Sumtsov Nickolay (1854–1922) – folklorist, ethnographer, historian of literature.
He was born in St. Petersburg; he finished gymnasium in Kharkov and enrolled to the Kharkov University, at the Historical and Philological Faculty; he graduated from it in 1875. In the youth he was interested in folklore and made his first fixations of folk songs. In 1875-1877, he travelled to Germany, where he kept his studies. In 1878, at the Kharkov University, he defended his thesis ‘Prince V. F. Odoevsky’ and got an invitation to stay at the University as Ass. Docent in the history of Russian literature.
In 1880, he defended his Master thesis ‘On the Wedding Rites, Mainly Russian’; and in 1885 – his Doctor thesis ‘Bread in the Rites and Songs’. In 1880, he was Secretary of the University; in 1887 – Chairman of the Historical and Philological Society at the Kharkov University; Professor of the Kharkov University in 1888; and a member of the Council of the Kharkov Educative District.
He was founder and the first Director of the Kharkov Historical Museum (opened in 1920 as the Museum of the Slobodskaya Ukraine named after G. S. Skovoroda).
Correspondent Member of the Imperial Ac. of Sc. (1905); in 1919, he was elected for Academician of the Ac. of Sc. of the Ukraine.
Beside his works on folklore and ethnography, S. wrote a number of texts on the creative heritage of Russian, Ukrainian, and European writers and various artists: V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, N. A. Nekrasov, L. N. Tolsloy, I. Kotlyarevsky, G. Kvitro-Osnoviayanenko, T. Shevchenko. I. Franko. J. Michelet, Leonardo da Vinci, M. M. Antokolsky et al.