Early life Viktor Petrov was born on 10 October 1894 in Yekaterinoslav (today's
Dnipro) into the family of Platon Petrov, an
Eastern Orthodox theologian, who served as
bishop of
Uman and
vicar of
Kyiv, although in Soviet times the writer would claim that his father had been a simple teacher. In 1913 Petrov entered the Faculty of History and Philology at
Saint Volodymyr University. After his graduation in 1918 he changed multiple jobs, working as a teacher in order to survive the hardships of
civil war which engulfed the city. During the
postwar famine in Ukraine he worked in a number of village schools, receiving "natural payment" in form of food, which was scarce in cities at the time. During his stay in
Baryshivka not far from Kyiv Petrov became close to fellow authors working there, including
Mykola Zerov and
Yuriy Klen. Later he worked at the ethnographic committee of the
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and engaged in
archaeological studies. Petrov's first novel was published in 1928, and by the end of the decade he had become prominent as an author (writing under the
pseudonym Domontovych) and scientist. In 1930, he obtained his doctorate for a study titled "
Panteleymon Kulish in the 50s. Life. Ideology. Creativity".
Arrest and emigration In 1937, during the Soviet
campaign of mass government repression against Ukrainian authors, Petrov was arrested, but released after two weeks of detention. It is likely, that around that time he was recruited as an agent by the
NKVD. After the start of
German-Soviet War the author stayed in the
occupied territory worked in several Ukrainian magazines and newspapers. According to one version, he was tasked by Soviet authorities with infiltrating Nazi ranks by posing as a
Ukrainian nationalist and entering the proposed German-controlled Ukrainian government. However, after the defeat of German armies at the
Battle of Moscow the plans to create such a government were abandoned. Petrov also hinted, that during the war he had been tasked with organizing an assassination attempt on
Adolf Hitler during the visit of the latter to
Vinnytsia. It is also claimed that Petrov helped to save the
Karaites, using his authority as ethographer to persuade the
Nazis that they did not belong to the
Jewish people. After
World War II Petrov stayed in emigration in Germany, working as a professor at the
Ukrainian Free University in
Munich. He was also one of the founding members of the Ukrainian artist movement, a literary organization of the
Ukrainian intellectual diaspora. His articles published in emigration contained strong criticism of the Soviet regime, which he accused of destroying Ukrainian culture.
Disappearance and return to the Soviet Union On 18 April 1949 Petrov went missing after leaving his flat in the
Schwabing district of
Munich. Despite appeals to the
occupation authorities by the
Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Free University, search attempts were unsuccessful, and it was widely believed that Petrov had been murdered by Soviet agents due to the anti-Communist contents of his articles. However, in 1955 his name was found published in a list of Soviet archaeologists (due to a reference to him in
Aleksandr Mongait's survey book), and it became clear that he had returned to the
Soviet Union and kept working at the Institute of Archaeology in
Kyiv. Due to the closure of Soviet secret archives, the exact nature of Petrov's co-operation with Soviet secret services is still unknown, but according to Ukrainian emigrant writer and scientist
George Shevelov, there is no proof that any information on the diaspora's activities had been transferred by him to Communist authorities. Petrov died in 1969 and was buried in Kyiv. ==Writings==