The Modern Novel

Biography

Viktor Domontovych was born Viktor Petrovin 1894 in Yekaterinoslav (today called Dnipro). His father was a theologian who later became a bishop. He would later deny his ancestry. He studied at the Saint Volodymyr University. On graduating he became a teacher. By this time the country was involved in civil war. When working in Baryshivka he got to know various writers. He published his first his novel in 1928 and he went home to become a well-known author. During the periods of Soviet repression in 1937 he was arrested but released two weeks later. It seems that around this time he was recruited as an agent by the NKVD. He allegedly was given the task of infiltrating the Nazi ranks as a Ukrainian nationalist and he himself also later claimed that he was given the task of assassinating Adolf Hitler.

After the war, he stayed in Germany working as a professor for the Ukrainian free University.

In April 1949, he disappeared from his flat in Munich and could not be found. It seemed that he returned to the Soviet Union where he worked as an archaeologist. He died in Kyiv in 1969.

Other links

Viktor Domontovych
Viktor Petrov and his Archive
“Seven Faces of Viktor Petrov

Viktor Domontovych