Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). His parents were both musical and well-educated, and their son received his primary education at home. The Lyatoshynsky family lived in towns and cities throughout Ukraine during Borys's childhood. His father was a history teacher, who during his career was the head teacher of high schools in Zhytomyr, Nemyriv, Kyiv, and—from 1908 to 1911—in Zlatopil. Lyatoshynsky's mother Olha Borysovna played the piano and sang. Borys had an older sister, Nina. Polish literature and history was held in high esteem in the Lyatoshynsky household; Borys read a lot as a boy, especially the historical and romantic works of Henryk Sienkiewicz and Stefan Żeromski. He signed his early musical compositions under the pseudonym 'Boris Yaksa Lyatoshynsky', using the name of a Polish knight who had fought in the Battle of Grunwald. His earliest pieces included mazurkas, waltzes, and a Chopinesque scherzo, which bear little resemblance to compositions written later in life. The existence of a Polish side to Lyatoshynsky's family resulted in Polish themes being central for much of his work. Zhytomyr was the cultural and administrative centre of a region long inhabited by ethnic Poles, and his first music teacher was of Polish origin. Lyatoshynsky graduated from the Zhytomyr Gymnasium in 1913. Later in life, he recalled that he "became really interested in music" at school; he mastered the violin, and created his first compositions, which included a piano quartet. The pieces, although naïve and unoriginal, revealed his musical talent, and motivated his father to encourage his efforts as a schoolboy composer. In Zlatopol, Lyatoshynsky took piano lessons from a school teacher whom he later remembered with great warmth. In 1914, he first met his future wife Margarita Tsarevich. Student years The first work written by Lyatoshynsky was thought by musicologists to have been a mazurka, written on 20 January 1910, when he was 15. However, during the 1910s, Lyatoshynsky wrote 31 works of various musical genres—20 of which were discovered in 2017— none of which were known by his previous biographers. The pieces have provided scholars with an indication of the creative potential of the young composer. In 1913, on the advice of his father, Lyatoshynsky entered the Faculty of Law at Kyiv University. When his piano quartet was performed in public in time for his father's birthday, the local press praised the work, although it was clear to those who heard the