1991–2014
Ihor Kostenko
Student, journalist and Wikipedian
Under the username Ig2000, a geography student in Lviv wrote over 280 articles for the Ukrainian Wikipedia in two and a half years. Ihor Kostenko, from Ternopil region, was a sports journalist and a Euromaidan protester. He was killed on Instytutska Street in Kyiv on 20 February 2014, aged 22.
Key accomplishments
- As Ig2000, wrote over 280 articles for the Ukrainian Wikipedia and edited over 1,600 (2011–2014)
- His article on the destroyer Nezamozhnyk was rated a “good article” by the Wikipedia community
- Journalist for the sports website Sportanalityka
- Took part in the student protests for the EU Association Agreement in Lviv and Kyiv (2013–2014)
- Hero of Ukraine (posthumously, 2014); Wikipedian of the Year (posthumously, 2014)
Who was Ig2000?
A new contributor called Ig2000 signed up to the Ukrainian Wikipedia on 23 July 2011. In two and a half years he wrote over 280 articles and edited over 1,600. He wrote about geography, history (above all the history of Ukraine’s armed forces), economics, football and Formula 1. The community rated his article on the destroyer Nezamozhnyk a “good article”. He sent sports news to Wikinews and ran a Facebook group for contributors to bring in new writers.
From Zubrets to Lviv
Ig2000 was Ihor Kostenko. He was born on 31 December 1991 in the village of Zubrets in Ternopil region. Another hero of the Heavenly Hundred, Vasyl Moisei, came from the same village and the same village school; in 2017 the school in Zubrets was named after both of them. He finished the St Josaphat Collegium in Buchach and in 2009 entered the Faculty of Geography at Lviv University, where he was one of the best students. He played football, supported Karpaty Lviv and, while still a student, became a journalist for the sports website Sportanalityka. With friends he planned a sports site, allsport24.com; it went live after he was gone.
On the Maidan
From the first days of the Euromaidan, Ihor joined the student protests in Lviv that demanded the signing of the EU Association Agreement. He went to Kyiv with friends several times and was on the Maidan on the night of 30 November 2013, when riot police broke up the students’ protest. He set off for the capital for the last time with other Lviv students on 18 February 2014.
Ihor Kostenko was killed on Instytutska Street in Kyiv on 20 February 2014, as protesters moved up the street. He was 22. The historian Bohdan Solchanyk, a graduate of the same university, was killed on Instytutska that same morning. In 2023 the Sviatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv found three former officers of the Berkut riot police guilty of killing protesters on the Maidan; back in 2019 they had been released from custody in a prisoner exchange with russia.
Why it matters today
Ihor Kostenko lived by his own words: “Everyone should do what they can, where they are.” He showed that you can build your country from a keyboard: every article in Ukrainian brings knowledge about Ukraine closer to the people looking for it. He didn’t only write; he brought in new contributors, and when the students went out to the Maidan, he was among them. Every article someone adds to the Ukrainian Wikipedia today carries his work on; in 2014 Jimmy Wales named him Wikipedian of the Year. Ihor was the first Ukrainian to receive it: earlier winners wrote for the Kazakh, Yoruba and French Wikipedias. On 13 September 2014 in Kyiv, Wales handed the diploma to Ihor’s sister, together with a Wikipedia T-shirt signed by contributors who had known him.
In 2017 the government set up an Ihor Kostenko scholarship for geography students. In 2018 a monument to him was unveiled in the courtyard of the Faculty of Geography in Lviv. The 120,000 hryvnias it cost were raised by students, alumni and donors; even kindergarten children collected bottle caps and raised 700 hryvnias from them.
