page_title: Kateryna Skarzhynska
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Kateryna Skarzhynska / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Українська: 1=Хутір Круглики на карті Полтавської губернії 1878 року.English: Khutor Kruglyky on the map of Poltava Governorate in 1878Français&#160;: Khutor Kruglyky sur la carte du Gouvernement de Poltava en 1878
context_page_description: Kateryna Skarzhynska née von Reiser was a Ukrainian noblewoman, philanthropist, and collector of folklore. She established the first private museum in Ukraine to house her collection of artifacts and was particularly known for her collection of pysanky, Easter eggs decorated with Ukrainian folk art. Born in Lubny to the von Reiser family, which had a long history of military service to the Russian Tsars, she was educated at home, studying in her parents' library and with select tutors. After her father died in 1859, together with her mother, brother, and maternal grandmother she moved to the Lodygyn/Lodigine family estates in the Tver province of the Russian Empire, near Moscow. There at the age of 14, von Reiser established a school for the former serfs of the estate and a public hospital.
  In 1869, von Reiser became acquainted with Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, a Ukrainian nobleman and soldier. Through his circle of friends, she decided to continue her education and passed her gymnasium studies, entering the Bestuzhev Courses. They married in 1874 and later would have five children together. Five years later, he was transferred from St. Petersburg back to Ukraine.
context_section_description: Kateryna Nikolaevna von Reiser, known as Katya, was born 19 February 1852 N.S. in Lubny, in the Russian Empire, to Ekaterina Petrovna (née Lodygyna/Lodigines-Cyrus) and Nikolai von Reiser. Her father's family, though German in origin, had a long-standing history of service to the Tsars. Vincent-Martin Stepanovich von Reiser, a lawyer in the Swedish army, was taken as a prisoner of war by Peter the Great's army during the Battle of Poltava in 1711. He joined the tsar's service working as an artillery and mining specialist. His son, also Vincent, served as an aide-de-camp to Peter III of Russia and later was promoted to Lieutenant-General by Catherine the Great. Wilhelm Ulrich Vikentievich von Reiser also served in the Russian army, accompanying Suvorov to Switzerland, as did his son and Katya's father, Nikolai, who participated in the Battle of Warsaw. As her father spent much of his time away from the family, Katya and her brother Misha were raised mostly by her mother and maternal grandmother, Varvara Petrovna Lodygina.
  Von Reiser's early education was at home, where she drew on her parents' extensive library. Her parents had many intellectual friends and they were often visited by the geologist Konstantin Feofilaktov, who became an early mentor to von Reiser. She mastered both French and German. The family lived on the Kruglik estate purchased by her father in Lubny, until his death from typhus at the fortress of Novogeorgievsk in 1859. When von Reiser was 10, they moved to the Lodygyn/Lodigine family estates in the Tver province, but within a few years moved to Moscow and then St. Petersburg in search of the best tutors for her home studies. These pedagogues were selected by her uncle, Alexander Apukhtin, who was a trustee of the Warsaw School District, and included Aleksey N. Ostrogorsky and Pavel M. Shpilevsky. Though her grandmother wanted Katya to become a maid of honour to the imperial court, at the age of 12, von Reiser decided she would dedicate her life to helping the poor.
caption: Location of the Kruglik estate in 1878
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