Prosvita ( uk, просвіта, 'enlightenment') is a society for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education among population that created in the nineteenth century in the Austria-Hungary

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

. By the declaration of its founders, the movement was created as a counterbalance to anti-Ukrainian colonial and

Russophile Russophilia (literally love of Russia or Russians) is admiration and fondness of Russia (including the era of the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire), Russian history and Russian culture. The antonym is Russophobia. In the 19th Cen ...

trends in Ukrainian society of the period.

History

Prosvita was founded in 1868 in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

by 65 delegates from different regions and groups of intellectuals, mostly from the same city. Anatole Vakhnianyn was elected the first head of the Prosvita Society. By the end of 1913, Prosvita had 77 affiliate societies and 2,648 reading rooms. In 1936 alone, when Western Ukraine with the city of Lviv were part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

, the Prosvita Society opened over 500 new outlets with full-time professional staff.Prosvita
at the

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' ( uk, Енциклопедія українознавства, translit=Entsyklopediia ukrainoznavstva), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was creat ...

, vol. 3 (1993). By the end of the interwar period, Prosvita has grown to include 83 affiliates, 3,210 reading rooms, 1,207 premises, 3,209 libraries (with 688,186 books), 2,185 theater clubs, 1,115 choirs, 138 orchestras, and 550 study groups. In 1939 the society was shut down and banned by the newly arrived Soviet rulers. Prosvita operated only in Western Europe and America up to 1988. The first Prosvita society established in the United States was in Shenandoah,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1887. The Prosvita Society was renewed in Ukraine during the Soviet period of

Glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...

of 1988–89 as the Shevchenko Association of Ukrainian Language, and since then takes an active part in social life of independent Ukraine. In modern times it was headed by Dmytro Pavlychko and Pavlo Movchan (at present). Currently, almost all higher education institutions in Ukraine have Prosvita affiliations with teachers and students as members. Also active are the Young Prosvita youth organizations. During the

2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the succe ...

two Prosvita members were kidnapped and one was murdered by pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.Caught by militants died in Luhansk historian, leader of the "Prosvita"

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukrai ...

(1 July 2014)

Tasks

Official goals of the Prosvita Society: * Promoting Ukrainian language as the only state language in Ukraine * Maintaining principles of humanity, mutual understanding, religious and civil consent in society * Contributing to building and strengthening of Ukrainian state and its economic development * Propagating economic, legal and other kind of knowledge * Contributing to raising of Ukrainian language and culture authority abroad * Preserving and revitalizing natural environment and biodiversity

Leaders

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria

* 1868-???? Anatole Vakhnianyn * 1906-1906 Yevhen Olesnytsky * 1906-1910 Petro Ohonovsky * 1910-1922 Ivan Kyvelyuk

Poland

* 1922-1923 Ivan Bryk * 1923-1931 Mykhailo Halushchynsky * 1931-1939 Ivan Bryk

Chernigov Governorate

* 1906-1911 Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky

Kharkov Governorate

* 1912-???? (as ''Kvitka-Osnovianenko Association)

Yekaterinoslav Governorate

* 1905-???? (as Ukrainian Association of Literature and Arts)

Podole Governorate

Don Host Oblast

* 1907-1913 Zakhar Barabash

Ukraine

* 1989-1990 Dmytro Pavlychko (as Shevchenko Association of Ukrainian Language) * 1990–present Pavlo Movchan (originally as Shevchenko Association of Ukrainian Language and since 1991 – Prosvita)

References

{{Authority control Educational organizations established in 1868 Cultural organizations based in Ukraine Ethnic organizations based in Austria-Hungary Establishments in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Nationalism and the arts Stateless nationalism in Europe Language activists Second Polish Republic Resistance to the Russian Empire Progressivism