Student fraternities

Student fraternities (корпорації; korporatsii). Student organizations for the promotion of patriotism, fortitude, and discipline within small groups held together by friendship and enjoyment. Fraternities appeared in Germany during the Napoleonic Wars and inculcated a high concept of honor which demanded dueling as a response to insult. Eventually members of fraternities developed an inclination for a carefree and even dissipate life. Among Ukrainian students the first fraternities were organized in 1906, but they became popular only in the interwar period, particularly among students studying abroad. The Ukrainian fraternities were based on the original forms and ideas of honor, freedom, and fatherland. The richest traditions were developed by the fraternities in Chernivtsi, which adopted Cossack names: Zaporozhe (1906–40) and Chornomore (Black Sea 1913–40). In Danzig (now Gdańsk) Ukrainian fraternities were founded in 1924 (Chornomore, Halych, and Zarevo); they spread from there to other Ukrainian student centers, such as Lviv, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Poznań, and Cracow. Fraternities of the same name from various centers formed associations, with their own ideological principles and statutes. After the Second World War Zaporozhe branches were re-established in New York, Vienna, and Munich, and Chornomore branches in Philadelphia and Montreal.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]