Press Office of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen

Press Office of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (Пресова квартира Українських Січових Стрільців; Presova kvartyra Ukrainskykh Sichovykh Striltsiv). The information department of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (USS). Established in the fall of 1914, it published prose, poetry, manuals, and songbooks (see Songs of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen) for the USS; the newspaper Vistnyk Presovoï kvatyry; the humor magazines Samokhotnyk (35 issues, 1915–19) and Samopal (1916, 10 issues); and an almanac (1917). The office’s first heads were Teofil Melen and Osyp Nazaruk. They were succeeded by Ivan Ivanets, who headed its work at the front (1916–18), and Mykola Uhryn-Bezhrishny, who directed the work at headquarters. Many writers, artists, and musicians were attached as USS to the office, among them Lev Lepky, Roman Kupchynsky, Mykhailo Haivoronsky, A. Babiuk (Myroslav Irchan), Luka Lutsiv, Lev Gets, Yuliian Butsmaniuk, Mykhailo Havrylko, Mykola Holubets, and Osyp Kurylas. The office also maintained a written and photographic chronicle of the USS, and organized education for the soldiers.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]