Osnova

Osnova (Основа; Foundation). A society of Ukrainian students attending the Lviv Polytechnic in Lviv, organized by Volodymyr Dydynsky in 1897. Its presidents included Dydynsky, Teofil Melen, P. Durbak, and Pavlo Volosenko. Its activities declined during the First World War and were restricted afterwards. From 1921 to 1925 the society operated without legal status at the Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian University and Lviv (Underground) Ukrainian Higher Polytechnical School. In 1926–7 it obtained legal status at the Lviv Polytechnic. In 1928 its membership exceeded 300. With the Soviet invasion of Galicia in 1939, its activities ceased. Under the German occupation the society functioned as a section of the Labor Alliance of Ukrainian Students.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]