Among the renowned landscapes of world history, few cities hold as many treasures as Rome. For Andrey Ivanov, a UW-Platteville professor specializing in East European and Eurasian history, the Eternal City might at first seem like an unlikely destination. Yet, this Winterim, Rome proved to be an ideal setting for his research, for within its ancient walls are found the records of Feofan Prokopovych (1677/1681-1736), a Ukrainian archbishop who lived there in the late 1690s. Prokopovych’s most consequential contribution to world history was the foundation of the Russian Empire under Tsar Peter I, whose chief architect and ideological advisor was the archbishop. Russia’s rise as a global power in the tsarist era owes much to Prokopovych’s visions, but his personal formation as a visionary had deep roots in his Roman experience.
In the search for historical sources, Ivanov was granted the formal admission to one of the most prominent repositories of the Holy See: The Vatican's Propaganda Fide Historical Archives. Situated on the southern slope of the Vatican hill, the archive houses extensive documentation on the Holy See’s missionary and foreign relations from the early modern era. Its holdings include substantial collections pertaining to Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Russia, as well as sources on Prokopovych.
“Those two weeks in the archives was a significant boost to the progress of my book project on the biography of Feofan. Going to Rome in January also proved highly advantageous, as there were no crowds, and ample workspace was available in the reading room,” noted Ivanov.
Yet, even as far away as the Vatican, Ivanov was not completely disconnected from the Midwest.
“Aside from archival work, I also got to see Pope Leo XIV during the January 21, 2026 General Audience. He spoke in a perfect Chicago-style English, which for me was a major change of scenery after working all this time in Latin and Italian,” quipped Ivanov.
Ivanov’s travel to the Vatican was funded by a Project Development Grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, a consortium of scholarly foundations founded in 1919 (https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/andrey-v-ivanov/).
“I am deeply grateful to the ACLS for travel grant support and for its commitment to scholars at non-research institutions, where access to funding is often limited, but highly appreciated,” stated Ivanov.