Volodymyr Antonovych (, tr. Volodymyr Bonifatijovych Antonovych; ; , tr. Vladímir Bonifát'evich Antonóvich; – ) was a prominent Russian-Ukrainian historian, archivist and archaeologist, who was known as one of the most prominent figures of the Ukrainian national revival movement in the Russian Empire. Antonovych was a longtime Professor of Russian history at Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev and a correspondent-member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences. His main work was an edition of the eight-section Archives of South-Western Russia. Early life Antonovych was born as Włodzimierz Antonowicz on , in the village of Makhnivka, in the Berdichevsky Uyezd of Kiev Governorate, (now Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine) to a landless family of impoverished teachers descended from Polish gentry; Antonovych claimed ancestry to the princely Lubomirski family through his mother. According to his contemporary Franciszek Rawita-Gawroński, Antonovych on various occasions claimed his father was either a Pole named Bolesław Antonowicz or a Hungarian wanderer named János Diday. Viktor Korotkyi, a historian specializing in the history of Kyiv University, believed the latter to be Antonovych's biological father. His mother, Monika Gurska, was a governess. She married Bonifacy Antonowicz, whose surname Włodzimierz would adopt. The couple lived in Makhnivka, and worked as tutors for the children of local wealthy families. His childhood was spent with his grandmother in Makhnovka. From 1840 to 1844, he was educated by his mother alongside her students. In 1844, Antonowicz continued his studies in the Richelieu Lyceum, Odesa, moving to the 2nd Odessa Gymnasium in 1848. In 1850, he enrolled into the Medical Academy of St. Vladimir Imperial University in Kiev at the insistence of his mother; he graduated in 1855. During his studies, he joined the circles of Polish democratically minded students and took part in the preparations for what became the January Uprising, under the auspice of the London-based Polish Democratic Society. From 1855 to 1856, he practiced medicine at Berdychiv and Chornobyl. After the death of his mother in 1856, he returned to St. Vladimir where he studied history and philology under professor Vitaly Shulgin. In 1860, he defended his dissertation About the Trade of Negroes. Foundation of the Triple Society In 1857, he co-founded the Związek Trojnicki ("Triple Society"), named after the three Polish territories acquired by Russia in the 18th century: Volhynia, Podilia and the Kyiv area. The society's goal was promoting the abolition of serfdom and persuading the peasants to support