Vidrodzhennia temperance society

Vidrodzhennia temperance society (Товариство «Відродження»; Rebirth). A Ukrainian temperance society founded in 1909 in Lviv in response to a resolution of the First Educational-Economic Congress. Its purpose was to discourage the Ukrainian population from consuming alcohol and smoking. Since alcohol and tobacco were state monopolies, its temperance message coincided with the struggle of the Ukrainians against the Polish occupation of Galicia, and in the 1930s its activities expanded considerably. The society's head office was in Lviv. By 1937 it had a membership of 6,400, organized in 18 branches and 122 circles in the towns and villages of Galicia. In addition to conducting anti-alcohol courses, lectures, public meetings, and anti-alcohol plebiscites, it published the monthly Vidrodzhennia (1928–39), the youth supplement My molodi, and a series of popular brochures. Its chief activists were Ivan A. Rakovsky, Sofiia Parfanovych, Yu. Kamenetsky, P. Vovchuk, I. Kostiuk, Oleksander Harasevych, Ivan Herasymovych, and Mykola Tsenko.

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