Yaroslav Ivanovych Steshenko (âÂÂ11 March 1939; ) was a Ukrainian and Soviet bibliographer, bibliographical scholar, bibliophile and art critic. Frequently arrested by the Soviet authorities, Steshenko died in a gulag camp and is considered part of the Executed Renaissance.
Steshenko was born in Kyiv, Russian Empire (present-day, Ukraine) to Ivan Steshenko and Oksana Steshenko (). Steshenko's father was a politician, literary scholar, poet, writer, translator and his mother was a children's writer, translator and teacher. Steshenko was the younger brother of the actress . Through his mother Steshenko was the grandson of Mykhailo Starytsky and , and the nephew of Mariia Starytska and Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska. Steshenko was also the cousin of Veronika Chernyakhivska, and the great-nephew of Mykola Lysenko.
In 1918, aged 14, Steshenko witnessed the assassination of his father by members of the Red Army. In 1920, Steshenko graduated from gymnasium in Kyiv. During this time Steshenko also attended a course in librarianship, and worked at the book warehouse from 1919 to 1920. From 1920 to 1921, Steshenko studied literary cycles at the Kyiv Higher Institute of Education. In 1930, Steshenko graduated from Kyiv National Economic University.
In 1928, Steshenko became a member of the Russian Bibliographic Society at Moscow University and became a member of the Leningrad Society of Bibliophiles in 1929.
Steshenko compiled indexes of works by Heorhiy Narbut and , and co-authored a catalogue of publications of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences with .
Steshenko collected bookplates, and was a corresponding member of the Leningrad Society of Bookplate Artists. Part of Steshenko's bookplate collection is housed at the Museum of Outstanding Figures of Ukrainian Culture.
In 1921, aged 17, Steshenko was arrested on charges of belonging to a counter-revolutionary youth organisation, but was later released due to lack of evidence. Steshenko was arrested in 1923 on charges of belonging to the anti-Bolshevik , but was later released due to lack of evidence.
In autumn 1929, Steshenko was imprisoned as part of the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine trial. Steshenko plead not-guilty and was later released in 1930 due to the absence of criminal wrongdoing. In 1933, Steshenko was arrested in Kharkiv as part of the "ArchaeologistsâÂÂZhupans" () case and was exiled to Uralsk, Kazakh SSR (present-day Oral, Kazakhstan). Steshenko was sentenced in 1936 to hard labor at a gulag camp in Kolyma.
On 11 March 1939 Steshenko died aged 34 at a gulag camp in Nagaev Bay. Steshenko was posthumously rehabilitated in September 1956.
A compilation of Steshenko's letters by Yevhen Pshenichny was published as ' in 2020.