On 26 October in Lviv, the funeral and a citywide farewell ceremony were held for People’s Artist of Ukraine, actor and director Fedir Stryhun. Hundreds of people came to accompany the artist on his final journey: relatives, friends, colleagues from the stage, admirers, residents of Lviv and representatives of the authorities, among them the Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi.
The funeral service was conducted in the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. After the service, the funeral procession set off for Rynok Square, where the citywide farewell ceremony took place. The memory of Fedir Stryhun was honoured by a performance of the melody ‘Oi vershe, miy vershe’, which he was particularly fond of.
The procession then continued to Lychakiv Cemetery. The People’s Artist of Ukraine was laid to rest in the family tomb in plot No. 51 of the Lychakiv necropolis.
Fedir Stryhun died on 23 October 2026 after a long and serious illness, in his 87th year. For more than half a century he was associated with the Maria Zankovetska Lviv National Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre, where he worked as an actor and later as artistic director and chief director.
Fedir Stryhun was born on 1 November 1939 in the village of Tomashivka, Uman district, Cherkasy region. In 1961 he graduated from the acting faculty of the Ivan Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv Institute of Theatre Arts. After his studies he worked at the Zaporizhzhia Drama Theatre, and from 1965 he joined the company of the Maria Zankovetska Theatre in Lviv.
Over decades of creative work, Stryhun became one of the leading figures of the Ukrainian stage. He played more than 100 roles in the theatre and directed dozens of productions. Among his landmark works were productions of ‘Khazyain’, ‘Haidamaky’, ‘Natalka Poltavka’, ‘Marusia Churai’, ‘Hamlet’, the trilogy ‘Mazepa’, ‘Pavlo Polubotok’, ‘Nevolnyk’, ‘Hutsulka Ksenia’, ‘Ukradene shchastia’, ‘Metropolitan Andrey’, ‘Jesus — Son of the Living God’, ‘Ukrainian Bourgeois Nationalist’.
Audiences also remember him well for his film roles in ‘Propala hramota’, ‘Zaporozhets za Dunaiem’, ‘Dudaryky’, ‘Kaminna dusha’. In addition to his stage work, the artist was engaged in teaching: from 1990 to 1998 he trained two graduating classes of actors at the Mykola Lysenko Lviv Conservatoire, and also taught on the acting course of the Faculty of Philology at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University.
In 1978 Fedir Stryhun became a laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine for the production ‘Tyl’, and the very next year he was awarded the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine. In 2001 he was elected an academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. The artist was decorated with the Orders of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th and 5th Class, as well as the Orders ‘For Merit’ 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class.
The creative legacy of Fedir Stryhun, his roles and his work as a director have become an important part of the history of Ukrainian theatre and culture.