainian)^[14]
• Rusalka Dnistrova. Documents and Materials (Kyiv, 1989).^[11]
• Modern Ukraine. Annual of the Institute for Historical Research. No 1, 2-3(Lviv, 1997, 1999).^[11]
• Essays in Ukrainian History: Making of Modern Ukrainian Nation (Kyiv, 1996, in Ukrainian) (Polish translation: Historia Ukrainy 1772–1999. Narodziny nowoczesnego narodu)^[14]
• Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation, 2022 (English translation: 2023)^[14]