Volia naroda

Volia naroda (Will of the People). A weekly newspaper published by Galician Russophile socialists in Lviv in 1921–8. It succeeded the newspaper Prikarpatskaia Rus’ and initially used a Russified etymological spelling. After the final defeat of the White Volunteer Army, Volia naroda supported Soviet rule in Ukraine. Gradually, probably on orders from the Comintern, the newspaper was Ukrainized in an attempt to appeal to Ukrainian socialists in Galicia. In 1923 it appeared twice a week in Russian and once in Ukrainian, and from 1924 it appeared only in Ukrainian. From 1926 it was the organ of Sel-Rob. It criticized both Ukrainian nationalists and Russophile conservatives who opposed the USSR, but it did not support the Soviet Ukrainization policy. The editors were Kuzma Pelekhaty and Kyrylo Valnytsky.

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