Historian Nicolau Sevcenko Dies at 61

08/15/2014 - 10h05

The historian Nicolau Sevcenko died at his home in São Paulo on Wednesday night. He was 61 years of age.

An autopsy will be conducted to establish cause of death, but the doctor who was called to the scene said that the most likely cause was heart failure.

Sevcenko was born in São Vicente, on the Baixada Santista, in 1952. He was of Ukrainian descent, his grandfather having been part of the Tsarist army that fought against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The family came to Brazil some years later, fleeing Stalinist persecution. They avoided talking about their past, which awoke the curiosity of the young Nicolau and eventually led him to study history.

He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1975, choosing subsequently to specialize in Brazilian culture and the development of cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

After obtaining his PhD in Social History from USP, he completed a post-doctorate in London, where he studied alongside renowned Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012).

In 1992, he obtained the title of lecturer at USP with his thesis Orfeu Extático na Metrópole ("Ecstatic Orpheus in the Metropolis"). He also lectured at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and the State University of Campinas.

Also a professor at Harvard, Sevcenko was influential in the history of culture and urbanization, especially at the turn of the 19th century.

He was an editorialist at Folha and was responsible for the research which led to the book Primeira Página ('First Page'), which the newspaper published, and for which he wrote the introduction.

Sevcenko did not have any children. He is survived by 11 cats and two dogs, Toby and Biruta.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Marcelo Naddeo/Folhapress
	The historian Nicolau Sevcenko died at his home in São Paulo at the age of 61